POLL Verhoeven

She looks smashing in period Madonna suits too.

i get bored w/ Ironside's deadeye shtick after 10 mins. He even did it in a Charles Burnett film.

Total Recall is just some reactionary Republican wet dream, it's creepy.

― Οὖτις, Monday, November 14, 2016 6:01 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd argue that it's knowingly so, as opposed to 90% of the other action movies released from like '80-'92.

it fades to white at the end, suggesting Ahnuld has gotten a long-overdue lobotomy

i also love the scene where the head of Rekall (?) comes in and explains why everything is a dream, before A.S. sees a bead of sweat and offs him. Nice narrative jerk.

SWALLOW IT

certainly more 'eventful' than The Matrix. And the climax is a hologram rip of Lady from Shanghai.

but really, check out that gang rape in Spetters sometime. So fucked up.

Total Recall >> Robocop

Blasphemy. I do enjoy the TR >>> Blade Runner challops from earlier itt though

It's not that hard to imagine Broderick in a Cronenberg version of TR, really

i believe spetters was his attempt at being as offensive as possible -- not only with the rape but also with the suicide of the guy who lost his legs being treated positively.

didn't find that positively presented

According to the Dutch filmmaker, the reason Hollywood’s remakes (“Total Recall,” “Robocop”) and sequels (“Basic Instinct,” “Robocop,” “Starship Troopers) of his films fail is “the studios always wanted not to have a layer of lightness, a layer of irony, sarcasm, satire.”

Referring to the announcement that the new “Starship Troopers” reboot would go back to science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein’s original novel was particularly troubling to Verhoeven.

“It said in the article [that] the production team of that movie of the remake, that they would go back more and more towards the novel. And of course, we really, really tried to get away from the novel, because we felt that the novel was fascistic and militaristic,” said Verhoeven. “You feel that going back to the novel would fit very much in a Trump Presidency.”

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/11/paul-verhoeven-slams-starship-troopers-remake-fascist-update-perfect-trump-presidency-1201747155/

but really, check out that gang rape in Spetters sometime. So fucked up.

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 November 2016 02:44

Pretty nasty gang rape in Flesh + Blood too.

"nasty" is the main descriptor for that movie really, though it's also pretty funny. it's the only movie set in medieval times that I've seen that feels as gross as it must have actually been

I was going to say I couldn't imagine a big film being made like that now but it was probably an oddity at the time too.
I read that Verhoeven originally didn't intend there to be a female love interest and regretted including that. It would have been a totally different film without it.

i believe spetters was his attempt at being as offensive as possible

well, i saw Turkish Delight ('73) last night, based on a big Dutch bestselling novel, and hoo boy! The missing link among Love Story, Last Tango in Paris, and Judd Apatow.

PV did a Q&A after, chalked up the whole nudity/every-bodily-fluid vibe to the unleashing of the Dutch sexual revolution etc.

or as simonabrams wrote on L'boxd, "A sophomore film. Also sophomoric!"

going back to what shakey said a couple of days ago on total recall

Then there's the relentless misogyny, the butchering of the source material, the willfully stupid plot contrivances, it looks cheap... idk I can't think of anything to recommend it.

part of the reason i like total recall a lot is that the stupid plot contrivances and the cheapness actually kinda work in its favour when you take the view that everything after arnold goes for the procedure at rekall is his implanted memory, which is supported by the fact that the rekall team summarise the entire plot of the movie before it happens. quaid is supposed to be paying for the memory of a trashy numbskull spy adventure on mars, which is exactly what he gets, and so do we.

i'm still kinda bummed that verhoeven and schwarzenegger never got to make their megabudget crusades movie :(

Yeah the pulpy ridiculousness of Total Recall is what makes it work.

as much as i love the social-commentary splatter of robocop and starship troopers sometimes i just wanna watch some subtext-free gore y'know?

Ah yes, the "i meant to do that" defense

i kinda thought i might get that response but a) death of the author etc etc, i think it is a valid reading of the film either way and b) i'm pretty sure i remember from the dvd commentary that it is verhoeven's explicit intent that quaid is dreaming and the over-the-topness of everything post-rekall is absolutely intentional

i guess we're not gonna see eye-to-eye on this one but i'd advise anyone with an interest in the movie to listen to the commentary if they haven't already cuz it's a fuckin hoot - verhoeven getting super-excited about the amount of fake blood they packed into squibs while arnold robotically points out in excruciating detail exactly what's happening on-screen and pedantically explains the paper-thin motiviations of his character

Arnold is vulnerable in the movie, eh? He's never vulnerable. Even in the scene where the doctor comes in and goes, "You think you're here on Mars? Well, haha, you're not!" I mean, Arnold is very vulnerable there, yeah? And Arnold is a great guy to work with, in fact. Probably the most dedicated... well, Isabelle is dedicated, too, but Arnold! Arnold is the most dedicated guy I've worked with. He works very, very hard. He's willing to try everything to make the movie work. And he has no ego. I could say to Arnold, "That scene doesn't look good. Watch this video, it's not good, what you're doing. Let's do another take," and he would take direction. I mean, he's obviously not a trained actor in any way, but his really wanting to get the best out of himself and out of everybody is rare.

http://www.metro.us/entertainment/paul-verhoeven-talks-elle-and-how-hollywood-really-is-now-all-about-money/zsJpkj---H2mJKQWBL49nA/

i think Elle needs its own thread

part of the reason i like total recall a lot is that the stupid plot contrivances and the cheapness actually kinda work in its favour when you take the view that everything after arnold goes for the procedure at rekall is his implanted memory, which is supported by the fact that the rekall team summarise the entire plot of the movie before it happens. quaid is supposed to be paying for the memory of a trashy numbskull spy adventure on mars, which is exactly what he gets, and so do we.

otm

xp sure - by all means start it! it's not out here in the uk in march but i'll happily check the thread out once i get the chance to see it

a discussion

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-comment-podcast-paul-verhoeven/

xp to Morbs: Turkish Delight is, to this day, the most successful Dutch film of all time. 3.3m people (on a population of 13.5m) saw it at the cinema back then.

That was mentioned ("like twice Star Wars" Verhoeven said), and voted Greatest Dutch Film of the Century in 1999. Sad!

just call me "ilx silverware" btw (i've "learned nothing")

Don't think thats sad tbh, it's a good movie. The list of 25 most viewed Dutch movies contains six Verhoevens, and quite some other smut films from the 70s :)

Elle was pretty good but probably like my 7th fave of his. I hope he gets a chance to make one more American movie during the Trump years.

elle needs its own thread yeah. i just finished it and i'm extremely upset

As Variety‘s Elsa Keslassy reports, he plans to re-team with Elle producer producer Said Ben Said on three further projects, “a French resistance drama, Lyon 1943 (working title), a film about Jesus (to be shot in French) and a movie turning on a Medieval women monastery based on a real story that occurred in Italy and will be transposed to France. Verhoeven revealed he also had a project set in the US: An English-language film called The Rogue which he’s doing with American producer Bill Mechanic.”

http://variety.com/2016/film/global/paul-verhoeven-on-elle-star-isabelle-huppert-producer-said-ben-said-future-projects-exclusive-1201938937/

as someone who's actually read his book on the subject I maintain there is absolutely no way he ever gets his Jesus movie made

IIRC he hasn't yet figured out how to film the parables.

i just watched the fourth man and the placement of the fourth man in that verhoeven ranking upthread is rong rong rong

I don't think I've ever seen the entirety of that one, for some reason, despite all the times I borrowed the (now quite rare/expensive, I think) early-Verhoeven box from the video store I used to work in

Likes: Verhoeven
Dislikes: Eszterhas

I had never seen Basic Instinct - I started it once years ago, when I was snobbier, and could barely watch - and now that I have:

1) Looks great! Not bad, Jan de Bont.
2) For all it luridness, it's pretty old fashioned.
3) Like at least half of his stuff, it's Hitchcock with a wink (I think), totally ridiculous to the point of hard boiled parody. It's super hard to discern if this is simply the writing or how Verhoeven is approaching the writing. (This is more of a problem with Showgirls, or of course, maybe just a problem with Eszterhas.)
4) Great score! Goldsmith does Herrmann.
5) Stephen Tobolowsky!

i think basic instinct is maybe goldsmith's best ever score

Poltergeist for me.

There's this, Poltergeist, Omen, Apes, Patton, Alien, Chinatown ... those are the ones that come to mind.

Oh, forgot 6) Rob Bottin!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-SSul3XkAAEdb_.jpg

Seems like this is going to happen!

https://variety.com/2017/film/global/paul-verhoeven-approaches-blessed-virgin-with-elle-star-virginie-efira-1202399023/

My humble rankings.

Verhoeven + that concept + soeteman sounds like a winner to me

Watching Total Recall for the first time in maybe 15 years. Verhoeven and DP Jost Vacano had such a weird, almost unique look going on, totally drab and flat (both the look *and* Arnie) but it works, not least because the blood is so rich and vibrant. Arnie, for his part, is totally game for this strange mix of almost old-fashioned cornball and state of the art and the gleeful embrace of sheer absurdity. I kept thinking to myself how patient he must have been for all these crazy set pieces, esp. considering he's the least coked out looking/acting of the whole cast.

yeah it’s super-entertaining and the supporting cast is great - sharon stone in particular has a blast playing a character which probably seemed pretty flat on the page

i watched this again fairly recently and one thing which really struck me is how good arnold is as the super-spy quaid who appears in video messages to the regular quaid - he’s got this laidback cockiness that schwarzenegger never really played in any other role, weirdly. i wish we got to see more of that side of arnold onscreen during his career!

also the visual of construction-worker arnold holding a jackhammer will never not be amazing and hilarious

Boy, “Benedetta” gets a poop joke in there less than five mnutes into the movie and then it just keeps going.iCan’t say I didn’t enjoy lots of it, though, regardless. This is full throttle trashy Verhoeven.