Exclusive rights at Polygoon
After World War II, Polygoon, now merged with Profilti, had an exclusive right to cinema newsreels. They produced the popular Neerlands Nieuws and Nederland in klank en beeld, distributed in much smaller editions.
Dutch Newsreel Spiegel van Nederland
Everyone in the Netherlands remembers Polygoon's newsreel, which was shown in Dutch cinemas from the early 1920s until 1987. However, it is less known that there were other Dutch cinema newsreels: as early as the early 1910s, the Dutch subsidiary of the French Pathé Frères brought a newsreel into circulation. In the 1930s, Profilti and Orion were formidable competitors of Polygoon.
1958: a new newsreel
Until a second newsreel arrived: Spiegel van Nederland. In the autumn of 1957, the all-powerful Nederlandse Bioscoopbond (NBB) gave permission to Haghe Film and Triofilm to come up with their own newsreel. The idea was that competition would be a good thing for Polygoon and reduce the rental price of the newsreels. The latter proved to be the case; the rent for the weekly newsreel went down by 20 per cent. The new newsreel went into cinemas in January 1958.
Distinctive?
Spiegel van Nederland was not to be a replica of Neerlands Nieuws. "It will not be easy to make a better newsreel than Polygoon-Profilti does. Theirs is excellent. However, we are going to set things up differently." So said director of Haghe Film Wiebe Mullens in an article in De Telegraaf of 28 November 1957.
Spiegel van Nederland was to focus mainly on the news that was important to the people, on what was alive among the people. In this way, it was to stand out from the existing newsreels. This was of course a fine ambition, but in practice it was difficult: both journals wanted to be as politically neutral and as royalist as possible.
Unprofitable
The new newsreel was initially shown in a limited number of cinemas. This number grew, but it did not manage to make the newsreel profitable. So in March 1960, in consultation with Polygoon, it was decided to stop production. From then on, Polygoon was again the sole producer of Dutch newsreels with both Neerlands Nieuws and Nederland in klank en beeld.
A small part of the staff on Spiegel van Nederland made the move to Polygoon, but the majority remained employed by Haghe Film.
The curtain falls
The last newsreel appeared in April 1960 with shots of the Easter rush, a glider competition near Arnhem, the opening of the sailing season and a flower ball. These are fine images of insignificant subjects that mainly show a picture of a country under reconstruction, growing prosperity and a stable society. Images that differ little from those from the Polygoon newsreels.
Meanwhile, TV news provided the real topicality.
