![]() It is a shocking moment for the character and thoroughly convincing performance from van Houten. Later, though, Rachel becomes a more haunted, troubled figure as the weight of events accumulate, as seen when she suddenly convulses with grief at a key moment, as if her supressed feelings about the tragedies she has suffered throughout the film finally erupt from her. Rachel starts the film as a carefree young woman with a rebellious, playful streak, as when she cheekily flashes her legs to admiring soldiers, but her rebellion is soon channelled into a more focused role for the resistance. Instead, Rachel is down-to-earth and pragmatic, changing from brunette to blonde by her own volition and understanding that she may have to sleep with Müntze to aid the resistance, and making that choice herself rather than being ordered by a man to do it. However, while Kim Novak’s brunette Judy in Vertigo is at the mercy of powerful and obsessive men, and feels forced to change into the image of blonde Madeline order to please them, the brunette Rachel in Zwartboek is less manipulated by men and much more in control, presented as physically attractive but not as the almost untouchable romantic ideal like Madeline. Zwartboek could also be seen as a reflection of Vertigo (1958), with both films being thrillers where a woman dyes her brunette hair blonde and assumes a new identity. Rachel is in the tradition of Verhoeven femme fatales played by Renée Soutendijk in De vierde man and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992), and the strong, resolute women portrayed by Monique van de Ven in Keetje Tippel and Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls (1995). ![]() Whereas Hitchcock’s films put his sympathetic blonde women in peril and appeared to punish them for their apparent ‘transgressions’ (particularly for asserting their independence), as in late period Hitchcock films like Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964), Verhoeven seems to revel in showing the Blonde women in his films command the screen, dictate the narrative and overcome their persecutors. In fact, this film sees the return of what could be termed ‘the Verhoeven Blonde’, a reconfiguration of the iconic ‘Hitchcock Blonde’. Verhoeven’s films have frequently featured strong women at the centre of the drama and Zwartboek continues this trend. However, while Shosanna the character and Tarantino the filmmaker (and the Basterds) are merciless towards the Nazi occupiers, the character of Rachel and director Verhoeven wade into more morally murky and ambiguous territory, making people like Müntze sympathetic and portraying some resistance members in a less than flattering light. The film also anticipated later Hollywood films set in the Second World War, including Valkyrie (2008), which also featured Carice van Houten, and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), whose character of Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), another blonde Jewish woman resisting the Nazis, echoed that of Rachel. Zwartboek is like an amalgamation of elements from Verhoeven’s early Dutch works and later Hollywood films, including the gutsy heroine in Keetje Tippel ( Katie Tippel, 1975) navigating her way through a hostile hierarchy, the Second World War setting of Soldaat van Oranje ( Soldier of Orange, 1977), the resistance group in Total Recall (1990) battling a powerful regime, and the violent conflict and fascist world of Starship Troopers (1997). Matters get more complicated when Rachel meets Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch), a Nazi officer, and develops an attraction to him, which could compromise her cover. After the Nazis capture some fellow resistance members, Rachel goes undercover in an attempt to infiltrate the enemy headquarters. She manages to slip away, joins a resistance group in the Netherlands and assumes a new identity as Ellis de Vries. Attempting to escape with her family and other Jews on a boat at night, Nazis attack them and everybody except Rachel is murdered. Set during 1944 in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, Zwartboek centres on Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a young Jewish woman in hiding. Going back to his filmmaking roots with Zwartboek seemed to reinvigorate Verhoeven, freeing him from US studio shackles and reuniting him with screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, with whom he collaborated on early Dutch classics like The Sensualist ( Turkish Delight, 1973) and De vierde man ( The Fourth Man, 1983). Zwartboek ( Black Book) is a Holland homecoming for director Paul Verhoeven, returning to the Netherlands from the United States after the technically accomplished but narratively conventional (for Verhoeven) Hollow Man (2000), which felt like Hollywood had managed to blunt the edges that made him so distinctive as an artist.
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