Review: Black Book

UK release date: 19th January

Paul Verhoeven’s first film made in his native Holland since 1983’s The Fourth Man — after which he left for Hollywood and the likes of RoboCop and Basic Instinct — returns to the subject of the Dutch Resistance, which he first tackled in 1977’s Soldier of Orange.

Based loosely on a real character, Rachel (Carice van Houten) is a Jewish singer who, after seeing members of her party of escaping Jews massacred, joins the underground and infiltrates the local Nazi HQ, via the bed of officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). Verhoeven delivers a rollicking yarn that’s surprisingly traditional, if convoluted, and, as usual, nudges happily at the boundaries of sexual imagery. The performances are universally good and the bloody action is typically well handled, but while Black Book certainly entertains it lacks the cultural tensions and mischievous satire that characterise the best of his American films.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 145mins

Review by Adam Smith

News: Paul Verhoeven

He may have had a six year break before directing this week’s Second World War flick Black Book, but cult director Verhoeven looks to have got the taste for film again, with two more prjects lined up. The first, The Winter Queen, is a bit of a departure for the man best known for the likes of RoboCop and Total Recall – it’s to be a period detective story, set in 19th century Russia and England. The other will also not seem quite like the sort of thing for which Verhoeven is best known, being based on the novel Knielen op een bed violen (“Kneeling on a bed of violets”) by Dutch literary writer Jan Siebelink – a coming-of-age tale of religion and small-scale, small-town resentment and revenge.