Monique Van de Ven Movies

As adapted from the novel of the same title by celebrated Dutch belletrist Jan Wolkers (Turkish Delight), the tense and seamy erotic thriller Summer Heat observes the difficulties that befall a photographer when he enters a torrid affair with a young girl on the isle of Texel - a liaison that pulls him into some extremely dangerous and choppy waters. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Cult film director Roy Frumkes scripted this Danish shocker about seven psychotic brothers on a quest to bring the ultimate evil to earth by using their unknowing lost sister as a birthing vessel. Plagued by horrifying nightmares and visions of the seven brothers painting ominously embryonic symbols with human blood, Emalee Lucas begins to unravel the increasingly threatening legend of the brothers and discover the truth about her mysterious past. Isolated by the military in a secret location, Emalee is telepathically drawn to them as she begins to realize the horrifying fate in store for her. Will Emalee learn the truth about her role in the fate of mankind in order to prevent herself from becoming the mother of ultimate destruction, or will she learn the secret of stopping the threatening and increasingly terrifying plot in time to save mankind from an unimaginable evil? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Ben Verbong's Dutch melodrama stars Marion Van Thijn as 17-year-old Lily, a young woman forced to submit to a life of crime after her fiancée is killed. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

When they discover that the child they are expecting is highly deformed and cannot live, the two parents agree to an abortion. Afterwards, the wife (Monique van de Ven) cannot stop talking about what to her is a tragedy, and is endlessly irritated at her husband's silence on the subject. She badgers him about it, and is beginning to have doubts about their marriage, which before had been a real love match. Eventually, the equally grieving man (Johan Leysen) has a breakdown, and his wife realizes that he has been suffering at lease as much as she has. This Dutch feature is based on the real-life experiences of its director, Rita Horst. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Now here's something you don't see every day: a skin-diving serial killer. Then again, since this melodrama takes place in Amsterdam, a town with almost as many canals as Venice, why should we be surprised that a murderer would swim from one killing to the next? A detective who isn't particularly fond of water tries to bring the finny fiend to justice. Essentially a B-grade slasher flick, Amsterdamned is distinguished by unexpectedly high production values. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this depressing melodrama, Iris (Monique van de Ven) runs away to the big city on her 18th birthday. She moves in with a successful architect and is content to keep house for a while, but she soon grows restless and decides to become a veterinarian. With an inheritance she purchases an existing clinic in a jerkwater town. Iris is leered at by the men and scorned by the women of the backwoods region. Practical jokes and malicious gossip eventually lead to violence. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The Dutch-filmed Assault was based on a novel by Harry Mulisch. Presented in a non-linear, flashback/flashword fashion, the film tells the story of a physician whose family was killed by the Nazis during World War II. This came about after the family's neighbors dragged the body of a dead collaborator to their doorstep. The doctor spends his entire adult life trying to find out why his neighbors had betrayed his family. At various isolated moments of political upheaval in Europe, the doctor comes closer and closer to the truth. During a 1984 anti-missile rally, the mystery is solved--and the answer is more complex than anyone back in 1945 had imagined. The hero's "growth" is thus placed in the context of the international turmoil of the four decades following the war. Marc van Uchelen plays the main character as a 12-year-old, while Derek de Lint portrays the adult physician. In a nicely underplayed symbolic touch, Monique van de Ven is cast in a dual role, playing de Lint's wife in the "present" scenes, and an older woman who is murdered by the Nazis because she shelters young van Uchelen in the flashback sequences. The Assault was the "best foreign film" Academy Award winner of 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This earthy romantic comedy is about a young man living in Amsterdam, enamored of the wife of a violinist and trying to gain her affections. The young man has to learn French in order to obtain a scholarship to go to Paris and study art and is thus living in the house of an old spinster, working for her in exchange for language lessons. Also living in the same house, but in their own apartments, is the violinist and his wife. As the young man's ingenuity focuses on how to seduce the wife, she has her own way of playing upon his feelings -- and between the two, many a ribald scene unfolds -- but not much else, alas. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Directed by Mady Saks who filmed the successful documentary Rape, this feature-length story examines the subject of alienation among new mothers, using fictional characters but real-life situations. Anneke (Monique van de Ven) has just given birth to her first child and is facing a new life in a different town because her husband recently found a new job and the family moved. Away from her friends, her own family, and with her working life behind her, Anneke is faced with the rigors of setting up housekeeping in a strange place and limiting her life to new baby, housework, and cooking, in a kind of solitary confinement. This radical change causes tensions that are not easy to resolve. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Australian stuntman Grant Page accepts a job on an American television series and travels to Los Angeles, where he reunites with old friend and fellow daredevil Curtis Hyde. The hirsute Hyde performs magic tricks and feats of daring for a heavy metal act called Sorcery, each gig playing the part of a demon locked in "cosmic combat" with Merlin the Magician (Paul Haynes) while the band blasts out a theatrical but muscular hard rock. Page's first stunt for the cameras goes awry and he is hospitalized, but defies his doctors by escaping out a fifth story window to get back to the set. Such reckless behavior attracts the attention of a newspaper reporter (Margaret Gerard) who is writing an article on people obsessed with their careers, as well as a TV star (Monique van de Ven) who finds herself drawn to the stuntman's professional fearlessness. Together they attend Sorcery concerts, enjoy Hollywood parties with the band and explore the nature of extreme living. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith worked with Page on an earlier "stuntsploitation" film called Deathcheaters, which also featured plenty of hair-raising stunt work. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi

An off-beat twist for its time on the classic story of a custody battle, Een Vrouw Als Eva stars Monique van de Ven as a housewife who jumps ship on her husband and children to pair up with Liliane (Maria Schneider). Eve meets Liliane while on vacation in the south of France and at first, she is simply entertained and attracted by Liliane's free-wheeling, back-to-nature existence but soon discovers that there is a sexual component to her attraction. Once the decision is made to divorce her husband, Eve spends some time with Liliane before going back home to fight over custody of her two children. From that moment on, the drama evolves around the complex emotions that plague two basically decent people as they argue over the children they both love. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This story is about an outspoken older veterinarian who is disliked by his community for that very reason, as well as for his tendency to campaign local farmers to use new methods. After his wife left him, he is accused by a local girl of having made her pregnant, she is readily believed, and he must go to great lengths to prove his innocence. The movie is adapted from a popular Dutch novel l by A. Roothaert. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This early Paul Verhoeven effort stars Monique van de Ven as a young Dutch hooker in 1881 Amsterdam who struggles to move up the community's social ladder. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi