Katie Tippel (1975)

The young girl Keetje moves to Amsterdam in 1881 with her impoverished family, and is led into prostitution in order to survive. In the process she sees the corrupting influence of money.

Director:

Paul Verhoeven

Writers:

Gerard Soeteman (screenplay), Neel Doff (novel)

Stars:

Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer, Andrea Domburg

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Monique van de Ven	...	Keetje Tippel
Rutger Hauer	...	Hugo
Andrea Domburg	...	Keetje's moeder
Hannah de Leeuwe	...	Mina, Keetje's zus
Jan Blaaser	...	Keetje's vader
Eddie Brugman	...	André (as Eddy Brugman)
Peter Faber	...	George
Mart Gevers
Riet Henius
Walter Kous	...	Pierre
Paul Meyer	...	Hoofd wasfabriek
Tonny Popper
Jan Retèl	...	Dokter
Fons Rademakers	...	Klant
Riek Schagen	...	Geest

Storyline

The young girl Keetje moves to Amsterdam in 1881 with her impoverished family, and is led into prostitution in order to survive. In the process she sees the corrupting influence of money.

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Plot Keywords:

rape | money | prostitution | starving | workplace | 

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Taglines:

The passion of BERGMAN...The boldness of FELLINI...The epic sweep of BERTOLUCCI

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Netherlands

Language:

Dutch

Release Date:

6 March 1975 (Netherlands)

Also Known As:

Cathy Tippel

Filming Locations:

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rob Houwer Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Paul Verhoeven experienced immense pressure to come up with a worthy follow-up for his critically and commercially successful Turkish Delight (1973). He clashed repeatedly with producer Rob Houwer over the screenplay and didn't get the budget to make the film on the epic scale he had intended. He has been quoted as saying that if he could ever redo one of his movies, it would be this one.

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Alternate Versions

A few more explicit shots of the rape scene were cut to avoid an "X" rating in the U.S. They are restored on home video in an unrated version.

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Connections

Referenced in Flesh + Steel: The Making of 'RoboCop' (2001)

User Reviews

I am never going to Amsterdam...ever

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?