The Comfort of Strangers / The Homecoming

THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, 1990, 107 min. Director Paul Schrader and screenwriter Harold Pinter adapt the novel by Ian McEwan into a slowly building psychosexual nightmare. British tourists Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson, hoping to reignite the flame of their receding passion in the ancient alleys, palazzos and canals of a decadent nocturnal Venice, are ensnared by a charmingly perverse rich couple (Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren). Fascinated by the building sexual tension, the younger pair are languidly drawn like moths to a flame and by the time they realize there is genuine danger, it may be too late to escape.

THE HOMECOMING, 1973, Kino International, 111 min. Dir. Peter Hall. A philosophy professor (Michael Jayston) returns to his family home after years away, bringing with him his new wife (Vivian Merchant). But his testosterone-fueled brothers, along with his malicious father and his unhinged uncle, turn the couple's family visit into a nightmare.