It could seem more or less inevitable that the life of Cornelis Vreeswijk at last made it into a dramatization on film, considering the impact which his huge talent and troubled lifestyle, combined together, has left upon popular culture in Scandinavia. That said, it is equally obvious that to transform the singer-songwriter onto the silver screen through the interpretation of an actor is a task which must be handled with sensitivity. Vreeswijk has become a phenomenon to a degree where it would be all too easy for an actor impersonating him to wind up doing an embarrassing half-parody. Just take a look at the TV-films made about Elvis Presley through the years, where most of the impersonators have concluded that, to grasp The King successfully, one must utter every word like he's yawning. Vreeswijk would hardly profit from treatment of that kind.
No less is it pleasing to affirm that Hans-Erik Dyvik Husby (better known as Hank von Helvete) delivers a touching and convincing performance as CORNELIS. It is an experience close to magical seeing him perform the classics of Vreeswijk; at least it made me wipe the dust off my old Vreeswijk-records and play them over again, enjoying them more than I possibly ever had before. In his portrayal of Vreeswijk in private, he succeeds in conveying the complex nature of the man convincingly; both Vreeswijk's occasional tenderness and occasional dark moods are given focus and lead the story. And, in case you wondered, Husby speaks Swedish damn well, even though he's a Norwegian.
If I have a problem with the portrayal of Vreeswijk, it has not to do with Husby but rather with that the actor is not given quite enough room to expand his interpretation as much as he seems capable of doing. I don't doubt that Vreeswijk's traumatic experience of being transmitted to a hospital by German occupants as a child in the Netherlands, due to a case of tuberculosis, may partly explain his often troubled lifestyle later on, but there must have been other things which helped shape this remarkable talent as well, both in good ways and bad ways, and the film doesn't really seem interested in exploring these "other things." The scene where young Cornelis is taken away by force is very powerful (in fact, it nearly made me cry), and the incident definitely played a major role in his life, but songs like "Veronica" and "Somliga går med trasiga skor" were obviously products of a mind loaded with other thoughts and experiences as well. A friend of mine commented that he'd have liked to see some of Vreeswijk's dedications and desires explored more thoroughly, other than women and drugs and alcohol, and I find myself agreeing with that statement. Other than the music, the film is essentially about the many scandals.
However, the somewhat confined focus of CORNELIS does not diminish the impact of Husby's powerful performance, and the same goes for the often beautiful photography and amusing remarks attributed Vreeswijk himself. The film will very possibly make new generations more aware of the singer-songwriter and force them to realize the versatility of his talent, and for that reason alone CORNELIS is worthy of applaud.
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