The Unknown Woman - DVD Review
By Irv Slifkin -- Video Business, 6/22/2009
IMAGE
Street: July 21
Prebook: June 23
> Kinky, intense thriller from Italy’s Giuseppe Tornatore.
The first effort in years from Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, Malena) is a wild departure from his past work. The Unknown Woman is a complex suspenser that doesn’t hold back on the violence, sex or Hitchcock references. Set to Ennio Morricone’s masterful score, the story centers on Irena (Xenia Rappoport), a Ukranian woman once forced into the world of sex slavery, who takes a job as a nanny for married gold dealers and their handicapped young daughter. But Xenia encounters her former pimp, who’s looking for the money she stole. If Paul Verhoeven did an Italian mash-up of The Last Seduction and Hostel, it would probably look something like this over-the-top, compelling noir.
Shelf Talk: Despite Tornatore’s name recognition and several Italian Oscar wins, this film got limited play. But there’s definitely an audience for it, especially in the wake of such successful foreign thrillers as Cache and the recent Tell No One.
Foreign-language thriller, color, R (mature themes, sexual situations, violence, nudity), 120 min., DVD $27.98, Italian with English subtitles
Extras: commentary, featurette
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
First Run: L, May 2008, <$1 mil.
