Michael Verhoeven

"Doctors are a dime a dozen," the great actor and director Paul Verhoeven once said to his son Michael. His father’s comment made a deep impression on him. As from New Year 1973, Michael Verhoeven, who earned his doctorate in Medicine in 1969, went on to work exclusively as a director, producer and screenplay author, finally abandoning the medical profession. "That was a very painful thing, really, because those years of a double life were certainly my finest years, well, apart from my private life. I was able to become a new person over and over again: first in this world and then moving to a different one."

Like his wife, well-known actress Senta Berger, Michael Verhoeven dedicated himself to that different world professionally when they co-founded the production company Sentana Filmproduktion in Munich in 1965. The company has produced several prize-winning feature films under his direction since, in addition to TV movies. The cinema works included the anti-war film "O.K." (1970), "something quite unique" and the scandal of the Berlinale, which led to the festival being cut short at the time; "Gefundenes Fressen" (1976); the historical portrait of Sophie and Hans Scholl, "Die weiße Rose" ("The White Rose", 1982); the Oscar® -nominated film "Das schreckliche Mädchen" ("The Nasty Girl", 1990), which Verhoeven is asked about most frequently whenever he is abroad; and "Mutters Courage" ("My Mother’s Courage", 1995) based on the novella of the same name by George Tabori. They are films that have met with considerable recognition at festivals; all politically motivated films, committed to a humanitarian outlook. In addition, they are films dedicated to the examination and illumination of historical events. In general, one could refer to Verhoeven’s oeuvre as humanist – with no overtones of pathos whatsoever. It is an oeuvre that has always focused on human concerns.

"Die weiße Rose", probably Michael Verhoeven’s internationally best-known film, went through a long and difficult time in the making. He was finally able to begin shooting at the start of the 80s. "We were prevented from realizing the project for a long time, because we received no support – rejected by film funding boards five times, which is very rare. The struggle for the film went on for years. Today it is very hard to put across the reasons why no one wanted the film at that time, especially as it is still shown now and then."

There is also, for example, a "White Rose Society" in the USA, which was established as a reaction to the film – and other foundations followed. So perhaps "Die weiße Rose" is Verhoeven’s most important, his most significant work: its influence has endured for so long.

It may be no surprise to hear that his two most recent works to date, which are again documentaries – "The Unknown Soldier" (2006) and "Human Failure" (2008) – represent critical attempts to come to terms with history. They are remembrance in the film medium, a reminder not to forget, and an uncomfortable commemoration of past events.

The starting point to Michael Verhoeven’s documentary film "Der unbekannte Soldat" was the exhibition "Crimes of the Wehrmacht", a touring exhibition that investigated the war of annihilation in the East from 1941-1944 and triggered extremely controversial reactions among the public and critics. The first stage of the exhibition was the Munich town hall. Verhoeven filmed in both the exhibition rooms and outside, on Marienplatz, the square where people gather ed and protested on many occasions. The result is a 100-minute documentary film which is disagreeable due to the ambivalence of its subject alone; it does not aim to please, it is offensive, causing friction and controversy. "Der unbekannte Soldat", which has also been premiered in New York and other places, is an oppressive film in many ways, and also extremely complex. A cinematic witness to the most recent movements in the Federal Republic – just like its successor, "Menschliches Versagen".

Michael Verhoeven is currently preparing several new projects, including two features and a documentary – remaining true to both genres. And that can also be said of his themes, of course. The feature film "Castles Burning", based on a novel by Magda Denes – the screenplay is already available – is scheduled for the year 2011, like another feature film telling the story of a Jewish woman in Munich. Fittingly, local public broadcaster BR is participating in this project.

The documentary film, for its part, examines the extreme subject of the death penalty in the USA, or to be more precise: a specific case in the state of Ohio, where a black man sentenced to death in 1984, assumed guilty of murder, has been imprisoned for 25 years. Many consider him innocent. He has now been "executed" once, whereby 18 attempts were made to kill him – but he survived. Now he is schedul ed for execution a second time. "That is bound to interest anyone, surely. But once again, it is a topic that I didn’t seek out myself." In a similar way to his previous two documentary themes, which apparently came to him: it seems that film material finds him rather than the other way around. Michael Verhoeven has already filmed on ocation in Ohio, visiting the condemned man and his family. The Kafkaesque situation of a perhaps innocent but condemned man appeals to him, the humanist among Germany’s ac claimed directors.

Author: Thilo Wydra