Alex Deleon Viewed at Rouen Nordic Film Festival 2007. The undisputed highlight of an otherwise routine week in Rouen was that "Basic Instinct" man, Paul Verhoeven's new Dutch film, "Zwartboek" or (the little) Black Book. After a 20 year Hollywood career during which the Dutch director came up with such megahits as "Robocop" and "Basic Instinct" Black Book marks his return to his native turf and native language. The story, co-written by Verhoeven, centers on a very attractive Jewish woman who is the sole survivor of a group of Jews attempting to escape from occupied Holland towards the end of the war in a boat. Posing as a gentile blonde under a non-Jewish name (her false papers furnished by the Underground) she becomes the mistress of a highly placed Gestapo officer and is given a job in Gestapo Headquarters from where she is able to pass critical information on to the resistance. However, one thing leads to another in this highly charged complex plot where everybody is double-crossing everybody else in a typically Verhoevenesque drama of interlocking paranoia. Eventually Miss De Vries's cover is blown and another ultimately sleazy Gestaponik succeeds in making it look like she is actually collaborating with the Krauts. In the end as the Americans arrive and the country is liberated she is being chased by both sides -- especially because she has come into possession of a little black book which gives facts, figures, and names of key people involved in the fake smuggling of Jews with big-big dividends. In a role which reads something like The Perils of Pauline in WW II our heroine (Carice van Houten) at one point has to gobble a whole chocolate bar to counteract a nearly fatal dose of insulin injected into her arm by a false Dutch "hero" of The Resistance.The plot is so complicated that it may take two viewings to sort it all out, but one thing which is perfectly clear -- (to invoke the words of an infamous ex-president) -- perfectly clear it is, that Carice van Houten, the heroine of the story, is, with this film, well on the way to installing herself as the next great international female Superstar. (Remember, you read it here first!) Ms. Van Houten, who is probably pushing thirty, has been around for a while and is currently the most popular actress in Holland -- which isn't saying much in terms of international recognition, but Little Black Book is on marquees almost everywhere so it seems to be only a matter of time before she is discovered by the outside world. Van Houten has a screen presence far more gripping than Sharon Stone, who became an overnight star as the heroine of Verhoeven's "Basic Instinct" circa 1991 and is a far better actress.If "Black Book", which is currently on wide release in the States, doesn't do it for her all Verhoeven needs to do to launch another (more high-powered) Sharon Stone, is to come out with "Basic Instinct III" with Van Houten in the lead and La Stone will be a forgotten melody. Carice van Houten has it all; charisma, good looks both enigmatic and down-to-earth, sex appeal to burn -- AND she can act! This may be ridiculously early to talk about Oscar 2008, but in my book she's already there.PS: Alas, Van Houten was never discovered by Hollywood -- their loss!

Leofwine_draca Wow! Who could have imagined that one of the best war-time thrillers of the last fifty years would be made by the man who brought us the comic-book violence of TOTAL RECALL and STARSHIP TROOPERS? Yes, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven is the man behind this story of the Dutch resistance in WWII, and it's his best work since STARSHIP TROOPERS. It's also an atypical outing for the director more at home with blood and guts and OTT action and a throwback to his films of old like SOLDIER OF ORANGE. This is an old-fashioned thriller with a bit of everything thrown in for audiences – romance, action, suspense, thrills, drama, human emotion. It's a film detailing the human condition and at its heart it contains an absolutely fantastic performance from a virtually unknown Dutch actress, Carice van Houten, who looks like Naomi Watts but is about a million times better as an actress.The film details the constant struggle for power and supremacy between the Dutch resistance and the Nazis in the dying days of WWII. What I loved most about the plot was the constant twists and turns and surprises at every stage. I was trying to second-guess this film at some instances but it never worked, because I could never figure out what was going to happen next. Even the ending is a great surprise. There's a conspirator at work behind the scenes, a real traitor, but figuring out his or her identity is nigh on impossible. Great scriptwriting like this doesn't come along every day! The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Sebastian Koch as the sympathetic Nazi officer. Attention to detail is spot on and you come away feeling that the research has been 100%. The film's budget is up on screen to see and all of the old cars and uniforms look amazing. Even the special effects don't disappoint. Verhoeven can't resist throwing in some of his trademark violence, here in the form of shoot-outs and the like, and even some fairly explicit sex and nudity a la BASIC INSTINCT. But in the end, BLACK BOOK transcends all of its parts to become a thoroughly engaging and excellent war epic.

Tejasvi Hegde Honestly, I did not expected the movie be so good.Thought it is just another military and spy story.Looking at the ratings, thought to give a try and glad that I came across this movie.The never ending unfortunate story of Jews is very well narrated.All actors act carried out their role very well.Carice van Houten is one of the finest actor around.Sebastian Koch is elegant as always.Movie keeps you glued to the seat.One of the movie to watch

patrick powell I came across Black Book after reading somewhere that after his post Robocop and Basic Instinct decline into absurdity, Black Book marked a glorious return to form for Paul Verhoeven, And needing a DVD to watch and coming across Black Book at £3 in an Asda (the UK's Wall-Mart) bargain bin, I thought 'why not?'Well, I should, perhaps, also have asked myself just what a movie - the most expensive Dutch movie ever made, no less - was doing languishing in the bargain bins less than 10 months after its release. I suspect you know where this is going. I had, in fact, only ever seen Robocop of Verhoeven's earlier films and had rather liked it's satirical touches, although on reflection it hadn't quite been the satire I had thought it to have been. Black Book made me ask myself: when we watch a movie, exactly what is it we want? Simple entertainment or something greater? Well, often, of course, it's simple entertainment.Despite all the 'auteurs' and the 'homage' we 'serious' film fans are supposed to pay 'auteurs', there also has to be time out when we can set aside the quest to investigate the human condition for an hour or two, grab the popcorn and settle down to watch a little undemanding nonsense. And why not? Yet when a movie chooses to deal with what was one of the most shocking and tragic periods of recent European history and which, furthermore, directly acknowledges the most horrific aspect of that time, the wholesale slaughter of millions of Jews, quite apart from also touching upon such ultra-sensitive areas as the degree and methods of the Dutch resistance and the collaboration of other Dutch with the Nazis, including the betrayal of fellow citizens for venal gain, it is surely fair to expect that movie to rise a little above the status and ambitions of 'undemanding nonsense'.But, to his shame, Paul Verhoeven never even tries to. He is quite content to churn out a large-scale potboiler, and one, furthermore, whose script is surprisingly lazily put together for a movie with this kind of budget and apparent aims. It would be tedious and boring for both you, the reader, and me, the writer, to list the script's many, many flaws and inconsistencies. I'll simply remark that Verhoeven and his co-writer were not in the slightest concerned with producing a truthful and honest tale. All they wanted to do was to make sure 'the action' roared ahead at breakneck speed and that you and I were given no opportunity at all to question the plot's many twists and turns. So: if 'undemanding nonsense' is your thing, packaged with a spurious mystery and a little, tho' not much, trademark Verhoeven soft porn, this is the film for you, available at your nearest supermarket bargain bin.If, given Black Book's painful and tragic subject matter, you want a movie which takes both you and itself seriously, forget it.