rating:
(out of
4 stars)The Netherlands; 1973
Directed by Paul Verhoeven; produced by Ron Houwer; written by Gerard Soeteman
Starring Rutger Hauer, Monique van de Ven, Tonny Huurdeman, Wim van den Brink, Hans Boskamp, Dolf de Vries
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
In 1999 this movie was chosen to be the best Dutch film of the century. I
myself do not agree with that but I can understand why this movie was
chosen. It is probably the most famous in The Netherlands based on one of
the most famous books. Its influence is very big and Rutger Hauer is
probably the most famous Dutch male star and Monique van de Ven the most
famous Dutch female star of all time.
Rutger Hauer, who later starred in 'Blade Runner' is Erik, a sculptor who
falls in love with Olga (Monique van de Ven). They have sex in a car, they
have an accident with the same car, he finds her after she is recovered, her
mother doesn't like him, her father does, they get married. Between those
events they have a lot of sex. The first part of the movie is there to
explain the later events. We learn to know the characters and all their
little things. After an incident Olga walks away and Erik is heart-broken.
The story is a little slow but the movie is never boring. Hauer and Van de
Ven have a kind of chemistry you don't see in Hollywood movies, it is great.
There are very erotic scenes, very touching scenes and very funny scenes.
The sex is pretty graphic but considering this movie is directed by Paul
Verhoeven ('RoboCop', 'Total Recall', 'Starship Troopers') that is no
surprise. See American movies like 'Basic Instinct' or 'Showgirls' to know
what I mean. The photography is by Jan de Bond (who also shot 'Basic
Instinct' and 'Cujo', 'Die Hard' and 'Lethal Weapon 3' to name a few), the
man who directed 'Speed', 'Twister' and 'The Haunting'. In this movie you
can see how gifted they are and why they both had their breakthrough in the
US. A very good Dutch movie, although not my best, definitely worth seeing.