Death and the Maiden (1994)
Wednesday, February 15th, 2006
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson
Runtime: 103 min
Rating: R
Trailer
Based on the stage play by Ariel Dorfman, Death and the Maiden is a well acted and suspenseful psychological thriller that is basically a long and deliberately staged interrogation scene, with both characters and audience eagerly anticipating a final confession. The setting is in an unnamed South American country (obviously inspired by the Pinochet regime) right after the fall of a brutal and fascist dictatorship, with the entire action taking place in a remote cabin by the sea. Paulina Escobar (Sigourney Weaver in a brave performance that is a long way off from Ghostbusters) and Gerardo Escobar (Stuart Wilson) are a husband and wife that were once involved in a resistance movement against the dictatorship. Having been caught and brutally tortured by the government, Paulina now bears such emotional scars that she’s become a brooding and erratic woman on the edge - when a strange car arrives in the middle of the night she loads a handgun, shuts the lights off in the house and hides. Her husband Gerardo now works for the new government and is on a Committee with the task of prosecuting known tortures and kidnappers of the former regime. As the story picks up, a good natured Dr. Roberto Miranda (Ben Kingsley) arrives at the cabin in the middle of the night to drop off a spare tire that was left behind by Gerardo earlier in the night, when his car broke down on the side of the road. As Gerardo invites Miranda for a drink, Paulina recognizes the doctor’s voice as one of her torturers years before. Paulina acts quickly – she steals Miranda’s car and throws it over the edge of the cliff, ties Miranda to a chair and sticks a gun in his face - all with so much calm and expertise that it is unavoidable to assume she’s been planning this event in her head for some time. She finally warns Miranda that if he doesn’t confess to his crimes, she will kill him. Of course Miranda swears he’s innocent and that Paulina has made a mistake. The screenplay keeps the audience on edge and not entirely sure who to believe. For one thing, Paulina never did see her torturers as she was blind folded the entire time, but she remembers the voice and the music played in her cell - Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” concerto. Even though the film is told primarily from Paulina’s point of view, the film rests solely on Kingsley’s turn as the doctor. It is his character’s refusal to be named as the sadistic tormentor that keeps the tension mounting, and forces Paulina and Gerardo to counteract. His performance is so good that it’s sometimes hard to sympathize with Paulina’s crisis, forcing the audience to question her emotional state and doubt whether or not she in fact has the right person. Ultimately this claustrophobic film works as a drama and a thriller thanks in part to Polanski’s deft direction and the acting performances of bother Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley. This one will stick with you long after it’s over.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006
