My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie is a very interesting 1970s-era erotic-suspense-drama out of the Netherlands and features some decent enough performances, particularly from Willeke van Ammelrooy.
My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie
(1975)
Genre(s): Drama, Suspense
Cult Epics | NR – 85 min. – $34.95 | June 11, 2019
Date Published: 06/10/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Cult Epics provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Susan (WILLEKE VAN AMMELROOY) lives in an idyllic farmhouse, along with the sex-loving youngsters Sandra (MARJA DE HEER), Olga (FRANULKA HEYERMANS) and Julie (MARIEKE VAN LEEUWEN), and the unstable voyeur Albert (SERGE-HENRI VALCKE), hiding himself inside a cramped room. Sandra and Olga, as the film opens, show themselves to be natural born killers of sorts though to others, the strange neighbor Piet (NELLY FRIJDA), seems a more likely suspect. Arriving on the scene, initially to take Susan for a photo shoot (I think), is Anton (HANS VAN DER GRAGT), staying awhile and soon learns just how strange things can get at this farmhouse.
Review: I’m not sure what it was with foreign movies from the 1960s and 1970s, more often than not out of Italy, where characters tend to act not out of self interest but sometimes becoming amateur sleuths. Such is the case with Anton, who even sees one character push a corpse into a shed (and later sees them with them later on). Normal people would generally phone the police, but instead he’s merely inquisitive about the whole thing and even, down the line, comes to the conclusion that two of the characters are responsible for the person’s death. A bit strange and generally takes me out of a movie. In any case, My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie is an interesting indie film out of the Netherlands and outside of one of the actresses, namely Marieke van Leeuwen as Julie, the acting isn’t half bad, Willeke van Ammelrooy in particular was a standout and, unlike her co-stars, has had a pretty production career (Hans van der Gragt in comparison, this was his only feature film).
The actual plot was, at times jarring, perhaps due to the blatant nudity and choices some characters make, again not always in their best self interest. The film was helmed by Pim de la Parra and also co-scripted with four others and there did, at times, feel a clash of stories going from sexploitation to suspense, drama and back and forth in between. All in all, I’d say My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie is definitely worth checking out. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.75/5 |
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The two-disc set is housed in a standard Blu-ray case. Introduction (11:15) – This new intro/interview with writer-director Pim de la Parra was recorded especially for this Cult Epic release. In it, he explains his memories of making the movie, including the location, technical aspects, shooting dates and even his original choice for the lead actor, none other than Rutger Hauer. Pretty lengthy and thorough giving a good sense, considering no behind-the-scenes footage exists, to give the layout of the production 45 years later. Scorpio Short Films:
These shorts were, let’s say, interesting to watch. The first, “Heart Beat Fresco”, co-written and directed by Pim de la Parra. wasn’t really my thing, not so much there was no dialogue (silent besides the music and some on-set sound effects), but the storytelling style was jumpy and I guess I really wasn’t feeling it. On the opposite end, however, are “Joop” and “Joop Strikes Again” about a hapless guy who, in the first short, is trying to give up the nerve to ask out his best friend and ultimately bungles it (almost like Mr. Bean to be honest) while the sequel was also quite a bit of fun seeing the Joop character unable to get with an attractive woman thanks to a kid some grandmother left by while she ran errands. Of special note, the camera operator was none other than Jan de Bont who would go on to be the cinematographer on Die Hard, Basic Instinct and Lethal Weapon 3 to name a few, as well as directing Speed, Twister, Speed 2, The Haunting and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (needless to say, not a great career in that realm outside of Speed). Scorpio Films Theatrical Trailers:
Poster & Photo Video Gallery (3:59) is filled with promotional images for the film. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Cult Epics releases My Nights With… onto Blu-ray and, from what I can tell, makes its North American debut on any format. The movie is shown with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and was given a new 1080p high-definition transfer, which was restored from the 35mm original print. While the picture isn’t perfect as dust marks especially permeate many scenes, including the opening (though could be some film damage as well), this doesn’t look half bad. Detail is sharp throughout, especially the close up shots with the more distant ones objects do get a bit fuzzy, but this isn’t a big detraction. Colors do look era appropriate so nothing was artificially boosted. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The disc is accompanied with a Dutch language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which I found to be clean outputting clear dialogue levels. I didn’t sense any noticeable hisses, pops or other audible flaws, making it respectable especially when you consider the movie’s age and perhaps the on-location sound design. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
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My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie is a very interesting 1970s-era erotic-suspense-drama out of the Netherlands and features some decent enough performances, particularly from Willeke van Ammelrooy. This Blu-ray release from Cult Epics includes some respectable video and audio transfers and a fine selection of bonus material, highlighted by a new introduction and three short films. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.