Black Book

Black Book is a film directed by Paul Verhoeven, who directed, among other things, Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and the immortal Showgirls.  This film is in Dutch (Zwartboek is the untranslated title), and it is based on the true story of a Jewish woman in World War II who adopted a non-Jewish identity and spied on the Nazis by sleeping with them.

I have to point out here that, right at the beginning of the disk, there is a screen saying that the film is rated R, in part for "graphic nudity," and my first thought was that I was meant to be European.  Not British -- they seem so silly sometimes, but Dutch would be fine, or French or German.  Europeans can just be so much more adult about nudity, sex, drugs, taxes, social welfare, workers rights, helping each other, taking long lunches...  I think I will have some more wine.

Ok, glass of wine (red) at hand.  In the last half hour I have had a man at he door looking for the girl next door and a call from a guy looking for Kim.  Anyway, I thought Black Book was very entertaining.  It's a suspenseful story with a fairly involved plot that includes trying to identify a mole within the Dutch resistance, and there are several twists to the story, but it is never hard to follow or believe, and it always kept me engaged.  The morality of the characters, even the heroine, is not as clear cut as you might expect from a movie about fighting Nazis, and I think that adds something to the film.

So I would recommend this one to people who enjoy foreign films.  As for the nudity, yes there is some, but nothing a good European would think twice about.