| Reading The Black Book On Director Paul Verhoeven |
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Page 1 of 2  Paul Verhoeven at the premiere of "Black Book"   Carice van Houten and Michiel Huisman in "Black Book"  Thom Hoffman and Carice van Houten in "Black Book"  Karl Walter Lindenlaub and Paul Verhoeven on set of "Black Book"  Paul Verhoeven on the set of "Hollow Man" Back in 1977, Verhoeven made a film called "Soldier of Orange," starring his discovery, Hauer; it depicts World War II through the eyes of several Dutch men from the beginning of the war through to the Nazi occupation (and Dutch resistance) and the liberation. In the process of making that film, the director discovered the core elements surrounding the survival and betrayal of Dutch Jews during the Nazi's presence in The Netherlands. Those materials became the basis for his new film, "Black Book [Zwartboek]," the story of a Dutch Jewish woman, Rachel Steinn (played brilliantly by Carice Van Houten) who narrowly survives the war in Holland. When she's discovered in hiding, she joins the resistance to find out who betrayed her family. "Black Book" has resistance fighters, Nazi collaborators, torture by the Gestapo and, as any Verhoeven fan would expect, plenty of nudity. But the film manages to both be entertaining as well as serious and powerful portrayal of one Jewish survivor in Holland during the last year of WWII. blackbookfilm.com Q: How have Jewish groups responded to your film? PV: Up to now, very good. I showed it at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, and just heard it had a very positive review in the Jerusalem Post. Anyhow, when I was there, there was no animosity or the feeling that I was upsetting something which was clearly based on a historical reality. Q: Was there anything you came across that was a shock or a surprise in your research for this movie? PV: Yes, notably the treatment of the Dutch after the war--what they did to the people that had collaborated. That was a shock which I discovered in 1966 when I was doing a documentary for television about a Dutch Nazi leader. His name was Anton Mussert who was, of course, a leading collaborator with the Germans. I discovered how the Dutch had treated their prisoners after the war. I was shocked, and I took that shock with me until now. The story of the black book and the lawyer that was killed who had it [it detailed who in the resistance were the betrayers of Jews] and all that--was of course, already discovered at the time of [my film] "Soldier of Orange." But what I really could not believe until I saw it in the newspaper--basically, [my screenwriting collaborator Gerard] Soeteman showed it to me because it was one of the headline stories. And I thought that was kind of a big twist. [That is] the story that the Germans had been allowed by the Canadians to kill their deserters even after liberation. In the movie, dramatically, it is done on mute. Q: You have a navy background, right? PV: I was a lieutenant in the Dutch Navy for two years after my university studies. I was an original conscript--I was drafted. At that time, the Dutch still had a draft. You’re talking about the '60s. Q: Did that help you in the making this film? PV: It helped with "Starship Troopers" [his film based on the late sci-fi author Robert Heinlein's future war novel] And if you see the documentary film I made during my military service, because when I was in the Navy, they realized that I was an aspiring filmmaker, and they put me in the film department of the Navy and then, I was attached to the Marines. So I followed the Marines for a year [and made "The Royal Dutch Marine Corps."] Q: What kind of documentary is it? PV: If you see the documentary, you’ll see there are many many similarities with "Starship Troopers." Q: As a kid, what was your experience with WWII? PV: Well I survived, you know--my family survived. Of course, we were not Jewish. There were critical moments, I would say. I think that my father and friends were often hiding under the floor of the basement of the house. The Germans would pick you up, not to execute you, but they would use you as labor in the troop factory, say, in Western Germany and all the industrial areas, because so many men had been sent to the Eastern front and died. So they used Dutch people to fill in the gaps. You were enslaved as a Dutch person and abused, but they didn’t want to kill you or starve you or whatever. They wanted to use you. I know that my father tried and succeeded in escaping that fate. Q: Your leading lady, Carice Van Houten, said, “Paul does not like to rehearse much.” How do you function with your actors on set? PV: To a large degree, I stick to scripts. Especially with a detective story [like this one is], you cannot allow too much improvisation. You would lose your information, you know. The actors would forget the information or put it in a sideline, so basically, nobody would notice it. I think you have to stick to the script. I am also not a big fan of long rehearsals because I feel that I reach too much in the rehearsal that I can never get it back. I noticed that early in my career that I got great rehearsals--I taped them sometimes--and then when I was shooting, I never got it anymore, at least not to that degree. So, I stopped early on taking rehearsals too far. For this movie, we didn't rehearse too much. We ran through the script, and then it was a lot of explaining, especially for people who had not lived through war. There was a lot of explaining to do, which I knew of course. Well, that’s not me. What is the relationship? How is this built? What does the Gestapo stopping by mean to the movie? That kind of stuff. So, it was more about that that I did with all of the people, and then the groups got smaller and smaller, until we ended up with the three or four main actors. After reading the lines a little bit and talking about it, I didn’t really want them to do it really well. Q: Carice said the pubic hair scene had your handwriting all over it. PV: Yes, well, but I think it was written by my writer. Carice basically adds everything to the movie. Without Carice, I don’t know anybody in Holland, in fact, that could have done this. There is nobody. If Carice wouldn’t have lived, I couldn’t have made the movie because she brings something--you’re probably aware to a certain degree, but I am much more aware that she is completely central. Without this performance, the movie would never have worked so I am a top fan of her. Artistically, I am completely in love with her. I think, basically, she is a great actress. She’s a good singer too, in fact. And, she’s audacious. I think she’s wonderful. I wish her a great career. I hope I can work again with her in my life because I think she is so talented. I’ve said it, but in many cases, because you asked about the rehearsals--I felt that on the set, that after me directing her…she would be doing things according to how we’d discussed, i.e. should it be so and so or should we feel such and such. Ultimately, I’d have to say, “Carice, forget everything I said. Do it your own way, and it will be fine.” And it was always true you know. She’s such a talent, you know. You can take her anywhere, but you’re often better to let her take the lead herself. I think she’s absolutely amazing. Q: And she met and fell in love with the great German actor Sebastian Koch (who plays her fictional lover Ludwig Müntze, the Nazi Occupation leader and who starred in the Oscar-winning "The Lives of Others" as well). If she and Sebastian have a baby, you can be the godfather. PV: That’d survive the movie, wouldn’t it?…They’re wonderful people, so it’s a great situation. But the situation of their lives, it’s horrible. He lives in Berlin, and she lives in Amsterdam. And, they both have a lot of work. |