(aka "Black Book" )

directed by Paul Verhoeven
Netherlands / Belgium / UK / Germany 2006

If anything should be said about Paul Verhoeven, then it should be that he has no sense of restraint or moderation. He often throws away caution in regards to plot logic and goes over the top with something outrageous out of place, followed by turkey punch-one-liners. On one side, that was what made “RoboCop” so great, and on the other, what made “Showgirls” – and “Basic Instinct” - so stupendous bad. Strange though, as his earlier Dutch films like “Soldaat van Oranje” and “De Vierde Man” were very good films.

It’s been six years since the horrible “Hollow Man”, and now Verhoeven has returned to Holland and made the most expensive Dutch film ever, “Zwartboek”, based on real events, which were uncovered while he researched “Soldaat van Oranje”, reuniting him with Gerard Soeteman, the writer for the majority of his previous Dutch films.

The story deals with the Jew Rachel Stein (Carice von Houten), who becomes the blond Aryan Ellis de Vries to go undercover for the resistance, after she escaped a massacre. Not only does she work for the Nazis, she falls in love with SS officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch).

While it on the paper looks like a winner, “Zwartboek” comes close to what can be described as Anna Frank meets Showgirls. It is, for most of the plot, a pulp romance story about a very naïve yet strong-minded Jewish woman who falls in love with an idealistic and good-hearted Nazi officer, full of sudden, often cliff-hanger often action, plot twists and one-liners as good as those in “Showgirls”. It has it all, drama, sex, action, sex, betrayal, sex and of course nudity by von Houten.

To demonstrate: Ellis (aka the blond Aryan Rachel) has to go work for Nazis. She is asked how far she is willing to go, and her mind doesn’t fall upon killing, but sex. “You mean sleep with him?... I will go as far as he wants to go!” Next we see her dye her pubic hear blond (in close up), which leads to her having sex with one of her resistance partners.

Several scenes are superfluous and appear more like present in order to show nudity, and action sequences almost come from the blue sky, breaking the pace, as if the script said “Insert action here”. Admitted, sex and action are central elements to both the story of Rachel / Ellis and the resistance, but there should be a point in showing it, and it should then carry and strengthen the plot. In “Zwartboek” it does not, but often feels like being out of sync with the plot, displayed for its own sake.

Mind you, “Zwartboek” looks beautiful and has some superb scenes, but overall the film comes off as wanting to go in too many directions, wanting too much, and thereby forgets itself. It feels like too desperate an attempt by Verhoeven to regain a position as a good director, while he at the same time continues to display no self-control in doing what he did in Hollywood. And while there is a beautiful sense of fatalism in having Ellis sing “Das ist meine Melodie, nachder Ich singen muss.” (that is my melody, according to which I have to sing), Verhoeven needs to learn a new “melody” according to which he has to direct.
 

Theatrical Release: September 14th, 2006 (Netherlands)

Reviews    More Reviews  DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Tartan - Region 0 - PAL

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!

DVD Menus
 

Screen Captures