Death and the Maiden is a 1994 mystery drama directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Ariel Dorfman and Rafael Yglesias, adapted from Dorfman's 1990 play of the same name. Sigourney Weaver stars as Paulina Escobar, a former political prisoner in an unnamed South American country, implied to be Chile, who becomes convinced that a stranger who has given her husband (played by Stuart Wilson) a ride home is the doctor who tortured and raped her under the country's fallen dictatorship. The stranger, Dr. Roberto Miranda (Ben Kingsley), protests his innocence as Paulina holds him captive and stages a makeshift trial in the couple's isolated house.
The film is a United States–United Kingdom–France co-production, produced by Josh Kramer and Thom Mount on a budget of about $12 million. Interiors were shot on a studio set in the Paris area, with exteriors filmed on the northwest coast of Spain. The title refers to Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet, which figures in the story. Fine Line Features released it in the United States in December 1994, where it grossed about $3 million; its worldwide gross is estimated at $8 million. Reviews were generally favorable. Critics praised the performances and Polanski's handling of the confined setting, while some found the characters schematic or the material stagebound.
Plot In an unnamed South American country that has recently emerged from a dictatorship, Paulina Escobar waits alone at a remote beach house during a storm that has cut the power. Her husband, Gerardo, a lawyer, has just been named to head a commission investigating human rights abuses under the old regime. Gerardo's car breaks down, and a stranger, Dr. Roberto Miranda, drives him home. Paulina, who was tortured and raped as a student fifteen years earlier by a man she never saw because she was blindfolded, recognizes Miranda's voice and mannerisms as those of her attacker. After the two men drink together, she disables Miranda's car, knocks him unconscious, and ties him to a chair.
Paulina announces that she will hold a trial. She says she does not want revenge, only a confession, after which she will release him; otherwise she will kill him. She forces Gerardo to act as Miranda's defense attorney. Gerardo, appalled that his wife is taking justice into her own hands, is inclined to believe Miranda's claims of innocence. Privately, Miranda persuades Gerardo to help him sign a false confession, and Gerardo agrees on the understanding that it will end the ordeal. Paulina rejects the fabricated confession as insincere and threatens to kill Miranda. As Gerardo tries to stop her, Miranda seizes Paulina's gun and threatens to shoot her unless he is freed. As he moves toward the door, the electricity returns, startling him, and Paulina regains control.
To save himself, Miranda says he was studying at a medical school in Spain when Paulina was abused and urges Gerardo to call the school to verify it. Paulina blindfolds Miranda and leads him to the edge of a cliff. Gerardo telephones the school, and a colleague appears to confirm Miranda's account. Gerardo goes to tell Paulina, who has become doubtful, but she refuses to be convinced, saying that doctors under the regime created alibis to conceal their identities. Miranda then admits that he was the doctor, that he took pleasure in brutalizing Paulina, and that he regrets the regime's fall.
Enraged, Gerardo tries to push Miranda off the cliff but finds he cannot kill him. Paulina appears to accept the confession, and the couple leave Miranda at the edge as he looks down at the water. The camera then simulates a fall from the cliff from Miranda's point of view. In an epilogue, Paulina and Gerardo attend a concert, where Miranda is also present with his wife and sons. Paulina and Miranda exchange uneasy glances, and he looks away.
Cast Sigourney Weaver as Paulina Escobar Ben Kingsley as Dr. Roberto Miranda Stuart Wilson as Gerardo Escobar Krystia Mova as Dr. Miranda's wife Jonathan Vega as Dr. Miranda's son Rodolphe Vega as Dr. Miranda's second son Jorge Cruz as a string quartet player Carlos Moreno as a string quartet player Gilberto Cortés as a string quartet player Eduardo Valenzuela as a string quartet player Sergio Ortega Alvarado as the string quartet manager
Production Development Dorfman's play drew on the history of his native Chile without naming its setting, and it was produced on Broadway in 1992 in a staging directed by Mike Nichols with Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss and Gene Hackman. The film adaptation was produced by Thom Mount and Josh Kramer, with Bonnie Timmermann and Dorfman as co-producers and Sharon Harel and Jane Barclay as executive producers. Capitol Films presented it in association with Channel 4 Films and Flach Films, with the participation of Canal+.
Dorfman wrote the screenplay with Yglesias, expanding the play without substantially opening it up beyond its single setting. Polanski said the film differed from the play mainly in its third act, which he described as more cinematic. Kramer raised the budget, which Polanski put at around $12 million, without financing from Hollywood, and the film had been sold across Europe by the time shooting was underway. The casting directors were Mary Selway and Patsy Pollock.
Filming By late April 1994, Polanski was shooting in Paris at the Studios de Boulogne, on a set that included a house, garden, driveway and beach designed by Pierre Guffroy, who had also designed Polanski's Tess, Frantic and Pirates. The production then moved to Spain for exteriors, which were shot on the country's northwest coast. Polanski told Variety that he was enjoying the shoot, and Timmermann said the production was two days ahead of schedule and called the film Polanski's best since Tess. Mount also described a sunset sequence that Polanski staged on a soundstage using special effects.
Because the house loses electricity for most of the story, cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli lit the interiors largely with candles, lanterns and flashlights, work Variety called superlative. Costumes were designed by Milena Canonero, and the film was edited by Hervé de Luze.
Music A central motif is Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet, which was playing during Paulina's abuse; she recognizes Miranda in part because of the music. The epilogue takes place in a concert hall, closing on the same piece. The original score was composed by Wojciech Kilar.
Themes As in the play, the film never explicitly identifies its country, although details such as the banknotes indicate that it is intended to be Chile. Critics noted that the lack of a specific setting allowed the story to stand for any society emerging from repression. Variety wrote that Dorfman drew on Chile's history but avoided identifying specific events, and Roger Ebert said that although the story is said to be based on events in Chile, it could take place in any country ruled by force and intimidation.
Ebert read the film as concerned less with whether Miranda is the guilty man than with what follows if he is: whether a torturer can change, whether he was shaped by his times, whether Paulina descends to his level by making him a captive, and whether her husband is bound to Miranda by an instinctive male solidarity. Critics differed on how open the question of guilt remains. Variety felt the script keeps the audience guessing almost to the end, while Slant Magazine argued that it tilts so heavily toward Paulina that guilt is never truly in doubt, shifting the focus to how truth can be established at all.
Release Fine Line Features released Death and the Maiden in the United States on December 23, 1994. The Motion Picture Association rated it R, and Variety reviewed it at a screening in Culver City, California, on December 2, 1994. That review predicted a specialized release in the United States because of the film's chamber-drama form and its roots in foreign politics. The film was distributed in the United Kingdom by Alliance Films through Momentum Pictures and in France by Pyramide Distribution.
Box office The film grossed $3 million in the United States and Canada and an estimated $8 million worldwide, against a reported budget of about $12 million.
Critical reception On Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 50 critics' reviews are positive; the site's summary credits the claustrophobic setting and the veteran leads for a tense, well-acted film. On Metacritic, it has a score of 72 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars. He called it above all a showcase for its actors and said that in other hands it might have been a dreary slog. He singled out Kingsley's intelligent, insinuating performance and the long closing monologue, and said the film would probably not work without Weaver, who brought many shades to the role beyond rage.
Todd McCarthy of Variety described a tense, adroit adaptation but felt that each character functions as a mouthpiece for an ideology, and that the film, though skillfully executed, lacked the idiosyncratic personal stamp of Polanski's best work. He praised Weaver's intensity, Kingsley's ambiguity and Wilson's portrayal of the equivocating husband, but noted that some viewers would object to Anglo-American actors playing South Americans. Slant Magazine later called the film underappreciated, best understood as an acting showcase for its three leads, and admired the crane shot in the concert hall epilogue. Other later reviewers were more reserved; one wrote in 2003 that it feels very much like a filmed play, with nearly all of its action confined to the Escobars' home.
References
External links