I cannot explain exactly why ‘Death and the Maiden‘ did not make on me the impression that I would have expected from a film directed by Roman Polanski and featuring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley (during their peak periods of glory) in the lead roles. Perhaps it is the fact that I have seen since 1994 quite a bunch of similar films that look back to the period of political repression by the right-wing regimes in South and Central America in the 70’s. Maybe it plays a role also the fact that the formula of drama in close space, sometimes inspired by theater plays (in this case, it’s an adaptation after Ariel Dorfman‘s play) had a lot of other accomplishments, including some other films by Polanski. Or maybe just because 25 years have passed since this film that does not have enough extraordinary elements to make it age beautifully was made.
Premises are good. Dorfman and Polanski create a combination between political cinema and post-trauma psychological films in a setting that seems to descend directly from Hitchcock. Gerardo and Paolina Escobar are a socially well-placed couple who live a comfortable life in an oceanfront villa. The ghosts of the past, however, follow the two, materialized especially in the anxiety of the woman who is tormented by the memories of the arrest, torture, and rape that she suffered two decades ago as a political opponent during the dictatorship. The day when Gerardo learns that he is to be named a special investigator of the crimes committed during the crackdown, a stranger, Dr. Miranda appears in their life, accidentally or perhaps not. Paolina recognizes his voice as the doctor’s who collaborated with the military and participated in her torture. The woman decides to make justice. Can she be sure about the identity of a man she identified only by his voice? Can Gerardo accept summary justice instead of the official process he is going to lead at the national scale? Will the doctor recognize his guilt, if he is indeed guilty? Does the victim have the right to become a judge, maybe a executioner? All these questions are looking for answers in a stormy night in a villa by the ocean.
What I liked. The cinematography, especially the presence of water, which plays in many of Polanski ‘s films a role both aesthetic and in the building of the tension. The action of the film begins on a heavy rain and ends on a high cliff below which the waves of the ocean break furiously. The intensity of the actors’ acting, especially Sigourney Weaver’s. Franz Schubert’s music. What I liked less. The theatricality of dialogues – something that works well on stage does not sound sometimes as natural on the screen. The closing resolution of the conflict belongs more to the cinema of the 1950s than to the 1990s. The slightly theatrical, slightly tired atmosphere places ‘Death and the Maiden‘ among Roman Polanski‘s less successful works.