The Demonic and the Divine Paul Verhoeven’s BASIC INSTINCT By Robert Meyer Burnett
Basic Instinct (1992) sears with ambiguity, a thriller that dismantles its audience’s comfort with every deliberate...
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Groundbreaking & Provocative Storyteller
Paul Verhoeven
Genius of many Genres
Biography
Director Paul Verhoeven is one of the most provocative storytellers creating films today. His work reflects uncompromising vision, fascination with life’s moral dilemmas, and honest depictions of “sex and violence.”
Verhoeven was born in Amsterdam during World War II, and in 1964 received a doctorate degree in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Leiden. As a Royal Dutch Navy officer, he made the award-winning documentary Het korps Mariniers, then entered Dutch TV with “Floris,” an adventure series that became a phenomenon.
After “Floris,” the director segued into features with the Oscar®-nominated Turkish Delight, which is widely considered the best Dutch film ever made. Turkish Delight was followed by Katie Tippel and the WWII drama Soldier of Orange. Verhoeven again grabbed headlines with Spetters in 1980, followed by the occult The 4th Man and medieval Flesh +Blood.
Groundbreaking Science Fiction
Critical and box office hits
In the United States, Verhoeven directed 1987’s international mega-hit RoboCop (a satirical sci-fi saga) and 1990’s Total Recall, a mind-tampering blockbuster. The year 1992 brought the provocative drama Basic Instinct, a worldwide box-office smash and arguably the most talked-about film of that year. In 1995, controversy arrived in the form of Showgirls, Verhoeven’s tale of the dark side of Vegas. After Showgirls, the filmmaker directed the rousing Starship Troopers and Hollow Man before returning to European filmmaking with 2006’s Black Book, a fast-paced World War II resistance thriller that’s been called an “insanely entertaining” film.
Literary Ambitions
From Books to Internet
After attending the Jesus Seminar in Santa Rosa, California, for 20 years, Verhoeven and his biographer, Rob Van Scheers, completed Paul’s book on Jesus of Nazareth, which focuses on the historical Jesus. The book was published in September 2008 by Meulenhoff. It is now in its eighth printing, and has been translated into multiple languages, including Arabic. In 2012, Verhoeven and Van Scheers published a book reviewing classic movies of the last 100 years, which sold out immediately. Also in 2012, Verhoeven directed an Internet/TV project ― “The Entertainment Experience” ― which allowed the public to help write a 50-minute film in six-minute increments. The finished film, called Tricked, won an International Digital Emmy® at MIPTV and screened to acclaim at the Rome Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
Forever provocative
Continued critical acclaim
In 2015, Saïd Ben Saïd, one of France’s most renowned film producers, approached Verhoeven to direct the French language film Elle. The film was hugely successful, and was awarded two Golden Globes® (Best Motion Picture ― Foreign Language and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture ― Drama, awarded to lead actor Isabelle Huppert, who also received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actress). Paul again joined forces with Saïd Ben Saïd/SBS Productions in 2018 to shoot the period film Benedetta, an adaptation of Judith Brown’s Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. Because of the pandemic, the film’s release was delayed, but it debuted to a very enthusiastic audience at Cannes in 2021.
The film provoked controversial reactions, and was forbidden in several countries, among them Russia. (Strangely enough, the film got its best reviews in the United States.)
Paul is currently collaborating with screenwriter Edward Neumeier (RoboCop, Starship Troopers) on Young Sinner, a Washington, D.C. political-thriller. The screenplay will be finished by spring 2025.
DEPTH OF FIELD
Inside the world of Paul Verhoeven
Masters of Cinema
