Review of Turkish Delight (1973) by Stuart K — 19 Jun 2012

After Business is Business (1971) proved to be a big success in Holland, producer Rob Houwer wanted a sequel, but director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Gerard Soeteman had other plans, they did this adaptation of Jan Wolkers' 1969 autobiographical novel.

The result became the biggest film in the history of Dutch cinema, complete with an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film and it helped put Verhoeven on the map internationally. This is a romantic drama which tells the story of sculptor Eric (Rutger Hauer), who is a bit of a womaniser, picking up women and taking them back to his art studio for sex, but on one occasion, he turns down one woman, because he has flashbacks to one relationship he had with a young woman called Olga (Monique van de Ven), who Eric met while hitchhiking.

Olga's mother (Tonny Huurdeman) hates Eric and his bohemian ways, whereas Olga's father (Wim van den Brink), has no qualms with Eric, and is happy when they announce their engagement. It seems like nothing could come between Eric and Olga, but then she starts behaving strangely and her outrageous behaviour puts a strain on their relationship.

As a lot of the posters and reviews at the time suggested, this is a Dutch version of Love Story (1970), however, in Verhoeven's hands, it's very sexually explicit, shocking in some cases, but at it's core is a very sweet and tender love story, almost heartbreaking in places, with brilliant performances and a good score by Rogier van Otterloo.

Despite the explicit nature, the book is read by children at an early age in Holland, and so's the film. Verhoeven's career was coming on in leaps and bounds now.