Sunday, 23 October 2016

The Comfort of Strangers | Paul Schrader, 1990


The Comfort of Strangers | Paul Schrader, 1990

Two lovers on holiday in Venice stop and ask a local to take their photo. The couple smile, and the picture is taken. But the angles don't match. Unbeknownst to them, the couple are being watched. This moment of romantic togetherness has been corrupted. It's not just theirs anymore. Somebody stole it. By setting up one thing and showing us another, Schrader links romance and voyeurism together. An invasion of privacy makes them objects of desire, something to covet, to possess. And they don't even know it's happened.