Director Paul Verhoeven is best known for making films that either have excessive violence or excessive sex. I really like his ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL. BASIC INSTINCT is a guilty pleasure and has certainly developed some iconic moments. However, he’s also made extreme stinkers like HOLLOW MAN and SHOWGIRLS. But none of these films could have prepared me for TURKISH DELIGHT, which is hands down without a doubt his masterpiece. It’s brilliant.
The film begins with Eric Vonk (Rutger Hauer, BLADE RUNNER) violently murdering a man and woman in two separate scenes. Then we cut to him half naked in his filthy apartment. The murders were fantasies. Next we move into a montage of Eric’s sexual flings and learn that his true love Olga Stapels (Monique van de Ven, 1983’s BURNING LOVE) has just broken up with him. This is when we jump back in time two years and witness the whirlwind courtship of the immature and rebellious Eric and the childish and impetuous Olga.
Olga’s mother (Tonny Huurdeman, DEXTER THE DRAGON & BUMBLE THE BEAR) hates Eric, but her father (Wim van den Brink, THE MARK OF THE BEAST) is a bit more carefree. Eric and Olga’s relationship is tumultuous and the story chronicles how Eric’s character flaws rip apart the relationship.
The film is filled with shocking moments of the grotesque. But horse eyes, poop, urine, blood, maggots and other bodily fluids are used as a metaphor for the repression of the bourgeoisie culture of Olga’s parents. There’s ugliness and dirtiness underneath everything, but the establishment just paints over it with smiles or pushes it under the rug like it doesn’t exist. The conclusion of the film is disturbing in a way that you’ve never seen before. Death is not always romantic. Love is not always nice and easy.
Eric is a fascinating character who is intelligent, but isn’t all that smart about how his behavior will make the people around him react. His journey to adulthood is the core of the film. The metaphors throughout the film are profound and truly thought provoking. Highlights include Eric’s sculptor of Lazarus, Eric and Olga’s wedding, Eric’s change in art style and Olga’s change in appearance toward the end of the film. All these amazing moments deal with the dirty and ugly things in life that we try not to think about. Especially when presenting our visions of life (or how we want it to be) on the screen.
This film is boldly honest. This disturbing and deep movie needs to be seen by any serious film fan. It rips open the ideas of film romance and lets us really see the guts of it all. It’s not pretty all the time, but that’s life.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
