The Comfort of Strangers
Adapting the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan, playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter lends his trademark unnerving dialogue and air of creeping menace to this spellbinding study of power, control, and the frighteningly thin line between pleasure and pain. Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson are the prey, a beautiful British couple working on their relationship while on holiday in Venice; Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren are the hunters who draw them into the sinister web of their opulent, old-world palazzo. What plays out is an unsettling, sadomasochistic seduction imbued with an atmosphere of sumptuous dread by the elegantly gliding tracking shots of cinematographer Dante Spinotti, lush score by Angelo Badalamenti, and carefully controlled direction of Paul Schrader, who choreographs a mesmerizing pas de quatre of sustained erotic and emotional tension.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Dante Spinotti and approved by director Paul Schrader, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interviews with Spinotti, Schrader, actor Christopher Walken, and editor Bill Pankow
- Interviews from 1981 and 2001 with novelist Ian McEwan and actor Natasha Richardson
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Maitland McDonagh
New cover by R. Leveille
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Dante Spinotti and approved by director Paul Schrader, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interviews with Spinotti, Schrader, actor Christopher Walken, and editor Bill Pankow
- Interviews from 1981 and 2001 with novelist Ian McEwan and actor Natasha Richardson
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Maitland McDonagh
New cover by R. Leveille
Cast
- Christopher Walken
- Robert
- Natasha Richardson
- Mary
- Rupert Everett
- Colin
- Helen Mirren
- Caroline
- Manfredi Aliquo
- Concierge
- David Ford
- Waiter
- Daniel Franco
- Waiter
- Rossana Canghiari
- Hotel maid
- Fabrizio Castellani
- Bar manager
- Giancarlo Previati
- First policeman
- Antonio Serrano
- Second policeman
- Mario Cotone
- Detective
Credits
- Director
- Paul Schrader
- Produced by
- Angelo Rizzoli Jr.
- Screenplay by
- Harold Pinter
- Based on the novel by
- Ian McEwan
- Director of photography
- Dante Spinotti
- Production designer
- Gianni Quaranta
- Edited by
- Bill Pankow
- Music by
- Angelo Badalamenti
- Costume supervisor
- Mariolina Bono
- Wardrobe provided by
- Giorgio Armani
- Executive producer
- Mario Cotone
- Associate producer
- Linda Reisman
- Associate producer
- John Thompson
A Scene from The Comfort of Strangers
