[5]

The second feature film from Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct) plays a lot like a Dutch version of Love Story. Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven star as the young lovers, whose relationship is founded completely on carnal desire. We learn in the wrap-around story that Hauer’s character is having difficulty moving on with his life after the end of the affair — all women and sexual conquests are measured against his experience with Van de Ven. And then we move into flashback mode for most of the film. Like Business is Business before it, Turkish Delight feels mostly episodic. The relationship doesn’t grow or change, and any narrative evolution is dependent on pressure provided from Van de Ven’s disapproving parents. The final act takes a dark, dramatic turn (hence the reference to Love Story), but before then Verhoeven’s dark humor is one of the film’s best qualities, as evident in a sequence where the lovers borrow pliers to free Hauer’s penis from his zipper, and later in a bizarre dinner scene where Hauer goes into a vomiting frenzy. The film was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film and remains one of the most commercially successful Dutch films ever made. While I admire Verhoeven’s audacity, dark humor, and sexual candor, I wish Turkish Delight were meatier and more cohesive.

Oscar Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film (Netherlands)