Today's Hump Day Hottie post is brought to you by my screening of Black Book a few weeks back. Yes, it's still playing in my head. It won't leave.I think we all need to read blogs more carefully. I regularly find people asking things in comments that indicate that they didn't actually read what they were commenting on. I'm even guilty of it myself... on my own blog. Months ago when I was interviewing Arjan Writes for the blog interview series, he urged us to check out the Dutch film Black Book and called Carice van Houten "amazing".
I hate getting to parties late but boy was that three syllables of understatement. And it was in one ear and out the other at the time. I didn't go to the theater and see the movie. What's wrong with me?
Anybody who sees Black Book is inevitably wowed by van Houten's fire. Verhoeven is a naughty auteur. Just look at The 4th Man, Starship Troopers, Turkish Delight, Showgirls. This isn't the first time he's asked his female star to spread 'em. Remember Sharon Stone's pantyless in Basic Instinct? But here's the thing: Stone later played naive about it. It's impossible to imagine this 30 year-old Dutch goddess telling the press afterwards that she was "tricked" into it like the American star did. In every scene in Black Book you can feel her game spirit. "What now?" you imagine her asking enthusiastically, never "How dare you?"Recently the new Bond girls were announced and they were, as per usual, young beautiful European things. All I could think was Carice! Why isn't CvH rolling around in the sheets with Daniel Craig in Bond 22 ? Maybe Craig on top would be beneath her, though. She's already a star. Americans just don't know her name yet is all. They might soon. Turns out I'm still catching up with her sudden international rise: after my Bond girl fantasy ended I learned that she has four films already in post-production (Dorothy Mills which she headlines, Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise, Body of Lies opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Repossession Mambo opposite Jude Law) and another one (Vivaldi, a biopic, opposite Joseph Fiennes) soon to start filming.
Damn girl, slow down.
On second thought: Faster! Give us more.
And, you saw this coming, Carice van Houten is one of the nominees for the FB "Breakthrough" Award for her work in Black Book
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15 comments:
Yay! Carice got a FB nom!!! Sniffle, it wasn't for best actress :(
I'm very, very happy it's staying in your brain. That means it worked.
But truthfully, I really, really hope van Houten is in your Actress lineup, and that the Breakthrough nomination isn't just a consolation prize.
I remember recommending this movie to people after being incredibly moved by Miss van Houten's performance in the film but Verhoeven's name scarred them away. Their loss. She's way too interesting to be a Bond girl (though it would boost her profile I suppose). I still think we'll be enjoying performances from her many years from now regardless if she breaks through in the US. Anyone know if she provided her own vocals in Black Book? If so can we get her in a musical asap.
There was a Carice van Houten Bond girl rumor several months back, and every single day I get a dozen hits or more on my Bond site searching for information about her (as a Bond girl or otherwise) or pictures of her.
Now that I've seen Black Book, I can understand why. The Bond girls seem to have been chosen in part by ethnicity, and they were looking for someone olive-skinned, in fact, the casting call was for Latina or Israeli, although they chose a Ukrainian.
Eh, what do I know? I'm just a blogger.
Haven't seen Black Book yet (next on my Netflix queue!), so the mention I'm most pumped about is Blonsky's. After some consideration, she's landing quite safely in my own Best Actress lineup.
I loved that she remained so committed to the stylization without losing Tracy the character. And she didn't turn off the characterization when the focus of a scene was no longer on her (Jennifer Hudson should take notes). From a 19 year-old, that was mightily impressive to me.
Plus, I often feel an urge to include Hairspray in my Best Picture lineup. But then I remember that there were missteps and that I got pretty bored around the civil rights march section and a couple other parts here and there. The reason, I think, the movie holds up so well in my mind is Blonsky's performance (with all due recognition to the songs, artistic/technical team, and wonderfully game ensemble) - it's really film-elevating stuff.
So, anyway... Blonsky for the gold! (In this category)
Yeah, great list of contenders there with Van Houten, Blonsky, Ronan and Cera (successfully making the move to the big screen). Also glad to see Sam Riley in the runnerup spot.
Ben Foster was hardly a "breakthrough" though. He's been the lead/prominent supporting actor in many films.
No Zoe Bell?
Carice van Houston is amazing though, isn't she? And Black Book is still rolling around in my mind too. A sexy thriller that's actually sexy and thrilling? SHOCK!
el gigante:
That is indeed her singing voice in the film. She admitted to being scared shitless but pulled it off rather nicely. If anyone should ever drop out of Rob Marshall's Nine>, she could fill in right away...
Starring Jude Law? is that some sort of The Producers type of deal were someone needs to lose a lot of money?
Her freckles make her v. purdy.
glenn,
i need to call you up when i'm typing. ZOE was totally supposed to be here. And since I put Ben Foster in at the last second (and felt weird about it for reasons you state) I swapped her back in.
emma,
i like freckles, too
Great to see you liked Carice this year Nat (it's one of my favorite performances of 2007) -- she better be on your Best Actress ballot!
Hehe, I put Black Book as my response to your best of 2006 post:
http://filmexperience.blogspot.com/2007/01/top-ten-of-2006.html#c116847896056140064
Carice's performance is really really great... I'm really looking forward to seeing her in more...
Good to hear, Nat! I wasn't sure whether you just hadn't seen/heard of him before.
She and Daniel Craig rolling around in the surf would melt celluloid.
But I agree that she's better than a stock Bond Girl role. Course Eva Green's role was a little meatier than usual. Surely they could've given him a lady to truly spar with!
I have made a petition for Carice van Houten
Carice van Houten was suppose to be in the film “Body of Lies” playing Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife “Gretchen” but people who went to see the pre-screening of the movie said that she was no where in the movie. Only mentioned by the main character once. The next thing that had happened was whenever the MPAA ratings came out for Body of Lies and I figured that since her character was suppose to be a sex-obsessed wife that the MPAA ratings would say something like “Sexual content/Nudity” or something like that, but it didn’t and Carice had mentioned in a interview that she did have to French kiss Mr.DiCaprio and do a graphic love scene with him. Finally, whenever the movie trailer came out and the credits were shown at the end, her name was nowhere to be seen. Because of all of this. It has made several of her fans very upset that they will not get to see her in this movie. So for her fans I have made a petition for them to sign saying that we want her back in the movie. Its not too late for them to add her scenes back in, So please sign this petition for her. Thanks
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/carice-van-houten-in-body-of-lies
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