The Fourth Man (1983 film)

This article is about the Paul Verhoeven film. For other uses, see Fourth Man.
The Fourth Man

Original film poster
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Produced by Rob Houwer
Written by Gerard Reve (novel)
Gerard Soeteman
Starring Jeroen Krabbé
Renée Soutendijk
Thom Hoffman
Dolf de Vries
Music by Loek Dikker
Cinematography Jan de Bont
Edited by Ine Schenkkan
Production
company
Release dates
  • 24 March 1983 (1983-03-24)
Running time
 102 minutes
Country Netherlands
Language Dutch

The Fourth Man (Dutch: De vierde man) is a 1983 Dutch suspense film directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on the novel De vierde man by Gerard Reve. The film stars Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk in the lead roles. It was Verhoeven's last film made in the Netherlands before he established himself in Hollywood; he would later return to make 2006's Black Book. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 56th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[1]

The title refers to Krabbé's position as the fourth man whom Soutendijk seduces, after she presumably has dispatched her first three husbands. The film is sexually explicit and, like many of Verhoeven's other films, shows graphic violence and gore.

Plot

Gerard Reve (Jeroen Krabbé), an alcoholic, bisexual novelist, leaves Amsterdam to deliver a lecture at the Vlissingen Literary Society. There, he becomes sexually involved with its attractive treasurer, Christine Halslag (Renée Soutendijk), who is alternately described as a witch, black widow, Delilah and the Devil. The Virgin Mary appears to him in visions to show that he is targeted as her fourth victim. Mary says, "Anyone given a warning must listen to it." Gerard listens and his life is spared. He passes on the warning to Herman, Christine's other lover, who ignores it, thinking that Gerard is trying to scare him off so that he can have Christine for himself. The movie ends with Herman's death, Christine's selection of a fifth victim and Gerard's future uncertain.

Themes

Paul Verhoeven has said of the film: "The Fourth Man has to do with my vision of religion. In my opinion, Christianity is nothing more than one of many interpretations of reality, neither more nor less. Ideally, it would be nice to believe that there is a God somewhere out there, but it looks to me as if the whole Christian religion is a major symptom of schizophrenia in half the world's population: civilizations scrambling to rationalize their chaotic existence. Subsequently, Christianity has a tendency to look like magic or the occult. And I liked that ambiguity, because I wanted my audience to take something home with them. I wanted them to wonder about what religion really is. Remember, that Christianity is a religion grounded in one of the most violent acts of murder, the crucifixion. Otherwise, religion wouldn't have had any kind of impact. With regard to the irony of the violence, much of that probably comes from my childhood experiences during and immediately following the Second World War. In fact, if it hadn't been for the German occupation and then the American occupation, I would have never been a filmmaker."[2]

He told The Seattle Times, "You never know if you're dealing with a super-reality or not."[3] Reve endures many experiences which may be hallucinations, such as a famous scene in which he believes a woman is pointing a gun at him, then turns to show it is merely a key to a door, and another in which, on a train, he studies a picture on the wall so intently that he is apparently drawn into it.[4]

Mike Pinsky of the website DVD Verdict points out repeated uses of the color red, blood, the Virgin Mary, and the Cross, including:[5]

Reception

The film was a decent box office hit in the Netherlands, gaining 274,699 admissions, a modest figure compared to the millions of visitors his previous films had. The film was more successful in the United States, where it received widespread critical acclaim. It currently holds a 100% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is his highest rated film.

It ranked #93 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.[6]

The Seattle Times, in a rave review, wrote that the film is "confident and skillfully made" and "erotically charged (and graphic)," adding,

Verhoeven has created an intricate, witty thriller about a writer's fears and paranoid imaginings and their possible fulfillment ... The director carefully steers a middle course that leaves you wondering at times if the woman is a witch, and at other times if the writer is just a victim of a morbid Catholic upbringing and a runaway imagination. Usually movies that take this approach (like Jack Clayton's delicately balanced masterpiece of ambiguity, The Innocents) are too frustrating to American audience expectations to become commercially successful. Yet The Fourth Man appears to have broken through that barrier to become one of the few profitable foreign films of the past year. Verhoeven makes the writer's suspicions so entertaining that his dreams and fantasies, which might just be premonitions, have a visual and psychological force that is actually stronger than the 'reality' of the other characters. Coincidence and random happenings reinforce the man's paranoia, and his visions of castration, spiders that kill their mates and living crucifixes eventually seem to have some basis ... Eventually, the imagery of the film accumulates and leads directly to an explosive but still inconclusive finale. Thanks to Verhoeven's favorite cinematographer, Jan de Bont, the dark, smooth look of The Fourth Man is as crucial to its success as the performances of Krabbé (excellent in an essentially unsympathetic role), Soutendijk (wittily enigmatic and predatory) and Hoffman (... an unexpected force of personality). The music by Loek Dikker swiftly sets up the ominous-funny tone of Krabbé's hallucinations, and the sharp editing by Ine Schenkkan creates a tension within them that keeps you guessing. It may be low-budget by American standards, but The Fourth Man is one of the most professional-looking movies to play here this year.[7]

The Philadelphia Inquirer called the film "highly charged" and enthused, "The Fourth Man falls into the general terrain occupied by the film noir, but it resists any label and – in its more lurid scenes – defies description. It is graphic in both violence and sex and most decidedly not for the squeamish ... Verhoeven's surface theme is the consequence of obsessive sexual desire, but the main undercurrent has to do with the vague line that separates fantasy from reality ... nothing is what it seems ... Verhoeven has designed the film in a way that keeps the viewer as off balance as the protagonist ... If there is such a thing as macabre wit, it can be found in the way Verhoeven treats his characters."[8]

In contrast, the Philadelphia Daily News wrote that the movie "is never as kinky or as funny as the character of Reve is. Its purple plot is beautifully lurid but the film itself is one step away from being brazenly lurid. It holds back."[9]

Pinsky, of DVD Verdict, thought the film to be "artsy to a ridiculous extreme. Saturated with images borrowed from symbolist and surrealist art, the film hammers the viewer over the head in every scene." However, he adds, "It is all much too much. And indeed it is supposed to be. Just as it is unclear in Total Recall [a 1990 film by Verhoeven] whether we are meant to be watching a straight-faced action film, or a deliberately excessive send-up of action film clichés, The Fourth Man can be seen on both levels. It works better as a comedy however." Pinsky concludes, "it is a psychosexual thriller that often undermines its own narrative authority. Verhoeven gives us plenty of hints that we should not take things too seriously, particularly through Gerard's erratic behavior: his childish lust for Herman, his desperately facile attempt to fake psychic powers in order to trick Christine, and his increasingly baroque hallucinations. Everything in Gerard's world becomes steeped in irony." After writing this, Pinsky adds, "Verhoeven is quite clear up front that the movie is meant to be a joke and that Christine's guilt is deliberately ambiguous ... If you do not take it seriously, you will likely get a kick out of this film."[5]

Accolades

The Fourth Man earned the 1983 International Critics' Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for the 1983 Gold Hugo for Best Feature Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.[10] Verhoeven opened the Seattle International Film Festival with his film, which garnered the 1984 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as the best New York reviews of any Verhoeven movie.[11] The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1984 by the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[12] Also in 1984, the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival gave Verhoeven its Special Jury Award.

Sequels

See also

References

  1. ↑ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  2. ↑ Alexis, Jonas (2011). Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: Surprising Differences, Conflicting Visions, and Worldview Implications – from the Early Church to Our Modern Time. WestBow Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-1-4497-3487-9. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  3. ↑ Hartl, John (June 9, 1985). "Dutch Director Attends Premiere". The Seattle Times. Seattle: Seattle Times Company. p. L3.
  4. ↑ Howard, Ed (March 31, 2009). "The Fourth Man". Only The Cinema/Seul Le Cinema. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Pinsky, Mike (May 30, 2001). "Case Number 01155: The Fourth Man". DVD Verdict. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  6. 1 2 "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema – 93. The Fourth Man". Empire.
  7. ↑ Hartl, John (June 7, 1985). "THE FOURTH MAN Is Occult Thriller That Holds Suspense". The Seattle Times. Seattle: Seattle Times Company. p. 22.
  8. ↑ Ryan, Desmond (September 7, 1984). "A Premier Dutch Director Weaves His Web". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Media Network.
  9. ↑ Baltake, Joe (September 6, 1984). "Fourth Man: Vicarious Thrills But Not Fulfilling". Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia. p. 43.
  10. ↑ "Awards for The Fourth Man". International Movie Database. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  11. ↑ Hartl, John (May 5, 1985). "THE SEATTLE FILM FESTIVAL – Showing Strong After 10 Years". The Seattle Times. Seattle: Seattle Times Company. p. K10.
  12. ↑ "1984 Award Winners". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
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