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Death and the Maiden (1994)

tomatometer

73

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 3

No consensus yet.

audience

75

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 7,261

My Rating

Movie Info

Ariel Dorfman's acclaimed play of the same name serves as the basis for Roman Polanski's drama, which depicts a politically and psychological complex battle of wills amongst three characters in an unnamed South American country. The trio in question is made up of Paulina Sigourney Weaver, her husband Gerardo Stuart Wilson, and Dr. Miranda Ben Kingsley, a seemingly friendly stranger who provided Gerardo with a ride home after a car breakdown. The trouble begins when Paulina claims to recognize

R,

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Ariel Dorfman, Rafael Yglesias

Jun 3, 2003

Fine Line Features

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Cast

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All Critics (49) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (8) | DVD (9)

Polanski certainly gets the maximum voltage and precision out of his story and actors, keeping us preternaturally alert to shifting power relationships and delayed revelations.

February 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Kingsley shrewdly tantalizes the viewer about his identity, and gets to deliver the text's most riveting monologue at the end. The lesser-known Wilson may be the first among equals, impressing strongly as the equivocating husband.

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Polanski wisely never opens out the action from the remote clifftop house. In keeping things claustrophobic, close-up and ambivalent, he heightens the suspense (not to mention the sexual tension).

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mr. Polanski treads lightly on the clumsier lines, and sustains tension by creating an elegant, unobtrusive dance with the camera.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Death and the Maiden forces the audience to confront questions about torture and punishment.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Polanski keeps the situation ambiguous to provoke questions of guilt and responsibility.

May 12, 2001
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's based on the gripping three-character play by Ariel Dorfman.

July 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Even by their high standards, the performances of Weaver and Kingsley here are impressive, and Polanski ratchetts up the tension nicely. A chilling and thought-provoking piece.

February 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

The material is well served by director Roman Polanski, who knows well how to instill a subtle, claustrophobic sense of dread in an audience and has put together a rather elegant potboiler.

February 19, 2010 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Polanski kicks the movie up to a level of emotional violence rare in English-speaking films.

July 29, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

Polanksi's direction is crisp and precise but he doesn't resolve basic problems of the stage-to-screen transfer: The tale is claustrophobic (mostly limited to one set) and schematic, with all three characters serving as ideological mouthpieces.

June 12, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

A relentless, superb thriller.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Audience Reviews for Death and the Maiden

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.
January 7, 2012
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

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.
January 3, 2008
pier007

Super Reviewer

    1. Paulina Escobar: In Democracy, knocking is friendly.
    – Submitted by myint z (12 months ago)

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Latest News on Death and the Maiden

May 19, 2005:
Universal Gets Into a "Worst Case" Scenario
Veteran screenwriters Tom Schulman and Rafael Yglesias have sold their first collaborative effort,...

Foreign Titles

  • Der Tod und das Mädchen (DE)
  • La Jeune Fille et la Mort (FR)
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