Hollywood Banker (2014)

How was a simple banker from Rotterdam able to eventually help finance more than 900 movies, including a number of big titles including Rambo, Superman, Platoon, Dances With Wolves, Terminator and Basic Instinct? That’s the question that’s answered in the documentary Hollywood Banker, a portrait of Frans Afman, made by his daughter Rozemyn Afman.

The end result is a fascinating watch. It shows how Afman, who saw movies as a hobby, with his job as a banker wanted to know more about how they were financed. A meeting with Dino de Laurentiis turned out to be a deciding moment in his life and the movie producer became sort of a father figure for Afman. Eventually Afman created a system which changed the film industry. A new pre sales system was developed where the distributor would carry the risk of a film. The first movie which was released using it was Three Days of the Condor.

The Slavenburg bank located in the centre of Rotterdam (Coolsingel) saw it as a new source of income and opened a new division. It saw more foreign visitors dropping by, wanting to talk to the bank about cooperating. When King Kong became a succes (due partly by the fact that Afman was closely following the production), the big studios saw that the system could work for them as well and they too decided to work with the bank. This documentary makes clear that behind the scenes Afman has done a lot for the movie industry and has made it possible for various classics to be made.

Through several interviews with a big number of people who did business with Afman, including Oliver Stone, Paul Verhoeven, Kevin Costner and various producers and heads of independent studios (and of course Afman himself) you get a good idea about his way of working, but also about Frans Afman himself. A driven and friendly man who did what he loved. His busy life did have impact on his family, which you clearly feel when the director interviews her mother. It also help her discover more about herself. It makes Hollywood Banker an inspiring movie which towards it’s ending also touches you on an emotional level. It was the first time I actually saw Paul Verhoeven cry.