Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938) is a Dutch film director. Explicitly violent and sexual content are trade marks of both his Dutch and American films, either drama or science fiction.
Paul Verhoeven | |
|---|---|
| File:Paul verhoeven.jpg Paul Verhoeven in 2004 in a documentary on Z Channel | |
| Born | July 18, 1938 Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| Occupation | film director |
| Spouse | Martine |
Early life
Childhood
Paul Verhoeven was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In his childhood he lived in Slikkerveer and from 1943 in The Hague. During World War II he lived not far from a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by allied forces, which made quite an impression on young Paul.[1]
He was the son of hat maker Nel van Schaardenburg and school teacher Wim Verhoeven. Later his father became head teacher on the Van Heutszschool in The Hague.
Paul Verhoeven went to the secondary school Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague. After this he studied from 1955 at the University of Leiden, where he joined the students' corps. He graduated in 1960 with a double major in mathematics and physics. Subsequently, in 1964 he earned doctorates in both subjects. [1]
Career in filming
Verhoeven made his first film A Lizzard Too Much for the anniversary of his students' corps in 1960.[2] In his last years at university he also attended classes at the Dutch Film Academy. After this he made three more short films Nothing Special (1961), De Lifters (1962) and Let's Have a Party (1963).
After his studies he entered the Dutch Navy as a conscript. He made the documentary The Royal Dutch Marine Corps (1965) about the Navy, which won the French Golden Sun award for military propaganda films[1].
When he left the Navy, he took his skills into Dutch television. First he made a documentary about Anton Mussert named Mussert (1968). His first major success was the 1969 Floris television series, starring Rutger Hauer. The concept of Floris was inspired by foreign series like Ivanhoe and Thierry La Fronde.
In 1967 he married Martine Tours, with whom he has two daughters: Claudia (1972) and Heleen (1974).
Feature films
The Netherlands
Paul Verhoeven's first feature film Business Is Business was released in 1971 and was not especially well received. His first national success did not come until 1973 with Turkish Delight, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. This film is based on a novel by bestselling Dutch author Jan Wolkers and tells a passionate love story of an artist and a liberal young girl from a rather conservative background. The film got an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In 1999 the film received a Golden Calf for Best Dutch Film of the Century. Verhoeven's 1975 film Katie Tippel was again featuring Hauer and van de Ven, but it would not match the success of Turkish Delight.
Verhoeven built on his reputation and had an international success with his Golden Globe nominated film Soldier of Orange[3]. The film is based on a true story about the Dutch resistance in World War II, written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema.
In 1980 he made the film Spetters with Renée Soutendijk and again Rutger Hauer. The story is sometimes compared to Saturday Night Fever, but the film has more explicit violence and sexuality (in this case also homosexuality) which are sometimes seen as the trademarks of Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven's film The Fourth Man (1983) is a horror film starring Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk. It was written by Gerard Soeteman from a novel by the popular Dutch writer Gerard Reve. This film would be Verhoeven's last Dutch film production until the 2006 film Black Book.
United States
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first American film, Flesh & Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunites in filmmaking. Working in the USA he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, sometimes violent, special-effects-heavy smashes RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990)—at the time the most expensive film ever produced. Both RoboCop and Total Recall won an Academy Special Achievement Award, respectively for Sound Effects Editing and for Visual Effects.
Verhoeven followed those successes with the non-S.F., but equally intense and provocative, Basic Instinct (1992), the top grossing film of the year. The most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she doesn't wear underwear underneath her skirt. Despite the R rating, the film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music.[4] Then he made the poorly received NC-17 rated film Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to have a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Raspberry Awards including the ones for worst film and for worst director. Paul Verhoeven was the first director to accept the award in person.
After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven returned to the S.F., graphic violence, and special-effects that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers, based on the noted & controversial S.F. novel by the same name, by Robert A. Heinlein (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Both films received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. Hollow Man had some negative publicity after the truth got out behind Sony's fake journalist David Manning.
Future films
Two new Verhoeven films are expected to be released at the end of 2006. After many years of filming in the United States Verhoeven returns to The Netherlands to shoot the war drama Black Book, an unusual story about the resistance in World War II. The second film to be expected in 2006 is also a war drama, Beast of Bataan, which is set in Bataan, Philippines.
Other activities
Paul Verhoeven is a member of the Jesus Seminar.[5] He is the only member who does not have a degree in biblical studies.[6] Since he is not a professional biblical exegete, his membership in the Jesus Seminar has occasionally been cited by opponents of the Seminar as a sign that this group is less scholarly than it claims.[7] On the other hand, some Jesus Seminar members were unhappy with Verhoeven's portrayal of Jesus as an eschatological prophet.[8]
In 2006 Paul Verhoeven's book Jesus - the man (Dutch: Jezus - de man) about the life of Jesus will appear.[9] He is interested in the ideas of Jesus Christ and the corruption of these same ideas in the many years until now. The book can be seen as preparation for Jesus: The Man, a controversial filmproject about the life of Jesus.[6]
Filmography
Short films
- A Lizzard Too Much (1960)
- Nothing Special (1961)
- De Lifters (1962)
- Let's Have a Party (1963)
- The Wrestler (1970)
Documentaries
Television series
- Floris (1969)
Feature films
- Business Is Business (1971)
- Turkish Delight (1973)
- Katie Tippel (1975)
- Soldier of Orange (1977)
- All Things Pass (1979) (TV)
- Spetters (1980)
- The Fourth Man (1983)
- Flesh & Blood (1985)
- RoboCop (1987)
- Total Recall (1990)
- Basic Instinct (1992)
- Showgirls (1995)
- Starship Troopers (1997)
- Hollow Man (2000)
- Black Book (2006)
- Beast of Bataan (2006; cancelled)
- Knielen op een bed violen (2007)
External links
- Paul Verhoeven at IMDb
- Template:Amg name
- Paul Verhoeven at Rotten Tomatoes
- Paul Verhoeven critique by professor Dan Shaw on the 'Senses of Cinema' website
- Paul Verhoeven.net fan page
References
- ^ a b Een beetje oorlog, best spannend
- ^ Paul Verhoeven - Biography
- ^ http://www.hfpa.org/browse/film/24971
- ^ http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1143590110752
- ^ See the Jesus Seminar website at http://www.westarinstitute.org/Fellows/fellows.html
- ^ a b Paul Verhoeven schrijft boek over Jezus Dutch press release on the writing of his book.
- ^ For example, The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson (SF: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997) criticizes the Jesus Seminar's methods on exegetical grounds, and also criticizes what he perceives to be a dependence on the theatrical and an attempt to manipulate the mainstream media. He singles out Verhoeven as a key player in the media activities of the Jesus Seminar on pp. 15-16 of this book.
- ^ Charlotte Allen, "Away With The Manger", in Lingua Franca (Feb. /1995), p. 27.
- ^ Fondslijst Uitgeverij Bijleveld Jezus - de man in the list of books for 2006 of publisher Bijleveld