Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Hello! I was invited to a preview of Paul Verhoeven's new thriller Black Book (Zwartboek) last week, which turned out to be terrific movie. Verhoeven returns to Holland for another lengthy and detailed story of anti-Nazi resistance produced on a lavish scale like his previous masterpiece, 1977's Soldier of Orange. Derek de Lint and Dolf de Vries return in key roles, but the film follows the fortunes of the beautiful Ellis (Carice van Houten), a survivor of a massacre of Jews who joins the resistance and beds a senior occupation official (Sebastian Koch) as part of her mission. It's based on many true incidents gathered into one rather packed storyline, so unlike Soldier of Orange, it's not a "true" story. A few disturbing and excessive scenes, including one that was entirely unnecessary, will immediately define this as Verhoeven's work. But the movie has great performances, a great lead actress in Ms. van Houten and is the most exciting new film I've seen this year. I believe it hopes to become one of this year's nominees for best Foreign Film. It apparently doesn't open here until March. -- Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson