Wat zien ik

Paul Verhoeven's first feature film after directing the legendary tv-series Floris. Although Verhoeven himself thinks not very highly of his first feature length film, some themes are in fact typical of his work: fear of death and sexuality with a glimpse the social context (e.g. Amsterdam early seventies). Wat Zien Ik also shows us the typical editing technique Paul Verhoeven sometimes uses to hide the lack of story: editing based on speed. In later films this kind of editing proved te be efficient but in this case it's like a bad make up job. Not his best movie...

The man from Holland who made Sharon Stone famous in "Basic Instinct" was in the 70's a well known director from Dutch movies and "Wat zien ik?" is the man's debut. It's a well known fact that Paul doesn't want to be reminded of it, but it exists on celluloid so.... It's one of those typical early sexcomedys for which Holland was famous for but mind you 3 decades later it comes over as laughable.

In this movie we follow the adventures of two hookers who has to obey the weird wishes of their strange clients, but mind you there is absolutely, apart from some (ugly) naked breasts nothing to see so there is no reason to watch it. Perhaps for the humour then? Hmmm it's more embarrassing and an episode from Arnold is more funnier than that so in a short : a movie for the bin!

"Wat Zien Ik" was recently released in Brazil on DVD by a minor distributor as part of a "Trash Collection". I have seen all the movies of Paul Verhoeven since "Turk Fruits", with the exception of "Spetters" , "Voorbij, Voorbij" and "The Hitchhiker", which were not released in Brazil, therefore I decided to buy this DVD. This low budget movie is a comedy about the daily lives of two whores in Red Light District of Amsterdam, and has some funny moments, specially with the weird and bizarre fantasies of their costumers. Ronnie Bierman has a great performance in the role of a kind hearted prostitute, and although original (at least for people from other cultures), the story is also forgettable and only works to satisfy the curiosity about the first films of Paul Verhoeven. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Negócio é Negócio" ("Business is Business")

This is possibly the most accurate film made about the sex industry ever and I ought to know. If you've ever worked in the industry you'll laugh till you cry.

This movie is a historical document from The Netherlands in the 1970's and should be appreciated as such. It is a kind of 'TMO of Paul Verhoeven'.

Albert Mol was the writer of the book and he was one of the first gays who exposed himself to all the media. We call that now a 'rel-nicht'. That was very brave in those days.

Paul had more gay, lesbian and bi characters in his movies. His movie 'Spetters' got a lot of flack for homophobic content. I strongly disagree. Gay-bashing was going on in those days and Paul just showed it.

This movie is a rom com comedy with some kinky sex scenes. It's about Amsterdam, prostitutes and kinky sex. There is some violence from pimps and some nipples.

These treats are not uncommon in The Netherlands. Pim Fortuyn was a famous politician and got shot. He also was a 'rel-nicht' that made no secret about his doings in gay darkrooms. #Metoo is also picking up.

The title (Wat zien ik?! - What do I see?!) has an answer (Stof! - Dust!). It refers to a scene where the dominant female hooker disciplines a sub male client dressed as a housemaid.

Movie-wise this is not a great Paul Verhoeven movie. It is outdated and not up to standards anymore. But It gives you nice shots of red-light Amsterdam.

Paul Verhoeven thought of it as one of his worst movies. A 6 would be fine. I rated it a 7 because I enjoyed it again last week..