Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 111 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by film critic Ben Miller discuss the latest film in their Paul Verhoeven series, Black Book (2006).

After a six-year absence from the film world following Hollow Man, Verhoeven resurfaced with a World War II drama about a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who becomes a spy for the resistance. In doing so, as she gets deeper behind enemy lines, she starts to fall in love with one of the high ranking members of the Nazi military. As scandalous and provocative as Verhoeven usually is, this is a whole other level and reminds his audience of the director that he once was before he went to Hollywood; asking questions and pushing buttons with sophisticated intrigue. In the years since its release, it’s not only become one of his more underrated film of his filmography that people have discovered as genius work, but the Dutch public voted it the best Dutch film ever made, which is very high praise. Ryan, Jay, and Ben breakdown their thoughts on the film, the performance of Carice van Houten, the murkiness of the love interests in the film, the depictions of violence and sex, how both sides of the fight mirror each other, the interesting final shots of the film, and what kind of cake do the host think the Germans made for their leader’s birthday depicted in the film.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 2h05m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series on the films of Paul Verhoeven with a review of his film, Elle. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).