Actor(s): Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson, Rupert Graves, Ian Bannen
Director(s): Louis Malle
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
Language(s): English, Spanish, French
EAN: 9786305161950
ISBN: 630516195X
Studio: New Line Home Video
Movie Description
The fascination of watching Damage is similar to the fascination of watching a car crash in progress--you know something unpleasant is going to happen, but your attention is riveted to the scene of destruction. In the case of this acclaimed drama, adapted by playwright David Hare from the novel by Josephine Hart, the destruction results from a collision of sexual attraction between a British governmental official (Jeremy Irons) and his son's fiance (Juliette Binoche). Blind to the damage they'll cause to others and themselves, they begin an obsessive affair based purely on impulsive attraction and the hidden emotions that feed into their immediate physical desires. As you could expect, this leads to emotional fallout for everyone concerned, lending multiple interpretations to the film's title and allowing Miranda Richardson (as Irons's wife) to give a brilliant performance drawn from raw anger and betrayal. Under the direction of Louis Malle, this forceful drama never resorts to sordid detail or gratuitous titillation. Rather, Malle and his esteemed cast have explored the ways in which the power of sexuality supercedes the rationality of logic, when mutual attraction is stronger than one's ability to resist temptation. Damage makes it clear that such an indulgence will always come at considerable cost. The DVD of this fine film includes a behind-the-scenes featurette and the original theatrical trailer. --Jeff Shannon
A middle-aged man enters into a self-destructive affair with his son's fiancee. Starring Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, and Academy Award - nominee Miranda Richardson. Directed by Louis Malle.
I don't know why people think movies are all sugar & spice because life isnt...affairs do happen..i loved it!! but this affair had a tragic ending
"Knowing the Difference Between Right and Wrong...but Not Caring"
Written By: maskirovka
The title of my review is drawn from a line from another movie "Romeo is Bleeding" in which a mafia boss tells a corrupt cop, "You know the difference between right and wrong...you just don't care."
Romeo is Bleeding
spoilers below!
That's my personal morale verdict on the two protagonists of this movie, played by Irons and Binoche. Both of them act in ways that are inconceivable betrayals of people who they profess to love. Irons' character betrays his wife and his son and his family. Binoche betrays Irons' son and destroys Irons' marriage. Irons' son dies as a direct result of his discovery of his father and Binoche's tandem betrayal of him.
"Damage" tries to suggest that "good" people can be swept away by some primal attraction and destroy everything they should care about in order to fulfill (or should I say "sate") it. I'm skeptical. People commit acts of infidelity, but I don't think they rise very often to the symphonic levels in "Damage." I'm left thinking either that Irons and Binoche's characters were both mentally ill and tragically "found" each other or as the title of my review implies, despite protests to the contrary, they didn't really care about the people in their lives who they should have cared about.
As far as the technical details go, the movie is alright. Binoche gives a better performance than Irons. The movie manages to be lurid without being particularly sexy. For those looking for movies where people act like they're actually enjoying having sex (as opposed to being in the grip of some uncontrollable frenzy), I'd recommend:
Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Nina Takes a Lover
An Officer and a Gentleman (Special Collector's Edition)
"a damaged film"
Written By: mb washington
I like Jeremy Irons, but I was pretty disappointed in this film. I think that Binoche comes off as somewhat wooden, and the sex scenes are comedic. They look like a couple of marionette puppets going at it. I don't need to go into detail with the storyline; others have done that. I give it 3 stars because it's okay, I suppose. This is the sort of film that you may consider renting, or better yet, wait for it to air on TV someplace. I took the chance buying it because it was on a good sale. A lot of people seem to want to over-analyze and interpret the meta-messages, etc., and tell you what it REALLY means, lol. But at the end of the day, it's not that great of a film overall.
"great psychodrama of forbidden passion and self-destruction"
Written By: Robert J. Crawford
This is a movie for the middle aged: after a successful career and the nurture of a perfect family, a man chucks it all for the wrong woman. He is exhausted from his idyllic life and meaningful career, seeking a way out, and finds it. Everyone loses.
The story unfolds in absolutely horrific fashion, complete with the graphic portrayal of the passion that becomes the only thing at the center of his life. You watch with a mix of titillation and disgust at the downward spiral. For a long time, I could not understand the Binoche character: she seemed like a doll, an empty vessel for pleasure with no sexual boundaries while protecting her inner self. Then I realized that, I believe, she felt so empty and "damaged" that she needed to fill the space through sex; unstable by nature, she would be disastrous as an investment in life, but with the ability to throw herself into sex with total passion. A new kind of femme fatale. Binoche makes her extremely subtle and enigmatic.
As always with Malle, there are many levels on which the film can be viewed, an extraordinarily rich viewing experience that can be viewed many times, that is, if you can tolerate the pain and catastophe. The acting is absolutely first rate and endlessly evocative in the way cinema can offer a window into life is seconds of an expression. It is true art.
Recommended with enthusiasm and an equal measure of revulsion.
"Great?"
Written By: C. McGhee
I had trouble making this into a 2 star movie but the acting forced me to raise my rating. This is suppose to be a great story? Puh-lease! Let's see, a mature but emotionally dead man want's to hump his son's lover from now till the cows come home. I guess some people refer to this as forbidden love which I feel needs animals or dead people to fill the bill. What do I know as I'm easily offended?
Any way this great? story discovers he always wanted to hump anyone but his wife. He don't care if his nubile daughter knows, he don't care what it'll affect in any life he had up 'til now, he don't care are the three words that describe him totally. That includes his absence of feeling about the girl his wee willie winkie must meat again. The 5 star people yell "You got it. His passion overrides every aspect of the situation." No I don't get how anyone could find that to be obsessive in a sensual manner. It is obsessive in a maniacal I get or I kill manner. Just because the story has a little sex in it doesn't mean it's an accurate portrayal of sensual. This was about power as you'll discover while he is repeatedly bouncing her head off the floor as they sensuously? hump. Power is not the most intoxicating aphrodisiac. It's nice it is set in London because this guy is the classical cock-up. It is the story that stinks unbelievably & probably shoudn't get 1 star. Louis Malle gets zero, zip, nada.
There are great tales of human passion & this isn't one. Both RIDICULE & DANGEROUS LIAISON"S show this stinker for what it is. DAMAGE neither has, shows or is a tale of great passion or desire. It is mainly what a teenage boy would dream of with his eyes shut after his first issue of Playboy.
"the DAMAGE was done!"
"Knowing the Difference Between Right and Wrong...but Not Caring"
"a damaged film"
