The final seduction

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Movie
German title The final seduction
Original title The Last Seduction
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1994
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director John Dahl
script Steve Barancik
production Jonathan Shestack
music Joseph Vitarelli
camera Jeff Jur
cut Eric L. Beason
occupation

The last seduction (original title: The Last Seduction ) is an American erotic thriller by John Dahl from 1994 . The main role of Bridget Gregory is played by Linda Fiorentino .

action

Elegant and manipulative sales manager Bridget Gregory's husband comes home with $ 700,000 from a drug store. In the excited-excited situation, Clay hits her in the face after Bridget reproached him for walking through town with the bundles of money under his shirt. While he is in the shower, she leaves him a message in mirror writing - a quirk of hers - and runs away with the money.

Bridget leaves New York for Chicago. On the way she makes a refueling stop in the small town of Beston due to a lack of fuel. In a bar she meets the good-natured but somewhat simple-minded Mike Swale. He has just returned from a failed short-term marriage in Buffalo. He bravely flirts with the foreigner, but she initially rejects him brusquely. When he brags about his above-average male qualities, she checks this with a grip in his pants. What she finds seems to be convincing: she goes home with him.

Bridget calls for advice from her attorney Griffith to find a way to break up with her husband and still keep all the money. A divorce will take time, converting the money into legal values ​​gives her husband a right to a share. Bridget decides to first look for a job and a place to stay locally. She quickly finds a job in an insurance company, where she uses a cover name to avoid being found by her husband Clay. Coincidentally, Mike also works for the company. He is fascinated by Bridget and insists on the continuation of their affair, while she deliberately keeps him at a distance, especially in the company.

Clay hires the private detective Harlan to look for Bridget, especially since a creditor who has advanced Clay to finance his drug deal is putting massive pressure on him. By tracing a call, the two Bridgets find out where they are, the county around Buffalo . Clay knows her quirks and correctly suspects that she chose her cover name after her beloved New York. Harlan finds them accordingly in Beston and surprises them in their car. At gunpoint, he wants to get her to hand him the money. She cleverly manages to distract him while driving. She drives the car into an obstacle and Harlan, who is not wearing a seat belt, dies in the accident. She poses to the police as the victim of persecution by a jealous, beating husband and of attempted sexual assault.

Meanwhile, Bridget continues her hot affair with the meanwhile lovesick Mike. One night, while accessing the insurance's data, she and him identified some wives who had apparently been betrayed by their husbands. Bridget calls one of these women to offer her an attempt to kill her husband for money. Mike is morally repulsed by Bridget's plans to earn money for contract kills, but at the same time cannot escape Bridget's cryptic charm. Bridget tests him: how far can she go?

Clay and Bridget talk to each other on the phone several times, but cannot quite agree on a division of the money or a possible divorce. Clay has now hired a local detective on her, but Bridget easily outsmarts him. So she can travel unobserved to Buffalo, where she can track down Mike's ex-wife. Mike makes her believe on her return that she flew to Miami and did a murder assignment there. Mike is horrified. Bridget pushes him back because of his apparently lack of support and asks him at the next opportunity that it is his turn now and that if he wants to have a future with her, he in turn must kill a husband who has strayed from the right path. Mike still doesn't respond. Only when Bridget cleverly manipulates him into believing that his ex-wife Trish will soon follow him to Beston does Mike agree to move with her to New York immediately and to carry out the job she has apparently acquired.

Bridget gives Mike precise instructions on how to kill the husband. He doesn't know that it's her own husband. When he arrives at Clay's apartment, Mike initially proceeds according to plan with him, but cannot bring himself to actually kill him. This gives Clay the opportunity to clear up Mike about Bridget's real background. Together they are waiting for the femme fatale. When she arrives at the apartment and sees her husband alive, she changes her plan and kills Clay herself with a self-defense spray sprayed directly into the throat. Then she confronts the perplexed Mike with the uncomfortable and embarrassing truth that she has found out that Trish, the woman he married, is a man, which Mike did not notice until his hasty wedding. She manages to infuriate Mike so much that he loses his head. While he allegedly raped Bridget, she called the emergency number, which recorded his careless statements during the action, including an apparent confession of the murder of Clay.

While in custody, Mike and his lawyer feverishly wonder if there is any detail in Bridget's network that could relieve him of allegations of murder and rape. Bridget, on the other hand, sits in a taxi, happily destroying the last clue that could have supported Mike's version of the story.

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the film was a contemporary film noir . It is impossible to evade his “attraction” and the impression of the erotic but absolutely unscrupulous female main character (“influence of its sultry, completely conscienceless leading lady”). The dialogues are "brilliant" ("scintillating").

The Lexicon of International Film wrote that the film was "cleverly thought out". He revive and modify the elements of film noir on his own . He also shows “brittle wit” and “suspense inherent in the construction”.

Awards

Linda Fiorentino won the New York Film Critics Circle Award in 1994 and the Independent Spirit Award and the London Critics Circle Film Award in 1995 . She was nominated for the BAFTA Award and the Chlotrudis Award in 1995 .

John Dahl won the 1994 Cognac Festival du Film Policier Critics' Prize . He was nominated for an award from the Festival Internazionale del Giallo e del Mistro Cinema Televisione Letteratura in 1994 and was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award in 1995 . Steve Barancik was nominated for the 1995 Edgar Allan Poe Award . The film won the National Board of Review Award in 1994 .

background

Filming took place in Irvington, New York and in New York City . Production costs were estimated at 2.5 million US dollars . The film grossed approximately $ 6.1 million in United States cinemas.

Based on the script alone, it wasn't clear whether it would be a more black comedy or a serious story. Director Dahl opted for a lighter, basically ironic-cheerful approach, which is underlined by the choice of the jazzy soundtrack.

John Dahl knew Bill Pullman from his home in Montana, where Pullmann had worked as an acting teacher for a while. With JT Walsh Dahl had in his previous film, Red Rock West , collaborated. About Linda Fiorentino, Dahl says in the audio commentary on the DVD that she was simply ready for the role of the manipulative Bridget, she also enjoyed playing a role with her character that is otherwise reserved for men in terms of behavior towards other men.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by James Berardinelli
  2. ^ The Last Seduction in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on April 15, 2012
  3. ^ Filming locations for The Last Seduction
  4. ↑ Box office / business for The Last Seduction
  5. ↑ John Dahl's audio commentary on the DVD release