Paul Verhoeven Filmmaking in the United States (1983-2000) What was the first film he did in the US? Flesh and Blood (1985), What genre of films did he make? big-budget, very violent, special-effects-heavy smashes What year did his first film debut? first American film, Flesh and Blood (1985), Who starred in his first film in the US? Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
What was another one of his films he made in the US?
What was another one of his films Paul Verhoeven made in the US?
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first American film, Flesh and Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunities in filmmaking. Working in the U.S. he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, very violent, special-effects-heavy smashes RoboCop and Total Recall. RoboCop, for Sound Effects Editing, and Total Recall, for Visual Effects, each won an Academy Special Achievement Award. Verhoeven followed those successes with the equally intense and provocative Basic Instinct (1992), an erotic thriller. The ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The film's most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she uncrosses her legs, briefly revealing her vulva (she does not wear underwear underneath her skirt). The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music. Verhoeven's next film was the poorly received, NC-17 rated Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director; Verhoeven became the first director to accept his "award" in person. Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals  and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers. After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence, and special-effects tropes that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein and Hollow Man (2000). Each film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. CANNOTANSWER
Basic Instinct (1992),
Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch director and screenwriter active in the Netherlands, France and the United States. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films. 

After receiving attention for the TV series Floris in his native Netherlands, Verhoeven got his film breakthrough with romantic drama Turkish Delight (1973), starring frequent collaborator Rutger Hauer. The film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and later received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival. Verhoeven later directed successful Dutch films including the period drama Keetje Tippel (1975), the war film Soldier of Orange (1977), the teen drama Spetters (1980) and the psychological thriller The Fourth Man (1983). 

In 1985, Verhoeven made his first Hollywood film Flesh and Blood and later had a successful career in the United States, directing science fiction films such as RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997) and Hollow Man (2000), as well as the erotic thriller Basic Instinct (1992).

He later returned to Europe, making the Dutch war film Black Book (2006), French psychological thriller Elle (2016), and most recently, the religious drama Benedetta (2021), all receiving positive reviews. Black Book and Elle were both nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and Elle won Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and César Award for Best Film. Black Book was also voted by the Dutch public, in 2008, as the best Dutch film ever made. In contrast, he won the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Director for Showgirls (1995); he is one of the few people to have accepted their Golden Raspberry awards in person, and was the first person to go to the ceremony to receive it. The film was a notorious flop in its initial release but later gained a cult following. Verhoeven's films altogether received a total of nine Academy Award nominations, mainly for editing and effects.

Early life
Paul Verhoeven was born in Amsterdam on 18 July 1938, the son of a school teacher, Wim Verhoeven, and a hat maker, Nel van Schaardenburg. His family lived in the village of Slikkerveer.

In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II. The Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by Allied forces. Their neighbours' house was hit and Verhoeven's parents were almost killed when bombs fell on a street crossing. From this period, Verhoeven mentioned in interviews, he remembers images of violence, burning houses, dead bodies on the street, and continuous danger. As a small child he experienced the war as an exciting adventure and compares himself with the character Bill Rowan in Hope and Glory (1987).

Verhoeven's father became head teacher at the Van Heutszschool in The Hague, and Paul attended this school. Sometimes the pair watched informative films at home with the school's film projector. Verhoeven and his father also liked to see American films that were in the cinema after the liberation, such as The Crimson Pirate (1952).

Verhoeven and his father went ten times to see The War of the Worlds (1953). Verhoeven was a fan of the Dutch comic Dick Bos. The character Dick Bos is a private detective who fights crime using jujutsu. Verhoeven liked comic drawing; he created The Killer, a character in a detailed story of revenge. Other fiction he liked were Frankenstein and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series.

Verhoeven attended public secondary school Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague. Later, beginning in 1955, he studied at Leiden University. Verhoeven graduated with a doctorandus (MSc) with a double major, in Mathematics and Physics.

Career

Short films and TV series (1960–1969)
Verhoeven made his first film Één hagedis teveel ("One Lizard Too Many") for the anniversary of his students' corps in 1960. In his last years at university Verhoeven also attended classes at the Netherlands Film Academy. After this he made three more short films: Nothing Special (1961), The Hitchhikers (1962), and Let's Have a Party (1963).

Verhoeven has not professionally used his mathematics and physics degree, opting instead to invest his energies in a career in film. After his studies he entered the Royal Dutch Navy as a conscript. He made the documentary Het Korps Mariniers ("The Marine Corps", 1965), which won the French Golden Sun award for military films.

In 1967 Verhoeven married Martine Tours, with whom he had two daughters, Claudia (b. 1972), and Helen (b. 1974).

When he left the Navy, Verhoeven took his skills to Dutch television. First, he made a documentary about Anton Mussert named Mussert (1968). His first major success was the 1969 Floris television series, starring Rutger Hauer. The concept of Floris was inspired by foreign series like Ivanhoe and Thierry La Fronde.

First feature films (1969–1983)
Verhoeven's first feature film Business Is Business was released in 1971 and was not well received. His first national success came in 1973 with Turkish Delight, starring Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. This film is based on a novel by bestselling Dutch author Jan Wolkers and tells the passionate love story of an artist and a young liberal girl from a conservative background. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In 1999 the film won a Golden Calf for Best Dutch Film of the Century. Verhoeven's 1975 film Katie Tippel again featured Hauer and van de Ven, but it would not match the success of Turkish Delight.

Verhoeven built on his reputation and achieved international success with his Golden Globe nominated film Soldier of Orange, starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film, based on a true story about the Dutch resistance in World War II, was written by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Soldier of Orange received the 1979 LA Film Critics Award for best foreign language film. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1980.

The Seattle Times praised Verhoeven by saying, "director Paul Verhoeven often appears to be a one-man Dutch movie industry," while The San Diego Union-Tribune called Verhoeven "a busy bee whose movies pollinate the festival circuit."

In 1980 Verhoeven made the film Spetters with Renée Soutendijk and Rutger Hauer. The story is sometimes compared to Saturday Night Fever, but the film has more explicit violence and sexuality (in this case also homosexuality), which are sometimes seen as the trademarks of Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven's film The Fourth Man (1983) is a horror film starring Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk. It was written by Gerard Soeteman from a novel by the Dutch writer Gerard Reve. This film would be Verhoeven's last Dutch film production until the 2006 film Black Book.

Filmmaking in the United States (1983–2000)
Gerard Soeteman also wrote the script for Verhoeven's first English-language film, Flesh and Blood (1985), which starred Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood for a wider range of opportunities in filmmaking. Working in the U.S., he made a serious change in style, directing big-budget, violent, special-effects-heavy hits RoboCop and Total Recall⁠—each of which won an Academy Special Achievement Award: RoboCop for Sound Effects Editing, and Total Recall for Visual Effects.

Verhoeven followed those successes with the equally intense and provocative Basic Instinct (1992), an erotic thriller. The ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, the movie was a return to themes Verhoeven had explored in Turkish Delight and The Fourth Man. The film's most notorious scene shows Sharon Stone's character in a police interrogation, where she uncrosses her legs, briefly revealing her vulva (she does not wear underwear underneath her skirt). The film received two Academy Awards nominations, for Film Editing and for Original Music.

During this time, Verhoeven also worked on creating an historical epic based around the Crusades that would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film entered pre-production in 1993, but a year later the studio backing the film (Carolco) pulled funding for the project. Verhoeven would continue to discuss the film throughout the 1990s.

Verhoeven's next film was the poorly-received, NC-17 rated Showgirls (1995), about a stripper in Las Vegas trying to make a career as a showgirl. The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Film and Worst Director; Verhoeven became the first director to accept his award in person. Afterward, the film enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.

After Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven returned to the science fiction, graphic violence and special-effects tropes that had marked his earlier films with Starship Troopers (1997), loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, and Hollow Man (2000). Each film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Return to Europe (2006–present)
After about 20 years of working and living in the United States, Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film. Together with his screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, Verhoeven made Black Book (2006). The director was hailed by the host of the Netherlands Film Festival with the words "The return of a hero". Black Book won six Golden Calves at this festival, including Best Director. When the shooting of Black Book was delayed due to financial issues, there was speculation about a new production. The film Beast of Bataan had been announced, but once the shooting for Black Book resumed, the other film was not realized.

Verhoeven was knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2007.

Since Black Book, Verhoeven has been connected to a large number of projects, but in the first decade after his return, none came to fruition. Some of those titles were produced with other directors at the helm, such as The Paperboy. In 2016, however, Verhoeven followed Black Book by directing a French film: Elle, an adaptation of a novel by Philippe Djian. A psycho-thriller where Isabelle Huppert plays a rape victim, Elle was selected for the Official Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews.

In December 2016, it was announced that Verhoeven would be the president of the jury for the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to take place in February 2017.

In April 2017, Benedetta, his next French film, was announced to begin filming in August of the same year. It is a biographical film about the life of Benedetta Carlini, portrayed by Elle co-star Virginie Efira, and is an adaptation of the non-fiction book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown. In May 2018, Charlotte Rampling was announced to play a key supporting role. The film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or.

Other activities
Verhoeven was a member of the Jesus Seminar, and he was the only member who does not have a degree in biblical studies. He graduated with a degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Leiden. Since he is not a professional biblical exegete, his membership in the Jesus Seminar has occasionally been cited by opponents of the Seminar as a sign that this group is less scholarly than it claims. For example, Luke Timothy Johnson criticizes the Jesus Seminar's methods on exegetical grounds, and also criticizes what he perceives to be a dependence on the theatrical and an attempt to manipulate the mainstream media. He singles out Verhoeven as a key player in the media activities of the Jesus Seminar. On the other hand, some Jesus Seminar members were unhappy with Verhoeven's portrayal of Jesus as an eschatological prophet.

In 2007, Verhoeven wrote the book Jesus of Nazareth () about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The book reviews the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth and the alleged corruption of these same ideas over the last 2,000 years. Co-written with Verhoeven's biographer Rob Van Scheers, the book is the culmination of the research Verhoeven conducted in preparation for Jesus: The Man, a motion picture about the life of Christ. The book tells about the Jewish uprising against Roman rule and characterizes Jesus as a radical political activist, downplaying any supernatural events and miracles as unproved or unprovable. Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait was released in September 2008 in Dutch and was published in English in May 2010 by Seven Stories Press.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

BAFTA Awards

César Awards

Saturn Awards

Golden Raspberry Awards

References

External links

 
 
 

1938 births
20th-century Dutch male writers
21st-century Dutch male writers
Action film directors
Best Director Lumières Award winners
Cultural critics
Dutch critics
Dutch documentary film directors
Dutch documentary film producers
Dutch documentary filmmakers
Dutch expatriates in the United States
Dutch film directors
Dutch film producers
Dutch male screenwriters
Dutch screenwriters
Dutch television critics
Dutch television directors
Dutch television producers
French-language film directors
German-language film directors
Golden Calf winners
Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
Leiden University alumni
Living people
Male television writers
Royal Netherlands Navy personnel
Science fiction film directors
Video game producers
Mass media people from The Hague
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Members of the Jesus Seminar
Percy Gets a Job is a 1912 Australian comedy short film starring W. S. Percy, "Australia's greatest comedian". It was one of the first Australian comedy short films. It was also known as Percy at the Lawyers and was released with another local short, Toggle Won't Go to School.

Percy's First Holiday

W.S. Percy later made another, more widely known short, Percy's First Holiday.

Plot
Percy travels from Sydney to New York. He is thrown out of a cinema; fights a 16 stone actor for the privilege of playing the part of an attractive young lady's younger brother; treats a young girl to a plate of spaghetti in a tango restaurant; argues with her infuriated husband; is fleeced of every penny by race course crooks and has to work his way home as a steward. At the end he leans over the side of the vessel and says "I'm just crazy about America, but oh! I love Australia!"

Production
Percy had left Australia for the US at the end of 1913. In February 1914 he arrived in New York and met Millard Johnson, the local representative of Union Theatres, who suggested he visit the Thanhouser Film Company Studio. They suggested Percy star in a comedy for the studio, and a scenario was written in 20 minutes.

While in New York, Percy also appeared in the Broadway show Maid of Athens.

Release
The movie was supposedly only made for Australian consumption but ended up being released around the world. It was highly popular in Australia.

References

External links

Australian films
1912 films
Australian silent films
1912 comedy films
Australian black-and-white films
Australian comedy films Sunset Range is a 1935 American Western film directed by Ray McCarey and starring Hoot Gibson. The film received a mostly positive reception, with praise for Gibson's acting and delivery of humor in what was his first western film in two years.

The film was regarded by some as being the "high point" in the filmmaking activity of the First Division Pictures studio, alongside another western, Rainbow's End, in the same year.

Plot 

The story starts in New York City before the westerners, led by Reasonin' Bates, travel to Arizona to outsmart gangsters in the east. The plot revolves around Bonnie, who gets involved in a case of kidnap and unknowingly hides ransom money. The ranch she owns is managed by Bates, who saves both her and the ransom money from the villain Grant.

Cast

Casting 
Gibson was cast in the leading role of Reasonin' Bates in what was his first western film in two years and the first since he had signed for First Division Pictures. The role was a departure from his usual western films, instead acting in a story with comedy and drama which was described as being one of his best performances. Gibson, who was a stunt performer in films prior to starring in westerns, performed "many feats of daring" in the film.

The villain Grant was played by Walter McGrail, who was well known in that type of character role in many previous western movies.

Reception 
The Sydney Morning Herald noted that despite the film's "exciting opening", the film became "leisurely" and described the acting, dialogue and humor as "feeble". The Intelligencer Journal offered a more positive review of the film, suggesting that it "will satisfy every theatregoer with entertainment and thrills", noting that the film had much comedy and dramatic situations which made for excitement. A positive assessment was also given by The News and Observer, suggesting that the film was "one of the finest westerns ever made" which was packed with "fast action, fast shooting and hard riding from beginning to end". The Reading Times had considerably praise for Gibson's performance, noting it was one of his best and that he proves himself as being an excellent rider with his handling of comedy and drama. The Casper Star-Tribune also praised the film, remarking that the film takes the audience "back to the real days of motion pictures", with praise for Gibson's delivery of humor and noting that he "has never been better than he appears in 'Sunset Range'".

References

External links 

1935 films
American films
English-language films
American black-and-white films
1935 Western (genre) films
American Western (genre) films
Films directed by Ray McCarey