Bruce Loeb on Piano The Dutch film experience dates back to March, 1896, just months after the first historic Lumière screenings in Paris. Many of the early exhibition venues were at fairgrounds and music halls, the first film producers showmen looking for a new amusement. The Mullens brothers, who performed as Alberts Frères, were two such performing entrepreneurs. The Adventure of a French Gentleman Without His Trousers (1905) stars Willy Mullens and features their typical formula, a romantic interlude with a climactic chase scene. In 1912, the Hollandia Film Factory was founded as the first Dutch studio. Two Girls from Zeeland, directed by well-known actor Louis H. Chrispijn, Sr., is a classic example of their comic genre exploits. Mijntje and Trijntje, played by studio regulars Christine van Meetern and Annie Bos, rejoice in sun and sea, steal the hearts of two young men and end up in jail. The short film, stressing local color, played poorly overseas, so Hollandia soon concentrated on the dramatic rather than the costumes. This is clearly seen in Found Again, the bittersweet story of a blind Jewish father (Chrispijn) and his two daughters. The family is shattered when the eldest daughter leaves home because of her affair with a non-Jewish doctor. The Hollandia Film Factory produced more than sixty feature-length films in eleven years. Few of these early Dutch silents have survived.