Dvd
Black Book (Zwartboek)
"The director who blitzed Hollywood with such pulp classics as 'Basic Instinct', 'Robocop' and 'Showgirls' takes everyone by surprise with a return to the World War II drama canon, 30 years after Soldier of Orange. Described by critics as brash, provocative and outrageous, with more topless women than a Riviera beach, Paul Verhoeven's first Dutch film in 20 years is also a bold, wilfully irreverent and morally complex film about the Holocaust. Rachel Stein (played with ferocious energy by Carice van Houten) is a sexy Jewish singer in the Dutch underground resistance movement who signs up for the ultimate Mata Hari assignment: to seduce Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch), the head of the Gestapo in The Hague. Falling in love with him is not part of her plan." [NZFF]
Starring Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint
Directed by Paul Verhoeven ('RoboCop', 'Total Recall', 'Basic Instinct', 'Showgirls')
Written by Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Thriller, War, Drama | 2hr 25mins | Rated (R16) | contains violence, offensive language, content may disturb | Origin: The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany | Language: Dutch / English / German / Hebrew with English subtitles | Official Site »
- Trailers
- Reviews
-
- SHARE:
- SHARE:
The Talk
31 votes / No comments
Flicks review
-
3
Jet-black swastikas on blood-red banners; graphic violence and frontal nudity; characters as serious as a sermon. It must be a Paul Verhoeven film.
Verhoeven’s “good” movies – Robocop, Starship Troopers – are skilful critiques of his adopted America. In the guise of pulpy sci-fi, these are some of Hollywood’s cleverest critiques of Western capitalist excess and Imperialist foreign policy – revealing, in both, the worrying fascist undertones and gleefully pointing out how much we get off on them.
But across the good and not-so-good, constant across Paul Verhoeven’s career is an (often graphic) exploration of the human will to power. And the danger is that peering into such an abyss is a two-way thing: the monster at the bottom is liable to peer back. (The question looms often in Black Book: Is Paul Verhoeven an explorer of fascism and misogyny, or is he just a fascistic misogynist?)
So in making a movie set in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, the problem becomes obvious: if your stock-in-trade is subversively revealing the power-crazed undercurrent of an era, you don’t really have much to do if your movie is about the Third Reich. Subverting American values, yes, fine - but is there really much of a market for eloquent condemnations of the politics of the Nazis? These were bad guys: we’re aware of that, Paul, you’re going to have to give us something more.
And he does: toward the end of Black Book’s 2.5 hour running time, we’re treated to something of a violent reversal that goes some way toward musing on some tricky truths about power. It’s just a shame it takes about 90 minutes to get there. And that’s 90 minutes of clever but pedestrian plot, laden with violence that’s more than token but less than wrenching, and sexuality that veers from refreshingly frank to screen-breakingly stupid.
Which is to say, Verhoeven’s back in town.
SHARE:
The people's reviews
8 reviews
Press Reviews
-
BBC
4
It's a twisty tale robustly told with lashings of sex and violence. Yes, despite the prestige-pic trappings, Verhoeven hasn't lost touch with his basic instincts; who else could bring us a scene of a woman dyeing her nether regions?..
Read full review -
Dominion Post [Graeme Tuckett]
3
1/2 Verhoeven pauses occasionally to make some timely points about the interchangeability of the words 'terrorist' and 'freedom-fighter', but is mostly concerned with filling his lengthy movie with as much punctured or penetrated flesh as possible. I never expected to laugh so hard at what was possibly supposed to be a serious film...
Read full review -
NZ Herald [Peter Calder]
2
Expecting subtlety from Paul Verhoeven, the enfant terrible Dutch export behind Basic Instinct, would really be the triumph of hope over experience. But this World War II drama, Verhoeven's first film at home since 1983, beguiles by seeming at first to be the story of a Jewish woman getting one over on the Nazis. Faint hope. This is the Holocaust as soft-porn soap opera in which the heroine's major task is to be at least topless and, when possible, completely naked...
Read full review -
Premiere Magazine [USA]
Audacious, smart, shamelessly entertaining...
Read full review -
The Hollywood Reporter
It succeeds on almost all fronts. The epic film is a high-octane adventure rooted in fact with a raft of arresting characters, big action sequences and twists and turns galore...
Read full review -
The Lumiere Reader [Wellington]
A bold, brawny feminist war epic...
Read full review -
The New York Times
Black Book works only if you take it for the pulpiest of fiction, not a historical gloss, its stated claims to "true events" notwithstanding...
Read full review
View more trailers close window
-
Loading the player ...
Search For a DVD
I beg your pardon?
- Flicks.co.nz is serving the great nation of NZ with all things cinematic. Question about a movie or cinema? Thoughts on the site? Quips, gripes, advice for our own personal self-development?
- Get in touch with us by email at ED@ FLICKS.CO.NZ,on TWITTER oron FACEBOOK.
Want to see it
What say you? Yes No
Be the first to comment!