Sunday, May 13, 2007
Friday Movie Review (quite late)
Went alone to Zwartboek (The Black Book) which is the new Paul Verhoeven film, mainly in Dutch and German (with subtitles) set in the final days of WWII in Den Haag. More about Verhoeven later. It starts with the near universal 'based on real events' which usually only means it's set on a historically recognizable planet Earth, but this film tells some fictionalized small 't' truths about some real people or real composites and it is helped enormously by Verhoeven's take no prisoners, non-Hollywood approach to sex and violence, and by outstanding performances by the leads. The girl lead is really outstanding, Carice van Houten, whom I've never seen before, but who I feel will be soon in a lot of American films. The boy lead (good guy on wrong side) is Sebastian Koch who was also outstanding in The Lives of Others, so he is on a roll. There is a bad guy on the right side as well, but I won't spoil it.
Most of the underground resistance movements in Nazi occupied Europe were just not that successful because the Nazis would round up, say, 50 people and shoot them if there was a successful resistance action, so the die hards who tried to do things had to fight not only against the Nazis but with most of the populace in opposition to their terrorist tactics as well. The collaborators on the other hand were numerous, ruthless and mostly effective. We don't usually get to see them (Lacombe, Lucien is the only example I can think of, but it's excellent). We don't get to see them here either--almost all the bad guys are Germans.
Young, pretty, talented, brave, resourceful Jewish girl (is there any other kind in WWII movies?) hiding out in a barn, a la Anne Frank, looses her hiding place and then gets into real trouble. Then it's a roller coaster ride and it takes place fast enough, it's difficult to see clearly what's ahead (but not impossible). War picture, spy picture, murder mystery, romance (kinda)-- it's pretty good. I liked it a lot more than the last time the Dutch took a hard look at their role in WWII in Soldier of Orange, also by Paul Verhoeven.
Here are some quibbles. The Germans were a little upset with the Dutch support of the Market/Garden failed (bridge too far) attempt to cross the Rhine and in retaliation they nearly starved all the Dutch to death the following winter ('44-'45). You get a hint of that with the soup kitchen and the hungry kids scrounging, but then there are flocks of sheep roaming about in the movie, and bunnies in cages. Not hardly in Spring, '45. There weren't a lot of dogs or cats either. Then there's the Kraut ambush after the Brit parachute drop. How do you sneak up on someone with a halftrack? Rogue element, they said. Yeah, I should say so; the markings on the track were from the Großdeutschland Division of Panzergrenadier, which was never in Holland. Quite rogue, I guess. How also do you let yourself be snuck up on by a halftrack. You think by the end of the war, they underground would be at least competent, given the price of failure.
I loved the detail that the lead girl, Rachel/Ellis, hiding in plain sight as a blonde, also dyes her pubic hair when she is to sleep with the SD head Müntze. But then she gets immediately found out by him by the black roots on her head; he guesses she is Jewish and she immediately confesses that she is; and it's all OK. Come on! Also, the Franken monster (based on a real guy) is circumcised. Maybe now most Northern European Christian men are circumcised, but not back then. Just a little startle on top of a rather gross exhibition. All the woman have really lovely bodies and aren't afraid to show them. That was part of the good things in the movie.
I also liked that the movie was honest enough to show that the Christians, even the ones risking their lives to help and hide the Jews, were very quick to believe and voice some rather harsh stereotypes. Of course nearly as many of the Christians were willing to consign the Jews to death for a cut of the profit. Verhoeven didn't flinch from showing that detail. Nor does he flinch from showing the detail of gunshot results to the face, skull, and aorta. It's a picture I can still see. Thanks a lot, Paul.
My question is about late April, 1945. We're at the Elbe and capturing Berchtesgaden; the Russians are in Berlin; and the Brits haven't even liberated all of Holland yet. What were they doing? And the Germans are acting as if the war is almost won (for them) and they are very nearly eager to commit further war crimes? Where was the writing on the wall? Only Müntze is dialing it back.
You'll be happy to know, to counter the fact that the Canadians did allow some German on German executions, that the real Müntze, who was indeed a stamp collector, survived the war and only served 4 years while the real life putz, General Käutner (Hanns A. Rauter) was actually executed in Holland in 1949, one of only 5 German war criminals so executed.
If we forgive Verhoeven Showgirls (and since I didn't see it, I'm willing to) he's had a pretty good career. I still remember fondly his good work in Holland, Spetters and Turkish Delight, but despite a miss here and there, once in America (like Flesh+Blood and Hollow Man), most have been pretty good--RoboCop, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. He's particularly strong on right wing/libertarian science fiction and has a good eye for detail, sometimes telling detail. It's over two hours long, but it sped by. It's not in the pantheon of must-see movies about the war, but it's a darned fine film.
Most of the underground resistance movements in Nazi occupied Europe were just not that successful because the Nazis would round up, say, 50 people and shoot them if there was a successful resistance action, so the die hards who tried to do things had to fight not only against the Nazis but with most of the populace in opposition to their terrorist tactics as well. The collaborators on the other hand were numerous, ruthless and mostly effective. We don't usually get to see them (Lacombe, Lucien is the only example I can think of, but it's excellent). We don't get to see them here either--almost all the bad guys are Germans.
Young, pretty, talented, brave, resourceful Jewish girl (is there any other kind in WWII movies?) hiding out in a barn, a la Anne Frank, looses her hiding place and then gets into real trouble. Then it's a roller coaster ride and it takes place fast enough, it's difficult to see clearly what's ahead (but not impossible). War picture, spy picture, murder mystery, romance (kinda)-- it's pretty good. I liked it a lot more than the last time the Dutch took a hard look at their role in WWII in Soldier of Orange, also by Paul Verhoeven.
Here are some quibbles. The Germans were a little upset with the Dutch support of the Market/Garden failed (bridge too far) attempt to cross the Rhine and in retaliation they nearly starved all the Dutch to death the following winter ('44-'45). You get a hint of that with the soup kitchen and the hungry kids scrounging, but then there are flocks of sheep roaming about in the movie, and bunnies in cages. Not hardly in Spring, '45. There weren't a lot of dogs or cats either. Then there's the Kraut ambush after the Brit parachute drop. How do you sneak up on someone with a halftrack? Rogue element, they said. Yeah, I should say so; the markings on the track were from the Großdeutschland Division of Panzergrenadier, which was never in Holland. Quite rogue, I guess. How also do you let yourself be snuck up on by a halftrack. You think by the end of the war, they underground would be at least competent, given the price of failure.
I loved the detail that the lead girl, Rachel/Ellis, hiding in plain sight as a blonde, also dyes her pubic hair when she is to sleep with the SD head Müntze. But then she gets immediately found out by him by the black roots on her head; he guesses she is Jewish and she immediately confesses that she is; and it's all OK. Come on! Also, the Franken monster (based on a real guy) is circumcised. Maybe now most Northern European Christian men are circumcised, but not back then. Just a little startle on top of a rather gross exhibition. All the woman have really lovely bodies and aren't afraid to show them. That was part of the good things in the movie.
I also liked that the movie was honest enough to show that the Christians, even the ones risking their lives to help and hide the Jews, were very quick to believe and voice some rather harsh stereotypes. Of course nearly as many of the Christians were willing to consign the Jews to death for a cut of the profit. Verhoeven didn't flinch from showing that detail. Nor does he flinch from showing the detail of gunshot results to the face, skull, and aorta. It's a picture I can still see. Thanks a lot, Paul.
My question is about late April, 1945. We're at the Elbe and capturing Berchtesgaden; the Russians are in Berlin; and the Brits haven't even liberated all of Holland yet. What were they doing? And the Germans are acting as if the war is almost won (for them) and they are very nearly eager to commit further war crimes? Where was the writing on the wall? Only Müntze is dialing it back.
You'll be happy to know, to counter the fact that the Canadians did allow some German on German executions, that the real Müntze, who was indeed a stamp collector, survived the war and only served 4 years while the real life putz, General Käutner (Hanns A. Rauter) was actually executed in Holland in 1949, one of only 5 German war criminals so executed.
If we forgive Verhoeven Showgirls (and since I didn't see it, I'm willing to) he's had a pretty good career. I still remember fondly his good work in Holland, Spetters and Turkish Delight, but despite a miss here and there, once in America (like Flesh+Blood and Hollow Man), most have been pretty good--RoboCop, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. He's particularly strong on right wing/libertarian science fiction and has a good eye for detail, sometimes telling detail. It's over two hours long, but it sped by. It's not in the pantheon of must-see movies about the war, but it's a darned fine film.
Labels: The Black Book
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 10:56 AM 
