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
Release date(s)	1983
Running time	105 min.
Country	Netherlands
Language	Dutch

The Fourth Man (Dutch: De Vierde Man) is a 1983 horror film by Paul Verhoeven, based on the novel De Vierde Man by Gerard Reve. The film stars Jeroen Krabbé and Renée Soutendijk.

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.

Themes

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Homosexuality

The film has been accused of homophobia. Gerard's homosexual relationship, shown at the beginning of the film, is of an unsupportive, bickering nature with violent overtones. Gerard is portrayed as an alcoholic, a shoplifter, a voyeur and contemptuous of his readers. When he sleeps with the petite Christine, he flattens her breasts with his hands and exclaims "you look like a boy in his glory; so slim, tender!" When Gerard flirts with Herman, he puts his hand on his thigh and says, "I could tell you stories. There's one bigwig bastard, when he throws a do. All the neighbors lock their kids up behind locks so thick. Children of six or seven years old, girls and boys, no difference. Find that fun? Little boys!" He seduces the heterosexual Herman by a surprise fondling of him from behind.

Religion

• Gerard toasts a statue of the Virgin Mary before his morning drink
• Train station sign says "Jesus is Everywhere"
• A poster on the train is for Samson and Delilah.
• During a lecture, Gerard is asked, "You call yourself an Orthodox Catholic. Is that right? How can a man of sense in the scientific world say he is a Catholic today?" Gerard replies, "How can a man of sense say he's not a Catholic. Catholic doesn't equate with stupid. A Catholic must always be aware of the fantastic. Our research and progress are byproducts of fantasy. So the world of science must be Catholic."
• Gerard exclaims "Mary through Jesus" during orgasm, because he is using Christine to get to Herman.
• As Mary leaves the salon, she picks up Jesus from his father who says, "He's been such a good boy."

Paul Verhoeven says:

Black widow

Christine as a witch, black widow, Delilah or devil.

• The name of her salon is Sphinx (meaning riddle) which flickers to become Spin (Dutch for spider).
• Christine lies on broken glass and cannot feel it because of a numb spot on her back.
• While eating breakfast alone with Christine, Gerard says, "This is paradise" to which Christine replies, "For paradise, there needs to be two of you" implying that she would be the snake in the Garden of Eden.
• Christine's cosmetic line is called Delilah
• Christine films her victims as part of her black magic
  • Films husband #1, Johan, while skydiving and herself jokingly cutting the chutes lines.
  • Films husband #2, Ge, at the safari park and herself clawing like a lion for the camera
  • Films husband #3, Henk, entering his boat and herself rushing at the camera lens with fishing poles.
  • Films Gerard and Herman while they are driving.
  • Plans to film victim #5 while he windsurfs.

(According to the final credits, Ge was her first husband and Johan her second, but they are shown in the order given here.)

Visions

• Gerard is dreaming the opening scene of the spider trapping a fly and crawling on the crucifix.
• While on the train, he sees an ad for the Hotel Bellevue (Good Eye or Woman's Vision). The Room #4 marker turns into an eyeball and oozes down the door.
• During the night, Gerard dreams of a cemetery where the woman from the train appears with a key that opens a tomb containing 3 carcasses dripping blood into milk cans and a 4th can waiting empty into which she places red flowers.
• Immediately afterwards, Gerard dreams that Christine cuts off his penis with scissors.
• While reading Christine's palm, Gerard has a vision of Herman emerging from the ocean with his eyeball dislodged.
• At the train station, Gerard sees a coffin with a crumpled ribbon reading "Guido Herman" which he has mistaken for his own name "Gerard". While writing his novel, Gerard re-imagines the scene but this time with the name "Herman". At the end of the movie, Gerard again sees the coffin with the name "Herman". Gerard mistakes Herman's name on a wrinkled letter as Gerard.
• In the church, Gerard hallucinates that a crucifix is really Herman in a red Speedo crucified.
• While with Herman in the crypt, Gerard sees the urns and has visions of the missing film footage of each of the 3 men's deaths.

• The door of the crypt has the same design of the door of the sideboard where Christine keeps her films (and his key is the same that ¨Mary¨ shows him in the cemetery´s dream).

Trivia

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• Gerard Reve is the name of both the protagonist and the author of the book and screenplay.
• Last European film for Paul Verhoeven before directing Hollywood movies.
• Loosely remade as Verhoeven's fourth Hollywood movie, Basic Instinct, of which Verhoeven considers The 4th Man to be a prequel.

See also

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

External links

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