Over recent weeks I have found myself commenting that a film was good or great art, told an important story, but was almost unbearable to experience because I knew and felt the reality of its emotional content. It was a worthwhile activity because it reminded of what I and others, sometimes everyone, should never forget, it contributed to my work project directly, and indirectly, and sometimes it brought some new insight, an important different or additional perspective to my experience perspective.
Most only need to act or form an opinion based on our own experience to-day and we often to do this without questioning, or needing to question its validity, whether it is an original or valid response on our own behalf as an adult or whether it is something with has it roots in the position of out parents and their ancestors, in the influence of other relatives, educators, secular and religious, or friends, of because of some experience in childhood which we no longer remember, and where it is best that we no longer remember, best for ourselves and for other. Of course the opposite is also true.
Sometimes I watch a film which I thoroughly enjoy but find myself questioning that I am doing so throughout, but for Swartboek, the Black Book, a film which like Babel uses four languages Hebrew, Dutch, German and British, but has nothing else in common, it was only when it finished and I realised I had given it my undivided attention that I began to question and regret.
When I say it is a film about the plight of people of Jewish faith in Holland in World War 2, directed by the same individual who gave us Basic Instinct Paul Verhoeven, the you should have known what kind of time you are going to have and that whatever money has been spent you will in fact be well reward with interest because of a fast paced, well acted story full of in depth characters and with raunchy sex and vivid violence, you would not want to watch in the presence of your children or parents..
My only criticism during the film was that of plagiarism.
The most challenging and moving Televised series about World war 2 remains, the Secret Army, based on the true story of the Belgium managed escape route for allied aircraft pilots and their crew called Lifeline, There were three series from 1977 to 1979 and 43 episodes, and there have been almost continuous repeats on multi channel TV since. There are several amazing similarities between parts of the storylines pf the third series of the Secret army and the Black Book, although the treatment is very different.
Both have an attractive young woman who combines under active work against the occupier with singing for them, although in the Black Book, the character has a sexual relationship. In the Black Book the singer because emotionally attached to the German officer she is tracking while in the Secret Army this role is played by a different character but in both they assist the officer in trying to escape the wrath of the mob, The women in both films become accused a collaborators and traitors and have to be rescued although with significantly differently outcome. In both TV series and film a doctor players an important role but again with very different outcomes. In both there is a senior German officer who recognises that the war is being lost and ending and attempts to build bridges with the allies only to find themselves under sentence of death from their own side and in both there are good and bad enemies as well as traitorous colleagues.
The film is a vehicle for Carice Van Houten, who plays a young Dutch Jewess who has been kept hidden by a Dutch Christian family whose whom is unintentionally destroyed when an allied plane attempts to drop its undischarged bombs before making a crash landing. Carice and a new friend are approached by someone within the domestic police who offers to help her escape and she visits the family lawyer for financial help. She then finds that bother and parents are also part of an escape line of about thirty being taken out of danger on an open barge, which in my judgement should have aroused suspicions, and as some viewers will have also anticipated this proves to be a trap and everyone is slaughtered with the exception of Carice who is able to escape. The Germans seeing that she has fallen into the river, fire a few shots but then make no attempt to ensure that this was a corpse and not a survivor.
Carice is then fortunate to find herself in the hands of the underground preparing to rise up to help the allies as the war in Europe progresses. She participates in a trip to the country forma drop of weapons, ammunition, radio, chocolate and such like, returning with one comrade by train and when the train is being thoroughly searched and she is faced with jumping off as it moves, she elects to enter the first class unguarded compartment of senior German officer who has with him his prized collection of postage stamps from the countries in which he has served. He is missing stamps from the Dutch East Indies. First it is unlikely the officer would have carried his prized collection around with him, and given his position in the city he would have had no difficulty in finding those he needed. He therefore appears to be impressed when Carice arrives at headquarters with the missing stamps as part of a wide collection saying she steamed them off envelopes from a relative and also offers herself. While the rest of the high command appear only too willing to use any available woman for their debauched parties without much reflection, this officer appears to be less of a stereo type,
Unfortunately the vehicle bringing the arms and other equipment from the drop into the resistance headquarters is involved in an accident and the arms are discovered and the men bringing the haul captured including the son of the resistance leader. Carice who has been able to plant a radio microphone behind the picture of Hitler also learns that another group of wealthy Jews in hiding is to be tricked killed and their possessions removed for personal future use by a senior office unbeknown to the rest of the City command,
This places the resistance in a dilemma because the leader has been negotiating for the life of his son and other captives and hostages on the basis of not rising up during the period until the allies arrive, but the price of this will mean that 30 more wealthy Jews will be slaughtered. Carice and other members of the underground unilaterally devise a plan to stop the killing and making it looks as if the organiser has run off with the loot, They kill the man not knowing of the arrangements being made regarding the son and other hostages, or that the man killed is only part of a chain, boxes within boxes within boxes.
When she returns to the headquarters and her officer lover as part of a plan to rescue the captives having obtained copies of the original plans and worked out a way to enter site with a vehicle and then the building with the help of Carice, she is outed by the lover who explains that he was aware of true role from the outset. However rather than cast her to the Gestapo to find out about the rest of the resistance he persuades her to reveal the truth to him and she explains about the killing of wealthy Jews for their possessions and he in turn contacts the commanding officer to expose the colleague involved. However the colleague appears to have been forewarned and only has an expensive bottle of champagne being held for the victory celebrations, a feature included in one of the Bergerac series. Carice’s lover finds himself locked up, branded a traitor for consorting with the enemy’s and ordered for execution the following morning.
Then worse is to follow as first the escape plan also proves to be a trap and all the prisoners an rescuers are killed except for one and the driver of the vehicles who managed to get back to resistance HQ. Carice is also capture and the radio microphone is used to make it look as if she has been a German spy all along something which the others are all too ready to believe..
,
Then miraculously Carice and her German lover are rescued by loyal and sympathetic other German soldiers and he couple go into hiding until the allies arrive. They return to the home of the family lawyer who is accused of being the traitor and although he and his wife have played a part they are boxes within boxes and he has kept a Black Book record to substantiate his claims and protect himself and in his wife in such a foreseen eventuality. The lawyer and his wife are then assassinated by someone who disappears into the rejoicing crowd and stupidly given that he is a thoughtful and calculating man, the German office rushes off into the crowd after the attacker, for some reason which escapes me, and unsurprisingly is identified and captured, and taken off to allied HQ where he finds his former commanding officer assisting the allies to round up the rest of the command. The commanding officer then claims the right under the allied published articles of war to carry out the execution order and the allied officer then in charge agrees to the request and the execution is carried out. Sounds familiar?
Meanwhile the German officer at the end of the chain of killing and robbing wealthy Jews attempts to leave Holland for his homeland by a sea going vessel only to find that he is pirated and killed by a member of the Dutch end of the box within boxes.
Carice is also captured at the same time as her lover and taken to a concentration camp just as bad as any run by the Nazis where prisoners are treated worse than animals degraded, humiliated and used for pleasure and entertainment. Then Carice is rescued.
A leading member of the resistance and friend of Carice is a doctor, and now in uniform of the Dutch army, he is the rescuer, and takes Carice back to his home where is being treated as a great hero,
She is then shown two large cases of loot from her family and the other slaughtered Jews and is given an overdose of insulin to silence the one person left who could denounce him for all his traitorous and murderous actions. For some reason instead of waiting until she is fully into a coma he goes out onto the balcony to acknowledge calls for an appearance. Carice uses the opportunity to eat as much chocolate as she can as quickly as she can and then hurls herself over the balcony into the crowd below and makes an escape and this time finds the allies who are willing to believe her story with the help of the Black Book which has amazingly also survived.
Elsewhere in the city, the former head of the resistance and remaining colleagues are clearing the mass grave of bodies of former comrades including his son so they can receive an appropriate burial. Carice arrives with an escort to explain the truth for what has happened and to gain help to find the real traitor. They receive information that he is nearby trying to escape to Belgium in a hearse They catch up with the vehicle and seal the coffin with the traitor and the loot inside.
For the second day in succession the film had opened with a tourist coach travelling in North Africa, the middle East, this time it is Israel to a Kibbutz. A Dutch woman and her husband, a vicar are among the party and the woman goes off on an explore armed with a camera and takes a picture of a school room through an open door. The teacher protests and starts to pull down the blinds and realises that the other woman is a ghost from her experience in Holland during the war. The teacher is Carice, now married with two children, and the woman visitor well that is another part of the story,. The coach party leaves with the two women promising to re-establish contact.
Throughout the latter stages of the film Carice pleads hopefully to one comrade after the other and who turn out to be very different from who she believes they are, for the horror, the betrayals, the fighting to come to an end. Then in the final scene she walks with her husband and children as night approaches, there is the sound of gun fire and troops arrive to try and protect the kibbutz.
The Director has walked a tight rope between a serious film about a serious subject with good acting and characters who are not all caricatures or stock figures from previous films about the same subject, and what I can best describe as a Burlesque James Bond.
I had a good an enjoyable morning with an excellent lunch of olives with wine followed by half a chunk of chicken breast with stuffing balls and cocktail sausages with crisp roast potatoes. When I felt tired as is now customary after a good meal, I decided to repeat the previous day and instead of fighting the drowsiness and nodding off at the desk I went upstairs for a proper siesta. I woke in good time for them for the televised match of Sunderland at home against West Ham noting the sparse crowd and those present very wrapped up in the sunlit cold. I was struck by two things, The first is the frenetic approach to the game before the increasingly disillusioned home crowd and that Cisse and Kenwyn Jones are too much the same kind of players for the duo to work., Zola has got his team of former Newcastle players, Bellamy, Scott Parker and Lee Bowyer working well together, playing thoughtful football as well as knowing when to foul and put in good tackles. They deserved their goal buy Sunderland deserved at least two, missing good chances, having fouls in the penalty box ignored and have the kind of bad luck which would see other managers at other clubs rapidly shown the door. This side wont survive.
I felt tired once more and decided to go back to bed and slept for four and a half hours.. I am yet to get my body clock back to normal, having soup and a salami sandwich at midnight.
Earlier in the morning I had watched the Andrew Marr show which guests Black Prince Mandelson and Shadow Leader David Cameron in the run up to the pre budget Christmas give away speech the follow day. In fairness to Dave C I though his alternative approach sounded good. The appears now all agree that the most likely approach is for a cut in Vat which can be reduced by 2.5% without incurring the wrath of Europe plus a raft of measures to help the lower income earners who tend to spend whatever extra they have. I suspect some more surprises and major give away which will surprise everyone.
Most only need to act or form an opinion based on our own experience to-day and we often to do this without questioning, or needing to question its validity, whether it is an original or valid response on our own behalf as an adult or whether it is something with has it roots in the position of out parents and their ancestors, in the influence of other relatives, educators, secular and religious, or friends, of because of some experience in childhood which we no longer remember, and where it is best that we no longer remember, best for ourselves and for other. Of course the opposite is also true.
Sometimes I watch a film which I thoroughly enjoy but find myself questioning that I am doing so throughout, but for Swartboek, the Black Book, a film which like Babel uses four languages Hebrew, Dutch, German and British, but has nothing else in common, it was only when it finished and I realised I had given it my undivided attention that I began to question and regret.
When I say it is a film about the plight of people of Jewish faith in Holland in World War 2, directed by the same individual who gave us Basic Instinct Paul Verhoeven, the you should have known what kind of time you are going to have and that whatever money has been spent you will in fact be well reward with interest because of a fast paced, well acted story full of in depth characters and with raunchy sex and vivid violence, you would not want to watch in the presence of your children or parents..
My only criticism during the film was that of plagiarism.
The most challenging and moving Televised series about World war 2 remains, the Secret Army, based on the true story of the Belgium managed escape route for allied aircraft pilots and their crew called Lifeline, There were three series from 1977 to 1979 and 43 episodes, and there have been almost continuous repeats on multi channel TV since. There are several amazing similarities between parts of the storylines pf the third series of the Secret army and the Black Book, although the treatment is very different.
Both have an attractive young woman who combines under active work against the occupier with singing for them, although in the Black Book, the character has a sexual relationship. In the Black Book the singer because emotionally attached to the German officer she is tracking while in the Secret Army this role is played by a different character but in both they assist the officer in trying to escape the wrath of the mob, The women in both films become accused a collaborators and traitors and have to be rescued although with significantly differently outcome. In both TV series and film a doctor players an important role but again with very different outcomes. In both there is a senior German officer who recognises that the war is being lost and ending and attempts to build bridges with the allies only to find themselves under sentence of death from their own side and in both there are good and bad enemies as well as traitorous colleagues.
The film is a vehicle for Carice Van Houten, who plays a young Dutch Jewess who has been kept hidden by a Dutch Christian family whose whom is unintentionally destroyed when an allied plane attempts to drop its undischarged bombs before making a crash landing. Carice and a new friend are approached by someone within the domestic police who offers to help her escape and she visits the family lawyer for financial help. She then finds that bother and parents are also part of an escape line of about thirty being taken out of danger on an open barge, which in my judgement should have aroused suspicions, and as some viewers will have also anticipated this proves to be a trap and everyone is slaughtered with the exception of Carice who is able to escape. The Germans seeing that she has fallen into the river, fire a few shots but then make no attempt to ensure that this was a corpse and not a survivor.
Carice is then fortunate to find herself in the hands of the underground preparing to rise up to help the allies as the war in Europe progresses. She participates in a trip to the country forma drop of weapons, ammunition, radio, chocolate and such like, returning with one comrade by train and when the train is being thoroughly searched and she is faced with jumping off as it moves, she elects to enter the first class unguarded compartment of senior German officer who has with him his prized collection of postage stamps from the countries in which he has served. He is missing stamps from the Dutch East Indies. First it is unlikely the officer would have carried his prized collection around with him, and given his position in the city he would have had no difficulty in finding those he needed. He therefore appears to be impressed when Carice arrives at headquarters with the missing stamps as part of a wide collection saying she steamed them off envelopes from a relative and also offers herself. While the rest of the high command appear only too willing to use any available woman for their debauched parties without much reflection, this officer appears to be less of a stereo type,
Unfortunately the vehicle bringing the arms and other equipment from the drop into the resistance headquarters is involved in an accident and the arms are discovered and the men bringing the haul captured including the son of the resistance leader. Carice who has been able to plant a radio microphone behind the picture of Hitler also learns that another group of wealthy Jews in hiding is to be tricked killed and their possessions removed for personal future use by a senior office unbeknown to the rest of the City command,
This places the resistance in a dilemma because the leader has been negotiating for the life of his son and other captives and hostages on the basis of not rising up during the period until the allies arrive, but the price of this will mean that 30 more wealthy Jews will be slaughtered. Carice and other members of the underground unilaterally devise a plan to stop the killing and making it looks as if the organiser has run off with the loot, They kill the man not knowing of the arrangements being made regarding the son and other hostages, or that the man killed is only part of a chain, boxes within boxes within boxes.
When she returns to the headquarters and her officer lover as part of a plan to rescue the captives having obtained copies of the original plans and worked out a way to enter site with a vehicle and then the building with the help of Carice, she is outed by the lover who explains that he was aware of true role from the outset. However rather than cast her to the Gestapo to find out about the rest of the resistance he persuades her to reveal the truth to him and she explains about the killing of wealthy Jews for their possessions and he in turn contacts the commanding officer to expose the colleague involved. However the colleague appears to have been forewarned and only has an expensive bottle of champagne being held for the victory celebrations, a feature included in one of the Bergerac series. Carice’s lover finds himself locked up, branded a traitor for consorting with the enemy’s and ordered for execution the following morning.
Then worse is to follow as first the escape plan also proves to be a trap and all the prisoners an rescuers are killed except for one and the driver of the vehicles who managed to get back to resistance HQ. Carice is also capture and the radio microphone is used to make it look as if she has been a German spy all along something which the others are all too ready to believe..
,
Then miraculously Carice and her German lover are rescued by loyal and sympathetic other German soldiers and he couple go into hiding until the allies arrive. They return to the home of the family lawyer who is accused of being the traitor and although he and his wife have played a part they are boxes within boxes and he has kept a Black Book record to substantiate his claims and protect himself and in his wife in such a foreseen eventuality. The lawyer and his wife are then assassinated by someone who disappears into the rejoicing crowd and stupidly given that he is a thoughtful and calculating man, the German office rushes off into the crowd after the attacker, for some reason which escapes me, and unsurprisingly is identified and captured, and taken off to allied HQ where he finds his former commanding officer assisting the allies to round up the rest of the command. The commanding officer then claims the right under the allied published articles of war to carry out the execution order and the allied officer then in charge agrees to the request and the execution is carried out. Sounds familiar?
Meanwhile the German officer at the end of the chain of killing and robbing wealthy Jews attempts to leave Holland for his homeland by a sea going vessel only to find that he is pirated and killed by a member of the Dutch end of the box within boxes.
Carice is also captured at the same time as her lover and taken to a concentration camp just as bad as any run by the Nazis where prisoners are treated worse than animals degraded, humiliated and used for pleasure and entertainment. Then Carice is rescued.
A leading member of the resistance and friend of Carice is a doctor, and now in uniform of the Dutch army, he is the rescuer, and takes Carice back to his home where is being treated as a great hero,
She is then shown two large cases of loot from her family and the other slaughtered Jews and is given an overdose of insulin to silence the one person left who could denounce him for all his traitorous and murderous actions. For some reason instead of waiting until she is fully into a coma he goes out onto the balcony to acknowledge calls for an appearance. Carice uses the opportunity to eat as much chocolate as she can as quickly as she can and then hurls herself over the balcony into the crowd below and makes an escape and this time finds the allies who are willing to believe her story with the help of the Black Book which has amazingly also survived.
Elsewhere in the city, the former head of the resistance and remaining colleagues are clearing the mass grave of bodies of former comrades including his son so they can receive an appropriate burial. Carice arrives with an escort to explain the truth for what has happened and to gain help to find the real traitor. They receive information that he is nearby trying to escape to Belgium in a hearse They catch up with the vehicle and seal the coffin with the traitor and the loot inside.
For the second day in succession the film had opened with a tourist coach travelling in North Africa, the middle East, this time it is Israel to a Kibbutz. A Dutch woman and her husband, a vicar are among the party and the woman goes off on an explore armed with a camera and takes a picture of a school room through an open door. The teacher protests and starts to pull down the blinds and realises that the other woman is a ghost from her experience in Holland during the war. The teacher is Carice, now married with two children, and the woman visitor well that is another part of the story,. The coach party leaves with the two women promising to re-establish contact.
Throughout the latter stages of the film Carice pleads hopefully to one comrade after the other and who turn out to be very different from who she believes they are, for the horror, the betrayals, the fighting to come to an end. Then in the final scene she walks with her husband and children as night approaches, there is the sound of gun fire and troops arrive to try and protect the kibbutz.
The Director has walked a tight rope between a serious film about a serious subject with good acting and characters who are not all caricatures or stock figures from previous films about the same subject, and what I can best describe as a Burlesque James Bond.
I had a good an enjoyable morning with an excellent lunch of olives with wine followed by half a chunk of chicken breast with stuffing balls and cocktail sausages with crisp roast potatoes. When I felt tired as is now customary after a good meal, I decided to repeat the previous day and instead of fighting the drowsiness and nodding off at the desk I went upstairs for a proper siesta. I woke in good time for them for the televised match of Sunderland at home against West Ham noting the sparse crowd and those present very wrapped up in the sunlit cold. I was struck by two things, The first is the frenetic approach to the game before the increasingly disillusioned home crowd and that Cisse and Kenwyn Jones are too much the same kind of players for the duo to work., Zola has got his team of former Newcastle players, Bellamy, Scott Parker and Lee Bowyer working well together, playing thoughtful football as well as knowing when to foul and put in good tackles. They deserved their goal buy Sunderland deserved at least two, missing good chances, having fouls in the penalty box ignored and have the kind of bad luck which would see other managers at other clubs rapidly shown the door. This side wont survive.
I felt tired once more and decided to go back to bed and slept for four and a half hours.. I am yet to get my body clock back to normal, having soup and a salami sandwich at midnight.
Earlier in the morning I had watched the Andrew Marr show which guests Black Prince Mandelson and Shadow Leader David Cameron in the run up to the pre budget Christmas give away speech the follow day. In fairness to Dave C I though his alternative approach sounded good. The appears now all agree that the most likely approach is for a cut in Vat which can be reduced by 2.5% without incurring the wrath of Europe plus a raft of measures to help the lower income earners who tend to spend whatever extra they have. I suspect some more surprises and major give away which will surprise everyone.
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