zaterdag 30 juli 2022

TURKS FRUIT

Date: 1973
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Production Company: Verenigde Nederlandsche Filmcompagnie (VNF)

Stars:
Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer, Tonny Huurdeman, Wim van der Brink, Hans Boskamp, Dolf de Vries, Manfred de Graaf,Dick Scheffer, Marjol Flore, Bert Dijkstra

Storyline:
Eric, a sculptor living in the Netherlands, wakes up recalling a disturbing dream. In the following scenes, he is frantically picking up random women from the streets and taking them back to his studio for sex. However, he is clearly distressed about something, and it turns out that this is the aftermath of his relationship with Olga. The movie recounts this relationship.

Olga picks him up when he is hitchhiking and they hit it off immediately, both sexually and mentally. Their relationship is opposed by Olga's mother who feels that a Bohemian sculptor who earns little from occasional commissions, is an unsuitable match, although the father is more sympathetic. Nevertheless, they get married, and Olga's family accepts him.

They begin living together but Olga starts acting strangely. She goes into a reverie on her production line job and, at a party organized by her family, she flirts with a businessman. Eric slaps her and she leaves him. Eric trashes his studio, destroying anything that reminded him of Olga. This brings the movie to the point where it opened, ending the flashback.

Eric is still obsessed with Olga, but sees her only occasionally. She acts more and more outrageously, often in the presence of other men. Her family refuses to let Eric visit her, until he says he has come to arrange a divorce. After a while, Olga marries an American businessman but later returns from the United States to the Netherlands.

One day Eric bumps into Olga who is flamboyantly dressed and acting oddly. She collapses and is taken to the hospital, where she is diagnosed as having a brain tumor. Surgical intervention is attempted but could not remove all of it. It becomes clear that she will die. Eric brings her Turkish delight, which is the only thing she will eat, as she is afraid that harder food will break a loose tooth, although it has been fixed. Soon after, she has a seizure and dies.

Additional information:
During the thunderstorm, when Eric is walking towards Olga who is standing outside in the rain, the reflection of a spotlight providing "lightning" can be seen on the surface of the door.

Turkish delight is the most successful films in Dutch history. At the time, it was one of the most talked about films, with people joining crowds in front of the cinema. To date, it is, with 3,338,000 visitors, the best-attended Dutch film of all time.