“Death and the Maiden” is a chamber psychologicalized action film from Roman Polanski, an adaptation of the play by Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean playwright who survived the Pinochet concentration camp.
Characters: Pauline Escobar (Sigourney Weaver) aka zerva/executioner, Gerardo Escobar (Stuart Wilson) aka savior and Dr. Roberto-Death-Miranda (Ben Kingsley), aka executioner/victim.
The picture for Polanski, a prisoner of the Warsaw ghetto, is certainly very personal. Something like a screen study of accumulated powerless anger and resentment for a poisoned childhood.
Actually, the film is impeccably staged by Father Suspense and Mother of Drama, everything is qualitative, clear, “polan”, but it begs a comparison with films of a similar mix, for example, with “Night Porter” Liliana Cavani, and although “Death and Maiden” is quite interesting from a technical point of view, “Night Porter” he still loses according to the plot.
The action of the film casts the viewer back in the early democratic years in a Latin American country. Pauline Escobar, a victim of the prison torture and oppression of the once-existing regime, now leads a secluded life as an emotionally conserved housewife, and her husband, a prominent opposition lawyer, Gerardo Escobar, receives an offer from the new president to head a commission to investigate the crimes of the military junta. One rainy bad day at the husband unexpectedly on the way home bursts the wheel, to the rescue comes an elderly friendly gentleman - Dr. Roberto Miranda (everything like Polanski loves: an enclosed space, bitten off from the world of islets in Nowhere)
Everything turned into a nightmare spiral of madness as soon as Paulina sees the doctor and recognizes him as one of the main characters of her tragic past: Roberto Miranda is the one who tortured and raped her in prison. Is it true? ...
Pauline decides to let the claws in the doctor to the bone, the unfortunate Mr. Miranda is bound in a chair in front of an unforgiving angry woman. Paulina’s husband in the fateful past held an opposition role, but avoided torture, being not extradited by Paulina, in this crazy situation it is much easier for him to apply a balanced legal approach when considering the question of guilt of the suspect. Pauline, on the other hand, is extremely difficult to approach the issue of prosecution impartially and objectively, she instinctively recognizes the figure of her former torturer and is ready to administer her own justice, despite the possibility of error in judgment. But will it be enough to dominate the demons of the past? How far can one go by succumbing to the devil's rage?
It is interesting to twist in the mind the strength of love of spouses. How strong is she, how alive is she? The first examination shows only the poisonous hatred of Pauline and the tin indifference of Gerardot. It is noteworthy that Paulina can afford to take food from her husband during a meal and throw it in the trash. Even more remarkable is how everyday the husband continues to eat from the trash. Before the fateful night, which the viewer witnesses, Paulina has a strong resentment against Gerardo (caught once in treason), all this dramatic mise-en-scene in the film was not arranged for the sake of Roberto Miranda alone, Paulina needed to dot the "i" in their with Gerardo omissions, accumulated for many years of cohabitation, is this man really worth such painful events? Of course, the answer in the picture comes, but quietly and very unnoticed.
Returning to the main node of the tape - what is it that pushes people into the mouth of criminal regimes, especially into punitive bodies?
In Bernardo Bertolucci’s Conformist, the fascist colonel summed up the beautiful answer: “Some cooperate out of fear, most for money and very little for belief in fascism.”
“Death and the Maiden” is a film in the spirit of Roman Polanski, using the best director’s scumbag: sexual predominance, a claustrophobic house bitten off the world, there is a moral freak hiding in the bowels of society, there is even an unhusband!
Definitely shown to fans of Polanski and the themes of fascism
An eye for an eye will make the world blind.
(Mahatma Gandhi)
Furiously and audaciously with the first bars of the string quartet N14 in D minor, known as “Death and the Maiden” by Franz Schubert, begins the detective drama of Roman Polanski, staged on the famous play of the same name by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman.
Suffering gaze of the virgin, clenched lips and whitened knuckles of the fingers, the rapid onslaught of the water element, hit by waves on silent rocks and poured streams of heavy rain on the rugged shore of an unnamed country in South America, instill in the heart only anxiety, not foreshadowing anything good ...
And in a secluded house, standing alone by the sea on the shore of the fjord, quiet and peaceful. Through the window of the house, the viewer peeks at a lonely maid, who is steadily preparing dinner in anticipation of someone. It's a visible calm...
In the dungeons of her soul there is a constant thunderstorm: fear, hatred, a sense of injustice and a thirst for revenge lurk in the depths of her heart and you cannot cover them with forgiveness like a dung pile of roses. For many years, these feelings grew, captured her soul, sharpening her sense of herself as a victim, guided her thoughts and actions, and, becoming a concentration of demons inside, finally broke out in a stream of rapid, all-destructive lava when she heard the voice of a random guest, whose appearance was always waiting for.
The grim genius of Roman Polanski, resorting to a favorite plot arrangement, created a closed film space, placing three heroes in a difficult situation in it: Pauline (Sigourney Weaver), tormented by echoes of the past, a victim of political violence, her husband, the famous lawyer and liberal politician Gerardo Eskabar (Stuart Wilson), and Dr. Roberto Miranda (Ben Kingsley), their neighbor, in whom Pauline recognizes his rapist and executioner. Tightening the acting trio with tight moral entanglements and creating an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension, the director continues his path of film research, reduced to the search for the boundaries of the human personality, to the search for humanity in himself.
The main character determines the narrative, gaining control of the situation with a gun and subjected to severe psychological pressure, both the uninvited guest and her husband. Paulina is uncompromising in her actions, driven by a desire for revenge for the pain, abuse and humiliation she experienced during her imprisonment under the military junta regime. Will the revenge brought to the end allow her to overcome the psychological trauma of suffering, letting go of the pain and finding inner peace and the opportunity to live not only in the past? Getting rid of nightmares and inner demons is not so easy, because the “torture chamber” of Paulina is in her and will remain with her forever. Will she be able to defeat the phantom, firmly rooted in her memory, refusing to transfer the nightmare past to the present?
Franz Schubert's string quartet accompanies the film throughout its length. The same work became the musical background of the suffering of the main character: her executioner staged Death and the Maiden during torture, after which Pauline is no longer able to perceive this music except in the context of her unquenchable pain and restrained anger. She wants the music of her favorite composer back, wants her Schubert back.
Be that as it may, the pressure and manic tenacity with which she forces Dr. Miranda to confess to the atrocities he committed, the lady does not occupy! However, does this prove Dr. Miranda's guilt or Paulina's paranoia? The director up to the credits keeps the situation ambiguous, leaving to the mercy of the viewer the interpretation of the final scene - a silent meeting of two views. Showing a multifaceted evil, without being pretentious and delicately stepping aside, Polanski once again confirms the power of transforming the author’s once experienced traumatic experience into art. And in confirmation of this, in the finale of the picture, the virgin again listens to the music of Schubert, which became for her a source of pain and healing.
We see things not as they are, but as we are.
(Ken Keyes)
The legislator decreed that an eye for an eye is not so that we snatch from each other.
eyes, but to keep their hands from hurting; for the threat that makes them fear
Punishment, curbs the desire for criminal cases.
(John Chrysostom, St. Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew, XVIII). 1)
___
“A rose is a rose is a rose” is one of Gertrude Stein’s famous quotes, often interpreted as “things are as they are.”
Polanski can be terrifying. And it does it beautifully. The movie Death and the Girl is so simple. Almost theatrical chamber drama. A movie where people talk and don’t even kill anyone. And in the end, "Death and the Girl" frightens and overwhelms steeper than bloody horror films.
Polanski masterfully builds the action, forcing each of the characters to reveal themselves completely. Quite delightfully, he creates the image of a villain. How beautiful Ben Kingsley is. Such a decent, well-bred and balanced person. Just like all of us. Like all of us in this normal life. I really don’t want him to be that monster. We so hope that the heroine Sigourney Weaver was mistaken in claiming that under the mask of a good man there is a monster.
But maybe he's not a monster. He was just following orders. He just did what everyone on his side did. And then Polanski picks really deep. He throws this question at us and watches. How do we feel about a soldier taking orders and torturing the enemy? The enemy is evil and must be eradicated. All according to the rules of war. But something's wrong. This soldier, having received the right to sanctioned violence, for some reason begins to cross the boundaries of man. He's allowed to. He's being encouraged. Why should he count on the victim? Polanski dares to suggest that it is not the order to fight evil. That it is not a service to the law, however cruel it may be. Polanski seeks the answer not in regimes or ideology, but in man himself.
Man is a beast that only hides his teeth while he is in human society. As long as society demands civilized behavior, the beast plays the role of civilized man. But if he is left alone with his nature, then hold on. Evil, bloodthirsty, unprincipled and animal begin to prevail. As long as no one sees, a person enjoys superiority over the weak and defenseless with impunity. A person with perverse pleasure abuses the victim, because inside him sits the beast, released.
What a terrible and tragic conclusion! Polanski, who spent his childhood in a concentration camp, is entitled to it. Fascism does not make a person be evil. Man in himself is fascism.
No less complex and original image of the husband. Doesn't he love his wife? Of course he does. He just loves this beautiful, young, healthy woman, the mistress of the house, who can be proudly brought to the light, to the opera. It is easy to understand how he does not want to see that his wife is a repeatedly raped, trampled into the mud creature with a disfigured psyche. He feels sorry for her, but can't he just leave it as it is? Can't we forget it was a long time ago? And here Polanski poses a new problem. Who is he, this husband? This is society, this is us. Of course, we understand that a lot of injustice and cruelty happens in life, but we do not want to let it into our lives. Yes, sorry for innocent victims, yes, it's terrible that evil is not punished, but what did I have to do with it? Oh, what terrible secrets Polanski knows about us!
Choosing Sigourney Weaver as the main character was a very strong move. It combines femininity, beauty and male will, a huge force. Of all three, she is the one who acts like a man. When we finally understand what she's been through, we even want her to retaliate to punish her tormentor. But what does the heroine do? No, she didn't take pity on him. She royally removed her hands from the dirt. Through his character, Polanski still offers us hope. I hope that in any situation, even the worst nightmare, there is a way out – to remain human.
For me, this film was not a revelation, but an interesting surprise behind the scrupulous study of the director’s work of Roman Polanski. Already in absentia, a brief description of the plot suggested a non-trivial and rather interesting ideological basis, a tense psychological thriller and an excellent cast. The first good impression was only partially justified and, looking ahead, I will say that you get less from watching than you can expect. This is not the most famous work of Polanski.
You can meet the characterization of the film as an action thriller, but for an hour and a half you will not feel the excitement of feeling for the heroes. After the heroine Sigourney Weaver manages to captivate a tormentor from her past, it seems to her that the three only characters in the film come to the fore. A sense of anxiety and certain discomfort provide memories of the main character, and they overlap directly with the events in the estate. There are moments when you're willing to go into the screen just to get a split second quicker to know the ending. There is simply a common interest in the mystery being solved and which version is the only one that is true. Therefore, you should not expect any noticeable spikes of adrenaline in the blood.
Surely many will be surprised, but the main events of the film take place in the walls and on the veranda of one secluded private house, and the plot is formed only by three characters and their memories. It creates a certain sense of unreality of what is happening, as if you fall into a terrible dream. I didn’t notice any exceptional acting, although some scenes with Weaver give me uncomfortable tremors. To sum up under the impressions of viewing, "Death and the girl" is not a film that can be revisited over and over again.
7 out of 10
No matter how many films I watch directed by Roman Polanski, he never ceases to amaze me. This man is exactly in his place and a professional to the bone. No professional is probably not the right word. Probably the Creator, who is in constant search, searching for answers to eternal questions. And the way he sees life, the way he sees human relationships, including pathologies, we can already see. The best example of this is the painting “Death and a girl”.
Perhaps with the role of Pauline Escobar could cope Jodie Foster, but Polanski invited Sigourney Weaver and did not lose. Nothing is impossible for Weaver in movies. This actress kicks like a tank, lifting all prohibitions and restrictions. You can not love her, but you can not ignore her. The role of Pauline Escobar may not be the crown of her creation, but definitely a successful job. How else are you playing Ben Kingsley? You can't screw with that guy. In a word, three talented people fashioned not the worst psychological sketch.
There are people who have sharpened senses. And Weaver's heroine from that glorious kahort. She sees, hears and feels. But most importantly, she remembers. Yes, you can't throw out the memory of a great life, real torture and real rape. Perhaps if she had gone to church, this one would have brought relief and comfort to her soul, and would not have met her that evening, her tormentor. Maybe. But again, it's not a fact. And since Kingsley's hero has come, he'll have a special conversation with him. Yeah, it's an intrusive interrogation. You're not going anywhere. We can only regret that the husband in this study performs the role of not hitting the bedridden. What do we want? Had she got another husband, stronger than she, who personally recognized and dealt with the villain, this situation would not have arisen, as well as the film.
I don't know, maybe my conclusion is hasty, but something tells me that with his 1994 painting, Polanski kind of looked into the future. Already at that time there was a rampage of emancipe, but the dominance of women, clearly shown by Roman, seemed to anticipate the course of history. So it's not really a story of revenge, it's more about Freudian principles. Se la vi.
The thriller "Death and the Girl" Director Roman Polanski carries the core of a psychologically heavy film that would be unrealistic to shoot without a good cast. The whole film is essentially just conversations of the three main characters, each of whom is frightened by words and statements, slowly creating a terrifying picture of past years.
Roman Polanski with the selection of the cast did not lose. Sigourney Weaver perfectly coped with the role of an ordinary housewife, over whom many years ago, being held captive, was brutally abused. Stuart Wilson also played Pauline’s husband, a promising lawyer who, returning home, helped a man with many secrets behind him.
And, of course, Ben Kingsley as a hostage of Dr. Miranda, captured by the same housewife Pauline. She accuses him of having once held her captive and abused her body along with other bastards. The film of Roman Polanski from the first minutes keeps the viewer in suspense, because the conflict between the three main characters seems to pass from hand to hand, giving the baton of dominance to another hero.
Thanks to the talented play of the actors, the film feels a thriller atmosphere, there is a danger that threatens each of the main characters. The film is also very strong in terms of direction and script. "Death and the Girl" is a high-quality thriller with a quality cast.
Yes, Sigourney Weaver is known because of all these Aliens, but I would be more proud to be in this movie than in the whole alien saga.
She's amazing. Her nervousness, her paranoia, those transitions from inadequacy to seriousness and back again, the calmness and stubbornness with which she talks about the bullying and humiliation that she had to endure during the war - she is beautiful. If there were a hundred characters in this movie, all I would see was her burning eyes. But Polanski, with his love of chamber scenes, left only two men near her, further underlining her superiority.
Yes, men. Her screen husband was so colorless and ridiculous that I did not even remember his face) I understand that it was done intentionally, and I, as usual, fell for all the techniques of a good director.
Ben Kingsley had all sorts of feelings. Mostly it was pity on him, because the convulsive Weaver made me think that she had completely lost her mind and accused the first innocent man of her torture. During her story, she wanted to be killed, torn to pieces and burned. What happened during his final monologue cannot be described in words. I expected anything but that.
Roman Polanski is one of my favorite directors and I love his films. His cinema differs from others in its atmosphere, originality and something mysterious and beautiful. I’ve watched all of his films, and each of them is unique and has cinematic value. Polanski is always a talented and tasteful filmmaker, and they are all worthy of attention and respect.
“Death and the Girl” is one of my favorite movies, although many people don’t like and criticize it, and it turned out to be underrated. This drama with elements of a thriller carries a deep meaning and real drama. We see human life destroyed and retribution for it. The movie turned out to be original, and all the time keeps the viewer in suspense and conjecture. I like this movie because it is unlike anything, and its story is interesting, and it is shot well, and the atmosphere of this film is beautiful: night, rain, wind, home comfort, mystery, investigation, the horizon with the ocean and good, talented actors who play the main characters.
We see the main character, who is waiting for her husband late at night, and he comes with a stranger who helped him, and the main character recognizes him by her voice, because this man many years ago during the fascist occupation tortured and raped her, blindfolding her. She had never seen him, but the voice and smell remained clear in her mind. After that terrible time, her life was broken, and now fate throws this man into her life again, and the main character is determined, and she has a plan of revenge and a desire for revenge.
The main role in this drama was played by a talented and strong American actress Sigourney Weaver. I like this actress: there is something unusual and incredibly talented about her. She always chicly plays complex, dramatic roles, and in this drama, Weaver was on top. Her play was sensual and emotional, and her character is pityful, because she survived Hell, and so much wanted revenge. In this drama, it was nice to hear the quartet “Death and the Maiden” by Franz Schubert, who played a non-key role in the film.
The movie turned out to be twisted and dramatic, and when watching everyone thinks, where is the truth, whether he raped her or not? The end of the film was also interesting and unexpected. The script is well thought out and we see the deep drama that has been shown to us so well. The heart and soul of the film was Sigourney Weaver. She's revered for such a good game. In this drama, we were shown a difficult situation in which it was necessary to understand and punish the perpetrators, and the film is built on investigation and confession. I like this movie very much, I watched it late at night in a quiet atmosphere and it made a big impression on me. Death and the Maiden is a $12,000,000-million drama that is clean and interesting, original and challenging, with some mystery and a good hand from the director. I really like this movie, and I think it definitely deserves a positive assessment and attention of the audience.
One country is finally changing power and establishing an unacceptable democracy. One of the leaders of the new government, Gerardo Escobar, is worried about the condition of his wife, who at one time went through multiple tortures, but did not extradite her husband to former dictators. Poor Paulina was tortured with electricity and raped many times, causing her to develop paranoia. To protect his beloved from the world, where everyone seems to her the same villain-rapist, Gerardo lives with her on the seaside in a small cozy house.
Everything seems to be getting better, but one very rainy evening, the politician's car breaks down and he is taken home by a very nice Dr. Miranda. At the sight of a stranger, Pauline starts up again and arranges a scandal for her benevolent on this basis. At night, the rescue doctor returns to Escobar's house, as he forgot to lay out the spare wheel of the broken car, without which repair and further driving are impossible. Looking at the virtue, Pauline recognizes in him the very man who for a long time mocked her and raped her in every possible way. But suddenly she once again imagined and she simply begins to torture the confession of a completely innocent person.
I do not know why, but this work of the indisputable classic of cinema Roman Polanski is not as beloved and known as many of his other creations, although Death and the Girl is not much inferior to his other projects, somehow connected by one common style of shooting. Polanski always knew how to put great thrillers that keep intrigue until the very end and do not let go until the final credits, but unlike many others, this tape is strikingly different. First of all, this concerns the progressive development of events, because not a little screen time was given to a long harness. However, a little later, the action accelerates almost to the first space and surprises with new and new features, which are so famous for the films of the scandalous director. Although, re-watching “Death and the Girl”, named after Schubert’s composition, which played in the moments when the main character was raped, will not be as interesting and exciting as the first time, and this can already be considered a small, but still a drawback.
Otherwise, the movie was very powerful. First of all, this concerns the story itself and impeccable dialogues, on which, in fact, the entire narrative is based, since all the actions unfold in almost one room, namely, in the cozy house of Escobarov. Thanks to all these aspects, there is a strong psychological tension that can slightly frighten even in the absence of blood. At the same time, there is a very high concentration of cruelty and frankness, oozing from literally every frame and being an integral attribute of the genre of the textbook thriller. But even with this genre, Death and the Girl gravitates more to serious drama, exposing inner demons and the persecution of sins from the past that do not leave a person until death. The idea itself is quite simple, but Polanski plays it so masterfully and brings each new scene to a new level of tension that one can only wonder at his amazing skill in creating a heat of passions on the level.
As for the main intrigue and the final revelation, each viewer must choose for himself who to sympathize with and whom to consider crazy in this situation. In addition, all the intricacies of the plot will raise from the bottom of the past many pitfalls, giving another reason to think about choosing your sympathies. But even a brilliant script and a great director can not turn into a decent film without the participation of good actors, with whom there are no problems. In fact, “Death and the Girl” is a scene for three characters and the most striking of these was the heroine performed by Sigourney Weaver. She has long been known as an unsurpassed master of strong emotional images that can not only act out a tragedy, but also press well to the nail and even clean the snout of any adult man.
In the role of the latter, there was the great Ben Kingsley, who perfectly fit into the image of the good doctor Miranda, who fell under the hot hand of the wife of his new acquaintance. It was very difficult for him to play, as most of the time he spends tied, but such a masterful performer was enough open eyes and piercing facial expressions. Did not spoil the overall picture and Stuart Wilson, although against the background of charismatic colleagues he looked a little dull.
In general, "Death and the Girl" is a very worthy chamber thriller with powerful scenes of a psychological nature and with a gradually increasing intensity of passions, resulting in the finale in a real revelation that opens all the cards at once. The movie is very strong, but too Polanski delayed the beginning, and the intrigue when watching again will disappear, but otherwise everything was at a decent level, so the assessment is as follows:
8 out of 10
Chile, 1992. The times of dictatorship are over, but the ghosts of the past that torment its victims are still alive. Mental and bodily wounds are unbearably painful, and even lustration is not a salvation for the majority. Pauline Escobar, who lives with her husband, lawyer Gerardo, in the lighthouse house, remembered this little man with a quiet voice. Dr. Roberto Miranda, a sadistic doctor who conducted brutal experiments on his victims, a doctor who killed sympathy in Pauline.
The 1994 thriller “Death and the Girl” was filmed by Roman Polanski based on the play of the same name by Ariel Dorfman. And although the film is very chamber and essentially theatrical, the picture has an incredible suspense, which is achieved thanks to the hard work of the operator Tonino Delli Colli and the excellent performance of the cast, which includes Sigourney Weaver, brilliantly played Pauline, Stuart Wilson, who played the role of Gerardo, and Ben Kingsley, as always delightfully played the role of Dr. Miranda. The plot of the tape revolves exclusively around these three characters and the structure of the picture resembles a court, and the Lynch court with the only correct sentence in this situation. The actors in the tape play very realistically, with a tear, which makes the film look like a slice of real life.
I can’t help but note the soundtrack of Wojciech Kilyar, which further increases the tension in the picture.
I recommend this great film, which tells about justice and the price of truth, to all fans of author’s films and unusual thrillers and I do not think that the tape will disappoint you.
10 out of 10
Death and the Girl is a powerful psychological work. Personally, I was really sitting in suspense throughout the film wondering if Miranda was really putting electrodes in one interesting place or if it wasn’t him. The film was shot in one room, with only three actors. It is very easy to transfer the tape to the stage and pass it off as a performance. But most plot twists are guessed, and therefore great delights can not be experienced. Politically speaking, the film is weak. The main idea of the tape is that as soon as liberals and Democrats come to power, then heaven on earth will immediately come. In fact, the director managed to prove the opposite - a prominent liberal lawyer in a real life situation looked painfully funny, and it is painfully well shown that a Russian officer is not a Chilean criminal. As a result, the film is psychologically strong, politically weak, and absolutely ordinary from the point of view of cinema. I don’t recommend watching, but there’s nothing wrong with movies. Sigourney Weaver even shows his glands a couple of times, which is already a plus. 7 out of 10 Original