Black Book

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Film Description

Paul Verhoeven’s epic World War Two drama about a young Jewish woman who joins the Resistance in The Hague and gets entangled in a deadly web of double-dealing and betrayal. With production of the film delayed for 20 years, this stunning, sexy thriller from the internationally acclaimed director of Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers, and Total Recall, with a star-making debut from Carice Van Houten. The film also marks Verhoeven’s return to the Netherlands after 23 years.

Film Information

DVD Extras

Interviews with Verhoeven and Carice Van Houten; Making of documentary.

Technical Details

Film Media

4 Stills

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1 Trailer

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Reviews & Articles

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Review by Barry Forshaw on 23rd May 2007

Some have described this remarkable WWII drama as the director’s return to form in his native Holland – but the director’s American career included such impressive fare as Starship Troopers. Nevertheless, this riveting synthesis of art film and pulse-racing war adventure features a career-defining performance by Carice Van Houten.

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Review by Milo Wakelin on 12th March 2007

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven made his career combining art house sensibility and Old World perversion with all the colour and excess of the Hollywood blockbuster. After a string of B-movie misses, WWII Dutch resistance thriller Black Book is a barnstorming return to form. Reunited with scriptwriter Gerard Soeteman, with whom he made Turkish Delight, Spetters and The Fourth Man, Verhoeven is back in his element. At home in his native Holland, freed from Hollywood sensibilities, he is free to cut loose and have fun. The result is a triumph: a mix of rip-roaring action and intrigue, dastardly villains, gorgeous dames, desperate rescues, savage murders, betrayal, lust, lasciviousness and greed.
Verhoeven catapults his leading ladies into fame (Sharon Stone) or infamy (Elizabeth Berkeley), and with Carice van Houten, he has found the perfect match for his lurid sensibilities. A fatale femme extraordinaire, van Houten is outstanding as Rachel Stein, a plucky, resourceful Jewish heroine who will gamely dye her hair blonde and hop into bed with a Nazi if it will help the Dutch resistance, but who will risk her life for him if her heart tells her to.
Like Downfall and The Pianist before it, Black Book revisits the familiar morality of WWII with new eyes. The question is not who will win the war, but when. This puts both sides in an awkward position – should the resistance continue their campaign, knowing that for every Nazi sympathiser killed, there will be bloody reprisals? And should the German occupiers accept the inevitable, or redouble their efforts?
Black Book's take on the politics of resistance, in which it is plain that not all freedom fighters are noble and not all occupiers are brutes, is as provocative as it is relevant, though Verhoeven – who once dreamed of making a film about the historical life of Christ – is well aware that there are no easy answers in history and politics, and never bogs the story down looking for them.

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Collections & Lists

This film is part of the following Customer Film Lists

MovieMail Customer's Favourite Films of 2007 by MovieMail

A big thank you to all that took the time to vote this year, we had a fantastic response with over 1700 votes cast. The results are certainly interesting, with a good crossover with our own Films of the Year, but plenty of new blood too! The lucky winner, who receives all 12 of our favourites, was Jenny Copland from Tayport.

Make sure you also check out MovieMail's Films of the Year and our contributor's favourites - David Parkinson, Julian Upton, Michael Brooke, Graeme Hobbs, Mike McCahill, Pasquale Iannone, Pasquale Iannone and Alex Davidson.

MovieMail's Films Of The Year 2007 by MovieMail

As well as our own favourite films of the year, we also compiled MovieMail Customer's Favourite Films of 2007 and present our contributor's favourites - David Parkinson, Julian Upton, Michael Brooke, Graeme Hobbs, Mike McCahill, Pasquale Iannone, Pasquale Iannone and Alex Davidson.

As ever it has been tough. Strong contenders demoted at the last minute, personal favourites discarded, some coarse language exchanged, but here we are - twelve sterling examples of filmmaking that, as a whole, represent our, and hopefully your, taste in cinema.

Needless to say, they are all highly recommended - if there are any in the list that you don't own, don't hesitate to get them. Once you've finished with the final twelve, have a look at the nine Runners Up that we couldn't bear not to mention...

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