Stars: Monique Van De Ven, Fons Rademakers, Rutger Hauer

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Summary: A young Dutch prostitute living in Amsterdam in the 1880's dreams of a better life.

Paul Verhoeven directed this film, a moving period drama, before he relocated to Hollywood. A true story set in 19th century Holland, Keetje Tippel is a young girl born into poverty whose mother takes her to work in a brothel. As men use her, so too, Katie decides, she can use them to obtain the social status she seeks. When she becomes the mistress of a young banker (Hauer), Keetje finds a foothold in the Dutch upper-class and uses it to wed one of the banker's wealthy friends. Once again, Verhoeven has crafted a riveting film where female sexuality is a weapon to be honed and used cunningly, as in BASIC INSTINCT, resulting in an erotic, yet disturbing, drama that takes a dim view of capitalism and male dominated societies.

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Made in 1975 and directed by Paul Verhoeven, Katie Tippel("Katie the Streetwalker") is a handsome period drama set in 19th-century Holland, based on a true story. The second eldest daughter in a poor, Friesland family who move to Amsterdam, Katie (Monique Van de Ven) must find whatever work is going to make ends meet. She has already learnt to have no faith in her weak father. Now, as she enters a succession of jobs in which she experiences both exploitation and sexual harassment, she learns that men want her only for one thing. Duly, at the behest of her own mother, she enters into prostitution. However, when she becomes model to an artist, she is finally able to escape the poverty trap and ascend the social ladder, particularly when banker Hugo (Rutger Hauer) takes her as his lover. All this is set against a backdrop of social foment as the workers' impatience at poor social conditions increases.

Although director Verhoeven, as well as Hauer and cinematographer Jan De Bont eventually became involved in mainstream American movies, Katie Tippelis very much of the European school of filmmaking: episodic and harsh in its depiction of everyday poverty. The dead puppy at the beginning definitely marks it out as being contrary to Hollywood's near-zero canine mortality rate. The sexual scenes are graphic to the point of gratuitousness but always grimly non-titillating. Budgetary limits cramp some of the mass street scenes, but generally the film is beautifully shot and ageless in feel. A far cry, certainly, from Showgirls, for which Verhoeven was later responsible. --David Stubbs

Aspect Ratio:	1.66 Wide Screen
Main Language:	Dutch
Region:	Region 0
Special Features:	Star And Director Filmographies, Scene Selection, David Parkinson Film Notes, Original Theatrical Trailer, World Cinema Trailer Reel
Subtitles:	English
Year:	1975
Release Date:	February 24, 2003
Runtime:	100 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	T V D 3357
Keywords:	Passion, Girl, Subtitled, Hot, Sweat, General, Cathy, Wide, Screen, Dutch, Called, Katy, Named, Katie, Drama, Aka, Katie's, Keetje, Tippel
Genre:	Drama