POLL Verhoeven

i wanna see the nun titty movie so bad

You ain't never seen Jesus like this!

It's wild.

and, yeah, it's trash with verve

attempting a ranking of verhoeven films which will make no sense whatsoever

total recall
showgirls
elle
robocop
the fourth man
benedetta
starship troopers
katie tippel
black book
turkish delight
soldier of orange
flesh & blood
hollow man
spetters

still haven't seen: business is business, tricked

thought Elle was surprisingly good but otherwise am not that interested in his films

really liked Total Recall at the time. I should see it again, but I already know I'm going to be disappointed

watched Showgirls again recently. loved the scene showing her companionship with the drifter she hitchhikes a ride with at the beginning of the film, who robs her. she ends up getting the better of him at the end

Total Recall ruled when I watched it last year.

Really love Soldier of Orange. Just a great buddy war film, although I can understand if one would consider it lacking in Verhoevenesque tendencies. It’s played pretty straight.

He's made only two films in the 12 years since this poll and yet I think he's due for a repoll.

ive always liked-but-not-loved robocop, but total recall just delivers a full buffet of insanity and then some, outrageously fun when i revisited it recently, forever #1 PV for me

GIVE ZEZE PEOPLE ZEH AIIIR

black book higher for me, maybe no. 2 after showgirls and just ahead of total recall

i need to see it a second time for sure

Benedetta was quite good but I feel just a little underwhelmed. Still worth seeing.

Benedetta was enjoyable enough in the old-fashioned sense of trashy-arty Euro films like Just Jaeckin’s ‘Emmanuelle’ and ‘The Story of O’

it’s wild how I always have to be reminded that he did Basic Instinct. which I’m assuming was his biggest earner?

and Robocop.

It's been years since I've seen Soldier of Orange, but I remember liking it a lot.

Huh, I wonder what happened to the RoboCop documentary, "RoboDoc"? This piece claims it finally wrapped (after four years) over a year ago:

https://deadline.com/2021/04/robocop-robodoc-documentary-peter-weller-movie-paul-verhoeven-1234747420

looks like RoboDoc is finally coming to streaming:

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3775706/robodoc-the-creation-of-robocop-four-part-docuseries-premieres-august-29-on-screambox/


but what I really revived this for is to say that I finally watched Benedetta and it was a lot of fun! every powerful character see-sawing between what they believe and their ambitions was great. was not expecting it to be as funny as it was

How long as that been in the works, a decade?

having seen Reservation Dogs before Benedetta, I kept thinking of her visions in terms of the visions in that show. which isn’t that far off, really

Benedetta is wonderful, and I highly recommend reading its source material, Immodest Acts, too. I love its really dry humour.

Not listed in the poll, but his experimental Dutch mini-feature TRICKED is definitely worth a watch.

Gave Showgirls a fresh rewatch thanks to the new 4K and it feels even more of an otherworldly miracle now, in the nu-puritanical ‘20s

Not one vote for Soldier of Orange? Surprising.

While he hasn’t found a sci-fi project that piqued his interest, Verhoeven has plenty to keep him busy. He is currently preparing to shoot a political thriller called “Young Sinner,” which would mark his fist American film since he released “Hollow Man” in 2000. Verhoeven said that the film, which sees him reteaming with “RoboCop” writer Ed Neumeier, could be ready to enter production as early as this year.

“I’m working with Ed Neumeier, who wrote RoboCop. You could say it’s a political thriller, if you want, situated in Washington,” he said of the project. “The last couple of years I’ve been working in France because I couldn’t find something interesting here at that time. But Ed came up with a really interesting proposal. For two years we have been working on the screenplay. It should be done in two months and then we can find out if someone can finance it.”

BTW, Verhoeven is 85!!!

That probably sneaks up on a lot of American viewers - he had a long and extensive filmmaking career before making Robocop.

Thankfully he makes a lot of appearances in NYC - highly recommended, but Lincoln Center usually records and uploads his talks so you can see them on their YouTube channel. A few recommended ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_0CwGuiMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QotxGy4CKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O5QZncVjuw

He's definitely a filmmaker who's grown on me in recent years. Starship Troopers alone seems very underrated and sadly a film that the country's lived down to thanks to the increasingly warped right wing.

(FWIW, I would've voted for Black Book)