Black Book
“To fight the enemy, she must become one of them.”
Israel, 1956: Jewish teacher Rachel Stein rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz. It brings back memories of her experiences in the Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. In September 1944, Rachel's hiding place is bombed by Allied troops; she makes contact with a resistance member and joins a group of Jews to be smuggled across the Biesbosch to the freed South Netherlands. Only Rachel escapes a massacre by patrol Germans, and is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers, whose son is captured trying to smuggle weapons. Kuipers asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze, a mission that she will soon learn that the boat attack wasn't a coincidence.
Details
Release Date: 9/14/2006
Runtime: 145 minutes
Languages: Dutch, German, English, Hebrew
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Budget: $21.0M
Revenue: $26.8M
Production
Companies: Fu Works, AVRO, VIP Medienfonds 4, Clockwork Pictures, Studio Babelsberg, Motion Investment Group, Motel Films, Hector BV, ContentFilm International, Egoli Tossell Film
Countries: Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Where to watch · US
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Reviews
Wuchak
_**Carice van Houten plays a spy working for the Dutch Resistance during WW2**_ During the German occupation of Netherlands in WW2, a Jewess singer turned spy (Carice van Houten) gains access to the Gestapo headquarters to help the Dutch Resistance. Sebastian Koch plays a sympathetic German officer while Waldemar Kobus is on hand as the heavy. Thom Hoffman plays an agent for the Resistance. “Black Book” (2006), aka “Zwartboek,” is a Euro WW2 film by Paul Verhoeven that balances drama, action, intrigue, romance and suspense. It’s reminiscent of contemporaneous flicks like “Inglourious Basterds” (2009) and “Valkyrie” (2008). It’s not great like the former, but it’s in the same league as the latter. Despite its length, the story movies along swiftly, albeit awkwardly on a couple occasions. Carice shines in the challenging key role and Koch is likable. There was one scene that I didn’t find convincing, but it was forgivable. Unfortunately there’s a twist in the last act involving a character that doesn’t gel with the character’s previous actions. The film runs 2 hours, 25 minutes, and was shot in the Netherlands with the bookend scenes filmed in Israel and studio work done in Brandenburg, Germany. GRADE: B-
