The Comfort of Strangers (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Description

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. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Dante Spinotti, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • New interviews with Spinotti, director Paul 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