Interested in the importance of his films for film history – both individually and as a trail –, IndieLisboa has the honour and privilege of revisiting and sharing with its public the inexhaustible and surprising work of Paul Verhoeven.
Verhoeven is a filmmaker of the body. In his films, the body is transformed, destroyed, diverted, copied, exposed, in an attempt to extract its essence. His work seems entirely devoted to understanding the role of the surface. However, in retrospect, it is interesting to note that his answers always seem inconclusive and contradictory: in Verhoeven the body is kept as an inexhaustible problem.
His first feature is Wat zien ik (1971), a film about the life of a young female prostitute. This film’s success paved the way for Verhoeven to direct the literary adaptation Turks fruit (1973), his second film, which launched him worldwide. In the film, the camera runs closely along the plot, as if it were operated by someone who whirls around in a frenetic, decided and disturbed state, closely involved with his protagonists, Olga and Erik, a young couple in love who do not seem to know where they are going. The spirit and attitude thus announced seem to accompany all of Paul Verhoeven’s work and career.
In Showgirls (1995) Nomi is a dancer that runs away from her past, heading towards a new life in Las Vegas. Her luggage is stolen during the first minutes of the film and then the only inheritance she carries with her is her own body, which we observe dancing naked during the entire film, without knowing anything about it. Nudity appears in the same way in the neo-noir Basic Instinct (1992). The body is also exposed to call our attention to how little we understand it. In the thriller, a detective gets involved with two female suspects of the same crime. They both plead they have been incriminated and that they had their image copied by the other. The role of the detective is to find out who is telling the truth.
In RoboCop (1987) there is no body. The cop’s body is destroyed and transformed into a robot. The film tells the story of that man’s search for humanity and his lost memory. In the surgery room, while building Robocop, the scientist asks: “Well, I think we should lose the arm. What do you think, Johnson?” and Johnson replies, “He’s legally dead. We can do pretty much what we want to him”.
Also in Total Recall (1990), the protagonist, Douglas Quaid, also finds out his memory has been erased. He, who was destined to live another life, with another name, sets out in search of his lost memory. However, halfway through that search, Quaid realises that his body is perhaps the only thing he shares with the man he once was. whereas in Total Recall there is a redemption of man, who joins the aliens to fight against a sci-fi version of colonialism, in Starship Troopers the film’s protagonists and heroes are young soldiers with the mission of annihilating an alien race. Following the war in Iraq, critics reappraised the film and the satire gained new meanings.
In Zwartboek (2006) Rachel is a Jewish fugitive during the Second World War and we see her story die together with her family. We slowly watch the birth of a new woman: Ellis. Just like Quaid, Ellis changes her name. In Soldaat van Oranje (1977), we witness the group’s dissolution during the war. They each follow their own way, they turn against each other, some die and others kill. In the end, what remains is a photo of all of them together, taken years before. Again: we are present, precisely to understand or to ask ourselves and the film: what is left of an image?
After Turks fruit comes Keetje Tippel and his first war feature: Soldaat van Oranje. They are also a swerve towards a kind of diagnosis-sentence of an “illness of civilization”. In De vierde man this is very clear, Verhoeven films a gay, Catholic, schizophrenic writer. Confused by the symbols of power – the male, the female, money, religion and sex –, the main character drowns in the world’s contradictions. That “illness of civilization” becomes a symptom in his own body.
In 2011 Paul Verhoeven takes part in an experiment with Kickstarter, an online funding platform that proposes a film with a collaborative screenplay. Ideas by authors from all around the world were compiled and turned into a film by Verhoeven. The outcome is Steekspel (2012), a 50-minute film, shot in Holland, going back to a certain tone of his first films. We now have to wait for Elle (2016), his new and awaited film, which should have its premiere at the next Cannes Festival.
Time of the screenings for Independent Hero Paul Verhoeven:
Robocop
April 20 (Wednesday), 15h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Wat zien ik
April 20 (Wednesday), 21h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Turks fruit
April 21 (Thrusday), 21h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Keetje Tippel
April 22 (Friday), 15h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Soldaat van Oranje
April 23 (Saturday), 15h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Spetters
April 23 (Saturday), 19h00, Cinemateca Portuguesa
De vierde man
April 23 (Saturday), 21h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Flesh+Blood
April 26 (Tuesday), 19h00, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Total Recall
April 27 (Wednesday), 15h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Basic Instinct
April 27 (Wednesday), 21h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Showgirls
April 28 (Thursday), 19h00, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Starship Troopers
April 29 (Friday), 15h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Hollow Man
April 29 (Friday), 21h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Paul Verhoeven Curtas
April 30 (Saturday), 15h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Zwartboek/Black Book
April 30 (Saturday), 19h00, Cinemateca Portuguesa
Steekspel/Tricked
April 30 (Saturday), 21h30, Cinemateca Portuguesa