Black Book
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Movie Reviews of Black Book
Movie Review: Things are not always what they seem...
Summary: 5 Stars
The other reviewers have covered the plot and story line well, so I won't go into that. I'll just say that like in real life (it was based on a true story) things are not always like they seem. By the time you think you have the characters figured out, they will throw you for a loop. Who's good and who's bad? This one will keep you guessing and glued to the screen.
Carice van Houten is a beautiful, talented and very chrismatic actress. Carice and Sebastian Koch (who plays the Nazi officer who falls in love with her) have red hot chemistry on screen. It turns out that in real life they are in a paramour relationship. Koch's character is actually using his position as a Nazi officer to help the Dutch resistance, making him a sort of sympathetic character, as he finds his humanity.
Yes, there is LOTS of nudity, violence and graphic love scenes. It's a war picture. I tend to be conservative where nudity, violence and S.E.X. are concerned, but I do believe it adds to the plot and the passionate moods that the film maker is trying to create. Not many movies have me thinking about them for months after I watch, but this movie did!
In closing, perhaps this film's very graphic portrayal of war isn't for everyone, but I thought it was great. The soundtrack was enjoyable too. By the way, Sebastian Koch was quite easy on my eyes. I'd love to see him and Carice van Houten star together again.
Movie Review: Sequel to Soldier of Orange and New Perspective on the Dutch Resistance
Summary: 5 Stars
Paul VerHoven has reflected on the Dutch resistance during World War II. In Soldier of Orange which was a powerful movie glamorizing the Dutch resistance with a protagonist who was more of an adventurer than a patriot, we are provided with a Jewish heroine who is a plucky survivor who does whatever is necessary to stay alive while helping the Resistance. VerHoven shows that the Resistance had in its midst persons who were closer to the German point of view on Jews than we had been led to believe in Soldier of Orange. There was good and bad in the resistance including rampant anti-semitism. Other than the heroine beautifully played by Caric van Houten, the most emphatic person is the German commander of the SS, who has an affair with Van Houten, and it is their plan to leave Holland at the end of the war together. At the end, you do not believe that many of the Dutch were any better than the Germans. This is a movie that must be seen. After watching it, I watched Soldier of Orange (on my top list) and appreciated why this movie was made. VerHoven wanted to correct the image of the Dutch that he had created in Soldier of Orange. It is filled with action more than any other recent movie but has a powerful message to give to the viewer. Paul VerHoven had to return to Holland to make this thriller to cleanse his soul.Movie Review: Captivating movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I had caught this movie near the end on one of the cable stations and was completely captivated by it. So I purchased the movie and was not dissatisfied. Someone wrote the translation was bad; however, not knowing Dutch and reading the English translation, it's hard to see that something was lost. Someone else wrote the scenes were a bit "cartoonish." I guess it could be seen that way in some places, but I think when you're living in a time when you don't know from one minute to the next if you'll die (not many people were exempt from this situation you know) you tend to do things you normally wouldn't do.
I also don't think any of the sexual scenes were in any extremes either. If you think any scenes were extreme, I suggest you go to a Holocaust museum or purchase dvd's showing the real films of German soldiers killing people young and old without batting an eye, and knowing that people were experimented on because they were Jewish, gay or gypsies. To then gripe about sex scenes seems trivial.
This is a great movie, showing a different side of horrific times.
Movie Review: Best WWII Picture
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen many hiding-from-the-Nazis films, but this is by far the best.
The acting is superb.
In the after-credits, Verhoeven says Carice van Houten is a force of nature, and it's true. The number of chameleon-changes she goes through in the film would be stunning all by itself. But she also lends to each new incarnation a depth and resonance. A wonderful actress.
The other actors are all fine, too. Even the Germans come off as human, and not just sadistic fiends.
The writing is equally superb. It combines elements of tragedy, suspense-thriller, wistful romantic ending--all flawlessly, all believably.
The filming is graphic and gritty, but never sensational.
I have also seen Paul Verhoeven films before, too, and never liked them much. He seems to wallow in gore and sex-for-sex's sake: that is, he makes gore comical (which it isn't) and sex grotesque (which it isn't).
But he outdoes himself here. Things are gory and sexy, but always in the service of the greater tragedy and pathos.
Movie Review: Ahead of Its Time -- A Thoughtful, Thrilling Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
I can only assume the critics who attacked this film were familiar only with the director's Hollywood work, and not his European films or those of the writer of this amazing story about Jews in Holland at the end of the war, and the Dutch resistance.
I have no idea who the actress is who plays the lead, but she gives a bravura performance that carries the film. She is riveting, charming, cunning, beautiful, a survivor and one of the strongest female film protagonists of recent memory. The script is dynamite, historically accurate by my amateur measure yet with twists and turns that constantly keep you on the edge of your seat.
I strongly recommend listening to Paul's director commentary, which gives dimension and gravity to a film that deserved much better attention here in the States. If this film was released in 2008 -- with a different director attached -- it surely would have been hailed as one of the finest films of the year, if not of the entire suddenly vogue genre of Holocaust movies.