Johnny de Mol
Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands after more than twenty years of success in Hollywood to direct this epic-scale war drama based on a true story. Rachel Steinn (Carice van Houten) is a beautiful Jewish woman living in German-occupied Holland during late 1944. Her family members - who have been falsely promised safe passage to Belgium (their names recorded in the 'black book' of the title) are instead robbed and slaughtered by the Germans on a premeditated basis; Rachel herself manages to escape by diving into the water and swimming away. She narrowly avoids capture, then joins the local resistance movement. With her hair dyed blonde, Rachel can easily pass for Aryan, and when the leader of the Dutch resistance movement learns his son has been captured by Axis forces, Rachel is asked to use her feminine charms to persuade a German commander to arrange for the boy's release. Rachel soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous double life as she becomes a sexual plaything for the Nazis while attempting to bring down their evil empire as a spy. Zwartboek was written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman, who collaborated on the 1977 international success Soldier of Orange. Zwartboek received its world premier at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, (more)
Theo Van Gogh's Cool! tells the tale of three teenage criminals - (Abdel, Jacky, and Jeffrey) - who end up doing time in a juvenile detention center after messing up a bank robbery. Abdel, who has been changed for the better by his time in the correctional system, learns that their former gang-leader Prof is setting up another big heist. Abdel decides that Prof needs to be taken down and sets about sabotaging Prof's plan. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny de Mol, Katja Schuurman, (more)
The real-life murder of an idiosyncratic Dutch politician inspired this docudrama, which imagines a possible scenario behind the killing. Jim De Booy (Thijs Römer) is a new photographer who is on assignment, taking pictures of a popular television actress during an appearance at a radio station, when Pim Fortuyn, a controversial right-wing political figure, is shot to death shortly after finishing an interview at the same studio. When Jim develops the pictures, he discovers he accidentally caught the assassin on film, and he begins investigating the crime. Jim finds an ally in his research in Ayse (Tara Elders), who was once involved with the animal rights group that has claimed responsibility for the killing. However, while most people believe the killing was the irrational act of leftist fanatics, Ayse and her beau, Erdogan (Cahit Olmez), have another take to tell -- it seems members of the Dutch intelligence community had infiltrated the group and were pressuring the animal rights activists to attack Fortuyn. Could this have had anything to do with Fortuyn's opposition to a bill that would finance the purchase of a new fleet of fighter jets backed by powerful American business interests? 06/05: The Sixth of May was the final feature film for writer and director Theo Van Gogh. In a strange coincidence, Van Gogh was shot to death (as well as stabbed) in the fall of 2004 by a Muslim extremist who was offended by a film he made for television about the treatment of women in the Islamic community. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tara Elders, Thijs Römer, (more)
