An aimless young artist learns to face his responsibilities when a former lover develops a terminal illness.

Sort of a cross between Love Story (1970) and an earthy Rembrandt painting, this movie stars Rutger Hauer as gifted Dutch sculptor Eric, who has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young girl. The story follows the arc of their relationship and his interaction with her family. Told in flashback form, initially, Eric is seen as a libertine lothario collector, taking trophies from his sexual conquests and pasting them in a book. He sees a sculpture he made of his lost lover and goes into a flashback of his relationship with his wife. He meets the girl, falls in love with and marries her, and we meet her parents: a charming, well meaning, bumbling father, and his shrew of a wife, who's convinced Eric is too much of a bohemian to make a good mate for her daughter. Eventually, the petty jealousies, the sexual hijinks, and the climactic vomit scene prove to be too much for the marriage, and Eric and his lady separate. Flash forward several months, and Eric finds the girl back in The Netherlands after an American sojourn. Their reunion is short lived. The somewhat melodramatic ending mirrors Love Story (1970).—<[email protected]>

The most successful film in the history of Dutch cinema, this emotional and graphic drama from director Paul Verhoeven follows an aimless young artist (Rutger Hauer) who learns to face his responsibilities when a former lover (Monique van de Ven) develops a terminal illness.