Katie Tippel

This movie details the struggle of young Dutch women,Keetje Tippel (Monique Van De Ven) from the countryside who moves with her family to Amsterdam in search of a better life only to find themselves living among filth, vermin and squalor in a slum. She finds work in various jobs where conditions are horrible and she is subjected to constant sexual harassment and eventually rape.

Finally she becomes a prostitute which ends up being her gateway to the good life as she becomes mistress to the banker, Hugo (Rutger Hauer) and later the respected wife of Hugo's wealthy friend.

This is an expose of the Dutch class-system in the 19th century and has socialist and feminist overtones. It ranks among the best of 1970's Dutch cinema and is easily the highlight of Monique Van De Ven's career.

Warning! Although there is some nudity and sexuality it is not done in celebration of sensuality but rather explores the dark side of exploitation of sex. This is a very serious film and not for those looking for light entertainment.

If you like Paul Verhoeven's later work (Robocop, Total Recall, Black Book), you should take the time to delve into his Dutch language work.

This is a serious work showing class differences in 19th Century Holland, and the total lack of concern for workers. The title character takes a slew of meaningless jobs after the family is forced to move to the city, eventually ending up as a prostitute to survive.

Hearing the typical "streets paved with gold" dreams that were typical of America at that time, we can totally relate to those driven from their farms.

Women were certainly toys for men, even doctors, to play with, and rape, if they chose.

It was interesting to see Rutgar Hauer in a role as a gentlemen, and the experience of Monique van de Ven was not to be missed.

Seriously, judging by this film, you'll be molested and forced into prostitution the moment you step off the boat/plane etc.

If you have ever watched Robocop, Total Recall or Starship Troopers and thought to yourself "Man, I wonder what would this director would be like giving us some sort of period drama set in the 19th century Holland starring Rutger Hauer, and I'd love to see his arse, balls and especially him licking melted chocolate off someone else's tongue", then this is the film for you!

I mean if that doesn't sound funny enough already, you've got drowned puppies, mothers forcing their kids into prostitution, Jimmy Saville types trying to get young Jimmy to show them his tummy banana, and a woman dying of tuberculosis just after having been molested by a doctor. Jesus, what else do you want from a comedy? Maybe this film wasn't a comedy. I don't know. It was kind of worrying that every single person in Amsterdam wanted to molest Katie. Seriously, everybody wanted a bit. She was even molested by an orderly in the hospital so that she was clean enough for the doctor to molest her. Twice.

For me, the most worrying part was when Katie worked for the hat guy and was doing shadow puppets on the wall and I thought to myself 'wouldn't it be hilarious if the next shadow you saw on the wall was the hat guy's tadger' and then lo and behold we get to see the shadow of an erect slag hammer on the wall. Man, I have the same mindset as the guy who directed Showgirls.

This film is too well made and has too high of a budget to be crap and is in a certain kind of way entertaining. It's grim stuff, but I can see why Paul went on to be a hot shot director. Rutger also worth a look here but he's dubbed, which only adds to the madness.

And this was a true story? F*cking seriously?

This feels quite a bit like a spiritual sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time, which I also perceive as perhaps the most underrated movie I can think of, Paul Verhoeven's debut feature film, Turkish Delight. This is also directed by Verhoeven and has the same two leads, the iconic Rutger Hauer in some of his earliest roles, and the utterly beautiful and charismatic Monique van de Ven. I guess there's a bit of a swap as Hauer is the main character in the previous, while van de Ven is most certainly the main character in this.

I expected less from this hardly-referenced second offering from Verhoeven, considering it's never even spoken of, but the combination of van de Ven's electric allure with that of Verhoeven's provocative, fast-paced directing keep this film riveting through every sequence. On paper, you'd think it might be a slow-burner, but it hardly ever feels the part. In summary, it's quite a simple film - a poor girl who is the eldest child in her extremely impoverished family seeks more out of life, and slowly, through recognizing the power of her own allure, amongst other things, she begins connecting with people who are a little bit richer, or a little bit more powerful - and so she makes her sporadic journey into higher society rather suddenly. Of course, one can only "pretend" to be something for so long...

If you're watching for Hauer, you'll find much more within his performance in the other early gems of Verhoeven (Spetters is another great one...I've yet to watch Soldier of Orange - That's the last of Verhoeven's Dutch classics remaining for me), but this film is absolutely worth watching regardless. There are bundles of intriguing, stylish, innovative, and very memorable sequences scattered throughout it. Specifically, one featuring a giant vat of intimidating green liquid, and one where many people are being shot in a dark alley!

All of Verhoeven's Dutch classics are more than worth exploring. This is no different. Fully on par with Spetters and The 4th Man. I love Paul Verhoeven films - he's truly one of the best that cinema ever had.

This film is weighed down by its deeply inadequate ending which does not seem to want to connect itself with the themes of greed and hunger relayed throughout. Tonally, it's incomplete.

Whilst the record indicates that Rob Houwer is part of the problem as to why the ending is the way it is - it's frustrating to think that this can't be ranked alongside Verhoeven's more accomplished works like Starship Troopers, from what it could have been...