Damage
by Louis Malle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ian Bannen, Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson, Rupert GravesDirector: Louis Malle
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Peter Biziou
Producer: Louis Malle
Editor: John Bloom
Producer: Simon Relph
Producer: Vincent Malle
Writer: David Hare
Writer: Josephine Hart
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-11-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
Movie Reviews of Damage
Movie Review: You Can't Love A Damaged Person
Summary: 5 Stars
At the beginning of this movie we see Stephen Fleming (Jeremy Irons), Environmental Minister of Parliament, come home from a full day at work and survey his living room. His hands remain in his pockets. His jacket remains on. He is disengaged and bored by his surroundings.
Then Anna Barton, played by an illuminous Juliette Binoche enters the picture. Anna is the girlfriend of Stephen's son Martyn. Anna and Stephen enter a sexual affair without exchanging more than two sentences. Anna and Stephen's first sex scene is telling...Anna lays on a bed with her arms horizontal, like she's submitted to a crucifix. Their love affair is as destructive in the bedroom as it is in real life. Stephen tears at Anna's clothing, digging into her, pleading "Who are you"? The only time Anna laughs is when Stephen is tearing at her, unable to control himself.
Anna is "damaged" by her past-her brother committed suicide when Anna came of age sexually. Like a rape victim may need to relive her trauma within the safe confines of another relationship, Anna needs to be immersed in the incestual sexual bonds of her past, so she engages her father in law sexually. The "damaged" side of Anna is desperate for the twisted affair with Stephen. But the normal side of Anna needs a life with Martyn.
Stephen tries to turn his affair with Anna into love. Stephen attempts to put their relationship on a straightforward course-he suggests he break up with his wife and start a life with Anna. Anna asks why? Why give up your life for something you already have? Then Stephen tries to break off with Anna and Anna responds by giving him a key to a love nest telling Stephen "Do you think I would have married Martyn if I couldn't have you too?" Anna can not love without engaging her dark and light sides and she tries to align the Fleming family to her personality with disastarous results.
A brilliant film, one of my favourites. Whereas erotic scenes in movies like 9 1/2 Weeks seem almost contrived so that the director could get an arty looking shot, the sex scenes in Damage are primal. Some may be put off by such intense emotion. I loved it.
French cinephiles will probably find the themes in this film familar and unoffensive. The French seem to inherently understand the need for passion and marriage, even if the two aren't shared with the same person. Not coincidentally, Anna is 1/2 French. If you analyzed this film from a cultural perspective, you'd could probably attribute Anna's problems to the struggle between her French and English heritage.
The book by Josephine Hart which spawned this film Damage is as good as the movie. Highly recommended.
Summary of Damage
A middle-aged man enters into a self-destructive affair with his son's fiancee. Starring Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, and Academy Award - nominee Miranda Richardson. Directed by Louis Malle.DVD Features:
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
The fascination of watching Damage is similar to the fascination of watching a car crash in progress--you know something unpleasant is going to happen, but your attention is riveted to the scene of destruction. In the case of this acclaimed drama, adapted by playwright David Hare from the novel by Josephine Hart, the destruction results from a collision of sexual attraction between a British governmental official (Jeremy Irons) and his son's fianc?e (Juliette Binoche). Blind to the damage they'll cause to others and themselves, they begin an obsessive affair based purely on impulsive attraction and the hidden emotions that feed into their immediate physical desires. As you could expect, this leads to emotional fallout for everyone concerned, lending multiple interpretations to the film's title and allowing Miranda Richardson (as Irons's wife) to give a brilliant performance drawn from raw anger and betrayal. Under the direction of Louis Malle, this forceful drama never resorts to sordid detail or gratuitous titillation. Rather, Malle and his esteemed cast have explored the ways in which the power of sexuality supercedes the rationality of logic, when mutual attraction is stronger than one's ability to resist temptation. Damage makes it clear that such an indulgence will always come at considerable cost. The DVD of this fine film includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and the original theatrical trailer. --Jeff Shannon
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