Paul Verhoeven

Director

July 18, 1938 (87 years)

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Biography

Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938) is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and producer who has made movies in both the Netherlands and the United States. Explicitly violent and/or sexual content and social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films. He is best known for directing the American feature films RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Turkish Delight (1973) received the award for Best Dutch …

Filmography

6.3

The Hitchhiker

A young hitchhiker introduces characters who are about to experience a frightening and sometimes supernatural incident of some kind in this moody anthology series.

6.9

Basic Instinct

Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.

7.3

Total Recall

Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Rekall, a virtual vacation company that manufactures memories. When something goes wrong during Quaid's memory implant procedure, his life turns upside down, leading him to question what is reality and what isn't.

7.1

Starship Troopers

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."

5.6

Showgirls

Fresh to Las Vegas with no connections, Nomi Malone takes a job as an exotic dancer. Her talents are quickly noticed by Cristal, a headlining dancer who senses an opportunity to bolster her own act. But Nomi won’t play second fiddle and soon begins her venomous path to the top, ruthlessly backstabbing anyone who gets in her way.

6.0

Hollow Man

Cocky researcher Sebastian Caine is working on a project to make living creatures invisible. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough, Caine pushes his team to move to the next phase — using himself as the subject. The test is a success, but when the process can't be reversed and Caine seems doomed to future without flesh, he starts to turn increasingly dangerous.

7.4

RoboCop

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.

6.6

Benedetta

A 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta's shocking religious visions that threaten to shake the Church to its core.

7.5

Black Book

Israel, 1956: Jewish teacher Rachel Stein rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz. It brings back memories of her experiences in the Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. In September 1944, Rachel's hiding place is bombed by Allied troops; she makes contact with a resistance member and joins a group of Jews to be smuggled across the Biesbosch to the freed South Netherlands. Only Rachel escapes a massacre by patrol Germans, and is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers, whose son is captured trying to smuggle weapons. Kuipers asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze, a mission that she will soon learn that the boat attack wasn't a coincidence.

6.6

Flesh + Blood

A band of medieval mercenaries take revenge on a noble Lord who cheated them by kidnapping his son's fiancée. As the plague and warfare cut a swathe of destruction throughout the land, the mercenaries hole up in a castle and await their fate.

6.6

Elle

When Michèle, the CEO of a gaming software company, is attacked in her home by an unknown assailant, she refuses to let it alter her precisely ordered life. She manages crises involving family, all the while becoming engaged in a game of cat and mouse with her stalker.

6.9

Turkish Delight

Gifted but hot-headed sculptor Eric has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young woman named Olga.

6.7

The 4th Man

Morbid Catholic writer Gerard Reve–bisexual, alcoholic, and experiencing frequent visions of death–is invited to give a lecture at the Vlissingen literature club. While in the Amsterdam railway station, he's attracted to a handsome man who embarks on another train. Gerard meets club treasurer and beautician Christine Halsslag, and engage in a one-night-stand. The next morning, Gerard sees a picture of Christine's boyfriend Herman and recognises him as the man at the train station. He urges her to bring Herman to her house to spend a couple of days together, but with ulterior intentions of seduction. During a night on his own, Gerard finds and watches film reels, discovering that Christine had married each; all of whom died in tragic accidents. Believing Christine is a Black Widow, Gerard begins to question whether Herman or he will be her doomed fourth man.

6.5

For Queen and Country

Voor koningin en vaderland (English: For Queen and Country) is a 1979 Dutch television miniseries created and written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and Gerard Soeteman, and directed by Paul Verhoeven. The four-part serial is an extended version of Verhoeven's 1977 film Soldaat van Oranje (Solider of Orange). During World War II, Leiden students–among them Erik, Guus, Jan, Alex and Robby–collaborate and/or join the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands.

7.1

Soldier of Orange

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.

8.0

Floris

A Dutch television series about an exiled knight and his Indian friend. Together they try to get his birthright papers back from an evil Lord. During their quest, they get help from a nobleman who offers them a place in his castle. Written by Gerard Soeteman starring Rutger Hauer and Jos Bergman and directed by Paul Verhoeven.

6.3

Spetters

Amateur dirt-bikers Rien and Hans–and their mechanic Eef–each fall in love with Fientje, a young woman who, with her brother Jaap, works a concession stand at the races. Everyone seeks a better life: Fientje wants out of the business and away from Jaap; and Rien and Hans aim to make their marks as pro racers, like their hero, Gerrit Witkamp.

5.6

Business Is Business

Dutch prostitutes Greta and Nel cruise the Amsterdam red light district, seeking clients to involve in their elaborately staged fetish fantasies, be it disciplinarian headmistresses, surgeons cutting open a willing patient, or even dressing up as chickens, the duo show their expertise in role-playing again and again and again. In reality, Nel is trapped in an abusive marriage and Greta is forever in the middle of their confrontations but her life takes a positive upturn when she becomes involved with a client.

5.6

Tricked

During his 50th birthday party thrown by his wife, Remco's life takes a turn for the worse. His business partners are scheming behind his back to sell him and his former mistress shows up pregnant.

8.0

Le court des grands

A program of debut shorts from some of cinema's greatest diectors. Curated by Emir Kusturica and Stephen Frears, featured auteurs include George Lucas' "1.42.08 to Qualify" (1966), Ridley Scott's "A Boy and a Bicycle" (1965), Robert Zemeckis' "The Lift" (1972), Tony Scott's "One of the Missing" (1969), Kusturica's "Guernica" (1978), Luc Besson's "L'avant dernier" (1981), Lars von Trier's "Nocturne" (1980), Terry Gilliam's "Storytime" (1968), Paul Verhoeven's "A Lizzard Too Much" (1960), Roman Polanski's "Le gros et le maigre" (1960), Jane Campion's "Peel" (1982), and Frears' "The Burning" (1967).