Four old college friends in their forties come together in a time of trouble and despair. Old joy relives, but the harsh reality of their problems can't satisfy them and eventually endangers their friendships.
A rich couple. He is obsessed with gadgets, she is a housewife growing more depressed and alcoholic by the day. Commercials on television form a cynic commentary on their lives. The neighborhood becomes the playground of youth gangs. A Ballardian commentary on and funny nightmare vision of modern life.
Cult icon Klaus Kinski features in this dark and intriguing existential thriller. He plays the mysterious "Swiss Man" - ruthless industrialist Nicolas Ulrich - who is obsessed with a search for the elixir of life. He tricks a young American scientist into joining him on his demonic quest. A quest that ends in suicide, death and madness. The story takes place in the atmospheric European city of Amsterdam. Its winding alleys and ancient canals trap the characters in a labyrinthine maze as they find themselves manipulated like figures on a giant chess board.
Paul Flanagan is released from jail after serving for 8 years. He only has two things on his mind. First: to retrieve the money from the robbery he was convicted for. Secondly: to get revenge on his partners in crime (his half-brother Paul and his ex-lover Cathy), who got away Scot free and never once visited him in jail.
Painter Peter Hartman is arrested at the scene of a murder. He soon turns out to have ties to the victim's young widow. As Inspector Stroomer begins to unravel the mystery, two very different sides of the story are presented to him. Now it is up to Stroomer to find enough photographic evidence to make out which version is the truth.
