Hanna D
The Girl from Vondel
Park
Severin Films
R1 DVD
Uli Edel's exploitation
classic Christiane F., which tracks a
young girl's descent into addiction and self-destruction took the market by
storm in 1984 and triggered many exploitation filmmakers to try their hand at a
more modern form of sleaze cinema. Many tried but few succeeded, one who did
was Rino De Silvestro of Women in Cell Block 7 fame. He took a tale
of family dysfunction and madness leading to prostitution, sex, violence and
drug addiction weaving in every possible element of sleaze and exploitation. Of
course the tale includes a redemptive ending with love triumphing over
addiction and exploitation but it is a superbly filthy road to get there!
Hanna
D (played marvellous by actress Ann Gisel Glass) is
working on a train to Amsterdam. She is a young girl plying her wares in any
form she can, from being a living peepshow to sex. She is a mixture of
innocence and perversity, both the exploiter and the exploited, and De Silvestro is able to explore this throughout the film
through very impressive cinematography, lots of nudity, a jazzy lounge score
and getting credible performances from actors which are working in a genre not
known for its cinematic excellence.
Hanna
lives with her drunken unstable mother and her mother’s toy boy who seems more
interested in Hanna than her mum. As
family dysfunction drives Hanna further and further into prostitution and drugs,
she meets Miguel who works as her pimp getting her into adult film. Along the
way we come to experience the underbelly of Amsterdam with graphic depictions
of prostitution, drug use, abuse and violence from biker fights to
hooker-on-hooker clashes, suicides to bashings.
Of
course while Hanna is enjoying the cash (and Miguel getting his share), things
do not last as she meets Axel (Sebastiano Somma) on a bus, and falls instantly in love, as you do. As
a showdown looms with accelerating violence from Miguel against her mother as
he searches for his Hanna who is in hiding, she withdraws further and further
into drug addiction. Lust, love and money never quite mix and soon Alex and
Miguel must face-off with Hanna’s life in the balance.
This
is certainly a compelling work of exploitation cinema, Silvestro
has taken his “Euro trash” film know-how and created a truly sleazy tale of the
rotten streets of Amsterdam. There is lots of sex, nudity, violence, drug
action and sordid imagery which helps sustain the
authenticity of the tale. The high quality uncut and restored edition offered
by Severin from original vault elements is amazing,
it is astoundingly clear with very clear dialogue and a rare groovy score.
A
great extra is the Confessions of Rino D which is an
all new interview/documentary discussing all aspects of the
film, it runs around 40 minutes.
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