‘A’ for Audacious

If the Motion Picture Assn. of America revamps its embattled rating system--possibly with an adults-only rating between R and X--director Paul Verhoeven could be one of the prime beneficiaries.

After the graphic violence of “RoboCop” and “Total Recall,” Verhoeven is turning his attention back to the bedroom, the place that helped launch his career in more liberal-minded Holland.

“Film is trying to a certain degree to reflect reality, isn’t it?” the Dutch filmmaker asks. “So why stop describing reality at a certain moment? It’s taboo, ja ? It’s a mind set. But it’s not reality.”

For Verhoeven, that means lights on in the bedroom. Equal time for male nudity. (“The problem is not showing nudity,” he says, “it’s the abuse of female nudity.”) And lingering looks at couples making love.

“(Sex on screen is) much more powerful than words,” he says. “The way a man touches a woman’s breast can give you more information than one hour of dialogue. . . . It’s not just the pumping motions or showing people all hot. Sexuality expresses whatever you want to say--hate, tenderness, passion.”

Verhoeven’s plans for the psychological thriller “Basic Instinct” were audacious enough to send producer Irwin Winkler and writer Joe Eszterhas bolting from the project.

On another project, “Women,” Verhoeven says there is no way to make a film faithful to the Charles Bukowski novel on which it is based and still get an R.

“You can argue that the visual arts are more powerful than the written word,” Verhoeven says. “But that’s a nuance. If you want to bring ‘Women’ to the screen, and you can’t be explicit to some extent, you can’t do it.

“And that’s nonsense.”