Apartment Zero ** (1988, Hart Bochner, Colin Firth, Dora Bryan) – Classic Movie Review 10,485

Colin Firth stars as Adrian LeDuc, an uptight, lonely British movie fan who is forced to rent his insane mother’s room and accepts a strange American seducer, Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), as a house-guest in Buenos Aires where a serial killer is on the loose, in the intriguing but mostly unpersuasive 1988 sexual-political thriller Apartment Zero.

The tone-changes and awkward dialogue do not inspire confidence, and co-writer/ co-producer/ director Martin Donovan wavers, leaving the actors often stranded, though Firth’s turn commands some respect. It remains an oddly interesting film even if it doesn’t come near any of its apparent inspirations: Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-Sac, The Tenant and Repulsion or Joseph Losey’s The Servant.

It runs 124 minutes but Donovan’s video version runs 116 minutes.

Also in the cast are Dora Bryan, Liz Smith, Cipe Lincovsky and Fabrizio Bentivoglio.

Apartment Zero is directed by Martin Donovan, runs 124 minutes, is made by Producers Representative Organization and The Summit Company, is released by Mainline (UK) and Skouras Pictures (1989) (US), is written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp, based on a story by Martin Donovan, is shot by Miguel Rodriguez, is produced by Martin Donovan and David Koepp, is scored by Elia Cmiral and designed by Miguel Angel Lumaldo.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,485

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