Closet Land

 

In 1992, AR discussed CLOSET LAND with two French journalists.

To Gina Cervi in Revue du Cinema (April 1992) he said, "[It] was a very hard film....My character evolved, showing his weaknesses little by little. I told the director that it would be impossible for me to play that torturer if he didn't also reveal himself, in his turn, as a sort of victim. You can imagine that he was something else previously, that he's a victim of his cowardice and his choices. It took quite a bit of work on the text to make that happen."

And AR said to Dominique Benjamin in Sequences (September 1992), "I find the idea of two people shut up together in a room terribly depressing, oppressing....All the film did was make me more resistant to that idea. That film was very difficult to make and it's also very difficult to look at, especially for a woman. For me, the film is a tightrope and even today I don't know if it holds firm or drops one. I do know that certain people cannot bear to look at it and prefer to leave the room. The bottom line is that I simply hope the film doesn't abuse its subject. I'd like to hope that the two characters are perceived as victims, and not just the woman. If that isn't the case, well, there's no interest and it's exploitation. But I'm not the best person to judge. I can say that we worked straight through and, thank God, Madeleine Stowe has a very strong personality, otherwise I don't see how she could have gotten through it. It was very difficult for her." [Benjamin: Were you satisfied with the result?] "I perhaps had a clearer idea of what I was expecting because there were only the two of us in front of the camera and we were steering the ship, a bit. So there are things in that film that I don't like, and others that I do, but you could say that of all the films."

From Alan Rickman Guest Book (Rebecca)