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Mood:
Disturbing Emotional Suspenseful Captivating Tense Atmospheric Gloomy Rough more...
Plot:
Mind Game Vengeance Human Nature Psychological Haunted By the Past Mind and Soul Rivalry Couple Relations more...
Genres:
Drama Thriller Independent
Time/Period:
20th Century 90s
Place:
Latin America Indoors
Praise:
Critically Acclaimed
Based on:
Based on Play
Attitudes:
Serious Realistic Slow
Score:
Classical
Flag:
Violent Content

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Overview

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Death and the Maiden, 1994

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson

Directed by: Roman Polanski

Written by: Rafael Yglesias

Language: English

Country: UK, USA, France

Runtime: 103 min

MPAA Rating: R

Rating:7.2

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Profile of Death and the Maiden

Death and the Maiden can be described as disturbing, tense, and emotional. The plot revolves around mind games, human nature, and being haunted by the past. The main genres are drama, independent, and thriller. In approach, Death and the Maiden is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. It is set, at least in part, indoors. Death and the Maiden is located in South America. It takes place in the 1990s. The soundtrack is classical. Death and the Maiden is adapted from a play. The movie has received attention for being critically acclaimed. Note that it involves violent content.

Summary of Death and the Maiden

Roman Polanski's suspenseful drama is based on a play by Ariel Dorfman, who also cowrote the screenplay. The movie takes place in an unspecified South American country after the recent fall of the dictatorship. Paulina Escobar (Sigourney Weaver) is a former political activist and torture victim. Her husband, Gerardo (Stuart Wilson), a respected lawyer, has just been appointed to head a commission on human rights violations under the old regime, though Paulina, suffering from severe psychological trauma ever since her arrest, objects to what she perceives as a sham investigation. The couple receives an unexpected visitor one stormy night when an affable stranger, Dr. Miranda (Ben Kingsley), drops Gerardo off at the Escobars' isolated house after his car breaks down. Paulina believes she recognizes the man's voice as belonging to the doctor who supervised her torture and raped her on several occasions while she was blindfolded and strapped to a table. In spite of her husband's objections, she decides to take Miranda prisoner, threatening him with a gun, determined to get a taped confession from him at any cost. Under Polanski's keen direction, Dorfman's three-character play is successfully transformed into a captivating film that loses neither dramatic tension nor momentum along the way.

Details

Language:	English
Country:	UK, USA, France
Release date:	23 December 1994
Runtime:	103 min

Cast and Crew See all

Sigourney Weaver

as Paulina Escobar

Ben Kingsley

as Dr. Roberto Miranda

Stuart Wilson

as Gerardo Escobar

Photos See all

Death and the Maiden (1994)

Clips See all

Death and the Maiden: Home Video

Critics Reviews See all

Rolling Stone

Polanski, working from a fluid script by Dorfman and Rafael Yglesias ("Fearless"), gives the story its due. He creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension to rival his "Knife in the Water" and "Repulsion". Full Review

|
by: Peter Travers

San Francisco Chronicle

Polanski directs the film without a wasting a moment. The occasional humor does nothing to relieve tension but, as in a Hitchcock picture, has a way of increasing it. Full Review

|
by: Mick LaSalle

Users Reviews See all

10.January.2011
|
by: Netflowers
Netflowers rated this movie0/10

CONTAINS SPOILERS... Paulina Escobar is the housewife to a prominent lawyer in an unnamed third World country. Rarely does a film with only three actors create such unbearable tension and cover political aspects too. Also, the film has great actors: Ben Kingsley gives the impression that he himself didn't know whether his character was guilty or not; Stuart Wilson is a confused lawyer-husband; and Sigourney Weaver probably gives her best performance of course, she's got a good role. One day a storm forces her husband to ride home with a neighbor. That chance encounter brings up demons from her past, as she is convinced that the neighbor (Dr. Miranda) was part of the old fascist regime that tortured and raped her. Paulina takes him captive to determine the 'truth'. Paulina is torn between her psychological repressions and horrific memories, Gerardo is torn between his wifes' experiences and the law, and Dr. Miranda is forced to endure captivity while husband and wife seek out the uncertain truth about the clouded past. It is often said about this film: "The film is also, once again, Polanski wrestling with personal demons. In 1968, his wife Sharon Tate was tortured and murdered by cult members. With "The Tragedy of Macbeth" he vented all this blood and anger on screen. With "Frantic", a film about a missing wife, he accepts the loss of Sharon. With "Death and the Maiden", he brings his pain to a close. Ironically, this period coincides with him meeting his new wife (on the set of Frantic). In a sense, "Paulina" is Sharon Tate confronting her torturers, accepting their guilt and pardoning them. It is Polanski coming to terms with his wife's horrific murder and finally forgiving the horrible act. " This might be a stretch, sometimes things are what they are, and he may not be forgiving anything. THIS IS A 5 STAR FILM

10.January.2011
|
by: Netflowers

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