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Siesta (1987)

Director: Mary Lambert

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Barkin, coming to on an airfield, dress around her ears and blood all over the place, utters the first of many crass expositions: 'This isn't my blood, so it must be somebody else's!' In a crazed panic, she sets off to solve the mystery, along the way falling into the clutches of a lecherous taxi-driver and a group of young ingrates (Sands and Foster among them) emulating Fellini party scenes. Flashbacks reveal that Barkin is Claire, a brassy American stunt-woman, whose fear of dying in a dare has driven her away from her railroading husband (Sheen) for one last night of spunky passion in Spain with her former lover and trapeze instructor (Byrne), whose new wife (Rossellini) stalks them with a knife. Lambert's debut fields farcical menace, wildly theatrical performances, a confusing plot and a corny resolution, while the script is a hilariously overblown gem. Miles Davis' soundtrack is the sole subtlety.

Author: EP

Time Out Film Guide


User reviews of this film

  • Dr Walter G said...
    Posted on Apr 20 2011 21:34 One of my favorite films of all time!!! A twisted mystery of dream-like sequences joined sequentilly bakwards and then reversed, the gathering of thoughts, or imaginings or are they recent memories of real events?....What is death really like?....Is this what happens when we don't want or expect something so unwanted and unexpected?.....Sheer brilliance!...... the need to absorb what you see and then work it all out when it's all over.... or a new begining. I think about often.....it will never leave me.
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