- The Comfort of Strangers (film)
Infobox Film
name = The Comfort of Strangers
image_size =
caption = Promotional poster
director =Paul Schrader
producer = Mario Cotone
Angelo Rizzoli Jr.
writer =Harold Pinter
starring =Natasha Richardson Christopher Walken Rupert Everett Helen Mirren
music =Angelo Badalamenti
cinematography =Dante Spinotti
editing =Bill Pankow
distributor =Skouras Pictures
released = flagicon|GermanyNovember 1 ,1990
flagicon|USMarch 15 ,1991
runtime = 107 min.
country =Italy United Kingdom United States
language = English
budget =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:10494
imdb_id = 0099292"The Comfort of Strangers" is a 1990 film directed by
Paul Schrader . Thescreenplay is byHarold Pinter , adapted from a shortnovel byIan McEwan . The film starsNatasha Richardson ,Christopher Walken ,Rupert Everett andHelen Mirren .Plot
Colin (Everett) and Mary (Richardson), a couple unsure of where their relationship is going, are on holiday in
Venice where they meet Robert (Walken), a smooth bar owner who tells them stories about his abusive father and the humiliating revenge which Robert's four sisters took on both the father and Robert himself. Although Colin and Mary find Robert and his wife, the stylish and demure Caroline (Mirren) less than agreeable company, they are inexplicably, almost hypnotically drawn to the older couple, who turn out to be even more dangerous than they seem, leading to a violent climax.Differences between novel and film
Schrader has said of McEwan's book that it is "terrific, but a little one-sided" and that he was not sure its theme - that "no amount of civilisation can overcome the fundamental hostility between men and women" - was correct. The film therefore uses Pinter's ambiguous dialogue to create a more nuanced set of characters.
Changes were also made to the character of Robert. In the book, Robert is a young thug with a gold chain and a pattern of pistols embroidered into his shirt; Schrader did not think an audience would believe Colin and Mary would go off with such a man, so Walken plays the character as a suave,
Armani -suited cosmopolitan.External links
*imdb title|id=0099292|title=The Comfort of Strangers
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