Director of Photography Karl Walter Lindenlaub and Director Paul Verhoeven on the set of Black Book Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

THE DIRECTORS: THE DIRTY DUTCHMAN
Paul Verhoeven

Miami
Perhaps more often than not associated with films featuring excess nudity and blatant skin-on-skin sex scenes, when Dutch director Paul Verhoeven first found his way to Hollywood in the 1980s, he eventually made his mark with violent science fiction parables (Robocop and later Starship Troopers). Basic Instinct (1992) and Showgirls (1995) challenged the boundaries of what could be depicted sexually in American cinemas and were met with critical ostracization for their crass exposure of flesh and overt misogyny. Verhoeven has noted that his last Hollywood film Hollow Man (2000) was overburdened with special effects, and the film's deliberately offensive rape scene edited out so that Kevin Bacon's character could appeal to a wider demographic. Disillusioned, Verhoeven returned to his native country and directed the award-winning World War II drama Black Book that reinstated him as a director who can provide a sophisticated commentary on political bias and hypocrisy while not having to sacrifice a single steamy sexual encounter.

The Sexessentials: Turkish Delight, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Black Book

Do you think that sex has evolved in the movies and is porn beginning to influence the way that directors are directing?
There is not much sex in American movies, is there? It has evolved the other way, the wrong way I would say. And it has a lot to do with the Puritanism of this government really. [Former U.S. Attorney General John] Ashcroft of course being Number One. But they are all born-agains, they are all Christians. I am really very well-instructed in theology. It's my hobby and I don't exaggerate. Although I am not a Christian, it has always very much intrigued me because it is the basis of European culture and philosophy to a large degree. So Christianity says we should abstain if possible. "It is better to marry than to burn," the Bible says. So Christianity has promoted all these horrible things, in my opinion. The natural state of the human being is a sexual one. That is basically engraved into our brains and in the way that we behave. Not only us but my dogs too and a lot of animals are basically sexually oriented because otherwise these species wouldn't be here any more. And if we were not lying on top of each other, then there would be no babies and we would be gone. There would perhaps still be dinosaurs or something. And there has been a very strong tendency [led] by Bush continuously [saying] that abstaining is really the right thing to do and then marry and be happy and then you can have sex. But I strongly disagree with that. I think this is denying the natural state of the human species.

Over the last ten years there has been a movement towards more explicit sex in films, like Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny or Larry Clark's Kids. Do you think that within the European auteur tradition there has been some development then?
Well, I would say within Europe there has always been sexuality [on film]. I remember that in French movies from when I was young... So, when I was in Paris, I was always flabbergasted at seeing all the nude photographs for the Moulin Rouge or the Folies Bergère, all these photographs of naked women. I remember I was fourteen or fifteen, my father took me to the Folies Bergère and there were twenty or thirty naked women walking [around], like Vegas. Let's say a high-brow version of Vegas. And that felt like it has always been that way in Europe, in some countries more than others.

MORE SEX ON FILM...
The Virgin: Daniel Waters
The Old Hand: Brian De Palma
The Crossover: John Cameron Mitchell
The Punk Rebel: Larry Clark
The Big Buffalo: Vincent Gallo
The Buttoned-Up Brit: Richard Eyre
The Sophisticate: David Cronenberg
The Motherfucker: Christophe Honoré
The Shocker: Gaspar Noé