Paul Verhoeven‘s films leave indifferent few of the spectators who dare to watch them. The combination of violence and eroticism that characterizes them has been around for 40 years and is a mark of most of the Dutch director’s films. ‘Flesh + Blood‘ is a kind of transitional film between his first European period of creation and the American period. Frustrated, perhaps resigned, perhaps in protest at the reception his previous films had enjoyed, Verhoeven sought American funding and distribution. The theme of the film is very European, however, an episode from the bloody history of the old continent in the mid-millennium. It would be the period described in the gallant films of the ‘cloak and sword’ genre but there is nothing gallant in what we see in ‘Flesh + Blood‘.
1501 Europe is a world haunted by wars. Nobles, soldiers, and gangs of mercenaries fight each other, conquer castles, kill, rob, rape. When they do not die by the sword, the people of those times are threatened by the plague. The signs of the civilization brought by the Renaissance try to make room in this world of blood and flames, but it will take some time until they will prevail. This is the world in which Verhoeven places the story of the young Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh), fallen prisoner of a band of mercenaries, and forced to survive by any means. The two men in her life – the head of the bandits Martin and the noble son Steven – will fight each other to death, because she will ultimately belong to the one who wins, regardless of her feelings. The woman’s right to decide will be invented and honored only a few centuries later.
34 years after its release, ‘Flesh + Blood‘ is no longer shocking, viewers have seen much more extreme stuff, from Verhoeven and others. What impressed me is the direct and naturalistic approach and the attention to historical details. The film avoids a precise location, it could happen almost anywhere in Europe at the time, but still seems extremely authentic. Characters that we seem to know from historical novels (the noble prince, the brigand, the princess, the priest rather in the devil’s service) are thrown in a realistic and bloody version of their legendary times. Some details age less nicely: for example the music, or the intricacies of the Renaissance machine copied as if from Da Vinci’s notebooks. And yet, not only for Verhoeven‘s fans, ‘Flesh + Blood‘ remains an engaging and interesting film that immerses the viewers in its world.