The Paul Verhoeven Fan Page
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Or, ten reasons to appreciate him. 1. At the 1996 Golden Raspberry Awards, Paul Verhoeven showed up to collect his Showgirls razzies, the first--and to date only--director ever to do so. The Razzies are given each year for the worst in film. (Showgirls was nominated for Worst Director, among other things.) 2. His film Turkish Delight received an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film and in 1999 was awarded the title "Best Dutch Film of the Century" at the Netherlands Film Festival. 3. Paul received a PhD in math and physics from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He never used his degree, opting instead to invest his energies in a career in film. 4. Paul is a longtime member of the Jesus Seminar, an organization devoted to the scholarly, secular study of the life of Jesus Christ. He is the only "layman" member who is considered informed enough to vote with the governing panel. Paul has often talked about doing a film on the life of Jesus. 5. When Kubrick was making Eyes Wide Shut, he called Verhoeven for advice. Also, when Paul was still making Dutch films, Steven Spielberg called him and encouraged him to try his hand in America. 6. Paul spent time in Paris as a young man. He also served in the Dutch navy, where he made a famous documentary called "Het Korps Mariners." 7. Verhoeven is unusually loyal in terms of his crew. He has only used two cinematographers over the course of his professional film career: Jost Vacano and Jan de Bont. He worked with the same writer (Gerard Soeteman) for all of his major Dutch films, and his American films (excluding Showgirls but including Flesh and Blood) have been scored exclusively by Basil Poledouris and Jerry Goldsmith. Alan Marshall has produced Paul's last four films. 8. Paul (apparently) speaks four languages: English, French, Dutch, and German. 9. 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. 10. "I try to take these elements out of life that I have detested or admired and put them in a movie, be it violence or sex. I think there's no 'why.' It's just the man I am, and it comes from the inside. It's something I just do." -- Paul Verhoeven |