The Comfort of Strangers Page #3

Synopsis: An English couple holiday in Venice to sort out their relationship. There is some friction and distance between them, and we also sense they are being watched. One evening, they lose their way looking for a restaurant, and a stranger invites them to accompany him. He plies them with wine and grotesque stories from his childhood. They leave disoriented, physically ill, and morally repelled. But, next day, when the stranger sees them in the piazza, they accept an invitation to his sumptuous flat. After this visit, the pair find the depth to face questions about each other, only to be drawn back into the mysterious and menacing fantasies of the stranger and his mate.
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director(s): Paul Schrader
Production: Madacy Home Video
  1 win.
 
IMDB:
6.4
Metacritic:
61
Rotten Tomatoes:
50%
R
Year:
1990
107 min
703 Views


- All right.

He's probably bringing it anyway.

I don't know why we came here.

We've been here before.

Why did we come again?

Actually, I remember why we came.

We thought we'd find out

what to do, didn't we?

What to do about you and me.

Well?

Have you found out?

I haven't. I just want to go home.

To my own bed and my kids.

Or maybe you have.

Maybe you have decided what you want.

What you want to do.

Have you?

No.

Oh, God. We should have

gone back to the hotel.

He's missed us.

My friends.

- How are you both?

- Terrible. We slept in the street.

Street?

- After we left you...

- We didn't have a map.

I'm horrified. It's entirely my fault. I kept

you late with wine and stupid stories.

- Don't scratch. It's not a question of that.

- It's my fault.

And it's my responsibility to correct it.

You must come to my house.

- Your coffee.

- Senta. Lasci stare.

No, we have a hotel.

My house is a thousand times

more comfortable, peaceful, serene.

We take a taxi.

Please.

- What do you think?

- All right.

The street!

- Where are we?

- Robert brought us here.

Robert. Where's he?

I don't know.

What time is it?

Evening.

- Did you sleep well?

- Yes, wonderfully.

How's your bite?

It's gone.

Where's my watch?

Where's our clothes?

Have you seen them?

Not in there.

Not in here.

No?

Don't you think we ought to find them?

- I feel good.

- I must find out what's going on.

I just can't walk around here

stark bloody naked.

I think there's a dressing gown

hanging up in there.

I can't wear this. Look.

Yes, you can. You look lovely.

You look like a god.

I think I'm going to have to

take you to bed.

- This isn't a dressing gown, it's a nightie.

- You've no idea how good you feel in it.

I can't walk around a stranger's house

dressed like this.

Not with an erection!

Here. Put it on.

Find out what's going on.

How do I look?

Hello.

I'm Caroline, Robert's wife.

- Well, you're looking rested!

- Hello.

Come outside. It's nice.

- Wow!

- Mm.

It is beautiful, isn't it? I spend

as much time as possible out here.

- I'm Mary Kenway.

- Yes, I know.

- Come and sit down.

- Is this yours?

Yes.

I made it.

I sometimes sit out here

and do embroidery. I like embroidery.

It's lovely.

- Would you like a biscuit? Take one.

- Thanks.

You must be hungry. Robert wants you

to stay for dinner. He'll be back for dinner.

He's gone to his bar.

A new manager starts there tonight.

- His bar?

- Yes.

You were there last night, weren't you?

- He didn't say it was his bar.

- It's a kind of a hobby, I guess.

But you know more about it than I do.

I've never been there.

Have you done something to your back?

It helps to move. Sometimes

I just stand up and move about.

- Are you fond of your friend?

- Colin?

I hope you don't mind.

There's something I must tell you.

While you were both asleep

I came in and looked at you both.

I just sat on the chaise for half an hour.

I just sat there and looked at you both.

Oh.

Colin is very beautiful, isn't he?

Robert said he was.

You are too, of course.

You both have such wonderful skin.

Are you in love?

Well, I...

I do love him. I suppose.

Not quite like when we first met.

I trust him, really.

He's my closest friend.

But what do you mean by "in love"?

I mean that you'd do absolutely

anything for the other person.

And you'd let them do

absolutely anything to you.

Anything?

- If you're in love with somebody, you...

-

- Hello!

- Colin, this is Caroline, Robert's wife.

- Are you having a nice time?

- Um...

- On your holiday?

- Yes, except we keep getting lost.

Pull up a chair.

Oh, my God.

What?

Your clothes. I forgot.

I washed and dried them. I clean forgot.

I must tell you where they are.

But before I do you should tell him

what I told you.

- What?

- What I did while you were both asleep.

Oh. Right.

Caroline came in and looked at us

both whilst we were asleep.

Oh, did she?

Yes.

You were so peaceful.

Just like a baby.

- Babies can be very ratty in their sleep.

- Oh, no, not him.

- I'm sure he always sleeps sweetly.

- Yes, but I'm not a baby.

I never said you were.

I only said that you slept like a baby.

Now, listen. Robert is very keen for you

to stay and have dinner with us.

He told me not to let you

have your clothes till you agreed.

You must be starving, anyway.

So you will?

- Well, I...

- Oh, please. If you don't, he'll blame me.

- Let's stay.

- Oh, good.

And... now can I have my clothes?

They're locked in your

bathroom cupboard. Here's the key.

- Thanks.

- Just through there.

Isn't it sweet when men are shy?

It's so sweet.

Tell me, what do you do?

Do you work?

Well, I mainly do voice-overs these days.

Commercials.

I was with a women's group

until about six months ago.

- What do you mean, a women's group?

- A theatre group.

You're an actress?

What a beautiful thing that must be.

Well, sometimes.

Anyway, the group broke up, so...

Women. It was all women?

Some of us wanted to bring in men and

the rest of them wanted to keep it pure.

That's what broke us up.

How can you do a play with only women?

I mean, what could happen?

Happen? Well, you...

You could have a play about

two women who have only just met

sitting on a balcony talking.

- But they'd probably be waiting for a man.

-

And then he'd come.

And then something would happen.

- It hurts when I laugh.

- Can I do anything?

Would you touch me here on my neck?

There. Press it.

No, harder.

Yeah. That's it, thank you.

- We did an all-women Hamlet once.

- Hamlet?

I've never read that play. In fact, I haven't

seen a play since I was at school.

Isn't that the one with the ghost,

and then everybody dies at the end?

- Were you the star?

- No.

- Hello.

- Hello.

- Have you slept well?

- Wonderfully.

- What an apartment.

- I'll get the glasses.

It belonged to my grandfather.

You see that island?

That's Cemetery Island. My grandfather

and my father are both buried there.

- You're staying for dinner, I trust?

- I'll get dressed.

A glass of champagne first.

Carolina!

Thank you.

You look like an ngel.

How are you feeling?

Better.

To Colin and Mary.

- Dinner.

- I'd better get dressed.

Thank you.

Beautiful place.

These books are the favourite

literature of my father.

And my grandfather.

All first editions.

These are things my father

used every day. Small things.

- He used opera glasses every day?

- No. He used opera glasses at the opera.

They belonged to my grandfather.

Your father seems to be...

very important to you.

My father and his father

understood themselves clearly.

They were men

and they were proud of their sex.

Women understood them too.

Now women treat men like children

because they can't take them seriously,

but men like my father and grandfather

women took very seriously.

There was no uncertainty.

No confusion.

So.

This is a museum.

Dedicated to the good old days, hm?

So, how is England?

Lovely, dear old England?

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Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney Downs School. He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and writing poetry. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course. He was fined for refusing National service as a conscientious objector. Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England. In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel, born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980. Pinter's career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957. His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances, but was enthusiastically reviewed by critic Harold Hobson. His early works were described by critics as "comedy of menace". Later plays such as No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978) became known as "memory plays". He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook a number of roles in works by other writers. He directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes, and other honours, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 and the French Légion d'honneur in 2007. Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape, for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006. He died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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