| Black Book | |
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Film poster |
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| Directed by | Paul Verhoeven |
| Produced by | Jeroen Beker San Fu Maltha Frans van Gestel Jos van der Linden Teun Hilte |
| Written by | Gerard Soeteman Paul Verhoeven |
| Starring | Carice van Houten Sebastian Koch Thom Hoffman Halina Reijn |
| Music by | Anne Dudley |
| Cinematography | Karl Walter Lindenlaub |
| Editing by | Job ter Burg James Herbert |
| Distributed by | A-Film |
| Release date(s) | World Premiere: September 1, 2006 (Venice Film Festival) |
| Running time | 145 min. |
| Country | |
| Language | Dutch English German Hebrew |
| Budget | €17,800,000 |
| IMDb • Allmovie | |
Black Book (Dutch: Zwartboek) is a 2006 Second World War film directed by Paul Verhoeven, and starring Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, and Halina Reijn. The story is about a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who becomes a spy for the resistance during World War II, when tragedy befalls her after an encounter with the Nazis. The film had its world premiere on September 1, 2006 at the Venice Film Festival and its public release on September 14, 2006 in the Netherlands.
The press in the Netherlands was divided about the film, but with three Golden Calves Black Book was the most awarded film at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2006. The international press responded positively to the film and especially to the performance of actress Carice van Houten. It was the Dutch submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007, but the film was not nominated.
At the time of its release, it was the most expensive Dutch film ever made, and also the Netherlands' most commercially successful, with that country's highest box office gross of 2006. By January 12, 2007 1,000,000 people had seen the film.
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In the scenes that bookend the film, a schoolteacher is shown living in 1956 Israel. By chance, she has encountered Ronnie (Halina Reijn), a wartime friend, who is now married to a Canadian priest and on a tourist package trip in Israel. The film flashes back to 1944, during World War II, and begins the story of Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a Jewish singer who had lived in Berlin before the war and who was then living in hiding from the Nazi regime in the occupied Netherlands.
When the house that she has been hiding in is destroyed, Rachel visits a lawyer named Smaal (Dolf de Vries), who provides her with some of her father's money so that she can flee. Rachel is reunited with her family and tries to flee by boat with other Jews. The goal is to escape from the Nazi-occupied part of the Netherlands to the liberated southern part of the country. However, in a trap they are ambushed on the river by members of the German SS, who kill them and loot the bodies. Rachel alone survives, but she does not manage to escape from occupied territory.
She becomes involved with a resistance group, under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint) and assumes the non-Jewish alias Ellis de Vries. She seduces SD officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch) and is offered a job at the Gestapo headquarters in The Hague. There she recognizes Günther Franken (Waldemar Kobus) as the SS officer who had ordered the massacre of her fleeing refugee party, and manages to bug his office. She falls in love with Müntze, who in contrast to Franken is not abusive or sadistic, and becomes friends with her Dutch colleague Ronnie (Halina Reijn), who is collaborating with the occupation: Ronnie works for the Germans, is sexually available to them, and has accepted stolen gifts from them.
Some members of Rachel's resistance cell decide to abduct the collaborator who set up the "escape" of her parents (and many similar incidents), but the plot goes wrong and he is killed.
Müntze confronts Ellis, who persuades him to search Franken's safe, which she suspects contains the jewels stolen from fleeing Jewish people like her parents, but when a search of the safe by the commanding officer, General Käutner (Christian Berkel), reveals nothing, the angry and embarrassed Franken reveals that Müntze has been negotiating with Dutch resistance "terrorists" for a truce. Müntze is condemned to death and imprisoned, along with members of the resistance group who are to be shot as a reprisal for the resistance killing of the collaborator. Rachel agrees to participate in a rescue attempt for the resistance prisoners only on the condition that they free Müntze too, and reluctantly the others agree. However, the attempt fails because their plan has been betrayed by an insider, and most of the prisoners and rescuers are killed.
Rachel is subsequently arrested and jailed by the Gestapo. It turns out they have known about the bug all along, and they now use it to make the resistance group believe she is the Nazi collaborator, and frame her for the catastrophic failure of the rescue operation. However, with Ronnie's help, she and Müntze escape and the two of them hide in the countryside.
After the war, instead of being imprisoned and publicly shamed as a collaborator and Nazi whore, Ronnie manages to get herself a key spot in the victory parade and found herself the Canadian liberator she subsequently marries.
When the country is liberated by the Allies, Rachel is imprisoned by the Dutch and publicly humiliated as a traitor. Because of an Allied occupation agreement that allows the German military to discipline its own soldiers, Müntze is executed on the orders of his former commanding officer General Käutner, who believes him to have been a collaborator. Rachel is rescued by physician and fellow member of the resistance Hans Akkermans (Thom Hoffman). But it then emerges that Akkermans had been a traitor and responsible for the brutal death of her family at the hands of the Nazis. Akkermans, in a bid to cover his tracks, murders Franken and Smaal, and also tries to kill Rachel with an overdose of insulin, but as it begins to send her body into shock, she manages to survive by eating a bar of chocolate to counteract the drug, and escapes.
Rachel proves her innocence to resistance member Gerben Kuipers by means of the titular black book, in which Smaal had detailed all his dealings with the Jews he helped. Mention of his bringing many of the Jews to Akkermans for medical help just prior to their murders provides enough circumstantial evidence to implicate Akkermans as the traitor. Together Rachel and Kuipers intercept the fleeing Akkermans, who is hiding in a coffin in a hearse which he has filled with stolen money and jewels. Rachel seals the coffin's air vents, suffocating him.
It may be inferred that the currency and jewels in the coffin with Akkermans were recovered by Rachel and used to fund the Stein kibbutz where she now lives and where she again met Ronnie.
After 20 years of film making in the United States, Paul Verhoeven returned to his homeland, the Netherlands, for the making of Black Book. The story for the film was written by Verhoeven and the screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, with whom he made successful films such as Turkish Delight (1973) and Soldier of Orange (1977). The two men had been working on the script for fifteen years,[1] but they only solved their problems with the story in the early 2000s, by changing the main character from male to female. According to Paul Verhoeven Black Book was born out of elements that did not fit in any of his earlier movies, and it can be seen as a supplement to his earlier film about World War II Soldier of Orange.[2]
Verhoeven has emphasized that the story does not show an obvious moral contrast between characters:
| “ | In this movie, everything has a shade of grey. There are no people who are completely good and no people who are completely bad. It's like life. It's not very Hollywoodian.[3] | ” |
Black Book is not a true story, unlike Soldier of Orange, but Verhoeven states that many of the events are true.[4] As in the film, the German headquarters were in The Hague. In 1944 many Jews that tried to cross to liberated parts of the southern Netherlands were entrapped by Dutch policemen. As in the film, crossing attempts took place in the Biesbosch.[2] The events in the story are also related to the life of Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven was born in 1938 and he grew up in The Hague during the Second World War.[5]
The initial estimate of the budget for making Black Book was €12,000,000. According to film producer Rob Houwer, who worked with Paul Verhoeven on previous films, it was not possible to get the job done for that amount of money. San Fu Maltha produced the film together with three other producers. He tried to economize on different parts such as the scenes in Israel, that could have been left out without changing the plot, but this was not negotiable for Paul Verhoeven.[1]
Because of financing problems the filming did not start as planned in 2004 but was delayed until August 2005.[6][7] In this month it was announced that Black Book received about €2,000,000 support from the Publieke omroep, the CoBO Fund, and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.[8] There were also several foreign investors, which made the film a Belgian, British, and German coproduction. With a final estimated budget of €18,000,000 the film was the most expensive Dutch film ever, at the time of its release.[1]
In October 2006 twelve crew members and businessmen started a lawsuit in which they demanded the bankruptcy of Zwartboek Productie B.V., the legal entity founded for the film. Some of them were already waiting for more than a year to get their money, in total tens of thousands of euros. Production company Fu Works settled the case and promised to pay the creditors.[9]
The shooting of the film was delayed in 2004 due to financial problems[6] and Paul Verhoeven's health issues.[10] Because of the delay there was a lawsuit regarding lead actress Carice van Houten, who had agreed to act in a play. When van Houten was forced to return to the set, the theater company sued over the costly delay to their own production. The outcome of the lawsuit was that the production company had to pay €60,000 for her unavailability.[11]
The shooting of the film took place from August 24 until December 19, 2005[12] on locations in the Netherlands, including Hardenberg, Giethoorn, The Hague and Dordrecht, and in Israel. In the opening scene a real pre-war farm was blown up in the municipality of Hardenberg. The farm had already been declared uninhabitable and ready to be demolished.[13] Some underwater explosions were filmed in a lake near Giethoorn.[14] In the center of The Hague they built bunkers to cover up modern day objects such as the entrance to an underground car park.[15] Great attention to detail was paid in the film. Several stage props were reproduced from the 1940s, such as signs, posters and the black book itself.[16] Furthermore, in one of the liberation scenes in The Hague, as many as 1,100 or 1,200 extras appeared.[17]
During the shooting the general public were able to see making of scenes on their mobile phones and on the internet.[18]
The screenplay by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman was turned into a thriller novel by Dutch writer Laurens Abbink Spaink. The book was published in September 2006 by Uitgeverij Podium, and contains photos and an afterword by Paul Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman. Laurens Abbink Spaink says about the book: "Black Book is a literary thriller. Its form is in between the typical American novelization, only describing what the camera sees, and a literary novel. The novelization adds something to the film. It gave Rachel Stein a past, memories and a house. In the film she did not have a personal space."[19]
The soundtrack of the film was released on October 2, 2006 by Milan Records. The album contains four 1930s-1940s songs sung by actress Carice van Houten, as she also performed them as Rachel Stein in the film. Three of them are in German, one in English. The other tracks of the film score are written by Anne Dudley. The album was recorded in London and produced by Roger Dudley.[20]
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 77% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 132 reviews.[21] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 71 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.[22]
Black Book had its world premiere on September 1, 2006 in Venice, as part of the official selection of the Venice International Film Festival.[23] Here it was nominated for a Golden Lion and won the Young Cinema Award for best international film.[24] The film was also in the official selection of the 2006 Toronto Film Festival.
HRH The Prince of Orange and his wife HRH Princess Máxima attended the Dutch gala premiere of Black Book in The Hague on September 12, 2006. Other prominent guests at the premiere were mayor Wim Deetman, minister Hans Hoogervorst, minister Karla Peijs, and staatssecretaris Medy van der Laan.[25]
The film was nominated for four Golden Calves at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2006. It won in three categories: the Golden Calf for Best Actress (Carice van Houten), for Best Director (Paul Verhoeven), and for Best Film (San Fu Maltha). Black Book was the most awarded film of the 2006 festival.[26]
The United States premiere of Black Book was a gala screening at Palm Springs High School on January 5, 2007 during the Palm Springs International Film Festival.[27] On March 2, 2007, Black Book was the opening film of the Miami International Film Festival.[28]
The German premiere of Black Book was a gala screening at Zoo Palast in Berlin on May 9, 2007.
Most of the Dutch press was not positive about the film. Dana Linsen writes in NRC Handelsblad: "In Black Book, Verhoeven does not focus on moral discourse but rather on human measure, and with the non-cynical approach of his female lead and of love he has given new colour to his work."[29] Belinda van de Graaf in Trouw writes: "Breathless we run along burning farms, ugly resistance fighters, pretty kraut whores, spies, traitors, and because the story has to go on the coincidences pile up until it makes you laugh. When Carice van Houten screams 'Will it never stop, then!' it is almost kitsch, and not surprisingly already a classic film quote."[30] She compares this film to Soldier of Orange and explains why this film is not a stereotypical war film: "The war adventure is no longer based on the male character of the type Rutger Hauer, with his machismo and testosterone, but the small fighter Carice van Houten".[30] Literary critic Jessica Durlacher, daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, describes the film in Vrij Nederland with the following comparison: "The reality of 1940–1945 as portrayed in Black Book compared to reality is like the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas compared to the original in Paris."[31]
The international press however, wrote mainly positively about the film and specifically about the performance of Carice van Houten.[32] According to Jason Solomons in The Observer: "Black Book is great fun, an old-fashioned war movie in parts, but with deep undercurrents about fugitive Jews, the Resistance, collaborators and the messy politics of war. This being Verhoeven, there's lots of sex and a scene in which the extremely attractive star (Carice van Houten) dyes her pubic hair blond. That aside, hers is a star-making performance, putting even Scarlett [Johansson] in the shade."[33] In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Dirk Schümer says Carice van Houten is not only more beautiful, but also a better actress than Scarlett Johansson. Furthermore he writes in his review: "Europe's Hollywood can actually be better than the original. With his basic instinct sharpened in California, Verhoeven demonstrates here the cinema as a medium of individual tragedy."[34] Jacques Mandelbaum writes in his review in Le Monde: "This lesson about humanity and about fear can be situated in the wake of several rare masterpieces, that are solemnly confronted by this story"[35] where he compares Black Book with classics like The Great Dictator, To Be or Not to Be, and Monsieur Klein.
Time magazine's Richard Schickel named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #5, calling it a “dark, richly mounted film”. While Schickel saw the film as possibly “old-fashioned stylistically, and rather manipulative in its plotting”, he also saw “something deeply satisfying in the way it works out the fates of its troubled, yet believable characters.”[36]
Before the film was released, the rights for distribution had been sold to distributors in 52 countries.[37] According to the production company Fu Works these sales made the film Black Book the most commercially successful Dutch film production ever, at the time of its release.[38]
Black Book received a Golden Film (100,000 tickets sold) within a record breaking three days[39] and a Platinum Film (400,000 tickets sold) within three weeks after the Dutch premiere.[40] The film had its millionth visitor on January 12, 2007.[41]
Black Book had the highest box office gross for a Dutch film in 2006, coming third overall in 2006 in the Netherlands, after the American films Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and The Da Vinci Code.[42] As of 2006-12-31 the box office gross in the Netherlands was €6,953,118.[43]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.
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