Verhoeven utilizes classic film noir tropes like the Femme Fatale to immerse us in a gripping thriller plot while also confronting us with our own perceptions and awareness of gender power dynamics in a patriarchal society. He saturates his storyline with themes of ambiguity, exploring the delicate balance between desire and fear, knowledge and illusion, perpetrator and victim.
In line with Verhoeven's style, this film ultimately functions as a satire: elevated trash taken to the extreme, with great camerawork and an outstanding soundtrack.
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Basic Instinct 1992
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Total Recall 1990
It's fascinating how Verhoeven tells a cheesy sci-fi spy pulp flick here by integrating this storyline into the question of whether we might just be watching an implanted memory experience so that we swallow it. Smoothly embedded in the themes of identity and one's own existence (also with numerous other recurring Verhoeven motifs: totalitarianism, political power & economy, colonialism and much more), it works remarkably well and maintains a tension-filled narrative pace from the beginning. Only towards the end does the plot lose some steam.
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Dune 2021
Dune wird von Hintergrundgeschichte, Erklärungen & Exposition erdrückt. Es bleibt zu wenig eigene Geschichte und eigener Spannungsaufbau. Die postimperialistischen Motive, Fragen der Machtpolitik des offensiven Realismus in internationalen Beziehungen und der Eigendynamiken politischer & religiöser Ideologien bleiben noch sehr schemenhaft. Dune ist der Einstieg in ein Universum. Die Konfrontation und Auflösung der Handlung dürfen wir dann hoffentlich im kommenden Sequel[s] erleben.
Review: youtu.be/aRkIPDs5s1c
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