Black Book

2006 Drama

Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands after more than twenty years of success in Hollywood to direct this epic-scale war drama based on a true story. Rachel Steinn (Carice van Houten) is a beautiful Jewish woman living in German-occupied Holland during late 1944. Her family members - who have been falsely promised safe passage to Belgium (their names recorded in the 'black book' of the title) are instead robbed and slaughtered by the Germans on a premeditated basis; Rachel herself manages to escape by diving into the water and swimming away. She narrowly avoids capture, then joins the local resistance movement. With her hair dyed blonde, Rachel can easily pass for Aryan, and when the leader of the Dutch resistance movement learns his son has been captured by Axis forces, Rachel is asked to use her feminine charms to persuade a German commander to arrange for the boy's release. Rachel soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous double life as she becomes a sexual plaything for the Nazis while attempting to bring down their evil empire as a spy. Zwartboek was written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman, who collaborated on the 1977 international success Soldier of Orange. Zwartboek received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. more..

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Starring: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Derek de Lint

Reviews

  • Just for starters, no movie about the Dutch Resistance during World War II has any right to be this wildly entertaining, not to mention this provocative and potently erotic.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    19 January 2013

  • A hard-core war film with raw violence, intense action, graphic sexuality and a twisting plot that offers a series of surprises.

    Claudia Puig - USA Today

    19 January 2013

  • Black Book takes the conventions of the WWII epic -- the prison breaks, the interrogation scenes -- and undermines them with craft and muscle and the ripe lack of restraint we've come to expect from this director.

    Ty Burr - The Boston Globe

    19 January 2013

  • As epic as its two-hours-and-25-minute running time indicates, Black Book is as subversive as it is traditional, both enamored of conventional notions of heroism and frankly contemptuous of them.

    Kenneth Turan - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

  • Black Book is its own kind of thriller. The film is filled with the genre's conventions -- suspense, betrayal, melodrama, violence, music -- and it's hugely enjoyable from start to finish.

    Joe Morgenstern - The Wall Street Journal

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Foreign Film

    Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Argentina (2007)

     
  • Best Actress

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (2008)

     
  • Best Foreign Film

    Austin Film Critics Association (2007)

  • Best Film Not in the English Language

    BAFTA Awards (2007)

     
  • Best Foreign Independent Film

    British Independent Film Awards (2007)