Biography
Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938) is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and producer who has made movies in both the Netherlands and the United States. Explicitly violent and/or sexual content and social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films. He is best known for directing the American feature films RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). Turkish Delight (1973) received the award for Best Dutch ...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Like Tears in Rain
2024
as Self
His entire life, the charismatic actor Rutger Hauer kept the outside world at a distance. His inner circle included only a small group of people, amon...
In Search of Tomorrow
2022
as Self - Interviewee
A nostalgic journey through ’80s Sci-Fi-films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artists who made them and by those who were ins...
Benedetta
2021
Director, Screenplay
A 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta's shocking religious visions that threaten to sh...
Basic Instinct: Sex, Death & Stone
2020
as Self
A documentary about the Paul Verhoeven's cult classic Basic Instinct.
Total Excess: How Carolco Changed Hollywood
2020
as Self
Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story
2020
as Self
Chronicles the lives of women who perform the stunts in some of Hollywood’s biggest action sequences — from the early days of silent movies to today’s...
Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters
2019
as Self
An in-depth, sad, and beautiful documentary about the stop motion and VFX artist Phil Tippett, a man who changed the landscape of visual effects in fi...
In Search of the Last Action Heroes
2019
as Self
The most comprehensive retrospective of the '80s action film genre ever made.
You Don't Nomi
2019
as Himself (archive footage)
Released in 1995, Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls was met by critics and audiences with near universal derision. You Don't Nomi traces the film's redemptiv...
Verhoeven Versus Verhoeven
2016
as Self - Filmmaker
A look at the life and provocative film work of controversial Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven.
Elle
2016
Director
When Michèle, the CEO of a gaming software company, is attacked in her home by an unknown assailant, she refuses to let it alter her precisely ordered...
Hollywood Banker
2014
as Self
How Frans Afman, a banker from the Netherlands, developed a new system for film financing, revolutionized independent filmmaking in Hollywood, but cou...
Lotgenoten
2013
Writer
When womanizer Remco Albrecht celebrates his 65st birthday he has to deal with people from his past whom he would rather ignore.
Tricked
2012
Director, Writer
During his 50th birthday party thrown by his wife, Remco's life takes a turn for the worse. His business partners are scheming behind his back to sell...
Parradox
2010
as himself
"Pim is more consummate," actress Willeke van Ammelrooy concluded upon seeing Pim de la Parra again in Suriname, at the presentation of the restored v...
Something Unknown Is Doing We Don't Know What
2009
Associate Producer
Is it possible to look into the future? Does mind over matter really exist? What is true about psychic healing? Is remote viewing real? Where is the b...
Black Book
2006
Director, Screenplay
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
That's It!
2005
as Himself
In 1980 film writer Ruud den Drijver goes head to head with two notorious Dutch film directors, Paul Verhoeven and Wim Verstappen, passionate film mak...
Le court des grands
2005
Director
A program of debut shorts from some of cinema's greatest diectors. Curated by Emir Kusturica and Stephen Frears, featured auteurs include George Lucas...
The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
2004
as Self
Documentary about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
2004
as Self
A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based...
100 Greatest Sexy Moments
2003
as Self
Documentary, based on a British poll, listing the 100 sexiest movie and TV moments. Supplemented by new interviews with performers, filmmakers, and au...
Sex at 24 Frames Per Second
2003
as Self
Examines the relationship between sex, women, and the role of female sexuality in popular Hollywood culture, focusing on Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfie...
Death from Above: The Making of 'Starship Troopers'
2002
as Himself
A behind-the-scenes look at director Paul Verhoeven's imaginative re-telling of Robert Heinlein's classic science fiction novel.
Flesh + Steel: The Making of 'RoboCop'
2001
as Himself
A look behind the scenes at the making of this science fiction classic about a policeman killed in the line of duty, only to be reborn as a half-man, ...
Imagining 'Total Recall'
2001
as Self
Making of documentary featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Verhoeven.
Hollow Man
2000
Director
Cocky researcher Sebastian Caine is working on a project to make living creatures invisible. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough, Caine pu...
Kurosawa: The Last Emperor
1999
as Self
A profile and history of film director Akira Kurosawa.
Starship Troopers
1997
Director
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from...
Paul Verhoeven: From Holland to Hollywood
1996
as Himself
Very insightful BBC documentary about Paul Verhoeven, tracking his career up to Showgirls. The programme focuses on talks with Verhoeven, but also in...
Showgirls
1995
Director
Fresh to Las Vegas with no connections, Nomi Malone takes a job as an exotic dancer. Her talents are quickly noticed by Cristal, a headlining dancer w...
Hollywood by Bike
1993
as Himself
Documentary that looks back at 35 years of Dutch cinema, with Paul Verhoeven and others.
Basic Instinct
1992
Director
Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described...
Total Recall
1990
Director
Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Recall, a company that manufactures memories. When his memory im...
Pictures of Europe
1990
as Self
What makes European cinema so special? Find out in Paul Joyce’s feature-length documentary, Pictures of Europe, which examines the differences between...
RoboCop
1987
as Dancer at Disco (uncredited)
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force...
RoboCop
1987
Director
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force...
Flesh + Blood
1985
Screenplay, Director
A band of medieval mercenaries take revenge on a noble lord who decides not to pay them by kidnapping the betrothed of the noble's son. As the plague ...
De droomproducenten
1984
as Self
Documentary exploring why Belgian television doesn't invest more money in Belgian cinema as is the case in e.g. the netherlands.
The 4th Man
1983
Director
A man who has been having visions of an impending danger begins an affair with a woman who may lead him to his doom.
All Things Pass
1981
Director
During World War II in the Netherlands, resistance-leader Arie is shot by the Dutch SS-man Niels. Arie's comrades pledge to avenge his death. 35 years...
Spetters
1980
Director
Three amateur dirt-bike racers each fall in love with a young woman who, with her brother, sells French fries and hotdogs at the races. Everyone is lo...
Soldier of Orange
1977
Screenplay, Director
The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resista...
Katie Tippel
1975
Director
In the late 19th century, a young woman moves to Amsterdam with her family and tries to make a living. Preyed upon by various men, she nonetheless ris...
Turkish Delight
1973
Director
Gifted but hot-headed sculptor Ericvhas a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young woman named Olga.
Business Is Business
1971
Director
The story of two prostitutes working in the Amsterdam Red Light district, and the many strange and unusual men they meet through their work.
The Wrestler
1971
Director, Writer
A worried father tries to end the relationship that his son Andries has with the wife of a wrestler.
Rond Floris
1969
as Self
The Lonely Dorymen
1968
Sound Effects
For more than four centuries, young Portuguese fishermen have followed their fathers to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and in recent years to Greenla...
Portrait of Anton Adriaan Mussert
1968
Director
Documentary about the leader of the fascist party in The Netherlands, from 1931 till 1945. This architect called Anton Mussert was shot in 1946 after ...
The Royal Dutch Marine Corps
1965
Director
Het korps Mariniers is a documentary about the Royal Dutch Marine Corps, which Paul Verhoeven made while being assigned to the Marine Film Service as ...
Let's Have a Party
1963
Director
Short film about the blossoming affection of an upper-class schoolboy for a girl from a different class. The film, shot by Verhoeven at the same schoo...
The Hitchhikers
1962
Director
A road movie about three guys (two hitchhikers, one driver) and one woman.
Nothing Special
1961
Director
A man is thinking about his relationship with his girlfriend, while checking out a gorgeous woman in a bar.
One Lizard Too Many
1960
Director
A woman, married with an artist, starts a relationship with one of her students, who has already got a mistress of his own. The two rivals meet.
The Kiss
1959
Director
Filmic exercise by Paul Verhoeven.
Cups of Coffee
1959
Director
Filmic exercise by Verhoeven
Gottes Utopia
1955
as Marino
Goddess: The Fall and Rise of Showgirls
N/A
as Self
A look at the production and enduring popularity of a modern trash classic from those bad boys behind 1992's Basic Instinct, the infamous screenwriter...
Sans Compter
N/A
Director, Writer
Nathan, a journalist is fascinated by Gaby, his mother-in-law, a poet. The latter lives in the same vast estate property as Nathan and his wife. One d...
Young Sinner
N/A
Writer, Director
An erotic political thriller, set in Washington D.C. and will revolve around a young staffer who works for a powerful Senator, is drawn into a web of ...
RoboCop Returns
N/A
Screenplay
Set in crime-ridden Detroit. Centers around the cyborg as he is forced to come back to the city and save it from the brink of anarchy.