Closet Land *** (1991, Madeleine Stowe, Alan Rickman) – Classic Movie Review 8411

The 1991 political thriller Closet Land stars Alan Rickman as a cultured but sadistic secret policeman inquisator (the (Interrogator) who tries to extort information out of his blindfolded victim, the supposedly subversive children’s writer (the Victim, played by Madeleine Stowe), accused of embedding anti-government political messages in her stories, in a contemporary police state. Her story is about a child who has been locked in a closet as punishment for bad behaviour.

With its concentration on psychological torture, Closet Land is a gruelling, closeted-in thriller drama piece, though it is compelling enough, despite the lack of incident, sets (the film unfolds in one room) and characters (there are just the two).

Writer-director Radha Bharadwaj’s intense, committed writing and direction and Rickman’s powerhouse turn are the main attractions, though Stowe finds herself outclassed and seems a bit out of her depth here.

Bharadwaj’s script is inspired by the experiences Veronica De Negri, a Chilean activist jailed and tortured under Pinochet in the Seventies. The script was Bharadwaj’s winning submission to The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting programme in 1989, run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Closet Land is directed by Radha Bharadwaj, runs 94 minutes, is made by Imagine, is released by Universal, is written by Radha Bharadwaj, is shot by Bill Pope, is produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Janet Meyers, is scored by Philip Glass and Richard Einhorn.

The film was shot for $2,500,000 over 18 days in Culver City, western Los Angeles.

It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Women in Film Festival and the Stockholm International Film Festival, and was released by Universal in limited cinemas on 6 March 1991.

Rickman reflected in 1991: ‘When we were making the film, I thought This could be too relentless. I mean, there wasn’t a single joke in it.’ In 2015 he added: ‘While I was doing [bigger budget films], I’d also done Closet Land, which I should think almost nobody saw. Somewhere in there I made — and have continued to do — films that disappear without a trace. You still care about them.’ But he will be remembered as Severus Snape in the eight films from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

Bharadwaj stated in 2005: ‘It has provided me quiet satisfaction that my small film, which, at the time of its release, was so misunderstood by even some well-meaning critics and people who pride themselves on being connoisseurs of the medium, has endured steadily—purely by word-of-mouth.’

RIP Alan Rickman (1946-2016).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8411

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