My Nights With Susan, Sandra, Olga, and Julie

Director-Pim de la Parra

Cast-Willeke van Ammelrooy, Hans van der Gragt, Nelly Frijda

Country of Origin-Netherlands
 

Distributor - Cult Epics

Number of discs –  2

Reviewed by - Bobby Morgan

Date- 07/08/2019

Cult Epics’ distribution deal with the Dutch production house Scorpio Films possibly culminates with the release of Scorpio founder Pim de la Parra’s bizarro erotic thriller My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie in a new Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.

You might blind buy this set expecting a slice of saucy Eurotrash sexploitation and little else, but though de la Parra’s film (full original title: Mijn Nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra) packs plentiful sex and nudity into its 84-minute length, the feature itself resembles one of Russ Meyer’s late-career offerings like Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens crossbred with a David Lynch waking nightmare mystery. Alternating between titillating and unnerving, My Nights is pure unhinged arthouse weirdness as only the Dutch could accomplish.

Anton (Hans van der Gregt) has arrived to stay at the isolated countryside home of Susan (Willeke van Ammelrooy) that doubles as a youth hostel whose only other residents are the flirtatious sexpots Olga (Franulka Heyermans) and Sandra (Marja de Heer) and the constantly somnolent Julie (Marieke van Leeuwen). There’s also Albert (Serge-Henri Valcke), a photographer who has taken up residence behind the wall of Olga and Sandra’s room so he can spy on their sexcapades. Their only neighbor in the area is eccentric loner Piet (Nelly Frijda), an object of the nymphos’ daily harassment.

As we learn in the opening scene, Olga and Sandra don’t just enjoy getting it on with any man they can get their hands on. They’re also rather fond of murdering the occasional poor horny sucker in the heat of passion. While they’re offing an American (Jerry Brouer) and disposing of his corpse, the girls fail to notice Piet observing their crime from the bushes. She later retrieves the dead man, brings it back to her home, and cherry picks items from his deceased person with which to torment her tormentors in the days to come, including his glasses and a liquor bottle he was drinking from when he was killed. That’s when things start to get a little crazy.

I haven’t yet mentioned the fact that Olga and Sandra have sex with just about everyone in the movie, including each other during their downtime, and Anton and Susan begin to develop a relationship at the same time it becomes clear there’s something going on between the lunatic voyeur Albert and that nice narcoleptic Julie. If you think I’ve given away too much of the plot, worry not because I’m not even going to go into the delightfully bonkers third act.

Having previously directed the Scorpio release Obsessions (co-scripted by a pre-fame Martin Scorsese), Pim de la Parra really pulled out the stops for My Nights, a film he spent five years trying to make and originally intended for it to star British actors and feature a score composed by the legendary Bernard Herrmann. He cast it well, with van Ammelrooy and van der Gregt doing fine work on the serious end of things while allowing the game (and often naked) Heyermans and de Heer have all the fun. Frijda and Valcke have the less enviable task of creating convincing outsider characters with a minimum of development – and in Fridja’s case, zero dialogue – but both actors succeed in drawing out the reclusive humanity in these lonely loons.

The terrific, multi-layered mind screw of a screenplay for My Nights is credited to five writers, including Scottish scribe Charles Gormley, Daughters of Darkness/Malpertius director Harry Kumel, and de la Parra himself. Despite the number of cooks present in the kitchen, the script does its job well by juggling the multiple characters and motivations and making the various sexual hook-ups seem sensible in the context of the overall warping storyline. Simultaneously sumptuous and foreboding, the Techniscope widescreen cinematography by Marc Felperlaan transformed the pastoral Dutch locations into a sun-dappled realm of mystery and sensuality. Felperlaan would go on to shoot Amsterdamned and The Lift (as well as the latter’s English language remake Down, a.k.a. The Shaft) for Dick Maas.

Although de lar Parra’s first choice for composer was probably deemed unaffordable, he found a brilliant replacement in Hammer/Amicus veteran Elisabeth Lutyens (Paranoiac, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors), who orchestrates a score rich in tension and eccentricity that reminded me of Pino Donaggio’s later work for Brian DePalma. The presence of Stevie Wonder’s gorgeous soul classic “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” (from his 1973 album Innervisions) in the opening scene was a pleasant surprise for this life-long Stevie fan and it provided an ironic soundtrack for Olga and Sandra’s diabolical social life.

The high-definition transfer of My Nights was sourced from a recent restoration that was undertaken with the only available elements being an original 35mm print of the film. Presented in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, the picture quality is not without its imperfections inherent to the source but regardless features warm, natural colors and a pleasing layer of grain that only gets thicker during darker scenes (which are few). Once you get past an opening credits sequence that is rife with chunky grain and rampant print damage (dirt, grit, visible scratching), the visuals substantially improve. The original Dutch mono is superbly replicated on a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that contains crisp, audible dialogue and suitable presentations for the Foley effects work and Lutyens’s score. Distortion and damage are nowhere to be found. Don’t be thrown off by the English spoken in the first scene; once the American is out of the picture, it’s all Dutch from there. Less successful is the English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that offers a decent yet muffled dub that will only be of interest to those who hate to read while watching a movie. English subtitles have also been provided.

When you start the film, you’re given the option of watching it with or without an introduction from director de la Parra (HD, 11 minutes) that is long enough to qualify as a new interview. He touches on the difficulties getting My Nights made, thoughts on the final film and its ultimate reception, and more. It’s the only retrospective featurette on this disc and you won’t find it in the special features menu.

What you will find are three shorts from Scorpio Films – the silent and experimental “Heart Beat Fresco” (B&W, 10 minutes), and the plot-driven “Joop” (color, 11 minutes) and “Joop Strikes Again” (color, 10 minutes). The latter two are presented in Dutch with optional English subtitles, and all three appear to have been restored in recent years and look terrific for their age and origins. From the Scorpio vaults, we also have trailers for My Nights (2 minutes) and three more of their films available on Blu-ray from Cult Epics – Obsessions (3 minutes), Frank & Eva (2 minutes) and Blue Movie (2 minutes).

Lastly, there’s a video still gallery of photos and posters from My Nights presented in HD (4 minutes). Cult Epics has also included a DVD copy.

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie is an enticing, borderline satirical psychosexual romp directed with skill and panache by Pim de la Parra and performed by a fearless cast. I always enjoy it when a film surpasses my expectations, but I love it when those expectations are completely upended, as was the case with this depraved Dutch delight. Cult Epics’ Blu-ray earns high marks for its exceptional picture and sound quality and a batch of worthwhile supplements that will only enrich your enjoyment of this film if you’re feeling adventurous.