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Mathildelicious (2002)

Until her untimely and tragic death in 1977, Mathilde Willink was for years an extravagant and very un-Dutch character. Her unique image and her marriages were widely covered in the media. The documentary Mathildelicious sketches a picture of a strange woman based on archive footage and interviews with friends and acquaintances including fashion designer Fong Leng, painter Anton Heyboer and singer Imca Marina.

'I am a dreamer. I live in a fairy-tale world of illusions and extravagance. I am a super kitten. If people do not notice you, you might as well not exist.' Mathilde Willink

Maria Theodora Mathilde de Doelder was born in 1938 in Terneuzen as the daughter of a sailor and a mother she wasn't too happy with. She attended high school in the southern coastal province of Zeeland and excelled at Latin.
At the age of twenty she left for Amsterdam, where two years later she met the famous painter Carel Willink. When she married the painter, already in his sixties, she was his third wife and bore his name as token of respect. He called her a super kitten, a beautiful thing to have around the house.
At first, she worked as a stewardess for the KLM so she could travel and maintain her husband. Willink blossomed in his relationship with Mathilde and their fame as an extravagant artist couple grew. In the meantime, Mathilde discovered the expensive clothes of Fong Leng and so Carel raised his prices to pay for the fashion. Mathilde, queen of the Amsterdam beau monde, was a darling of the press and cooperated eagerly on propagating her own myth.
After Carel had exchanged her for another woman, the myth reached epic proportions when she was a guest of TV gossip-show host Henk van der Meyden and boosted ratings. She was meanwhile desperately looking for a new man. After approaching Anton Heyboer and Salvador Dali, she eventually found drug dealer Dicky Vittali, who gave her back her life of luxury. She seemed to be full of plans again, but on 25 October 1977, Mathilde was found dead on her four-poster bed with a sobbing Vittali at her side.

This production has been made in cooperation with the Foundation Prince Bernhard Cultuurfonds and with financial support from the Rotterdam Film Fund.

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