In an ethereal, high-ceilinged room, women stand, waiting. Perhaps it's Purgatory and they're dead. In the room, two young women, one an actress and the other a psychologist, watch the last few days of their lives on a TV screen. Both are having affairs with married men, each has a long encounter with her lover's wife, and both these scenes take place in a ladies' room, one backstage at a play that's about to preview, the other at an opera house during the first act. The relationships between each pair of younger and older women take surprising turns, and in the room with the TV, a sylph asks probing and challenging questions of the two young women as they watch.
Direction
Cristiani's dreamy, theatrical staging of literal purgatory.
Acting
Bracco and Scacchi devouring scenes as wronged wives with secrets.
Writing
Dialogue that thinks it's smarter than it is—but sometimes lands.
Director
Gabriella Cristiani
Molly Parker
Julia
Veronica Ferres
Lauren
Lorraine Bracco
Gemma
Greta Scacchi
Lucia
Anne Bedian
Intella
John Malkovich
Roberto
Alan Fawcett
Bill
Dorothée Berryman
Bag Lady
Nanette Workman
Ricki
Yahsmin Daviault
Bree
Anne Dryburgh
Wig
Julien Irwin Dupuy
Young Boy
Gillian Ferrabee
Luella
Erin Simms
Hair Spray Girl
Linda E. Smith
Kelly
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cristiani was longtime editor for Bertolucci (Last Tango, The Last Emperor) before directing; you can feel his influence in the languid pacing.
This bombed so hard at festivals it barely got distribution, becoming a weird footnote for everyone involved—especially Malkovich, who appears for roughly four minutes total.
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