Black Book
Short description
Black Book is set during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. Rachel Stein, a Jewish singer, loses her hiding place when it is destroyed by bombing, and she joins a group of refugees attempting to reach the already liberated south of the country. A German patrol intercepts them and only Rachel survives. She then joins the Dutch resistance under the assumed name Ellis de Vries, infiltrates the German intelligence service, and becomes close to SS officer Ludwig Müntze in order to obtain information and to find those responsible for betraying her family. The film later moves to Israel in 1956, where a chance meeting at a kibbutz brings the wartime events back.
Paul Verhoeven directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Gerard Soeteman. The film is the thirteenth of the sixteen features he directed, following Hollow Man (2000) and preceding Tricked (2012). Carice van Houten plays Rachel, with Sebastian Koch as Müntze, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus and Matthias Schoenaerts in supporting roles, among a credited cast of 59 and a crew of 221. Made on a budget of about 21 million USD, it took roughly 27 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from 84,000 votes and on TMDB 7.4/10 from 1,279 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.3/10 from 158 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The idea for the film originated with director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Gerarda Soeteman during the preparation for filming 'Soldier of Orange' (1977). Instead of incorporating an additional storyline into the film, they decided to create a standalone film in the future, with the script taking almost two decades to develop.
- Work on the film was on the verge of collapse in 2004 when a number of foreign companies failed to fulfill their financial obligations to the project. Production resumed only in the fall of 2005, when the necessary budget of 16 million euros was finally secured. More than 2 million euros of this amount came from various Dutch public organizations and the Ministry of Education and Culture. Due to this significant delay, producers had just over two months for the actual filming process.
- The film was submitted by the Netherlands for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, made the shortlist of nine contenders, but did not make it into the final five nominees.
- Many of the actors in the film speak more than one language. It was most difficult for Carice van Houten, who speaks four different languages. For most of the film, she speaks her native Dutch, in the scenes in Israel – Hebrew, with German soldiers – German, and with Canadian soldiers – English.
- A significant delay in the film's production resulted in the lead actress, Carice van Houten, already agreeing to star in a theatrical production. The theatre company filed a lawsuit against the film's producers, demanding compensation for the postponement of the announced play, and received 60,000 euros in damages.
- The role of the resistance leader Gerben Kuipers was initially supposed to be played by Gijs Scholten van Aschat, but due to the forced delay in film production, the actor became busy with a theatrical production. In the search for a suitable replacement, the director turned his attention to Derek de Lint, with whom he had worked 28 years earlier on the filming of 'The Soldier of Orange'.
- Many members of the film crew had to wait over a year to receive the fees they were owed for their work, as the producers had spent all the funds before production was fully completed.
- The most large-scale scene in the film, the liberation of The Hague, was filmed with the involvement of more than 1200 extras.
- Simultaneously with the film, on September 1, 2006, its novelization was released, written by Dutch writer Laurenz Abbink Spuink. The book was accompanied by illustrations in the form of frames from the film and an afterword by director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Gerard Soeteman.
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