Candy from "Strangers"

Paul Schrader's 1990 The Comfort of Strangers is, as it happens, pretty spare on very peculiarly angled shots; the above screen grab just happens to be of one of them, one I particularly admire because you need a little time just to figure out how many people, or even just carbon-based life forms, are in the shot, and just what the hell they're doing anyway. Inspired by the death of its screenwriter Harold Pinter, or perhaps just by feeling a little, erm, strange, I was compelled to give the picture another look recently. It's the subject of this week's Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report,over at The Auteurs'.

Comments

[Tony Dayoub]

Didn't know whether to post at the Auteurs or here, so I decided to do both:

What a fantastic Pinter (and Schrader) movie to revisit. The fact that it was based on a McEwan novel notwithstanding (I'm honestly not familiar with the novel enough to have an opinion), I find that the film seems to have been extremely influenced by Roeg's "Don't Look Now" not just in terms of its setting. There is the horrific climax, as well as the thick atmosphere of dread and inevitability that hangs over the film.

[DVA118]

Funny you should say that, Tony, I told my wife it would make a great double feature with "Don't Look Now". Actually, couple it with "Belly of an Architect", and you've got the start of a marathon about... something slightly sinister.

[mark ehrenkranz]

glenn - pls call me i need to speak with you

mark ehrenkranz

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