Black Book (Blu-ray) (2007)

"...Verhoeven's best film since "RoboCop": audacious, smart, shamelessly entertaining.  Glenn Kenny, Premiere
"...in its dark moral complexities it puts "Schindler's List" to shame...an exceptional cast.  Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"Provocative and potently erotic! There's not a dull second in it!  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...a high-octane adventure rooted in fact with a raft of arresting characters, big action sequences and twists and turns galore.  Ray Bennett, The Hollywood Reporter
"A highly original and progressively riveting personal adventure.  William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Editor's Note Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven made his name in Hollywood with films such as ROBOCOP, BASIC INSTINCT, and STARSHIP TROOPERS. But Verhoeven got his start in the industry by making films (the acclaimed SPETTERS and SOLDIER OF ORANGE among them) in his native country, and it's to Holland that he returns for BLACK BOOK--his first Dutch film in 20 years. The story is set during the final days of World War II in Holland, and follows a Jewish singer named Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten). Rachel attempts to avoid the Nazis and remains in quiet hiding until her family is brutally slain, causing her to join up with a resistance movement. On a subsequent undercover mission, Rachel crosses paths with a smitten German general named Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch), with whom Rachel begins a relationship in order to feed vital information back to her colleagues in the resistance. But as the action and bloodshed escalate, Rachel realizes that she has genuine feelings for Muntze, and soon she is in enormous danger. Verhoeven's film is wildly ambitious and takes many intriguing twists and turns during its 145 minutes. BLACK BOOK commanded the largest budget of any film to be produced in Holland, and it shows. Explosions litter the screen, plenty of car chases ensue, and wince-inducing injuries and deaths propel the action. The director isn't afraid to criticize his fellow countrymen and inserts a fascinating subtext about the actions of the resistance fighters, asking some uncomfortable questions about the similarities between their behavior and that of the Nazis. Van Houten lights up the screen throughout and is surely destined for bigger things, and while the tumultuous experiences her character undergoes might push the boundaries of reality at times, Verhoeven has pointed out in interviews that Rachel is a composite character who encompasses the merged experiences of many real people from the era.

	Carice van Houten
	Halina Reijn
	Sebastian Koch
	Thom Hoffman
	Anne Dudley - Original Music By
	Gerard Soeteman - Writer
	Graham Begg - Executive Producer
	James Herbert - Editor
	Jeroen Beker - Producer
	Job ter Burg - Editor
	Karl Walter Lindenlaub - Cinematographer
	Paul Verhoeven - Director
	Paul Verhoeven - Writer
	Wilbert Van Dorp - Production Designer

Box Office
"The expensive and expansive BLACK BOOK looks gorgeous, and there's no denying Verhoeven's genuine filmmaking talent..." 12/01/2006 p.64

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "BLACK BOOK is brisk, frisky and glossed with a fine Hollywood sheen..." 02/01/2007 p.42

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "For all its feisty sense of fun, BLACK BOOK is too dark and smart to let its characters fade out into a soft-focus happy-ever-after." 02/01/2007 p.102

Sight and Sound
"[I]t is a fast-paced, action-packed ride through resistance and betrayal, with spectacular exploits, steamy sex scenes and more plot twists than can be counted." 02/01/2007 p.43-44

Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his tremendously exciting film can suddenly, unpredictably move you to tears." 03/22/2007 p.91

Premiere
4 stars out of 4 -- "BLACK BOOK is Verhoeven's best film since ROBOCOP: audacious, smart, shamelessly entertaining." 04/01/2007 p.43

Movieline's Hollywood Life
"BLACK BOOK remains riveting from start to finish, confirming that nail-biting suspense transcends national boundaries. This is a thriller that truly thrills." 03/01/2007 p.106

Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "Van Houten is superb as the chameleonic Stein, constantly adapting to her environment to survive and yet always maintaining an unbreakable, virtuous spirit..." 06/01/2007 p.116

ReelViews 9 of 10
For Black Book, a film [Paul Verhoeven] has been writing (on and off) for 20 years, he has returned to his roots. The result is a powerful and compelling World War II thriller that features note-perfect performances and an almost flawless screenplay. Verhoeven's sure hand, honed as a result of 15 years of big-budget features, gives Black Book a polished look that few American war movies can exceed. An element of controversy has shadowed Black Book because Verhoeven has the temerity to portray resistance fighters as less-than-heroic and one high ranking Nazi as a nice guy...This is one of the best war movies to emerge about World War II in the last ten years. It has everything a good war thriller should have: impeccable period detail, wonderful performances, action, romance, tragedy, and heart-stopping suspense. Black Book offers the best of both worlds: Hollywood spectacle and European sensibilities. It's 145 minutes well spent. - James Berardinelli

Reel.com 10 of 10
Movies can be great for so many different and varied reasons that it's rare to find one that succeeds on just about every level: as high art and pulp entertainment, and as both a bold sweeping epic and a quiet character study. Citizen Kane comes to mind, as well as the first two Godfather films and Goodfellas. And now we have Paul Verhoeven's violent, romantic, challenging, and monumentally enjoyable WWII adventure Black Book, a masterpiece that sums up the preoccupations of the filmmaker's previous work and takes them to a whole new level of ambition. The closest we have to a modern-day Hitchcock in terms of his ability to smuggle deeply personal psychological and sexual obsessions into mainstream popcorn flicks, Verhoeven has returned to his native Netherlands after decades in Hollywood and made one of the best films of his career...Black Book stakes its claim as an unadulterated modern-day classic. - Jim Hemphill