The 4th Man

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The 4th Man ★★★½ Die Vierde Man 1979

Steeped in saturated colors and jet black comedy, with an atmospheric score, Verhoeven's nouveau noir mystery enjoyed considerable art-house success but was not released in the US until 1984. The story is decidedly non-linear, the look stylish and symbolic. Krabbe is an alcoholic bisexual Catholic writer who inadvertently becomes the hypotenuse of a love triangle involving Herman, a young man he encounters at a railway station, and his lover Christine, who owns the Sphinx beauty parlor and whose three husbands died, shall we say, mysteriously. In Dutch with English subtitles. 102m/C VHS, DVD . NL Jeroen Krabbe, Renee Soutendijk, Thom Hoffman, Jon (John) DeVries, Geert De Jong; D: Paul Verhoeven; W: Gerard Soeteman; C: Jan De Bont; M: Loek Dikker. L.A. Film Critics ‘84: Foreign Film.