#1041: SCHRADER, Paul: The Comfort Of Strangers (1990)

SCHRADER, Paul (Italy)
The Comfort Of Strangers [1990]
Spine #1041
Blu-ray

Adapting the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan, playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter lends his trademark unnerving dialogue and air of creeping menace to this spellbinding study of power, control and the frighteningly thin line between pleasure and pain. Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson are the prey, a beautiful British couple working on their relationship while on holiday in Venice; Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren are the hunters who draw them into the sinister web of their opulent, old-world palazzo. What plays out is an unsettling, sadomasochistic seduction imbued with an atmosphere of sumptuous dread by the elegantly gliding tracking shots of cinematographer Dante Badalamenti, and carefully controlled direction of Paul Schrader, who choreographs a mesmerizing pas de quatre of sustained erotic and emotional tension.

104 minutes
Color
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2020

Director/Writers

Based on the novel by Ian McEwan.

Screenplay by Harold Pinter.

Paul Schrader was 44 when he directed The Comfort of Strangers.

Other Schrader films in the Collection:

#432: Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters (1985)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-page foldout poster featuring an essay by critic Maitland McDonagh.

Commentary

None.

Interviews 1

With DP Dante Spinotti, Schrader, actor Walken, and editor Bill Pankow.

Interviews 2

From 1981 and 2001 with novelist McEwan and actor Richardson.

Trailers

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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