[4]

Blonde and Nel are prostitutes who share a house in Amsterdam’s Red Light District where they entertain an endless parade of increasingly bizarre clientele. This is the first feature film from director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct), and while it certainly shows his predilection for sexual content and dark comedy, there’s not much of a storyline to grab onto. Blonde begins to develop a serious relationship with one man (she tells him he doesn’t have to pay) and Nel gives a go at the ‘straight life’ when one of the clients proposes, but the film otherwise plays out like a series of vignettes. The more memorable ones involve the whacky clients, including one who likes to pretend he’s being operated on surgically and another who likes to dress both women in feathers and pretend they’re all chickens. (In Dutch; also known as Diary of a Hooker and Wat zien ik)