. . . and not one of them is presently available on U.S. DVD. Here's a box set I would happily purchase.
Patty Hearst (1988). Directed by Paul Schrader. Screenplay by Nicholas Kazan.
Richardson plays the title role. The film is seen entirely from her point of view (when she's locked in the closet, we're locked in the closet, knowing her captors only by their silhouettes and voices). A pawn caught between the Revolutionaries and the Establishment. Her Northern California accent, alone, is awesome. And who can forget her last line delivered from a jail cell? "Fuck them. Fuck them all."
The Handmaid's Tale (1990) - Directed by Volker Schlondorff. Screenplay by Harold Pinter.
Allegorical SF about a totalitarian American theocracy. Richardson plays a "handmaid" - essentially a breeder in a world where most women are sterile - hired out to a privileged couple (Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall) to conceive their child.
The Comfort of Strangers (1991) - Directed by Paul Schrader. Screenplay by Pinter.
Richardson and Rupert Everett play a "good couple" vacationing in Venice (uh-oh) who are seduced by a "bad couple" (Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren). More fundamentally disturbing than you could imagine.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Three Brilliant Performances by Natasha Richardson (1963-2009)
None of these unabashed art films were popular successes. Nor were they meant to be. Richardson eventually found her greatest acclaim on the stage.
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5 comments:
I think the Handmaid's Tale is out, at least in this country, under MGM's Avant Garde Cinema label.
Erich - According to Amazon, Handmaids "has been discontinued by the manufacturer." There was a DVD of The Comfort of Strangers out for a while, but it wasn't letterboxed.
I have a very nice R2 DVD of "The Comfort of Strangers". Even if you don't have a region free player, if your computer has a DVD drive it will play any discs regardless of the region code.
Dear Jerry,
I too, mourn the loss of Natasha Richardson. She was a luminous beauty with much still to create. I must confess that I stayed away from The Handmaiden's Tale. Having read some of the book (and finding myself too uncomfortable to continue) I had no interest in seeing the film. Perhaps I shall have to re-think my prior position.
As to The Comfort of Strangers, it sounds too yummy to be true. Helen Mirren and Christopher Walken in Venice seducing innocent couples? Oh, if only such things occurred in real life!
I gather it's not that enjoyable when watched,
Ms. Stephanie Locke
p.s. Jerry, write about Helen Mirren! She's SO very hot, I've been into her ever since her star turn with Malcom McDowell in Caligula.
Dear Ms. Stephanie –
What’s interesting about these three Natasha Richardson films – part of what makes them a trilogy in my eyes – is that they all take the viewer out of his or her comfort zone.
Patty Hearst is the best of the three. What Richardson does with her voice in that film is just incredible.
The Handmaid’s Tale has a good script and a (mostly) terrific cast, but suffers from Schlondorff’s leaden direction. The film needed someone with a lighter, more sensual, more cinematic approach, someone more attuned to the nuances of Pinter’s dialogue. I’d still like to see it again if it were available.
The Comfort of Strangers is a horror film disguised as an art film. That’s what makes it so effectively disturbing – it sneaks up on you and rapes you in the dark. As we learned from Coraline, if something seems “too yummy to be true,” it probably is.
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