The girl Keetje Tippel
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The girl Keetje Tippel |
| Original title | Katie Tippel |
| Country of production | Netherlands |
| original language | Dutch |
| Publishing year | 1975 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Verhoeven |
| script |
Neel Doff , Gerard Soeteman |
| production | Rob Houwer |
| music | Rogier van Otterloo |
| camera | Jan de Bont |
| cut | Jane Sperr |
| occupation | |
| |
The girl Keetje Tippel (original title: Katie Tippel , also Keetje Tippel ) is a melodrama by the director Paul Verhoeven from 1975 . The film is based on the memoirs of Neel Doff (1858–1942) and was the most expensive Dutch film of its time. The film was a box-office hit with 1,829,116 admissions in the Netherlands. The film was distributed on video in Germany under the title Katie's Passion .
action
The film begins in Stavoren , a small town on the outskirts of the Netherlands , in 1881 and follows Keetje's family's journey to Amsterdam, where they hope to escape the abject poverty in their hometown and find work in the capital. Upon arrival, Keetje manages to find stable employment in a dye factory, but is fired when she refuses to have sex with the company owner. She manages to find a job in a hat shop. During a business visit to a brothel, she discovers that her older sister Mina works as a prostitute . Later that evening, back at the hat shop, she is brutally raped by the owner. As an act of vengeance, it throws in the windows of the business.
Weeks pass as Keetje's father tries to get her through with work in a factory and Mina begins a slow descent into alcoholism . While trying to steal some bread from a market stall, Keetje is knocked unconscious by a police officer and taken to a sanatorium. It soon becomes apparent that her body is her only asset. The doctor who diagnosed her with tuberculosis refuses to treat her until she sleeps with him. It remains unclear if this actually happens, but after her release, Keetje returns to her family and Keetje discovers that her father has been laid off and her sister is too drunk to sleep with her clients. Keetje's mother decides that it is better to let Keetje work as a prostitute than to starve the family.
Her first customer is a wealthy gentleman whom Keetje cannot satisfy due to her inexperience. Her second customer, an artist by the name of George, takes her to his studio, where she is a model for a painting depicting the socialist revolution. He pays her the wages agreed on on the street, but asks her to work only as a model for him. The next day he introduces Keetje Hugo, a banker, and Andre, a wealthy socialist, with whom she is having a meal in a nightclub. Keetje's new socialist upbringing has begun. Andre is immediately taken with Keetje, she is more fascinated by Hugo, with whom she goes home and sleeps. The next morning Keetje receives money from Hugo for a new dress and the two meet in the park. Here Keetje is caught up with her previous life when a previous customer recognizes her and tells Hugo that he still knew Keetje from the time when she only cost fifty pence. Hugo hits him and refuses to believe this story, he promises Keetje that she can stay with him "always". Keetje goes to visit her family and tells them about her intention to leave. Her mother asks how she can get the children through without Keetje's help. Keetje tells her mother “she should have fucked less”, pushes her hysterical mother aside and storms out.
Together with Hugo, Keetje settles into a middle-class life, but is soon disturbed when she is asked by Hugo to research some less affluent Amsterdam business owners for their creditworthiness. After being spotted in a coffee shop and smeared with hot chocolate on her face, she tells Hugo that she no longer wants to do this dirty job. Soon after, Hugo told her he was going to marry his fiancée and Keetje had to go, their relationship was just a bit of fun that went too far. Keetje, now without a place to stay, runs into the street and takes part in a socialist march. The police arrive, break up the march and fire at the demonstrators. During the commotion, Keetje meets George and Andre again. Andre was shot in the arm and cracked his head when he passed out. George takes her to a carriage that takes Andre to his apartment. Keetje stays with him and when he wakes up it becomes clear that a romance has started between them. They discuss the topic of money and Keetje tells Andre "Money turns people into monsters". When Andre's head wound begins to bleed, Keetje thinks that the best medicine is to suck up the blood. "That's better," she says and a little blood trickles from the corner of her mouth. The image freezes and the credits appear with the information "this film is based on the true story of Nell Doff's life" and that "her indomitable spirit lives on in this film".
Differences from the script
The film initially had an epilogue a few years in the future that showed Keetje, now married to Andre, reading. When the noises of the starving people from the street became increasingly clear, Keetje got up and closed the open window. Your journey is now over, Keetje has become one of the "bastards" she used to despise. Even so, producer Rob Houwer decided this was too depressing an ending and it was never filmed.
production
Gerard Soeteman's original script was much longer; Keetje's journey reflected the rise of socialism in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century. Due to budget restrictions imposed by the Dutch state and Rob Houwer, many of the lavish scenes were canceled. This shifted the focus of the film less to the time of its action and more to the person Keetje.
intertextuality
Verhoeven later stated that this was the only film he had ever considered reworking. There are numerous later echoes of this film, the Misery Showgirls (1995). Even Black Book (2006) shows a female character with a strong will, the battle is blurred by self-realization.
criticism
The lexicon of the international film ruled that it was a "[m] elodramatic, superficial story" that was "partly sweetly embellished, partly rudely put into the picture".
Web links
- The girl Keetje Tippel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Mathijs, Ernest: The Cinema of the Low Countries . Wallflower Press, 2004, p. 146.
- ^ The girl Keetje Tippel. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 8, 2014 .