Paul Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938, Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a Dutch film director who specialized in violent action movies that were nonetheless thoughtful and morally nuanced. After making several popular films in the Netherlands, Verhoeven had similar success in Hollywood in the 1980s and ’90s with such blockbusters as RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990).

Verhoeven lived in The Hague as a child and experienced the violence of World War II bombings. He earned an advanced degree in mathematics and physics from the State University of Leiden in the early 1960s, and during this time he also studied at the Netherlands Film Academy and made several short movies. Verhoeven fulfilled his military requirement by serving in the Royal Netherlands Navy. Assigned to the Marine Film Service, he directed a documentary marking the marine corps’s 300th anniversary, Het Korps Mariniers (1965; The Royal Dutch Marine Corps).

Following his military service, Verhoeven directed the TV series Floris (1969), set in medieval times and starring Rutger Hauer. He also directed a TV biography of the leader of the Dutch fascist party during World War II, Portret von Anton Adriaan Mussert (1970). Verhoeven’s first feature film was Wat zien ik (1971; Business Is Business), a comedy about two prostitutes that found an appreciative audience. His next movie, based on a novel by Jan Wolkers, was the sensual love story Turks fruit (1973; Turkish Delight), starring Hauer and Monique van de Ven. Hugely and enduringly popular in the Netherlands, it received an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film. Keetje Tippel (1975; Katie Tippel) features van de Ven as a girl who is forced to turn to prostitution to help support her family. Verhoeven then reteamed with Hauer on Soldaat van Oranje (1977; Soldier of Orange), a tale of the Dutch resistance during World War II. Spetters (1980), a brutal coming-of-age story involving motocross racers, received mixed reviews. Verhoeven’s next movie, De vierde man (1983; The 4th Man), a psychological horror film centering on a bisexual novelist, was regarded by many critics as a masterpiece.

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Verhoeven’s first English-language movie was also his last featuring Hauer. The explicitly violent Flesh+Blood (1985) is a bloody tale of revenge, plague, and betrayal during the Middle Ages. Verhoeven then set about conquering Hollywood, beginning with the blockbuster sci-fi classic RoboCop (1987), about a murdered police officer turned into a cyborg warrior. He followed up with another sci-fi megahit, Total Recall (1990), which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and was based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. The erotic thriller Basic Instinct (1992), with the lead roles filled by Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, was another box-office hit and contains a notoriously provocative shot of Stone recrossing her legs. Verhoeven’s streak ended with the widely panned Showgirls (1995), set in Las Vegas.

Verhoeven turned back to science fiction with Starship Troopers (1997), based on a Robert Heinlein novel, and Hollow Man (2000), the latter of which also has elements of horror. However, neither reached the heights of critical or popular acclaim of his earlier movies. He returned to the Netherlands for his next movie, Zwartboek (2006; Black Book), another story of the Dutch resistance in Nazi-occupied Netherlands. The drama—which he wrote with Gerard Soeteman, a frequent collaborator—was a triumph. After the minor comedy Steekspel (2012; Tricked), Verhoeven won widespread praise and a nomination for the top prize at the Cannes film festival for Elle (2016). The French film examines the responses of a woman (Isabelle Huppert) to having been raped.