I enjoy a good World War/espionage thriller and Paul Verhoeven's movie (like Ang Lee's 'Lust, Caution', Hirschbeigel's 'Downfall') is an excellent addition to the non-US/UK output in the genre.
Truly moving, aluring and absorbing, Carice van Houten is outstanding in the lead and for what Verhoeven puts her through, fearless.
The atmosphere is high in tension and the twists don't let up through to the end. I'm not familiar with Verhoeven's pre-Hollywood output, but is this really the same guy that gave us the lamentable Showgirls and Hollowman?

I liked it pretty much the same as Soldier of Orange. Similar in their own ways and both containing great lead performances. Carice van Houten is really pretty fantastic. I love a good strong female character and she delivers in spades.

The film is very entertaining for such a long movie but I do feel it got a little messy towards the end. Overall it's recommended if you like war movies.

A masterwork of gripping storytelling with bite. It hits that sweet spot, falling almost exactly at the artistic midpoint between Verhoeven's early stuff and his Hollywood glory years.

It's the kind of war film only he could make; full of moral grey areas and subverted ideas of good and evil. With typical kinkiness, only he could take a tale of WWII resistance fighters and find time to include dyeing pubic hair and a semi-nude woman doused in excrement.

Carice van Houten gives a thoroughly compelling lead performance and every element of this, from script to direction, is finely tuned and taut.

A master at the top of his game.

Muchos de los hechos mostrados son reales, y aunque parece que ya se hicieron muchas películas sobre la WWII, ésta realmente merece la pena verla.

For about an hour and a little more, this is a pretty great, believable film, a story told with great narrative skill. But it just keeps going and going beyond its limit and becomes all artifice by the end. Maybe one day I'll give it another shot.

The kind of film one would watch when not in the mood for something more 'serious' but when just in the mood for some casual entertainment. Zwartboek manages to provide just that. Nothing more, nothing less. When placed against the questionable storyline, usual WWII tropes and one-dimensional borderline caricatures, Carice Van Houten's lovely performance clearly is the film's strongest feature.

Blonde vintage hairstyle, red lipstick and garters? More pls.

It's funny, for a movie I absolutely loved, I almost always forget this movie exists for long periods of time. I don't think it's a stretch to say this is one of my favorite war films and Verhoeven one of my favorite directors. I feel like this is one of those movies that nobody saw due to its limited release and very little promotion, but I highly recommend it.

Verhoeven is en blijft de beste regisseur die we hebben. Van Houten doet het ook steengoed. Erg goeie film, al is het niet Verhoevens beste.

Solid war thriller by our beloved Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. Carice van Houten carries the film delivering a very good performance. The film also brings lots of solid performances by the supporting cast. Zwart Boek is 1 of the better Dutch films about WW II which looks great, has lots of twists throughout which kept me entertained until the very end all very crafty directed by Paul Verhoeven. If you like foreign cinema than Zwart Boek should definitely be on your list. Highly recommended!

A Jewish woman living in Nazi occupied Holland during WWII escapes death and joins the resistance movement. When the son of the leader of the movement is captured she is asked to seduce the Commander so that the boy can be released. Event though it was filmed in Dutch, it feels more like Verhoeven's Hollywood films that his early Dutch ones. And that is a shame.

8.25/10

Two thirds of the movie were excellent...

The acting was supreme from all involved. Carice van Houten was outstanding... tough... intelligent and of course sexy... oh so sexy. (I didn't realize until after that she's the Red witch from GOT... maybe the sexiest character in GOT, and that's quite a feat!)

While the last third of the film was fine, I found by then that I was noticing its length and it fell in quality a bit. The plot got a bit too complicated as well. It wasn't hard to follow, but felt it was a bit unnecessary to add the extra twists.

That said I really enjoyed this film overall

A masterwork of gripping storytelling with bite. It hits that sweet spot, falling almost exactly at the artistic midpoint between Verhoeven's early stuff and his Hollywood glory years.

It's the kind of war film only he could make; full of moral grey areas and subverted ideas of good and evil. With typical kinkiness, only he could take a tale of WWII resistance fighters and find time to include dyeing pubic hair and a semi-nude woman doused in excrement.

Carice van Houten gives a thoroughly compelling lead performance and every element of this, from script to direction, is finely tuned and taut.

A master at the top of his game.