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Watchable wartime story from director of Robocop
BLACK BOOK
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Certificate 15
THE plunder of wealth from the occupied countries during World War II is a story which is still being played out today.
Court cases regarding the compensation or the repatriation of stolen assets are still being heard.
While the perpetrators of the biggest theft in history may be either dead or elderly, their crimes should not be forgotten.
But it was not just the soldiers and civil servants of the Third Reich who robbed hundreds of thousands of people of their homes, businesses and family heirlooms. Journalist Richard Chenoff’s book ‘Pack of Thieves’ describes how the countries occupied by Nazi Germany were complicit in the plunder of the assets of people murdered by the Third Reich.
He describes how European governments, countries from both sides, were involved in the widest ranging theft in history – the stealing of money, art, furniture, and homes from Jewish people. It is a troubling piece and deserves a greater audience. Perhaps director Paul Verhoeven’s latest film, Black Book, will remind the world of the greed that encapsulated the Nazi regimes through out Nazi-occupied Europe.
On the surface, it is a story of a young Jewish woman attempting to stay alive until the war finally ends.
We meet Rachel (Carice van Houten), who before the war was a well-known singer. She has been staying in a farmhouse in the Dutch countryside but when a stray bomb destroys her hideaway, she needs to find a new haven, and quickly.
She is befriended by a member of the Dutch resistance who offers to take her and her family to safety in Belgium. But the escape attempt goes wrong, leaving Rachel alone, and with a mission – to avenge the deaths and suffering caused by the Nazis.
Using her looks and her talent, she infiltrates the local Nazi hierarchy and finds herself having to sacrifice her own morals for the cause.
To reveal anymore would ruin the outrageous plot that keeps you guessing, but it is fair to say the film is a gripping thriller with excellent performances, superb production values and a plot that twists so much that the last 30 minutes turns all your earlier preconceptions.
There are moments when Verhoeven’s understanding of individual responsibility is questionable. Black Book is full of ambiguous morality. There is a senior SS officer who we learn likes to collect stamps (many from country’s enslaved by the Nazis).
His philatelist tendencies are meant to show that underneath the uniform he is a human being, a preposition that ignores his guilt. And Verhoeven’s attitude to his fellow Dutch after the war has finished may be seen as fair, but also fails to understand the bitterness occupied people must have felt towards collaborators.
Paul Verhoeven’s track record is not a good guide to quite how watchable this film is.
Total Recall has a certain panache for a Schwarzenegger vehicle but is essentially vacuous entertainment, while Starship Troopers is simply a weird film. Basic Instinct is another with few saving graces. Paul Verhoeven was also responsible for Robocop.
But while Black Book works as a straightforward, tragic war film, it also poses questions about responsibility and morality, is beautifully shot and has revealed depths of story telling I didn’t know Verhoeven possessed. |
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