MikePadgett.com

• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Netherlands, 2006
• 

With the turbulent Hollywood years behind him, Verhoeven is back in Europe and the opening salvo is a freshly energetic epic that firmly suggests Amsterdam’s finest has rediscovered his mojo.

Ironic then that the only blot in this particular black book is Verhoeven’s oldest trick: a sudden acceleration in the third act, which leaves us as breathless and confused as the indomitable heroine.

Fortunately, Zwartboek is visually eloquent and finely acted, especially by Carice Van Houten as Ellis. Comparisons with Soldier of Orange are inevitable and with a couple of new Dutch projects already in the pipeline, I for one am sighing with relief at Verhoeven’s return to form.

• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Netherlands, 1977
• 

Verhoeven’s revisionist wartime drama is a bittersweet story of five student dandies who each face the subjugation of their country in different ways. The film displays a sensitivity that’s missing in the director’s Hollywood oeuvre.

Soldier of Orange would still be an effective ensemble piece without the outstanding performances put in by Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé, oscillating unnervingly between humour and horror.

Verhoeven’s visual interpretation of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema’s book was also informed by personal experience, and he may draw on this resource once more in the forthcoming Black Book, his first Dutch film for 21 years.