Featured Audience Ratings

• Emil K

  
  With Death and the Maiden director Roman Polanski has achieved what must be considired as his most riveting film to date. Here is a film which grabs you from the throat from it's very beginning and will not let go until the credits roll. It is a film with minimalist setting but… More
  With Death and the Maiden director Roman Polanski has achieved what must be considired as his most riveting film to date. Here is a film which grabs you from the throat from it's very beginning and will not let go until the credits roll. It is a film with minimalist setting but still it manages to be complex and highly topic when it comes to it's subject matter. While this film could have been simple vigilante film with revenge plot Polanski refuses wisely to follow any familiar ways of telling his story and goes more darker, demanding and more disturbing corners of human psyche. Ariel Dorfman's and Rafael Yglesias's screenplay is full of brilliant dialgoue and succeeds in keeping the film's pace tight. Polanski instead focuses in building tension slowly and keeping the atmosphere as mysterious and suspenseful as possible. From all of Polanski's films Death and the Maiden is the most effective of them. It is classical Polanski in many ways. It has similiar setting as his debut feature Knife in the Water did and stylistically it is pure Polanski. Photographer Tonino Delli Colli does amazing work behind his lenses and together with Polanski they have made fantastic work. There is no cheap tricks or unnecessary effects here. This is vintage filmmaking. Polanski has always been one of the great visual masters. His style has inspired many of modern directors and their way of filmmaking. Death and the Maiden also has one of my own favourite composers Wojciech Kilar delivering what might be his career best score among his work on Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula so far. His subtle score fits perfectly into film's eerie mood. It would be crime from me to not mention anything about the great leading trio of this film. Sigourney Weaver, Stuart Wilson and Ben Kingsley are all in their career best roles here and deliver powerhouse performances. Weaver is furious as a psychologically damaged woman who accidently gets a chance to get even with his dark past. Wilson and Kingsley are both equally important and complex characters. Wilson is genuinely authentic as a husband who does not know who to believe and whose side to be in. Kingsley instead is fantastic as a sneakily warm character from the past. From the late 50's till these days Polanski has made many unforgettable films in his career. There is Knife in the Water which is perfect example of Polanski's ability to mix drama, comedy and thriller together with solid results. He has also made one of the most chilling dives into troubled psyche with Repulsion and The Tenant. With Chinatown and The Ghost Writer he proved that he can master the film noir also. Polanski has also made brilliant adaptations from the stories of William Shakespeare with grim Macbeth and gave us best filmed version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Still none of these great films has reached the same heights of brilliance which Death and the Maiden has. Death and the Maiden is his most important, atmospheric and controlled work of art to date.

• Pierluigi P

  
  During a dictatorship in an unnamed latin american country, Paulina (Sigourney Weaver) was a dissident activist who was tortured in horrible ways and kept alive in order to confess the names of her comrades. Many years later, her husband arrives with a new friend, and she seems to… More
  During a dictatorship in an unnamed latin american country, Paulina (Sigourney Weaver) was a dissident activist who was tortured in horrible ways and kept alive in order to confess the names of her comrades. Many years later, her husband arrives with a new friend, and she seems to recognize the stranger's voice as the man who inflicted her all that suffering. Gripping stage bound psychological thriller that grows in intensity with each passing minute and conveys all the agony, anxiety, fear and thirst for revenge of a martyr who's now having her turn on the reins. Excellent triad of actor.

• Stephen M

  
  An excellent drama. Sigourney Weaver plays a disturbed, paranoid ex-political prisoner in an unnamed South American country, married to a lawyer (Stuart Wilson) heading an investigation into allegations of torture under the old regime. She believes she recognises a chance visitor to… More
  An excellent drama. Sigourney Weaver plays a disturbed, paranoid ex-political prisoner in an unnamed South American country, married to a lawyer (Stuart Wilson) heading an investigation into allegations of torture under the old regime. She believes she recognises a chance visitor to their home (Ben Kingsley) as a man who raped and tortured her during her incarceration. A fascinating game with constantly shifting alliances ensues as she attempts to extract a confession of guilt from her captive 'guest'. All three lead performances are superb but Stuart Wilson excels, oozing flawed dignity as the idealistic but cowardly husband.

• Lafe F

  
  A raw and rough character-driven piece. Sigourney Weaver is wonderfully powerful as the woman turning the tables by taking hostage the man who raped and tortured her (Ben Kingsley). It doesn't get too nasty. The situation is very interesting.

• John B

  
  A little gem from Polanski that no one saw. I haven't seen Sigourney Weaver act this well..ever. Kingsley is always great. I don't need to even say it.

• Dimitris S

  
  The truth is out there for anyone willing to persecute the guilty in charge.These crowds of people won't be accused of crimes and whatnot but of the utmost penalty,that of pleasure during the criminal process.Polanski reveals personalities under the skin and all three… More
  The truth is out there for anyone willing to persecute the guilty in charge.These crowds of people won't be accused of crimes and whatnot but of the utmost penalty,that of pleasure during the criminal process.Polanski reveals personalities under the skin and all three performances reflect a thunderous approach to a well-proportioned stage play.This adaptation did work up to a point,flawed as it so happens due to the theatricality of the original material.

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