Rating: 
Summary: Verhoeven's best film is finally on DVD!
Review: A great, sexy, macabre, stylish horror-comedy. Far superior to "Basic Instinct". It's Verhoeven's best by far. His direction on this film is as good as Polanski's. Full of weonderful macabre touches. The DVD is superlative--nearly flawless print, anamorphic, optional yellow subtitles. The image transfer does full justice to Jan DeBont's astonishing cinemtography. And Verhoeven's commentary is really energetic and detail-packed about the production and its strong symbolism.Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Signs and visions of looming doom...
Review: Gerard Reve (Jeroen Krabbé) is a renowned novelist and he is invited to Vlissingen's Literary Society to give a speech about his writings. On Gerard's travel from Amsterdam to Vlissingen, a Dutch seaside town, he is provided several mysterious warnings that are related to his Catholic beliefs. However, Gerard disregards the signs and spends the night with Christine Halsslag (Renée Soutendijk), the treasurer of the Literary Society. Christine invites Gerard to reside in her home, which Gerard accepts as he has an alternative motive. Gerard stays in Christine's house because he is attracted to her boyfriend from Cologne who is coming to visit and wants to meet him. As Gerard remains in Vlissingen the secular warning sings continue to haunt him. The question is why are these frightful visions and signs returning to him. Verhoeven creates a suspenseful story as it is built up around some moral taboo's and Catholicism, which are entangled in Gerard's desires and wishes. The 4th Man leads the audience into a spiraling build up of apprehension as the visions lead Gerard closer to the key behind the signs, which offers the audience a thrilling cinematic experience.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and rewarding film noir
Review: Gerard Reve (Jeroen Krabbe) is a bisexual writer with who is obsesssed with religious imagery, who arrives in Amsterdam to give literary lectures.
There he meets a beautiful female psychiatrist named Christine (Renee Soutendijk)and he spends the night with her, because despite his sexual preference he finds her figure to be like a boy's (I didn't think so). But it soon becomes apparent to Reve that he should have stuck with men so he predictably dumps her. But what Gerard doesn't know is that Christine may or may not be a serial killer who has murdered her three previous husbands and that he or his gay lover may become the fourth man of the title. Things get worse when he has hallucinations (or are they premonitions?) in which he is castrated with a pair of scissors. Funny seeing as Christine is also a hairdresser. Later in the movie Gerard has more hallucinations, which seem real even to the viewer. Are we going mad with him?
I've seen all Paul Verhoeven's movies from FLESH + BLOOD onward, so this is quite different from his later stuff. THE 4TH MAN is a successful take on film noir, but it's pace dwindles at times. However, I still highly recommend this movie. There is also a notable secne involving an eyeball squelching through a keyhole early in the movie, which makes sense later on. Worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: Signs and visions of looming doom...
Review: Gerard Reve (Jeroen Krabbé) is a renowned novelist and he is invited to Vlissingen's Literary Society to give a speech about his writings. On Gerard's travel from Amsterdam to Vlissingen, a Dutch seaside town, he is provided several mysterious warnings that are related to his Catholic beliefs. However, Gerard disregards the signs and spends the night with Christine Halsslag (Renée Soutendijk), the treasurer of the Literary Society. Christine invites Gerard to reside in her home, which Gerard accepts as he has an alternative motive. Gerard stays in Christine's house because he is attracted to her boyfriend from Cologne who is coming to visit and wants to meet him. As Gerard remains in Vlissingen the secular warning sings continue to haunt him. The question is why are these frightful visions and signs returning to him. Verhoeven creates a suspenseful story as it is built up around some moral taboo's and Catholicism, which are entangled in Gerard's desires and wishes. The 4th Man leads the audience into a spiraling build up of apprehension as the visions lead Gerard closer to the key behind the signs, which offers the audience a thrilling cinematic experience.
Rating:
Summary: Signs and visions of looming doom...
Review: Gerard Reve (Jeroen Krabbé) is a renowned novelist and he is invited to Vlissingen's Literary Society to give a speech about his writings. On Gerard's travel from Amsterdam to Vlissingen, a Dutch seaside town, he is provided several mysterious warnings that are related to his Catholic beliefs. However, Gerard disregards the signs and spends the night with Christine Halsslag (Renée Soutendijk), the treasurer of the Literary Society. Christine invites Gerard to reside in her home, which Gerard accepts as he has an alternative motive. Gerard stays in Christine's house because he is attracted to her boyfriend from Cologne who is coming to visit and wants to meet him. As Gerard remains in Vlissingen the secular warning sings continue to haunt him. The question is why are these frightful visions and signs returning to him. Verhoeven creates a suspenseful story as it is built up around some moral taboo's and Catholicism, which are entangled in Gerard's desires and wishes. The 4th Man leads the audience into a spiraling build up of apprehension as the visions lead Gerard closer to the key behind the signs, which offers the audience a thrilling cinematic experience.
Rating:
Summary: Nightmarish Experience!
Review: Have you ever been chilled by aura of your death? Have you entered a queen spider's tighty web and got 'INVOLVED' within her siege? Have you ever felt your eyeball is running out? Have you ever been a fourth man whose predecessors were brutally but unapparently 'ERASED'? Have you ever seen this movie? If none of aboves you are in, this title is all for yours!
Rating:
Summary: MACABRE THRILLER....
Review: Homoeroticism, religious themes and symbolism, supernatural overtones and dark mystery pulsate through this excellent thriller from Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. Bisexual alcoholic novelist Gerard Reve (Jeroen Krabbe') attends a speaking engagement and meets a beautiful woman, Christine (Renee Soutendijk) who is filming him. She invites him home with her, they have sex and he stays on to work on his next novel. She says she is a widow and gives him clothes and a haircut (her home is also her salon, Sphinx---she's a hair stylist) and some pampering. But Gerard can't forget a sexy young man he saw at the train station. He discovers that Christine knows the guy and is having an affair with him as well. Gerard is also having disturbing psychic visions of death that seem to be omens for him. When Christine brings the young man home to meet Gerard (Christine and Gerard have worked out an odd arrangement) things start happening. Gerard discovers Christine has had THREE husbands who all died in "accidents". His visions come full circle and another grisly "accident" sends him over the edge. References to Samson and Delilah, spiders who devour their mates, blood---everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in to keep you guessing about Christine. Even the name of her salon---Sphinx (which spells "spider" in Dutch when the neon lights blink off)---casts occult laced mystery on her. Soutendijk is mesmerizing as Christine, an icy blonde beauty with secrets. Krabbe' is very good as Gerard who, as the images in the opening credits suggest, may be the fly caught in the Black Widow's web. Fascinating viewing all the way. The DVD from Anchor Bay is superb. Not for every taste, of course, but if you're a Verhoeven fan---this is an adult must see. Based on a novel by..."Gerard Reve"!
Rating:
Summary: "IN THE REALM OF BASIC RECOLLECTIONS ......"
Review: I first saw this film at a wonderful old art house theater which no longer exists. It was run by a film professor and its loyal audience saw just about everything that played the art house circuit. At the end of this film, the audience burst into applause, which I'd never seen it do before and never saw it do again. Hubby and I were madly clapping along with them because we all knew we'd just seen bravura, breath taking film making. Renée Soutendijk plays a blonde hairdresser (DVD cover) who meets gay writer Jeroen Krabbé and lures him into her black widow like web. Krabbé becomes haunted by visions of his own death and Soutendijk has perhaps already had that terminal effect on three prior husbands. If you are thinking that maybe this is like the American "Black Widow," it is not except in the essence of idea. This film takes that basic idea and makes it high art, exploring the dream, surreal world adjacent to the real world. Jan DeBont's cinematography is a surreal painter's delight come to life. Director Paul Verhoeven showed the wit, style, and right-brained art making that he gave up when he came to the USA to make American films, such as "Basic Instinct." The two films are similar in that both have a female messing with the mind of a male in murderous connotations but "Basic Instinct" has all of the flash and style of "Fourth Man" but none of its art. This film also is more sexually daring than "Basic Instinct" with its exploring both gay and straight sexuality. Krabbé lusts after Soutendijk's boyfriend, who is much younger than he. It also contains full-frontal nudity of both men plus the woman. I really wish Verhoeven had remained a Dutch filmmaker, doing more of this kind of work, rather than "going Hollywood" with his films upon coming here to the USA.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Sublime; Worth Owning & Savoring Again & Again
Review: I first saw this film at a wonderful old art house theater which no longer exists. It was run by a film professor and its loyal audience saw just about everything that played the art house circuit. At the end of this film, the audience burst into applause, which I'd never seen it do before and never saw it do again. Hubby and I were madly clapping along with them because we all knew we'd just seen bravura, breath taking film making. Renée Soutendijk plays a blonde hairdresser (DVD cover) who meets gay writer Jeroen Krabbé and lures him into her black widow like web. Krabbé becomes haunted by visions of his own death and Soutendijk has perhaps already had that terminal effect on three prior husbands. If you are thinking that maybe this is like the American "Black Widow," it is not except in the essence of idea. This film takes that basic idea and makes it high art, exploring the dream, surreal world adjacent to the real world. Jan DeBont's cinematography is a surreal painter's delight come to life. Director Paul Verhoeven showed the wit, style, and right-brained art making that he gave up when he came to the USA to make American films, such as "Basic Instinct." The two films are similar in that both have a female messing with the mind of a male in murderous connotations but "Basic Instinct" has all of the flash and style of "Fourth Man" but none of its art. This film also is more sexually daring than "Basic Instinct" with its exploring both gay and straight sexuality. Krabbé lusts after Soutendijk's boyfriend, who is much younger than he. It also contains full-frontal nudity of both men plus the woman. I really wish Verhoeven had remained a Dutch filmmaker, doing more of this kind of work, rather than "going Hollywood" with his films upon coming here to the USA.
Rating:
Summary: "IN THE REALM OF BASIC RECOLLECTIONS ......"
Review: Miss SHARON STONE - look no further - THIS the definitive sequel to "Basic Instinct"! Of course, Dutch film-maker Paul Verhoven made this movie long before "Basic Instinct", but this is the genesis of that [rather sterile by comparison] movie - who knows - you might even get the fabulous, risk taking, and sadly neglected JEROEN KRABBE to repeat his role! Made in 1983, this movie has is not dated. SYNPOSIS: Bi-sexual writer Gerard/Krabbe fantasizes about "offing" his current, boring lover. He had been invited to speak at a literary gathering - somewhere "up the coast". At the train station while "crusing" the newsstand he sees an appealing young lout - who gives him the brush-off. The rail journey is mundane, interspersed with strange nightmarish visions - Bunuelish eyeballs, etc. feature prominently. Queer, odd......Dali-esque images ...... At the gathering, he meets an intriguing young blonde [cool ala Hitchcock Renee Soutendijk], "chemistry happens" and he is in bed with her, enjoying much deserved release, when, on her night stand, he notices a photograph of the young punk who gave him the brush-off at the station! This young hunk is Soutendijk's clumsy lover: She invites Krabbe to stay with them for a while - to teach the young man a few "pointers" about love-making! Hmmmmmm! Kinky? Uhuh! [Co-incidentally, she's a hairdresser; spiders, webs and glistening, very pointy scissors feature prominently, especially during a graphic castration sequence - fortunately just a fantasy.] Our young man is also quite a contradiction - when alone with Krabbe ...... AND then there is also the question : Who will be her next husband/victim? She's disposed [?] of three already...... A bold movie for that period, confusion between male and female images [the voyuer sequences], full frontal nudity, masturbation, it's all here, tasteful, but for the sophisticated viewer. Highly recommended for your collection! The title sequence is superb [won't spoil that for you]; art direction by Roland De Groot very effective [one expects the "DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS" hotel to be in the immediate vicinity - an excellent companion piece!] Music by Loek Dikker is aptly bleak, and the cinematography by JAN DE BONT is perfect! Pity that Mr. Verhoven has veered away from this most creative period of his career, he showed such great promise! Companion pieces: "Matador" [Almodovar]; prime! Second choice? "Sea of Love" Barkin/Pacino. Now, call Sharon Stone, and get her to be in this remake - please!
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