Black Book
(Zwartboek)(2007)
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.
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Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Starring Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint
Written by Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
Flicks Review
BY Flicks Writer
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.
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Black Book
It portrays the life-and-death tension of WW2 Europe during the time of German military occupation.
This movie is about such a recent chapter in world history - only 60-odd years ago.
Indeed, the story prompted my discussion with a Dutch family farming here in the Waikato where one gentleman was aged 8 to 12 years old during the occupation of Holland. Older youth were... More kept in hiding and the younger kids (like him) had to do all the farm work etc. He recalls his parents hiding a basic radio in the laundry roof - if it was found they could be shot or sent to a work camp.
'Black Book' shows that cruelty and prejudice can take hold in any camp, not just among the 'bad guys', and similarly kindness and trust is found when not expected.Hide
Epic film, writ large and in largely in blood - as befit the times - nothing effete or uncertain in any of it. Ravishing to look at, visceral and plot driven. I also have to ask, where does Paul Verhoven find his leading actresses? Carice van Houten defies description and both she and Sebastian Koch give a hell of a performance. Just outstanding.
In my opinion the movie was the best in the war genre for some time, the plot plausible, the main actress superb, the denouement was gripping, the story tragic.
I had no idea what to expect when I walked into this movie. What I found was one of the best movies I have seen in the last twelve months. Powerful, gripping, moving.
War is ugly: occupation, collaboration, fear, betrayal,greed, but also humanity and courage.
By way of comparison Atonement is a pretty reasonable movie but its through a soft focus lens when compared to Black Book.
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The Press Reviews
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?.. Full Review
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... Full Review
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... Full Review
Audacious, smart, shamelessly entertaining... Full Review
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... Full Review
A bold, brawny feminist war epic... Full Review
Black Book works only if you take it for the pulpiest of fiction, not a historical gloss, its stated claims to "true events" notwithstanding... Full Review
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