The Last Seduction | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Dahl |
Written by | Steve Barancik |
Produced by | Jonathan Shestack |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jeff Jur |
Edited by | Eric L. Beason |
Music by | Joseph Vitarelli |
Production company | |
Distributed by | October Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2.5 million (estimated) [1] |
Box office | $5,842,603 [2] |
The Last Seduction is a 1994 American neo-noir erotic thriller film directed by John Dahl, featuring Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, and Bill Pullman. [3] The film was produced by ITC Entertainment and distributed by October Films. Fiorentino's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and generated talk of an Oscar nomination, but she was deemed ineligible because the film was shown on HBO before its theatrical release. October Films and ITC Entertainment sued the Academy, but were unable to make Fiorentino eligible for a nomination. [4] [5]
The Last Seduction has gained a cult following over time, and its main character, Bridget Gregory, has been recognized as one of the most iconic femme fatales in film history. [6] [7] [8] In 2019, the British Film Institute included the movie, along with Gone Girl and Death Becomes Her, in a program dedicated to exploring "wickedly compelling female characters on screen." [9] The film was also featured in The Criterion Channel's Neonoir series in July 2021. [10] A sequel, The Last Seduction II , was released in 1999. However, it featured none of the original cast and starred Joan Severance as Bridget Gregory. [11]
Bridget Gregory works as a telemarketing manager in New York City. Her husband, Clay, is a physician who is heavily in debt to a loan shark. He arranges to sell stolen pharmaceutical cocaine to two drug dealers. The transaction becomes tense when the buyers pull a gun, but to Clay's surprise, they eventually pay him $700,000. Clay is left shaken, and upon his return home, he slaps Bridget after she insults him. She then flees their apartment with the cash while he is in the shower.
On her way to Chicago, Bridget stops in Beston, a small town near Buffalo. There she meets Mike Swale, a local man back from a whirlwind marriage in Buffalo that he refuses to talk about. He tries to pick up Bridget, and she proceeds to use him for mere sexual gratification during her stay in town. Adept at word games and mirror writing, and with an imminent return to her hometown in mind, Bridget changes her name to Wendy Kroy (as a reversal of 'New York') and gets a job at the insurance company where, coincidentally, Mike works. Their relationship is strained by her manipulative behavior and the fact that he is falling for her.
When Mike tells her how to find out if a man is cheating on his wife by reading his credit reports, Bridget invents a plan based on selling murders to cheated wives. She suggests they start with Lance Collier, a cheating, wife-beating husband residing in Florida. This proves to be the last straw for Mike, and he leaves her alone in his place after an argument. Meanwhile, the loan shark breaks Clay's thumb for not repaying his loan. Fearing for his health and in dire financial straits, he hires a private detective, Harlan, to retrieve the money from his wife.
Harlan traces her phone area code, travels to Beston, and accosts Bridget at gunpoint right after her argument with Mike. Bridget purposely crashes her car after tricking Harlan into removing his seat belt, resulting in his death. Because Harlan was Black, she uses local racial prejudice to persuade the police to close the case without further investigation. Bridget then resumes her manipulation of Mike and pretends to travel to Florida to kill Collier. Instead, she goes to Buffalo to meet Mike's ex-wife, Trish. Upon returning, Bridget shows Mike the money she stole from Clay, claiming it is her cut of the life insurance payout from the new widow.
Bridget claims to have done it so they can live together and then tries to persuade him that he must also commit a similar murder so they will be even and to prove that he loves her. She tries to talk Mike into killing a tax lawyer in New York City who is cheating old ladies out of their homes. At first, he refuses, but later agrees after receiving a letter from Trish saying she is moving to Beston. The letter was forged by Bridget to change his mind.
Mike goes to New York and breaks into the apartment of the supposed attorney, who turns out to be Clay. After Mike handcuffs Clay, Clay realizes what is happening when Mike mentions Bridget's alias and convinces Mike of the truth by showing him a photo of himself and Bridget together. They then hatch a plot to double-cross her. Bridget arrives, and the still-immobilized Clay – who has been clever enough to predict most of Bridget's actions but fails to understand her sociopathy – tries to make amends with her. Instead, she empties a pepper spray bottle down his throat, killing him. She tells a stunned Mike to rape her. When he refuses, she tells him she knows the truth about Trish, who is transgender, and goads him by calling him a homophobic slur. This causes Mike to have rough sex with her.
Unbeknownst to Mike, Bridget has dialed 9-1-1, and she coaxes him into "confessing" to Clay's murder as part of the role-play. Mike is subsequently arrested and jailed for rape and murder, while Bridget escapes with the cash she stole from Clay as well as with his life insurance policy. Later, after she has started a new and considerably more affluent lifestyle for herself, Bridget calmly destroys the only evidence linking her to Clay's death as she is chauffeur-driven around New York City.
Screenwriter Steve Barancik said he believed the film was originally pitched to ITC Entertainment as a "standard Skinemax" low-budget movie, even though the filmmakers had "an under-the-radar intention to make a good movie." [4] Linda Fiorentino said of accepting the role, "After I read that script, I was in Arizona and I got in a car and drove six hours to get to the meeting because I had never read anything so unique in terms of a female character. And I walked in the meeting with John Dahl, the director, and I said, 'John, you are not allowed to hire anyone but me for this film.' And I wasn't kidding." [12]
ITC Entertainment executives were upset with a scene in which Fiorentino is dressed as a cheerleader and wears suspenders over her breasts. Barancik recalled, "Apparently, a guy from the company who was monitoring things and watching the dailies saw the suspenders over Linda's nipples and shouted out, 'Are we making an art movie?!' He shut down production and called the principals of the movie on the carpet, and they all had to pledge that they had no artistic pretensions." [4] The scene was cut, and the sexual role-playing theme was lost. [4]
Peter Berg said it was Fiorentino's idea to shoot the chain-link-fence sex scene in that way. "She said, 'John, get a camera,' and she climbed up on me against that fence and told John Dahl to shoot it, and that was the scene. She thought of it, she conceived it, she executed it. It was awesome." [13]
The Last Seduction received critical acclaim. It holds a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews. [14] On Metacritic it has a score of 85 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [15] Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, highlighting Fiorentino's ability to project her character with dry humor and a freedom from Hollywood conventions typically surrounding a female antagonist. [16] Ebert later ranked the film fifth on his year-end list of 1994's best movies [17] and wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times :
John Dahl's The Last Seduction knows how much we enjoy seeing a character work boldly outside the rules. It gives us a diabolical, evil woman, and goes the distance with her. We keep waiting for the movie to lose its nerve, and it never does: This woman is bad from beginning to end, she never reforms, she never compromises, and the movie doesn't tack on one of those contrived conclusions where the morals squad comes in and tidies up. [16]
Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | BAFTA Awards [28] | Best Actress | Linda Fiorentino | Nominated |
1994 | Chicago Film Critics Awards [29] | Best Actress | Linda Fiorentino | Nominated |
1994 | Cognac Festival du Film Policier [30] | Critics Award | John Dahl | Won |
1995 | Directors Guild of America Awards [31] | Outstanding Achievement in Dramatic Specials | John Dahl | Nominated |
1995 | Edgar Allan Poe Awards | Best Motion Picture | Steve Barancik | Nominated |
1995 | Independent Spirit Awards [32] | Best Female Lead | Linda Fiorentino | Won |
1995 | London Film Critics Circle Awards | Actress of the Year | Linda Fiorentino | Won |
1994 | Mystfest | Best Film | John Dahl | Nominated |
1994 | National Board of Review Awards | Best TV Film | Won | |
1994 | New York Film Critics Circle Awards [33] | Best Actress | Linda Fiorentino | Won |
1994 | Society of Texas Film Critics Awards | Best Actress | Linda Fiorentino | Won |
Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress. Known for portraying tough, resilient characters, she made her film debut in 1979 before achieving fame with her starring role as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) and two of its sequels, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). She is the recipient of various accolades, including two Saturn Awards, two MTV Movie Awards, a Satellite Award and a Romy Award, as well as nominations for three Golden Globes and one Primetime Emmy.
Dogma is a 1999 American fantasy comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also stars with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, George Carlin, Linda Fiorentino, Janeane Garofalo, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek, Bud Cort, Alan Rickman, Alanis Morissette in her feature film debut, and Jason Mewes. It is the fourth film in Smith's View Askewniverse series. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, stars of the first Askewniverse film Clerks, appear in the film, as do Smith regulars Scott Mosier, Dwight Ewell, Walt Flanagan, and Bryan Johnson.
Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American buddy road film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as Louise & Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforeseen circumstances. The supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and a then-unknown Brad Pitt in one of his first major film roles. Filming took place in California and Utah from June to August 1990.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). She received critical praise for her performances in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Miami Blues (1990), Backdraft (1991), Single White Female (1992), and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994).
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. Born in Manhattan to future actress Tippi Hedren, she was raised mainly in Los Angeles, where she graduated from the Hollywood Professional School at age 16. In 1975, 17-year-old Griffith appeared opposite Gene Hackman in Arthur Penn's neo-noir film Night Moves. She later rose to prominence as an actor in films such as Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984), which earned her a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. Griffith's subsequent performance in the comedy Something Wild (1986) attracted critical acclaim before she was cast in 1988's Working Girl, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her a Golden Globe.
Clorinda "Linda" Fiorentino is an American former actress. Fiorentino made her screen debut with a leading role in the 1985 coming-of-age drama film Vision Quest, followed that same year with a lead role in the action film Gotcha! and an appearance in the film After Hours.
Bogus is a 1996 American urban fantasy film directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay written by Alvin Sargent, and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, and Haley Joel Osment.
Gotcha! is a 1985 American action comedy film, starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino and directed by Jeff Kanew, who also directed Edwards in Revenge of the Nerds in 1984.
John Dahl is an American film and television director and writer, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre.
Unforgettable is a 1996 science fiction thriller film directed by John Dahl and starring Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino. The film is about a man named David Krane (Liotta), who is obsessed with finding out who murdered his wife.
The Swan Princess is a 1994 American animated musical fantasy film based on the ballet Swan Lake. Featuring Michelle Nicastro, Howard McGillin, Jack Palance, John Cleese, Steven Wright, Sandy Duncan, and Steve Vinovich, the film is directed by former Disney animation director Richard Rich and scored by Lex de Azevedo. The film was distributed by New Line Cinema in the United States and by Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International outside the US. It was released theatrically on November 18, 1994, and grossed $9.8 million against a $21 million budget, becoming a box-office bomb, partly due to struggling competition with a re-release of The Lion King (1994). The film later became popular through home video releases and has since been followed by a series of direct-to-video sequels starting in 1997.
Jade is a 1995 American erotic thriller film written by Joe Eszterhas, produced by Robert Evans, directed by William Friedkin, and starring David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Richard Crenna, and Michael Biehn. The original music score was composed by James Horner based on a song composed by Loreena McKennitt. The film was marketed with the tagline "Some fantasies go too far."
Milk Money is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris. The film is about three suburban 11-year-old boys who find themselves behind in "the battle of the sexes," believing they would regain the upper hand if they could just see a real, live naked lady.
Steve Barancik is a screenwriter whose first screenplay, Buffalo Girls, was filmed and released as The Last Seduction in 1994. The film premiered as an HBO movie before going on shortly after to art house success. Actress Linda Fiorentino received notoriety for playing the movie's femme fatale, Bridget Gregory/Wendy Kroy, and Barancik was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery/crime screenplay of 1994.
Ladybird, Ladybird is a 1994 British drama film directed by Ken Loach, starring Crissy Rock and Vladimir Vega. The film received positive reviews from critics, and Rock won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.
The 60th New York Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1994. The winners were announced on 15 December 1994 and the awards were given on 22 January 1995.
Queens Logic is a 1991 American ensemble coming-of-age comedy-drama film from Seven Arts Pictures starring Kevin Bacon, Linda Fiorentino, Joe Mantegna, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Malkovich, Ken Olin, Chloe Webb and Tom Waits. It was directed by Steve Rash.
Camilla is a 1994 comedy drama film directed by Deepa Mehta. It was Jessica Tandy's penultimate film appearance and is dedicated to her memory. Tandy plays the title character, Camilla Cara, a former concert violinist. Bridget Fonda plays the role of Freda Lopez, an unfulfilled musician and composer.
Three Colours: Red is a 1994 artsy psychological romantic dramatic mystery film co-written, produced and directed by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski. It is the final installment of the Three Colours trilogy, which examines the French Revolutionary ideals; it is preceded by Blue and White. Kieślowski had announced that this would be his final film, which tragically proved true with the director's sudden death in 1996. Red is about fraternity, which it examines by showing characters whose lives gradually become closely interconnected, with bonds forming between two characters who appear to have little in common.
Kicked in the Head is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Matthew Harrison and written by Kevin Corrigan and Matthew Harrison. The film stars Kevin Corrigan, Linda Fiorentino, Michael Rapaport, Lili Taylor, James Woods and Burt Young. The film was released on September 26, 1997, by October Films. The movie was co-executive produced by Martin Scorsese.