Paul Verhoeven
A nostalgic journey through '80s Sc-Fi-films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artist who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.
Chronicles the lives of women who perform the stunts in some of Hollywood’s biggest action sequences — from the early days of silent movies to today’s blockbusters.
An in-depth, sad, and beautiful documentary about the stop motion and VFX artist Phil Tippett, a man who changed the landscape of visual effects in film.
Released in 1995, Paul Verhoeven's SHOWGIRLS was met by critics and audiences with near universal derision. YOU DON'T NOMI traces the film's redemptive journey from notorious flop to cult classic, and maybe even masterpiece.
How Frans Afman, a banker from the Netherlands, developed a new system for film financing, revolutionized independent filmmaking in Hollywood, but could not prevent it all from crashing down, when ambition of others turned into greed.
"Pim is more consummate," actress Willeke van Ammelrooy concluded upon seeing Pim de la Parra again in Suriname, at the presentation of the restored version of his film Wan Pipel. This marked the end of her disagreement with the director, which arose during the making of this film, some 35 years ago now. The charming director doesn't seem like the kind of man you can stay angry with for long. Wan Pipel turned out to be a watershed in the career of this headstrong filmmaker, who shook up the Dutch film world in the late 1960s. Although he went on to fight back with his so-called "minimal movies," he would never again get the opportunities his talent and inventiveness deserved. In Parradox In-Soo Radstake provides a personal portrait of De la Parra, now 70 years of age, who after many adventures in the Netherlands has returned to his native Suriname. He discusses the major themes of his life and work, which for a long time coexisted: too many women, too little money, too much ego.
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
A program of short films from some of the cinema's greatest diectors. Curated by Emir Kusturica and Stephen Frears. - George Lucas "1.42.08 to Qualify" (1966) - Ridley Scott "A Boy and a Bicycle" (1965) - Robert Zemeckis "The Lift" (1972) - Tony Scott "One of the Missing" (1969) - Emir Kusturica "Guernica" (1978) - Luc Besson "L'avant dernier" (1981) - Lars von Trier "Nocturne" (1980) - Terry Gilliam "Storytime" (1968) - Paul Verhoeven "A Lizzard Too Much" (1960) - Roman Polanski "Le gros et le maigre" (1960) - Jane Campion "Peel" (1982) - Stephen Frears "The Burning" (1967)
In 1980 film writer Ruud den Drijver goes head to head with two notorious Dutch film directors, Paul Verhoeven and Wim Verstappen, passionate film makers, competitors and colleagues in a free for all heated discussion ranging (among other subjects) from oral sex to the art of motion pictures. 25 years later the confrontation is continued during the Cannes Film Festival. In the meantime Wim Verstappen has died a year earlier and Paul Verhoeven has returned from a brilliant career in the States. Paul is still very outspoken. He talks freely about the present-day neo-conservative policies of America, and about the situation in Hollywood and his work. THAT'S IT!!(English title)(1980-2005) is a retrospective view on the careers of two driven film directors and is a hilarious time document larded with passionate statements.
A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
Documentary about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.
Directed by Kevin Burns, this documentary from Playboy Home Video examines the oftentimes tense relationship between sex, women, and popular Hollywood culture. With a particular focus given to Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Jean Harlow, and Sharon Stone, Sex at 24 Frames Per Second studies the role of female sexuality in film throughout the years. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
A behind-the-scenes look at director Paul Verhoeven's imaginative re-telling of Robert Heinlein's classic science fiction novel.
A look behind the scenes at the making of this science fiction classic about a policeman killed in the line of duty, only to be reborn as a half-man, half-machine supercop. Includes interviews with star Peter Weller and director Paul Verhoeven, who give their views on the efforts that went into making the film.
Cocky researcher, Sebastian Caine is working on a project to make living creatures invisible and he's so confident he's found the right formula that he tests it on himself and soon begins to vanish. The only problem is – no-one can determine how to make him visible again. Caine's predicament eventually drives him mad, with terrifying results.
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs".
Very insightful BBC documentary about Paul Verhoeven, tracking his career up to Showgirls. The programme focuses on talks with Verhoeven, but also includes interviews with many of the people who worked with him, both from the US and Holland, and even his wife. Also has a lot of behind the scenes footage from the set of Showgirls. Verhoeven is very open about the way he works, the themes in his movies and his life. He also interprets his own work in a very frank and intelligent way and, as always, is a gas.
Documentary that looks back at 35 years of Dutch cinema, with Paul Verhoeven and others.
A police detective is in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder, in which a beautiful and seductive woman could be involved.
Construction worker Douglas Quaid discovers a memory chip in his brain during a virtual-reality trip. He also finds that his past has been invented to conceal a plot of planetary domination. Soon, he's off to Mars to find out who he is and who planted the chip.
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Arnold Schwarzenegger science-fiction hit.
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.
A band of medieval mercenaries take revenge on a noble lord who decides not to pay them by kidnapping the betrothed of the noble's son. As the plague and warfare cut a swathe of destruction throughout the land, the mercenaries hole up in a castle and await their fate.
Documentary exploring why Belgian television doesn't invest more money in Belgian cinema as is the case in e.g. the netherlands.
An alcoholic writer begins having visions apparently warning him of impending danger. After he delivers a lecture, he begins an affair with a woman from the audience. The visions intensify, however, and begin to threaten his relationship with the woman, since it may be her the visions are warning against.
The Hitchhiker is a mystery anthology series that aired from 1983 to 1987 on HBO and First Choice in Canada. The series later moved to the USA Network from 1989 to 1991.
A Dutch film, post-Saturday Night Fever, which follows the lives of three young men who are amateur dirt-bike motorcycle racers. They each fall in love with a young woman who, with her brother, sells French fries and hot dogs at the races. Everyone is looking for a better life. She wants out of the business and away from her brother. The motocross racers want to make their marks as professional racers, like their hero, played by Rutger Hauer.
Based on the true story of a group of students from Leiden, the Netherlands, their experience, different paths and roles in World War II, either as a collaborators or in the resistance. Part of the story is set in London, where Queen Wilhelmina has residence. The main character of the story is Erik Lanshof who fights alongside Colonel Rafelli (Edward Fox) and soldier Susan (Susan Penhaligon) of the allied forces in London. The film begins with a flashforward in the form of a newsreel with a voice-over. Queen Wilhelmina is accompanied by Erik (Hauer) arriving in the Netherlands from London shortly after World War II. After the newsreel, the film starts in the late 1930s in Leiden, where freshmen undergo the humiliation of the initiation rites of their fraternity. Erik is appointed assistant to the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina, and accompanies her back to the Netherlands after the war, as shown in the newsreel in the beginning of the film.
During World War II in the Netherlands, resistance-leader Arie is shot by the Dutch SS-man Niels. Arie's comrades pledge to avenge his death. 35 years later one of them, Ab, is confronted with Niels again. He decides to round up his old friends to kill him. He finds out though, that they think this is useless or are not capable of doing so anymore. Only the former communist Gerben has not forgotten his pledge and is talked into joining the execution.
The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.
In the late 19th century, a young woman moves to Amsterdam with her family and tries to make a living. Preyed upon by various men, she nonetheless rises in society.
Eric, a gifted sculptor has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young girl, Olga. The story follows the arc of their relationship and his interaction with her family.
Controversial director Paul Verhoeven made his feature-film debut with this Dutch comedy-drama about two prostitutes working in the Amsterdam Red Light district, and the many strange and unusual men they meet through their work. Also known as Diary Of A Hooker, Business is Business, and Any Special Way, Wat Zien Ik? was based on the short stories of Albert Mol; the film was photographed by Jan de Bont, who later went on to become a successful director himself.
A worried father tries to end the relationship that his son Andries has with the wife of a wrestler.
Documentary about the leader of the fascist party in The Netherlands, from 1931 till 1945. This architect called Anton Mussert was shot in 1946 after having been convicted for high treason and aiding the enemy.
For more than four centuries, young Portuguese fishermen have followed their fathers to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and in recent years to Greenland’s banks to fish the cold waters for cod. Intrepid men, set off for the Banks on schooners under full sail, then adrift in a flat-bottomed dory, they bait the hundred of hooks of their long-line, oblivious to fog, rain and Arctic wind, they labour 18 hours a day and haul up cod by the score.
Het korps Mariniers is a documentary about the Royal Dutch Navy, which Paul Verhoeven made while being assigned to the Marine Film Service as a documentary filmmaker.
Short film about the blossoming affection of an upper-class schoolboy for a girl from a different class. The film, shot by Verhoeven at the same school he attended in The Hague, is loosely based on the description of the unrequited love of Anton Wachter in Simon Vestdijk's novel Back to Ina Damman, one of the parts in the Anton Wachter cycle.
A man is thinking about his relationship with his girlfriend, while checking out a gorgeous woman in a bar.
A woman, married with an artist, starts a relationship with one of her students, who has already got a mistress of his own. The two rivals meet.
Paul Verhoeven and Virginie Efira talk about Benedetta and how the film came to be.
Described to be an erotic thriller in the vein of Basic Instinct (but bigger and more open-minded) set in Washington DC.
The new feature length retrospective into the making of RoboCop (1987), its sequels and cultural impact over the last 30 years. Supported with over 90 of the original cast and crew. 'RoboDoc' is made by fans for the fans of the franchise.
