Black Book (2006)
Country: GER/NL/GB/BEL
Technical: col/scope 145m
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Christian Berkel
Synopsis:
The adventures of a Jewish girl in Holland between September 1944 and the German surrender: deprived of her hideout, she survives the machine-gunning of a refugee barge to become a Resistance fighter and the mistress of a top SS officer. But before long, detection by him proves to be the least of her fears.
Review:
A rollicking WW2 yarn, supposedly based on fact, but with an oddly old-fashioned air about it, the kind of film Charlotte Gray was in dire need of being. Its tremendous fun but strains credibility by having a remarkably resilient and resourceful heroine and a more rotten Resistance than one could imagine possibly leading a successful operation against the occupiers. More Manon Lescaut than L'Armée des Ombres in its catapulting of its heroine from one quandary to the next, it contrives to be both backward looking in its dynamic and colourful production values and revisionist in its politics, but at least it is a return to form for its director. At last an expensive European production with multiple languages, a likeable Nazi and a spunky turn by a doubtless rising new star.
Country: GER/NL/GB/BEL
Technical: col/scope 145m
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Christian Berkel
Synopsis:
The adventures of a Jewish girl in Holland between September 1944 and the German surrender: deprived of her hideout, she survives the machine-gunning of a refugee barge to become a Resistance fighter and the mistress of a top SS officer. But before long, detection by him proves to be the least of her fears.
Review:
A rollicking WW2 yarn, supposedly based on fact, but with an oddly old-fashioned air about it, the kind of film Charlotte Gray was in dire need of being. Its tremendous fun but strains credibility by having a remarkably resilient and resourceful heroine and a more rotten Resistance than one could imagine possibly leading a successful operation against the occupiers. More Manon Lescaut than L'Armée des Ombres in its catapulting of its heroine from one quandary to the next, it contrives to be both backward looking in its dynamic and colourful production values and revisionist in its politics, but at least it is a return to form for its director. At last an expensive European production with multiple languages, a likeable Nazi and a spunky turn by a doubtless rising new star.
Country: GER/NL/GB/BEL
Technical: col/scope 145m
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Christian Berkel
Synopsis:
The adventures of a Jewish girl in Holland between September 1944 and the German surrender: deprived of her hideout, she survives the machine-gunning of a refugee barge to become a Resistance fighter and the mistress of a top SS officer. But before long, detection by him proves to be the least of her fears.
Review:
A rollicking WW2 yarn, supposedly based on fact, but with an oddly old-fashioned air about it, the kind of film Charlotte Gray was in dire need of being. Its tremendous fun but strains credibility by having a remarkably resilient and resourceful heroine and a more rotten Resistance than one could imagine possibly leading a successful operation against the occupiers. More Manon Lescaut than L'Armée des Ombres in its catapulting of its heroine from one quandary to the next, it contrives to be both backward looking in its dynamic and colourful production values and revisionist in its politics, but at least it is a return to form for its director. At last an expensive European production with multiple languages, a likeable Nazi and a spunky turn by a doubtless rising new star.