Riveting, rousing cinema from a Dutch master

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2007)

Paul Verhoeven's first Euro flick in decades is riveting, rousing cinema. The sexy Carice Van Houten plays Ellis, a Jewish woman who goes undercover to, literally, infiltrate a Nazi stronghold in Holland. She befriends and seduces Muntze, a Nazi head honcho and poster boy for Dramatic Irony. Not only is the charismatic Muntz (Sebastian Koch) a card-carrying Nazi swine, he is also a keen stamp collector who is not unsympathetic to the Jewish nation. My threadbare synopsis barely hints at the splendid complexities of this magnificent, epic love story. Verhoeven has found the perfect dramatic vehicle in which to indulge his passion and preference for heightened drama, raw sexuality, and impactful, relevant violence. The film moves at lightning pace and is filled with unexpected twists and turns. The screenplay by Gerard Soeteman and Verhoeven is a model of economy and the lensing by Karl Walter Lindenlaub is superb. Van Houten is believable and stunning in her richly layered performance. A scene in which she is showered in feces is pure Verhoeven, as is a powerfully erotic moment when she dies her pubic hair blonde. "Black Book" is tight, terrific movie-making that feels like it sprung from the belly of the director's "Soldier Of Orange" via the vaginal canal of "Turkish Delight".