Zwartboek [no spoilers*]

'Black Book' in Engels.

Everyone knows and loves Paul Verhoeven for his cheezy, sleazy, ultra-violent masterpieces; Robocop, Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Showgirls and Starship Troopers. Such is his reputation that the mere mention of the word 'Verhoeven' on any film forum will summon a flamewar of Biblical proportions**. Now, back in his native Holland he's put out a high-exposive, altitude-fused blockbuster of a film, based around a de-familied Dutch Jewish cabaret singer entangled in the savage, treacherous twilight struggle of the Dutch Resistance in WW2.

If you've read anything on the resistance struggles in Occupied Europe, you pretty much know the score here; suffice to say, nobody comes out of this smelling like roses, a theme the movie does well to highlight, with strongly-drawn characters on both sides -- to the point where viewers may be surprised at their sympathies. Critics will say Verhoven strays too close in humanising SS and Gestapo officers, but one is never allowed to forget, for a moment the full import of their jobs and their choices. The sad thing is that they were human, not that we are reminded of their humanity.

The film isn't all torture and slaughter; a grim, but often warm humour suffuses much of the characters doings and dealings -- including those of a raunchy nature (of which there are plenty). The random, chaotic nature of war is shown in it's full flight*** and through the windows of black sedans we see a little (though not enough for this nerd) of the horrors afflicting wartime Holland. At 145 minutes it is a little drawn out, and it becomes harder to tease out exactly who triple-crossed whom, but none of these detract from the vitality and power of the film.

Oh and: Steun jezelf voor de emmer met shit scane!




*OK, one, kinda
**unless it's prefaced with 'Henk', naturally
*** there are a lot of improbable and crazy co-incidences, but if anything they pale to some of the stuff in the history books. I really couldn't say what, if anything, was obviously fictitious.