zwartboek

translated to english a film titled black book
this one was on high rotation mid last year
but i just quite couldn't bring myself to watch it then
reviews were conflicting and war is not my favourite genre
but on this day it was on in a small theatre nearby
so off i went to have my own exclusive screening
the film is set in the later stages of world war 2
in holland the home country of director paul verhoeven
star of the film is a beautiful dutch actress named carice van houten
playing the part of rachel - a dutch jew on the run from the nazis
she joins a resistance group after the brutal murder of her family
then as a mole in nazi headquarters falls in love with muntz - an ss officer
and recognises another officer responsible for butchering her family
i knew about the plot of the film and so had braced myself
the wimp in me does not like watching war films
i find it all too sad what humans can do to each other
especially when we are aware of the horrors of war
and still go out and do it again and again
the film is all a bit of a muddle really
i just couldn't find any character i had empathy with
i know i was supposed to be impressed by the courage of rachel
but mostly i was feeling sympathy for the actress
the director had her at least topless in a lot of scenes
or looking gorgeous in some stunning dress and makeup
quite often grabbing a microphone to sing to the nazis
and for me not at all convincing as a woman of substance
her lover (muntz) was there to remind us nazis are people too
we learn that his family was killed by a british air-raid
and at that point he is no longer the enemy
about the same time we learn of deception
in the ranks of the resistance fighters
so about an hour into the film there's a lot going on
there's a lot of characters, names and languages
and betrayal and finger-pointing on both sides
at times i was struggling to keep up with it all
other times i felt annoyed with the heavy-handed dramatisation
or when a particular point was being made and made again
i actually thought the film descended into farce a couple of times
one scene in particular involving a large and angry crowd
in a multi-level warehouse taking it out on our heroine
reminded me of something out of mad max thunderdome
in fact dare i say that hogans heroes came to mind at least once
especially when the colonel klink type lookalike showed up
now while in panning mode - the music - ouch
big orchestra sounds in the big action scenes - too much
very well constructed scenes indicating the big budget
but then let down often by bad acting in simple scenes
and the whole thing just kept going and going and....
poor rachel finally broke into tears on the news of her lovers death
'will it ever end' she sobbed referring to the deaths around her
i'm not sure if that was meant as some kind of in-joke or not
but then as the film staggered on for another half hour or so
in the penultimate scene she sighs 'it is finally over'
...and a big phew from me on that too