The Fourth Man - ***1/2
Now Playing: (1983, Paul Verhoeven) [seen in theatre]
In a word, awesome. This is the first film from Verhoeven's early Dutch period, and while it's a bit more extreme in subject than his Hollywood work, it's stylistically very similar, particularly to BASIC INSTINCT (which I'm thinking I ought to watch again now). This film stars Jeroen Krabbe as Gerard Reve, a drunken, down-on-his-luck author who gives lectures at literary societies to pay the bills. One day, he travels to a small town by the sea and meets and falls for the mysterious, beautiful Christine (Renee Soutendijk), who has in her past three dead husbands- and he believes he could be next. One of the unsettling aspects of the film is how firmly Verhoeven places us inside Reve's mind, prone as he is to hallucinations and fever dreams ("Reve" means "dream" in French), leaving us unsure what to believe about the other characters in the film. Yes, Christine's husbands may have come to untimely ends, but did she really kill them? Either answer is equally possible, and equally disturbing. Verhoeven is completely in command of his style here, keeping the audience on edge with the unpredictability of his protagonist and the macabre visions he has on display (dangling eyeballs seem to be of particular interest). Credit also goes to Jan de Bont, a terrible director now but an ace cinematographer back in the day, for his stylized lighting schemes and sinister use of colors even in the more mundane moments (which, granted, are few). THE FOURTH MAN is one of Verhoeven's best, a film that caused me to yearn for the guy's next film, whenever he decides to actually make one.