Black Book
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.
- Director:
- Paul Verhoeven ('RoboCop', 'Total Recall', 'Basic Instinct', 'Showgirls')
- Writer:
- Gerard SoetemanPaul Verhoeven
- Cast:
- Carice van HoutenSebastian KochThom HoffmanHalina ReijnWaldemar KobusDerek de Lint
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Reviews & comments
Flicks, Team
flicksLeaves "Atonement" for Dead
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...
The New York Times
pressBlack Book works only if you take it for the pulpiest of fiction, not a historical gloss, its stated claims to "true events" notwithstanding...
Hollywood Reporter
pressIt 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...
New Zealand Herald
pressExpecting 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...
Dominion Post
pressVerhoeven 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...
BBC
pressIt'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?..
Flicks, Team
flicksThe New York Times
pressBlack Book works only if you take it for the pulpiest of fiction, not a historical gloss, its stated claims to "true events" notwithstanding...
Hollywood Reporter
pressIt 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...
New Zealand Herald
pressExpecting 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...
Dominion Post
pressVerhoeven 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...
BBC
pressIt'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?..
Leaves "Atonement" for Dead
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...
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