1990 added another controversial role to Helen Mirren’s CV, Paul Schrader’s luminous and shocking “The Comfort of Strangers” – a sensual drama set in the beautiful Venice, which unfolds into a bloody nightmare, with thanks to unhinged performances by Christopher Walken and Mirren as his “devoted” wife. She got a chance to play an equally loyal though not psychopatic wife opposite Donald Sutherland in the most expensive, ambitious and controversial movie in Canadian history at the time – the story of legendary Canadian doctor Norman Bethune. Epic, in this case, doesn’t mean good. The film’s beleaguered, five-year production was plagued by delays, firings, crew mutinies, technical disasters, bad debts, quarrels between international co-producers and a budget that spiralled from eleven million dollars to twenty million dollars. Director Phillip Borsos, who was brought on board at the last minute, was shut out of the final editing process due to a bitter dispute. It was released theatrically to almost no notice from moviegoers and re-edited later for television in two parts.

Feature Films

The Comfort of Strangers

November 30, 1990

Feature Films

Bethune: The Making of a Hero

August 27, 1990