Rademakers, Fons

▪ 2008

Alphonse Marie Rademakers 

      Dutch filmmaker

born Sept. 5, 1920 , Roosendaal, Neth.

died Feb. 22, 2007, Geneva, Switz.

for his poignant drama De Aanslag (1986; The Assault), became the first from The Netherlands to win an Academy Award for best foreign language film. Nearly 30 years earlier, Rademakers's debut feature, Dorp aan de rivier (1958; Village by the River), had been the first motion picture by a Dutch director to be nominated for an Oscar. In his Academy Award acceptance speech, Rademakers famously chided American audiences to be more accepting of subtitled films. His last motion picture, the courtroom drama The Rose Garden (1989), however, was released in English.

* * *