History Creator / PaulVerhoeven

* {{Euroshlock}}: Most of his Dutch productions, the only major exceptions being ''Film/SoldierOfOrange'' and possibly ''Film/{{Zwartboek}}''.

* HitlerAteSugar: His absolutely scathing treatment of ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' is built on the idea that nationalism, militarism and propaganda are all evil things because the Nazis used them, despite how the Allied forces relied on these exact same things in their war effort to ''defeat'' Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

His work on the 1992 erotic thriller ''Film/BasicInstinct'' reunited him with ''Total Recall'''s Sharon Stone, and started a short period of working with screenwriter Joe Ezterhas. The film was partially a remake of his 1983 Dutch movie ''De Vierde Man'' (''Film/TheFourthMan''), and was controversial in the States, with feminist and gay rights groups protesting against the film's alleged misogyny and homophobia, which puzzled Verhoeven. His career reached a low point in 1995 with the widely panned ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'', for which he won a Razzie for Worst Director. Showing that he's not a sore loser, Verhoeven collected the award in person, becoming the first director to do so. He claimed to have had more fun at the award ceremony than reading the reviews.

In the 1980s he branched out into making English-language films, starting with ''Film/FleshAndBlood1985''. Since then he has became best known to American audiences for his sci-fi action films, although he admits not being a fan of the genre. He became attached to direct the script for the first ''Film/RoboCop1987'' movie after initially rejecting it. His wife eventually convinced him that there was more to the story than he initially thought (drawing parallels to UsefulNotes/JesusChrist's death and resurrection), and [[AwesomeDearBoy he liked the extreme violence]]. The film proved a major hit that helped jumpstart the SuperHero film genre, while also being hailed as a brilliant BlackComedy satire of 1980s America.

His work on the 1992 erotic thriller ''Film/BasicInstinct'' reunited him with ''Total Recall'''s Sharon Stone, and started a short period of working with screenwriter Joe Ezterhas. The film was partially a remake of his 1983 Dutch movie ''De Vierde Man'' (''The Fourth Man''), and was controversial in the States, with feminist and gay rights groups protesting against the film's alleged misogyny and homophobia, which puzzled Verhoeven. His career reached a low point in 1995 with the widely panned ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'', for which he won a Razzie for Worst Director. Showing that he's not a sore loser, Verhoeven collected the award in person, becoming the first director to do so. He claimed to have had more fun at the award ceremony than reading the reviews.

* {{Gorn}}: His action films were excessively violent [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny for their time]]. ''Film/RoboCop1987'' in particular had to be re-edited for the scene where an OCP rookie exec is blasted to bits by the ED-209 robot in the conference room, and the use of {{Human Shield}}s in ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' received a lot of complaints. This is referenced as part of a gag in ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux'' where the body count of the ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' spoof action scene increases until it surpasses both ''[=RoboCop=]'' and ''Total Recall''. His use of this trope actually makes sense: Verhoeven grew up during the Nazi takeover of his home country of Holland in the onset of World War II, when he would walk to school at a very young age and come across decaying bodies of soldiers, fighter pilots and so on.

He is often regarded as one of the best film directors in UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands, and certainly one of the most notable--having won various Golden Calves (the highest award in the national film award ceremony) for his contributions to Dutch cinema. He was a frequent collaborator of the late Dutch actor Creator/RutgerHauer.

* ''Film/FleshAndBlood1985''

* ''The Fourth Man'' (1983)

Paul Verhoeven (born 18 July 1938 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch film director, probably best known for his international works made in the United States.

His films (particularly his sci-fi outings) are typically brutally violent, satirical, [[FreudWasRight and often contain heavy sexual themes]].

Verhoeven was born before the onset of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, which shaped his outlook on life. After completing the film academy, he started out small in the film community before moving on to full-length features. In the 1970s he cooperated with producer Rob Houwer on several highly acclaimed Dutch movies such as the erotic/romantic drama ''Turks Fruit'' (''Film/TurkishDelight'') and the World War II epic ''Soldaat van Oranje'' (''Film/SoldierOfOrange'').

In the 1980s he branched out into making English-language films, starting with ''Film/FleshAndBlood1985''. Since then he has became best known to American audiences for his sci-fi action films, although he admits not being a fan of the genre. He became attached to direct the script for the first ''Film/RoboCop1987'' movie after initially rejecting it. His wife eventually convinced him that there was more to the story than he initially thought (drawing parallels to UsefulNotes/JesusChrist's death and resurrection), and [[AwesomeDearBoy he liked the extreme violence]]. The film proved a major hit that helped jumpstart the SuperHero film genre, while it was hailed as a brilliant BlackComedy satire of 1980s America.

Verhoeven's last two American films, 1997's ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' and 2000's ''Film/HollowMan'' received mixed receptions. Fans of the Creator/RobertHeinlein [[Literature/StarshipTroopers novel]] considered the movie a betrayal of the source material[[note]]Which was totally intentional in Verhoeven's part. He completely disliked the book, because its militaristic and jingoistic overtones reminded him of the Nazi occupation of his country when he was young.[[/note]], while others appreciated it either as a straight-up action movie or for the StealthParody it aimed to be.

His next cinematic effort in 2006 returned Verhoeven to his Dutch roots, to direct the World War II thriller ''Film/{{Zwartboek}}'' (''Black Book''). It offers a morally grey account of the Dutch resistance during the last year of the war, with Creator/CariceVanHouten as an undercover Jew involved in the anti-German resistance. His 2016 film ''Film/{{Elle}}'' was his first film in the French language and told the story of Michèle (Creator/IsabelleHuppert), a French businesswoman who is raped in her home and who stalks her attacker. By far the most critically acclaimed film of Verhoeven's career, it got a seven-minute standing ovation at Cannes (and was nominated for the Palme d'Or), is the French entry for the Best Foreign Language film at the 2017 Oscars, and has earned a bunch of awards, most of them for star Isabelle Huppert, who is a huge Verhoeven fan.

* {{Fanservice}}: He has directed several films with strong erotic themes, and even his other works feature a lot of nudity.