Black Book
Black Book (Zwartboek), (2007)USA, dir Paul Verhoeven, Carice Van Houten, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Sebastian Koch, Christian Berkel
In Black Book Paul Verhoeven returns to his native Holland to make a film about the last days of WW2. Das Untergang (Downfall), The Pianist, even Schindler’s List had some worthwhile point to make about WW2, some worthwhile acting or cinematography or even constituted an interesting historical reconstruction. Unfortunately, Black Book has nothing at all to commend itself. It borrows conventions from Schindler’s List and The Pianist, notably the framing opening and closing scenes in an Israeli kibbutz. Most of the rest of the film seems to be a very dull thriller mixed with the kind of end of the pier humour we know from TV programmes like Allo Allo. But Black Book isn’t a very funny film either. There is a kind of admix of thriller, ‘sauciness’ and soft porn that really adds up to absolutely nothing at all. Some of Verhoeven’s Hollywood films were moderately interesting: RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers. But Black Book demonstrates that Verhoeven’s moderate talents are definitely in decline.
One point that the film completely fails to pick up on but only mentions in passing, is that the Dutch language is actually rather like German. The Nazis enrolled eminent Dutch artists like Rembrandt in their ideological project, demonstrating with their take on the historical facts, that great (Aryan) artists like Rembrandt suffered persecution and exploitation from unscrupulous (Jewish) bankers. The (Aryan) people of Europe therefore constituted a continuous, homogeneous group united by common cultural and linguistic tokens. Verhoeven might have put some discourse about this neglected part of Nazi ideology and propaganda into his film. Instead he falls between two stools by deciding to be neither serious nor whimsical and comes up with a film that has nothing to say and is neither very entertaining either. Do the fingers at the Hollywood bosses by avoiding this utter turkey.
In Black Book Paul Verhoeven returns to his native Holland to make a film about the last days of WW2. Das Untergang (Downfall), The Pianist, even Schindler’s List had some worthwhile point to make about WW2, some worthwhile acting or cinematography or even constituted an interesting historical reconstruction. Unfortunately, Black Book has nothing at all to commend itself. It borrows conventions from Schindler’s List and The Pianist, notably the framing opening and closing scenes in an Israeli kibbutz. Most of the rest of the film seems to be a very dull thriller mixed with the kind of end of the pier humour we know from TV programmes like Allo Allo. But Black Book isn’t a very funny film either. There is a kind of admix of thriller, ‘sauciness’ and soft porn that really adds up to absolutely nothing at all. Some of Verhoeven’s Hollywood films were moderately interesting: RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers. But Black Book demonstrates that Verhoeven’s moderate talents are definitely in decline.
One point that the film completely fails to pick up on but only mentions in passing, is that the Dutch language is actually rather like German. The Nazis enrolled eminent Dutch artists like Rembrandt in their ideological project, demonstrating with their take on the historical facts, that great (Aryan) artists like Rembrandt suffered persecution and exploitation from unscrupulous (Jewish) bankers. The (Aryan) people of Europe therefore constituted a continuous, homogeneous group united by common cultural and linguistic tokens. Verhoeven might have put some discourse about this neglected part of Nazi ideology and propaganda into his film. Instead he falls between two stools by deciding to be neither serious nor whimsical and comes up with a film that has nothing to say and is neither very entertaining either. Do the fingers at the Hollywood bosses by avoiding this utter turkey.
Paul Murphy saw Black Book (Zwartboek) at the Duke of York cinema in Brighton.
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