Death and the Maiden (1994)

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.