The Fourth Man

For the short story by Agatha Christie, see The Hound of Death#The 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
Editing by	Ine Schenkkan
Studio	Rob Houwer Productions
Release date(s)	24 March 1983 (Netherlands)
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.

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.

Reception & Themes

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. Paul Verhoeven says:

“

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.

”

Reception

Ranked #93 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.^[1]

Sequels

• Loosely remade as Verhoeven's fourth Hollywood movie, Basic Instinct, of which Verhoeven considers The 4th Man to be a spiritual prequel.^[2]

See also

• Isha katlanit, a rule in rabbinic literature (the Talmud) against marrying a woman who has been widowed twice or more.

References

1. ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=93. 
2. ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=93. 

External links

• De vierde man at the Internet Movie Database
• The Fourth Man at AllRovi
• The Fourth Man at Rotten Tomatoes