Turkish Delight - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Turkish Delight or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Turkish Delight

[ethel]

This is the first movie composed by Rogier van Otterloo.

[kylie]

Director Paul Verhoeven and director of photography Jan de Bont had just seen The French Connection (1971), and agreed that its realistic look with natural light, hand-held photography and staccato editing would be perfect for this movie. However, when filming started, Verhoeven got cold feet and wanted to revert to fixed cameras and artificial lighting, just as he had shot his previous movie, Diary of a Hooker (1971). De Bont bluntly refused to comply and shot the first scenes the way he intended. This caused a major falling-out between them, and Verhoeven nearly had de Bont fired after three days of shooting. However, after seeing the first rushes, Verhoeven admitted that he was wrong, and that de Bont had made the right decision.

[miriam]

In Rutger Hauer's autobiography, "All Those Moments", he noted how director Paul Verhoeven explained to him that they could only do a few takes, but had confidence in everyone since he knew talent when he saw it. Although sometimes he would explain what kind of emotion he wanted based on the context of the script and let the actors and actresses run with it.

[ken]

All cars driven by the actors and actresses are from the British Leyland Consortium.

[kenzi]

Monique van de Ven was yanked out of the Theatre School of Maastricht where she was attending classes at the time. She never finished her education after this movie.

[fred]

The original soundtrack became as iconic as the movie. The famous melody whistled by Toots Thielemans was inspired by Piero Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian gangster movie Rififi in Amsterdam (1966).

[gabriel]

Theatrical movie debut of Monique van de Ven (Olga).

[jesus]

This was director Paul Verhoeven's third attempt to adapt a work from Jan Wolkers. The first time, in 1967, he asked permission to make "Serpentina's Petticoat", but Wolkers thought that Verhoeven's story treatment had strayed too far from the source material. The second time, in 1970, Verhoeven wanted to adapt "Turks Fruit", and asked Wolkers to write the screenplay. Because intended producer Gijs Versluys had already requested a budget, they had to produce a screenplay within three days. However, after a 24-hour attempt at writing, Wolkers was not satisfied with his screenplay and tore it up, with Verhoeven and Versluijs desperately trying to save the shreds. It wasn't until 1971, after producer Rob Houwer got involved and Wolkers had approved of screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, that he agreed to sell the rights to the book.

[jim]

The book by Jan Wolkers on which this movie was based is largely autobiographic. The character of Olga was based on Wolkers' second wife, Annemarie Nauta, who had left him after four years of marriage. Contrary to the book, she did not die. Olga's fate was modelled on the death of a friend of Wolkers who died of a brain tumor. When director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Gerard Soeteman learned from Nauta that Wolkers had been something of a bully during her marriage, they decided to make their main character a bit less likable as well. Interestingly enough, while being very impressed by the movie, Wolkers objected most against the main character's frequent bullying.

[ruby]

Willeke van Ammelrooy was the first choice for the role of Olga. Jan Wolkers, who wrote the novel on which this movie was based, thought she'd be perfect for the part. However, director Paul Verhoeven demanded she shave her head for the hospital scene. This would mean van Ammelrooy had to decline other job offers. Besides that, producer Rob Houwer didn't want to pay the 50,000 guilders van Ammelrooy asked. He was only willing to pay 19,000 guilders.