La jeune fille et la mort

This movie, Death and the Maiden, is a remarkable production given that it is a stage drama put on film. There is virtually only one set. The actors are incredible. You never lose the essence of the Director, Roman Polanski. Your interest never wanes in this thriller. Sigourney Weaver is outstanding. She is shattered by her initial confrontation with her torturer, Ben Kingsley. And then her recalling of the atrocities at his hands gives her tremendous strength, the strength of a tiger. The climax is unsettling but proves the virtue of forgiveness and acceptance even with extreme misgivings. This is a movie that stays in your memory. Kudos to all concerned.

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 typical confused lawyer-husband; and Sigourney Weaver probably gives her best performance – of course, she's got a good role.

I enjoy stories, where people get in situations so terrible and unnatural that they are unable to see their extent. They cannot think clearly and so their thinking structure changes and they begin to take completely absurd things into consideration. Every person reacts a little differently to the situation. I love this, and that's why I give this movie the best rating. I couldn't find any flaws in the movie, actually.

"Death and the Maiden" begins in a purposely disorienting way--a woman walks around her secluded, South American villa, preparing dinner, when the power suddenly goes out. Her husband is returned home by a stranger after his car gets a flat; later, after assuaging his wife's spastic bouts of unexplained paranoia, the stranger returns with the husband's spare tire. The husband, wanting to reward the man's generosity, invites him in for a drink. The wife, who is extremely on edge, escapes the house undetected and steals the stranger's car, pushing it off a cliff and into the ocean below. After this, the film settles down into a three-character psychodrama of the highest order.

Roman Polanski, a director who can mine tension with a bare minimum of means, uses deliberate lighting, specific camera angles, and a well-paced narrative to create a film where the suspense is endlessly being ratcheted up a notch, often in ways that are quite surprising. The wife, Paulina (Sigourney Weaver), suspects the stranger (Ben Kingsley) of raping and torturing her years ago; her husband, Gerardo (Stuart Wilson), is a lawyer who is enlisted to get the man's confession. The game of psychological cat-and-mouse that ensues is absorbing.

Both Kingsley and Wilson fare well in their roles, but it is Weaver who energizes the film. Her performance is absolutely (this deserves all caps) RUTHLESS, filled with moments of raging violence, icy detachment, and degradation (emphasized in graphic recollections of torture); if you thought Ellen Ripley was fearless in the face of the Queen Alien, "Death and the Maiden" shows an altogether different kind of tough exterior for the actress. In a way, I was reminded of the graphic revenge that took place in the infamous rape drama "I Spit on Your Grave"; while "Death and the Maiden" is superior, it is just as similarly driven (though the rape and torture is left to our imaginations), and its psychological edge, matched with top-drawer performances, moves it further from a 'filmed play' and into more visceral terrain. And, as he's so good at doing, Polanski keeps us guessing till the very end.

Highly recommended.

Death and the Maiden is a thriller. A woman who had been tortured in a repressive government meets a man who has been her torturer, or has he?

It is also a psychological film. A married couple deals with uncovering the whole truth about their past.

And it is political. Although it is supposed to be a fictional story, it has more than a strong resemblance with the brutal tortures during Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile. It is not filmed in that country, but they use Chilean money, they eat Chilean bread and they mention Tavelli, a popular café in Santiago.

Beautiful music. Schubert's Death and the Maiden, is played throughout the movie.

A great film to view with people who enjoy having discussions after.

Enjoy!

In this movie, Sigourney Weaver is thoroughly believable with her trademark edge, rarely seen in other women actors. The doctor, although obviously with selfish motives, kept me guessing until the end as to whether he was guilty of the crimes of torture she claimed he committed against her, having not seen the face of, but only having heard the voice of the man she remembered. You don't know the truth until the end. It is very riveting. Her relationship with her husband is very realistic, as well, and very revealing about both of their characters. All three roles were depicted as intensely real. I enjoyed this thriller from the moment it began to the very end. You are immediately engaged in her reality, rather than experiencing a slow build up seen with most movies. Very satisfying because no character was one-sided, but they were multi-dimensional, with each having a unique history. Bravo!