The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
Country: US/IT/GB
Technical: Technicolor 107m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren
Synopsis:
A couple is on holiday in Venice; to revive the passion of an earlier visit? to take stock of their relationship? While lost in the maze of streets they meet an enigmatic local, who extends them hospitality but appears to take an inordinate interest in the young man.
Review:
Pinter's screenplay modifies Ian McEwan's grang guignolesque finale and inserts detail cryptically into dialogue between the lovers, but he is the ideal adaptor for this story of a couple not quite sure of each other and the drama of discomfort that surrounds their interplay with the older couple played by Mirren and Walken. Dante Spinotti furnishes sumptious colour and languid panning shots that perfectly capture the mix of erotic thrall and historic decadence present in the gorgeous skin tones of the younger players and the décor of the various apartments. Still, it is debatable whether Schrader and his collaborators have satisfactorily translated McEwan's ideas to the screen, since much seems to rest on a repeated anecdote Walken relates about his father and one must work hard to guess at the motivations of the characters. The impression we are left with is that the younger couple, caught in the inertia of their relationship, are attracted to the interest shown them by the older pair, as much an aphrodisiac for them as it is for their predatory hosts.
Country: US/IT/GB
Technical: Technicolor 107m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren
Synopsis:
A couple is on holiday in Venice; to revive the passion of an earlier visit? to take stock of their relationship? While lost in the maze of streets they meet an enigmatic local, who extends them hospitality but appears to take an inordinate interest in the young man.
Review:
Pinter's screenplay modifies Ian McEwan's grang guignolesque finale and inserts detail cryptically into dialogue between the lovers, but he is the ideal adaptor for this story of a couple not quite sure of each other and the drama of discomfort that surrounds their interplay with the older couple played by Mirren and Walken. Dante Spinotti furnishes sumptious colour and languid panning shots that perfectly capture the mix of erotic thrall and historic decadence present in the gorgeous skin tones of the younger players and the décor of the various apartments. Still, it is debatable whether Schrader and his collaborators have satisfactorily translated McEwan's ideas to the screen, since much seems to rest on a repeated anecdote Walken relates about his father and one must work hard to guess at the motivations of the characters. The impression we are left with is that the younger couple, caught in the inertia of their relationship, are attracted to the interest shown them by the older pair, as much an aphrodisiac for them as it is for their predatory hosts.
Country: US/IT/GB
Technical: Technicolor 107m
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren
Synopsis:
A couple is on holiday in Venice; to revive the passion of an earlier visit? to take stock of their relationship? While lost in the maze of streets they meet an enigmatic local, who extends them hospitality but appears to take an inordinate interest in the young man.
Review:
Pinter's screenplay modifies Ian McEwan's grang guignolesque finale and inserts detail cryptically into dialogue between the lovers, but he is the ideal adaptor for this story of a couple not quite sure of each other and the drama of discomfort that surrounds their interplay with the older couple played by Mirren and Walken. Dante Spinotti furnishes sumptious colour and languid panning shots that perfectly capture the mix of erotic thrall and historic decadence present in the gorgeous skin tones of the younger players and the décor of the various apartments. Still, it is debatable whether Schrader and his collaborators have satisfactorily translated McEwan's ideas to the screen, since much seems to rest on a repeated anecdote Walken relates about his father and one must work hard to guess at the motivations of the characters. The impression we are left with is that the younger couple, caught in the inertia of their relationship, are attracted to the interest shown them by the older pair, as much an aphrodisiac for them as it is for their predatory hosts.