Reve wrote about himself as an alcoholic, a catholic, and as a very cynical, selfish, opportune man. Nevertheless they contain a lot of fiction. Most of his books are about himself and are written in the I-form. For instance, he also made a lot of television appearances and quite often his performance was shockingly provocative. Furthermore Reve's career was marked by lot of controversies, and not only because of just his literary work. Many of his novels contain explicit homosexual content. Reve was one of the first public figures to come out of the closet. It's quite useful to know something about this writer, for it helps to understand the movie. This movie is based on a book by Gerard Reve, a Dutch novelist who is very famous in the Netherlands.
