American Cinematographer - March 2007 - 43

Black Book follows

a

Jew, Rachel (Carice

young

Dutch

Houten),

the

spring."

period," he
says. "When I was researching
Soldier of Orange, I discovered a lot

trying to prove they were
fighters. Resistance fight¬
ers were
trying to use the situation to
make money. I felt driven to show
some
things as they were, not as peo¬
ple would like them to have been."
Lindenlaub adds, "It was very inter¬
esting to have a German-Dutch
camera crew
filming Dutch and
German actors reviving their coun¬

of information that wasn't appro¬

tries' histories."

Verhoeven says

with the Dutch
family is slaugh¬
tered by Germans while trying to
escape Holland. While working for

Black Book is
in many ways closely related to
Soldier of Orange, the 1977 picture
that helped put him on the map.
That film "was about friendship and

the Resistance, she falls in love with

heroism, and Black Book is about

van

who gets involved
Resistance after her

Nazi officer
is

a

(Sebastian Koch). "This

entertaining, dramatic movie
that has something to say," says
Lindenlaub, a native of Germany.
"And it's a European film, some¬
thing I hadn't done in many years."
The opportunity to work
an

with Verhoeven
tive. "I'd

seen

young man,
shocked and

was

also

an

incen¬

Paul's

early films as a
and I was a little
also

titillated

the shadow side of the

priate for that film. I have always
been fascinated by how much
betrayal, greed and treason from
every side was dominant by the
time the Germans realized they
were losing the war. Collaborators

were

Resistance

Lindenlaub shot Black Book in

3-perf Super 35mm, and although
this guaranteed him a digital inter¬
mediate (DI), he didn't want to push
the picture's look too far in the digi¬
tal suite at Soho Images in London.

and

by them," recalls the cin¬
ematographer. "When we met, I
found him to be incredibly smart

of "Ellis," Rachel
(Carice van
Houten) becomes

romantically
entangled with
S.S. officer

Ludwig Miintze
(Sebastian
Koch). This page,
above: While

hitching a
bicycle ride with
her Jewish ally
Rob (Michiel

Huisman), the
Rachel

saucy

teases

a group
Nazi soldiers.

Karl Walter

Lindenlaub, ASC,
BVK (left) frames
a

with director

a

that was not like many
during the Second World

story
set

of

Cinematographer

and well educated. And he wanted to

War. Like life, Black Book is

courtesy

as a

and adopting
new identity

tell

others

Phot s

Resistance
spy
her

Left:

entertained

CPSilacotsourenf.y

Opposite: After
joining the Dutch

street scene

Paul Verhoeven.

more

complicated than bad guys vs. good
guys. The histories of Holland and
Germany have always been tied
together. The Dutch suffered a lot
from Germany at the end of the war
because the Allies couldn't

move

into Holland, while most of

Europe
already free. It was a hard win¬
ter, and people died of hunger
before the country was liberated in

was

American

Cinematographer 41
American Cinematographer - March 2007

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