Zwartboek could also be seen as a reflection of Vertigo (1958), with both films being thrillers where a woman dyes her brunette hair blonde and assumes a new identity. Rachel is in the tradition of Verhoeven femme fatales played by Renée Soutendijk in De vierde man and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992), and the strong, resolute women portrayed by Monique van de Ven in Keetje Tippel and Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls (1995). Whereas Hitchcock’s films put his sympathetic blonde women in peril and appeared to punish them for their apparent ‘transgressions’ (particularly for asserting their independence), as in late period Hitchcock films like Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964), Verhoeven seems to revel in showing the Blonde women in his films command the screen, dictate the narrative and overcome their persecutors.
In fact, this film sees the return of what could be termed ‘the Verhoeven Blonde’, a reconfiguration of the iconic ‘Hitchcock Blonde’. Verhoeven’s films have frequently featured strong women at the centre of the drama and Zwartboek continues this trend. However, while Shosanna the character and Tarantino the filmmaker (and the Basterds) are merciless towards the Nazi occupiers, the character of Rachel and director Verhoeven wade into more morally murky and ambiguous territory, making people like Müntze sympathetic and portraying some resistance members in a less than flattering light. The film also anticipated later Hollywood films set in the Second World War, including Valkyrie (2008), which also featured Carice van Houten, and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), whose character of Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), another blonde Jewish woman resisting the Nazis, echoed that of Rachel. Zwartboek is like an amalgamation of elements from Verhoeven’s early Dutch works and later Hollywood films, including the gutsy heroine in Keetje Tippel ( Katie Tippel, 1975) navigating her way through a hostile hierarchy, the Second World War setting of Soldaat van Oranje ( Soldier of Orange, 1977), the resistance group in Total Recall (1990) battling a powerful regime, and the violent conflict and fascist world of Starship Troopers (1997). Matters get more complicated when Rachel meets Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch), a Nazi officer, and develops an attraction to him, which could compromise her cover. After the Nazis capture some fellow resistance members, Rachel goes undercover in an attempt to infiltrate the enemy headquarters.
She manages to slip away, joins a resistance group in the Netherlands and assumes a new identity as Ellis de Vries. Attempting to escape with her family and other Jews on a boat at night, Nazis attack them and everybody except Rachel is murdered. Set during 1944 in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, Zwartboek centres on Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a young Jewish woman in hiding. Going back to his filmmaking roots with Zwartboek seemed to reinvigorate Verhoeven, freeing him from US studio shackles and reuniting him with screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, with whom he collaborated on early Dutch classics like The Sensualist ( Turkish Delight, 1973) and De vierde man ( The Fourth Man, 1983). As the war enters its final stages and the fight for survival intensifies, Rachel becomes entangled in a deadly web of deceit and betrayal.Zwartboek ( Black Book) is a Holland homecoming for director Paul Verhoeven, returning to the Netherlands from the United States after the technically accomplished but narratively conventional (for Verhoeven) Hollow Man (2000), which felt like Hollywood had managed to blunt the edges that made him so distinctive as an artist. Set on revenge, Rachel joins the Resistance, adopting the identity of Ellis de Vries to mask her heritage, and infiltrating the German Security Service by seducing senior officer Müntze (Koch). The voyage ends in disaster when the escape is discovered by a Nazi patrol, with Rachel the sole survivor as her fellow refugees, including her own family, are ruthlessly killed. Rachel Stein (van Houten), a Dutch-Jewish woman in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, joins fellow refugees in their attempt to reach Allied territory by boat after her safehouse is destroyed by a bomb.
Starring Carice van Houten (Valkyrie, Game of Thrones) and Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others, Bridge of Spies), the film chronicles one woman’s fight for survival and revenge as the Second World War enters its final, bloody months.
#Black book 2006 full#
See here for full range.įrom internationally acclaimed director Paul Verhoeven (Soldier of Orange, Elle), Black Book (Zwartboek) is an epic and moving wartime tale, in which the distinctions between good and evil become blurred by human nature.
0 kommentar(er)
