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Edith Piaf - La Vie En Rose

Verhoeven's Victory

The German actor Sebastian Koch looked none the worse for wear arriving for an interview regarding his upcoming movie, Black Book. As I predicted, his journey from the unstoppable Oscar fests in Hollywood where he rejoiced with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck over the Best Foreign Language Film win for The Lives of Others—(not to mention an Independent Spirit Award the night before--) was not going to be a walk in the park. Rather he and Florian’s posse pulled all-nighters, flying to New York just in time for press at the Regency Hotel. But it turned out there was a better reason for sleepless nights.         

                 Her name is Carice von Houten and she is the star of Black Book. As this beauty pointed out, "if you don’t like me, that would be a big problem." She graces nearly every frame in this 2 ½ hour Holocaust era epic by the Dutch director, Paul Verhoeven, known for Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Robocop, Soldier of Orange and Starship Troopers. What’s not to like? Lithe, leggy, with the wide-eyed expressive mien of silent screen sirens of yore, von Houten’s character, Rachel, charms and perseveres against unimaginable conditions with an avid intelligence that is as striking off screen. I will tell you more nearing the film’s opening in April, but in one scene a vat of excrement is overturned on Rachel. Having fallen in love with a German officer, played with enormous empathy by Sebastian, she is treated as a conspirator by other survivors. Think of a similar motif in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena when that character played by another European beauty, Monica Bellucci, is reviled at war’s end by her townspeople for having consorted with the occupying Germans.

So what was in that vat? Surely not the real thing? "No," said Carice, "it was a heavy, smelly concoction of cookie dough, peanut butter and other oily substances. It just clung to me in the shower." During the two takes it took to get it right, "I almost wished that it had been real shit."

While Sebastian was answering questions about his sex appeal, especially among Europeans familiar with his work on stage and on television, Carice interrupted; having misplaced the room key, she was tomato red to Sebastian’s beet blush. Now an item, they owe it all to Verhoeven.

                                                       Regina Weinreich