- 21 April 1952, The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

) was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 producer, director, and promoter of movies. He is considered to be one of the early pioneers of Dutch cinema

Cinema of the Netherlands

Because the Dutch film industry is relatively small, and there is little or no international market for Dutch films, almost all films rely on state funding. This funding can be achieved through several sources, for instance through the Dutch Film Fund or the Dutch public broadcast networks...

, and one of his movies was recently elected as one of only sixteen "Canonical Dutch movies." With his brother Bernardus Albertus (Albert) (20 June 1879, Harlingen

Harlingen

Harlingen may mean:* Harlingen, Netherlands, a municipality and city in the province of Friesland* Harlingen, Texas, a city in the United States* Harlingen, New Jersey, an unincorporated village in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, United States...

 - 1941) he started around the turn of the 20th century one of the earliest Dutch film production companies, Alberts Frères

Alberts Frères

Alberts Frères, founded around 1899, was one of the first film production companies in the Netherlands. The company was founded by brothers Albert and Willy Mullens ; they were the main filmmakers and exhibitors in the Netherlands in the first two decades of the twentieth century.-History:Willy...

. By the second decade of that century he was making documentary films that premiere

Premiere

A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...

d for royalty. His second company, Haghefilm, dominated the Dutch film market between the two World Wars.

Early career

Willy and Albert's father, Albertus Abraham Mullens (30 July 1847 Hoorn

Hoorn

-Cities :* Purmerend * Enkhuizen * Alkmaar * Amsterdam * Lelystad * Den Helder * Leeuwarden -Towns :* Edam...

 - 1890), alias "A. Alber(t)", and a German by the name of Ahrens Basch had founded a theater company (Koninklijk Nederlandsch Cagliostro-Théâtre Alber & Basch"), specializing in "mysterious and pseudo-scientific spectacles". After Albert Senior's death, their mother Christina Mullens-Verpoort continued to direct the company. Before getting started in the movies, Willy Mullens also worked at a fair in The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 as a human cannonball

Human cannonball

The human cannonball is a performance in which a person is ejected from a specially designed cannon. The impetus is provided not by gunpowder, but by either a spring or jet of compressed air...

. He was fired in 1897 when his act failed; he had been knocked out by a kangaroo

Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...

. Christina took her sons to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where they saw Auguste and Louis Lumière

Auguste and Louis Lumière

The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers in history...

's movies in the Salon Indien du Grand Café

Salon Indien du Grand Café

Le Salon Indien du Grand Café was a café in Paris at the Place de l'Opéra where on December 28, 1895, the Lumière brothers hosted the very first public moviescreening. Among the ten short clips presented by the French innovators were La Sortie des usines Lumière and l'Arroseur Arrosé.Currently, the...

. With financial aid from their mother, they bought a number of those movies; in 1899 they started showing them in the Netherlands in their traveling cinema. They chose the French name "Alberts Frères" for their production company, since the movie business at the time was predominantly French.

Alberts Frères

In 1914, the company started touring the halls and theaters of the country during the winter, and soon became one of the main attractions at fairs throughout the country.

Besides showing movies, Alberts Frères quickly started making them. Often focusing on comedy, the Mullens brothers pulled practical jokes and filmed them, and along the way generated headlines and built a reputation. Their most successful production is also one of the oldest surviving Dutch fictional movies, The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach

The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach

The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach is a 1905 early Dutch silent film directed by Willy Mullens, and produced by Alberts Frères. A six-minute short comedy film , it is one of the oldest surviving Dutch fictional films...

, which in 2007 was "canonized" as one of sixteen canonical films by the Netherlands Film Festival

Netherlands Film Festival

The Netherlands Film Festival is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.During the ten-day festival, all Dutch film productions of the previous year are exhibited. Besides feature films, the program also consists of short subjects, documentary...

. The six-minute film, consisting of eight scenes, was filmed by Albert and directed by Willy, the latter also playing the lead after the intended actor was not allowed (by his fiance) to appear pantless on-camera.

During World War I (the Netherlands were neutral) the company was hired by Kaiser Wilhelm's Dutch legate to film German children celebrating Queen Wilhelmina's birthday in 1919. The German Bild- und Filmamt (which aimed at the production of propaganda) was to procure copies for the German market, in hopes of maintaing good relations between Germany and the Netherlands; it is not known if this actually happened.

Haghefilm

"Haghefilm" (named for "The Hague") was founded by Willy Mullens in 1914, and quickly established a reputation as the largest and best-known Dutch movie production company. Willy Mullens later became a well-known producer of documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

s; his Holland Neutraal: Leger en Vlootfilm (1917) received a royal premiere

Premiere

A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...

, in the presence of Queen Wilhelmina

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...

 and Prince Hendrik. The two and a half hour long movie was the first documentary which attracted a mass audience. It showcased the Dutch army

Royal Netherlands Army

The Royal Netherlands Army is the land forces element of the military of the Netherlands.-Short history:The Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, but its origins date back to 1572, when the so-called Staatse Leger was raised...

 and navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

 and was commissioned by the Dutch Minister of War Bosboom, who intended for the movie to rally popular support for Dutch neutrality during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

; on the other hand, the movie, with its display of military might, also aimed to show that the Dutch, despite their neutrality, were not to be thought of lightly. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Haghefilm delivered subtitles for the Dutch version of the Die Deutsche Wochenschau

Die Deutsche Wochenschau

Die Deutsche Wochenschau is a series of German newsreels from 1940 until the end of World War II.After the invasion of Poland , the Nazis consolidated four separate newsreel production efforts into one...

, the official German-supplied newsreel

Newsreel

A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...

.

Twice Mullens traveled to the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

, in 1924 to film for the oil industry, and in 1926 on assignment by the Dutch government, a nine-month trip; his were some of the first images shot in the Dutch colony.

The company also produced cinema

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

 newsreel

Newsreel

A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...

s, and were an early competitor of Polygoon

Polygoon (newsreel)

The Dutch Polygoon-Profilti was a well known cinema newsreel company in the Netherlands from 1919 to 1987. It started with weekly news items in the Dutch movie theaters and lasted until 1987 when it finally surrendered to television news journals, the NOS Journaal being the most popular.The company...

, the company that operated from 1919 to 1987 and dominated the Dutch market after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Legacy

Besides being canonized by the Netherlands Film Institute and honored as a movie pioneer, Mullens also had a very practical impact on Dutch cinema as one of the founders of the Nederlandsch Centraal Filmarchief (1919), the first audio-visual archive in the Netherlands.

The name Haghefilm still lives on in the modern film laboratory

Film laboratory

A film laboratory is a commercial service enterprise and technical facility for the film industry where specialists develop, print, and conform film material for classical film production and distribution which is based on film material, such as negative and positive, black and white and color, on...

called Haghefilm, in Amsterdam. Their origins date back to 1926-27, to the lab founded by Willy Mullens in The
Hague. Its name was changed to "Color Film Center" in 1977-78, then folded in 1984 due to mismanagement and competition. Four of the employees became directors of their own enterprise and acquired the rights to the Haghefilm name; their lab now devotes itself to working on archival films.

Filmography

• Holland Neutraal: De Leger- en Vlootfilm. 1917.
• Petroleum Film. 1924.
• L'Archipel des Indes Orientales Neerlandaises filme par l'Institut Colonial - Amsterdam... and other short films. 1926.
• Zuiderzeewerken. 1927-1932.

External links