Paul Verhoeven, the last James Bond charged with dying caution, can wait.

Passion is less eternal than diamonds. After several attempts to release the plague that most spy movies can’t resist, the latest installment of the James Bond franchise, Dying can wait. , hits theaters this fall. In the Italian city of Matera, a terrifying chase, racing cars and other sinister plots hatched between two witches go awry… except for one. Her Majesty’s spy no longer sports a petticoat. An absolute disaster for director Paul Verhoeven.

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“There’s always sex in Bond! You couldn’t see any breasts or anything, but it was sex!”A recent edition reported that he was mocking the filmmaker on Dutch television Sunday Times . Director of Flesh and blood, Robocop , Basic instinct or soon, Benedetta He was desperate in many ways. Death can wait. It’s not the little ferocity that comes from within. Of course, Bond, played for the fifth and final time by Daniel Craig, managed to calm down. At the beginning of the story, he spends happy days in Italy with the French Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). It’s over, the evocative images of the credits, they’re over, the broken passages: the loss of emotional cinematography extends to the end of the film.

There are still a few closures, James Bond defies local prudence. Paul Verhoeven keeps a good memory of this Royal Casino From 2006. The terrifying grace of Eva Green and the brutal aggression of men (including Mads Mikkelsen) without vulgarity and voyeurism, oscillate between notes of wonder and brutality. But for the director, brutality and volition play a common game: they are real. “We have to go back to realityHe says when asked what he would do with James Bond. Less automobile antiques and more old trifles, one has to believe. “Sex is the essence of existence!he shouted. Before adding more: “Cars don’t go to heaven.”.

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“We’re afraid of sex!”

Paul Verhoeven, based on his filmography, clearly could not content himself with the simple artifacts or unnecessary performances offered by the blockbusters of his time. “It’s all just a celebration of explosions and disasters.He laments, sharing observations that have troubled other filmmakers like Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola. These movies are sometimes funny, but they don’t tell you anything about today’s world. I see little reflection in Marvel or Bond anymore..

According to the Dutch director, the crux of the problem is clear. “We are afraid of sex! He throws. Sexuality has been completely erased from cinema. Today we can’t make movies like the 1970s. Even movies like Show girls where Basic instinct It will be very complicated to do these days. Whose fault is it? Paul Verhoeven credits the #MeToo movement, which he says is more responsible for this loss than religion. “There is a new purity.”He regretted, pointing to the influence “Evangelical thinkingFor decades, that sexuality must have been family-oriented.“. And, therefore, to relative abstinence.

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Paul Verhoeven’s recent films bear witness to this extreme reluctance of American producers. Shea gruesome thriller that revolves around a rape story and BenedettaHistorical report – or “libidinous turnip” – A 17th century lesbian nun made outside the United States. Sex was more or less frowned upon in Hollywood, the filmmaker says. It’s hard to find a superhero or superhero that passes through Gaudiol’s box, between two fights. The unexpected replaces the off-screen. This applies to other blockbusters as well, where the veil of modesty has similarly entered – if not thicker curtains.

However, Paul Verhoeven’s next film, Young sinner, reunites with America. The director has not shot a film there for twenty years. The film, a political thriller, is slated for a 2023 release. What about the hated wonder, the trademark? “Of course there will be some genders.”In an interview with America magazine in December, he slipped the filmmaker as an excuse. Making a movieR. The heroine of this movie works for an influential US senator. Political figures are much better suited for feigned pugnacity than blockbuster films.