average rating
  | In 1944 the young Jewish woman Rachel Steinn tries together with her family and other Jews to flee the Nazi-occupied part of the Netherlands to the liberated southern part of the country by boat. However getting there proves more difficult than any of them could imagine... read more.
Starring Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Michiel Huisman and Johnny de Mol, directed by Paul Verhoven.
Released 30 April 2007.
Tartan Video. DVD-Video, PAL.
rrp £19.99. Our best price £4.99 | |
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| deborah, 27 Oct 2007 |
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| A movie to make you think and gain understanding of a much forgotten piece of WW2 - many turns in the plot and lots to talk about when watched -brilliant images and movie.. so worth the effort of a film with subtitles! |
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| Kashif Ahmed, 07 Jun 2007 |
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| Those crazy Dutch: if they're not invading South Africa or cooking in the nude, they're making movies about crotch flashing serial killers, pouting strippers, invisible men, future fascists and bare breasted freedom fighters...or at least one of them is. 'Robocop' director Paul Veerhoven, much like the title of his countryman Hieronymus Bosch's famous painting, returns to his Eurotrash roots with 'Zwartboek' ('Black Book'). An occasionally tense, structurally silly, but nonetheless engrossing WWII spy movie that's 'Charlotte Gray' on speed, holding a revolver and smoking a cigarette with no top on. Chock full of old school, wartime clichés, visual gimmicks and 1940s comic-book action, 'Black Book' tells the story of Jewish resistance fighter Rachel Stein (a daring performance by Clarice Van Houten) who successfully infiltrates Nazi occupation forces in Holland, and multitasks a one-woman espionage op whilst trying to settle a personal vendetta.
There seems to be some kind of critical consensus, which claims that Paul Verhoven's career stalled with 'Hollow Man' (2000), not in my book; 'Hollow Man' was a good popcorn movie as was 'Starship Troopers'. People tend to forget that whilst Veerhoven may be known for his sleazier efforts like 'Basic Instinct', 'The Sensualist' and 'Diary Of A Hooker', the Dutch director was, after Jim Cameron, one of the most accomplished sci-fi filmmakers and SFX pioneers working in Hollywood, for if you watch 'Hollow Man', the effects and, of course, Kevin Bacon's wonderfully smug performance, still stand up today. Paul Veerhoven's directorial career in genre pictures is alive & well, it's just his career in contemporary or serious drama that took an irreparable hit with 'Showgirls', whilst simultaneously damaging his seedier niche in erotica.
By opting for Kibbutz scenes to bookend his picture, Veerhoven was setting himself up for an epilogue he was never prepared, nor have time to explore; the fact that he tries to make two complex political points in the space of five minutes is absurd, for a movie that spent the same amount of time showing us Rachel dying her hair blonde. And if Paul had followed through with his second point, 'Black Book' would've been a better film for it. This subject matter ought to be easier for Veerhoven to convey than most, after all, he lived through both the German and U.S. occupations of his homeland, so its surprising then, that both 'Black Book' and 'Soldier Of Orange' (1977) employ clichés and exploitation devices; 'Black Book' in particular, is often unsure about whether it wants to be 'L'Armée Des Ombres' or 'Salon Kitty'.
On a more positive note, Veerhoven sets a good pace and the action sequences are well shot, Clarice Van Houten braves some pretty horrendous scenes whilst newcomer Halina Rejin could well be the next Lena Olin. A consistently entertaining, and often harrowing, movie made with technical proficiency by the veteran director: Good stab at the WWII resistance picture, but it's no 'Army Of Shadows'. |
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