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| Movie Name: |
Black Book |
| Grade: |
B+ |
| Date Posted: |
3/15/07 |
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“Black Book”
After slumming it in Hollywood for 20 years, Paul Verhoeven returns to form in “Zwartboek” (“Black Book”) a thought-provoking, controversial, and energetically paced thriller in the vein of his award winning Dutch classics “The Fourth Man” and “Soldier Of Orange.” Though he learned very bad habits from his Hollywood collaborator Joe Eszterhas (“Showgirls,” “Basic Instinct”), “Black Book” is still an intriguing film.
In 1950’s Israel, Jewish kibbutz leader Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) remembers her struggle as a resistance fighter.
Near the end of the war, Rachel hides out under the noses of the Dutch Gestapo as the lover of head Nazi Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch, “The Lives Of Others”). She commingles with the vile people who have been cold-bloodedly and systematically murdering her people because she believes in the decency of the resistance cause. But there is ugliness and duplicity skulking among the circle of good also.
Verhoeven merges the historical drama with the action thriller with mixed results. He builds ample tension as Rachel (under the alias Ellis) plays a cat-and-mouse game with dangerous men, using her sexuality (as all Verhoeven women do) as a potent weapon. With music reminiscent of 40s greats Max Steiner (“Casablanca”) and Franz Waxman (“Sunset Boulevard”) and gallows humor injected into the most perilous situations, Verhoeven collides high stylism with brutal realism just like German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder in “Marriage of Maria Braun” equated depravity and opulence with post-Nazi German amorality. The world captured in “Black Book” could be a prequel to Fassbinder’s work.
Verhoeven and his collaborator Gerard Soeteman frame the story by showing Rachel after the war. This could have killed the tension, but instead gives the audience breathing room. We witness so many atrocities against Rachel that the film is only bearable because we know she gets out alive. Surprisingly, even though revealing the end result immediately, the script keeps us compelled by her actions.
The script courageously shades in the characters in this classic struggle of good versus evil. A Nazi leader shows restraint and compassion. Canadians brought in after the war to bring order demonstrate ineffectuality. Resistance fighters quickly curse the very Jews they’re protecting, as if they think they begrudgingly help a people who sort of deserve the punishment the Nazis have bestowed on them. Even the saintly Rachel allows someone to perish out of vengeance.
Where the screenplay fails is by Hollywoodizing the mystery, leaving gaping holes in the plot lines. Characters past actions are incomprehensible once their motives are revealed, as if the writers decided the mystery as the story went on and never backtracked to clean up inconsistencies.
With a kewpie doll look and platinum blond hair, van Houten resembles an angel. Combustible with raw sexuality, while always keeping her dignity, van Houten is a true talent.
Koch, a ruggedly handsome man, gives Müntze a humanizing element, while never making us forget he is a Nazi leader, responsible for many deaths.
A stand out, Halina Reijn, as a sassy redheaded whore, steals the film in an evocative performance reminiscent to Carole Lombard. If this were an American film, she’d be a synch for an Oscar nomination.
A tireless thriller that reminds us of the evil inherent in us all, “Black Book” reveals both the good in our villains and the rottenness in our saints. Grade: B+
Here are other foreign films about the Holocaust and its ramifications:
“The Nasty Girl” – Directed by Michael Verhoeven (not related to Paul), this avant-garde German comedy focuses on the true story of a girl who finds her German town reluctant to expose their past war crimes. Rather than admit and make amends, they try to sandbag the girl from revealing the truth, but she refuses to give up. German star Lena Stolze cunningly mocks the proceedings and breaks the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience.
“The Shop on Main Street” - A winner for Best Foreign Film in 1966, this stirring drama relays the odd-relationship between a Nazi stooge (Jozef Króner) and a Jewish shop owner who mistakenly invites him to work at her store in a Nazi occupied city. As the frail but obstinate lady, Ida Kaminska won a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Even in her small frame, she’s a commanding presence.
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| Posted by: bouynxdor |
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