Closet Land

Plot synopsis:
Set in an unspecified country, Stowe's character is taken from her home in the middle of the night, accused of embedding anarchistic messages into her book, entitled Closet Land. The book is a story about a child who, as a result of bad behaviour, has been locked in a closet as punishment. While in there, the child is greeted by a group of childhood ally archetypes who innocently attempt to comfort the scared little girl. The seemingly simple content is questioned by the government, which accuses the author of encouraging and introducing anarchism among its audience of naïve children.
While the Interrogator is obstinate in his belief that the author is guilty of hidden propaganda, the audience is convinced of the victim's innocence. The audience later learns that the novel was actually created as a form of escapism, providing a coping mechanism for the author, who endured sexual abuse as a child. Near the end of the film, the interrogator claims that he was the man who had sexually abused the author in her childhood. But one cannot be entirely sure he was the one who abused her, as the film suggests he was just using the abuse against her as a way of breaking her down.
After subjecting her to lengthy physical and mental torture, and pretending to be several other people (another prisoner, a more brutal interrogator) while the Victim is blindfolded, the Interrogator tries to get her to sign a confession—to save her life. While he knows now that the woman is innocent, he implores her to confess to avoid execution. She refuses, and goes to her death.

Tags: insanity, allegory, cult, brainwashing, flashback

Review:
I saw this movie only a few days ago at a convention, and was moved to think about a side of torture tactics that I had never examined.
The power of mental abuse can surely override any physical abuse, and that is shown through Madeline Stowe's wondrous acting in this movie.
The basis of the plot is this: A children's book writer (Stowe) is arrested on the premise that her books hold subversive political ideas, trying to get children to go against the government.
The writer continues to deny these allegations, even as she is questioned and eventually abused physically and mentally by a government agent (Rickman).
Government secrets, personal secrets, both are integral pieces of this story.By far the greatest acting seen in too long a time, both Alan Rickman and Madeleine Stowe were phenomenal in their portrayal of a Government Interrogator and Victim respectively.
With only the two actors in this unusual standard length film, it is instantly clear that both actors were dedicated and talented enough to pull the viewer into this tiny bubble of a world and shut the door.A WORD OF CAUTION...What isn't mentioned on the description of this movie is that there is a subplot that deals with childhood sexual abuse.
While there is no graphic detail about the abuse, the nature of it may be difficult for some viewers to watch - especially given the intensity of the film on whole.I'm not a big fan of Amnesty International films, but this movie drew me in because the acting was so exceptional, and I can't help but make this movie one of my personal favorites..
Stowe as the confused writer was good, letting the crafty Rickman convince her that he only wanted to go one step further, then one more, etc.
Especially when you have absolutely no control over it.In the end, the movie amounts to a warning (really though, the movie has several different aspects to it) about what happens to people's freedoms when they "look the other way" and ignore injustices happening to those around them.If you've got about an hour and a half and know where you can rent this, I strongly recommend that you do so..
This movie gave me recurring nightmares, with Alan Rickman's voice representing an omnipotent, insidious, fascist ruler.
Placed somewhere in the midst of 1984' and Twilight Zone' this film may be about abuse of power, it may be about government control, it may be about overactive imaginations.One certainty is after watching Closet Land' you will ask yourself a few questions.
Chances are, if you would like it, you probably have seen it.Powerful premise, powerful performances, powerful film..
This is such an obscure film, but it was so powerful, I had to watch it a second time on the same night, just to be sure I didn't miss anything.Alan Rickman is at his best in this film, essentially playing four characters: the ruthless interrogator, the sadistic torturer, the tortured witness, and the lost soul.
In the movie age of special effects, explosions, explicit sex, and all-too-often pretty faces with poor acting and dialogue, "Closet Land" is one of the best films I've seen..
The acting in the film is superb, sometimes you have to remind yourself that the movie is a dramatization, and not real life.
Think about it, Closet Land could easily have turned out so horribly - an entire movie filmed in one room with only two people, they better have some damned interesting things to chat about.But it didn't turn out horribly.
On the contrary, thanks to incredible portrayals by both Stowe and Rickman, Closet Land is a masterpiece in its own right.That's not to say it is for everyone.
In short, if you're looking for escapist fare, go elsewhere; if you want to be challenged and see the finest acting this side of great theater, this is your film..
If you liked "1984" book or movie, I think you will like this one as well.This is harsh, to say the least, including mental and physical acts of torture, some pretty vile.
No gore, but his movie is so great at projecting the mental anticipation it doesn't need blood and guts.If you are not a realist or a pestimistic person I don't think you will enjoy it.
Those concerned about 1st amendment issues, censorship, et al--but don't want to be bored with lectures--need art such as this to illustrate, dramatize, teach, inspire.Rickman is certainly an under appreciated character actor; he shines in this film, showing off multiple acting talents that you must see (I have yet to see him give a bad performance, though, even in not-so-great films).
What makes this film so unsettling is that the drama feels so real, it's almost hard to remember that it's only a movie.
The film almost feels like a theatrical production the way it is staged and lit.
It's a movie about an interrogation, and one that ends on a note of a "message" (brought to you by Amnesty International, which is well intentioned but not the right note at the end of all of this).
Its bizarre execution comes from somewhere primal, somewhere from a filmmaker who wants to take you to some place that is rather unrelenting and sad about the human condition, where we put ourselves in a place we can't get out of - and, sometimes, how we can find a way to make it through, bit by bit.It's like if Kafka had to do a remake of Saw and use nothing but politics.
Oh, and cast Alan Rickman instead of Jigsaw and make it about a woman who writes children's stories and is accused of writing subversive literature hidden in her latest story 'Closet Land'...
come to think of it, that's nothing like Saw at all (save for the bits of torture, which, gracefully, are kept at a distance).Two things are striking here: the sets and lighting, and the performances (maybe that's three, who cares).
We rarely leave it, save for those few flashes where Madeline Stowe imagines herself away with her creations, so the photographer has to come up with new ways to show us these people, in this very strange and oppressive environment.
Does he really believe what he's saying, as he breaks this woman, or does he mean it when he says "They're watching me, too", when talking to Madeline Stowe's children's writer.
Stowe, on the other hand, is given a more challenging task playing the victim, always on the alert but strong because of her own 'Closet Land' she developed as a child, not as any kind of political statement.I believed both actors in the roles, no matter how horrifying things got, and the film-making is just direct and absorbing.
It is, for all of its 'wordyness', a cinematic piece, shot on a specific-film set, and given a musical score that, unless I was mistaken, sounded a helluva lot like Philip Glass (it says Richard Einhorn, but who cares).
Among a small group of people, I imagine, it's one of the great little-seen films of the past twenty-five years: intelligent, provocative, adult film-making..
I am amazed at the depth of the acting, and I feel if this movie had gotten wider release that there would be no question that Alan Rickman is a major star.
a top notch one !And Madeleine Stowe is absolutely beautiful and shows a first-rate playingAlan Rickman, wow, what an actor !My only complaint was that to cut a movie like this (I mean on YT) is also a bit sadistic...
in the Fair Use purpose.)Well, back to the movie : So if you are for Freedom, I mean any form of it (if there are different forms of it !), and you can stand a powerful claustrophobic situation in a movie, I just can say : watch this masterpiece !Me, fortunately I could find it slightly later in "one piece" on DVD format, so it joined my home video library, for my great pleasure :-)Remember : Amazing performances, brilliant !If you agree/disagree with this comment, I'll be glad if you'll rate it, wishing more Yes, just because this movie speaks to my heart about Liberty AND Freedom...
I know it seems a wrong double use meaning, but may be you'll understand what I trying to point out :-)*** a film is never really good unless the camera is an eyes in the head of a poet Orson Welles ***.
Alan Rickman and Madeline Stowe have intense and powerful roles for which they deserve Oscars for their performances..
This is what this film explores through the eyes of 2 characters, one being the accused subversive, the other being the interrogator.
Alan Rickman gives a superior performance as a sadistic interrogator, and we really wonder, "What's the point?"  This is just a poor woman writer.
Ms. Stowe is sensational in this power drama about a secret policeman who interrogates a children's author because he believes she is trying to plant ideas in her writings that are contrary to the state's.
The pornographic aspects are justified by being a warning about the evils of totalitarian government, but because there is no real context for the torture of this young woman, we come away disturbed but having learned nothing.What is the point?
Let's make a movie about an oppressive government torturing one of its citizens for no real reason.
We must all fight for the freedom to think and write what we please!"Those could have been the thoughts running through the mind of the filmmaker who created "Closet Land." The result is a desperately earnest but thin and tedious film.
I almost hope it's true, as I can imagine McDonagh's irritation in slogging through this film: "What terrible, dreary handling of an interesting idea!" McDonagh's play fixes the two biggest defects of "Closet Land." First, his author writes *interesting* stories, and lots of them.
Closet Land screams "Film School Class Project!" Here's the assignment: Everyone go home and write a 5 page script with only two characters in 1 setting.
Combining these 5 page manifestos into one is the never successful film teacher who eagerly puts out an ad in Backstage magazine and has the school's animation department get to work on the sequences he wrote while high.From the cheap, lifeless set (painted to look like marble), to the unrealistic exchanges between two actors all Scotch taped together into one long, tedious play.
About five minutes after the house lights went up people started coming out of their comas to look around, and I think most of us thought, okay we get it, that was a joke, right?, they are going to show the real movie now.
I have seen some pretty bad movies in my day, (I have Cinemax for goodness sakes), but I am still bitter that I will never, ever be able to recover those two or so hours of my life that I lost watching Closet Land..
But it makes me think these 2 were thrown into a speech/drama class at college for the first time and told for one to act dominating and constricting to the other in a room without allowing her to leave and the woman to be truly innocent and treat her with enough mind-humping to drive the audience into tears for her release.The only good part IS the acting abilities, the plot has the same ruse as Hitlers influence and I started to hate the protagonist for that.
I consider it a brilliant but flawed film, and no doubt a testament to what the human mind can withstand.With the Bushes and Ashcrofts of the world thriving, and others who would stifle political dissent at any cost, this movie is not all that far fetched..
It shows the obvious insidiousness of evil, people may not see that right away by watching this movie, but I saw it right away, it SCREAMED.
This movie needs to be seen by everyone in the world so that they are not held against their will by thought, or deed, or physicality, or in any other way.
2 actors, 1 room ( very simple but hard to pull off, but Stowe and Rickman do it!) This movie is actor driven, and beautifully so.
This is a great movie for hose of you who like to think while you watch a film.
I watched it originally just to watch Alan Rickman, and because I am a member of Amnesty International, but it quickly became my favorite movie.
If you can't handle watching people in pain though, this movie might not be for you.
The cast and director do an amazing job with the script, and anyone who likes 'different' movies, who has the patience to sit and say, "What the hell is this?", and allow themselves to be drawn in should give this film a chance.
If you just want Alan Rickman to be goofy or to see things explode this is not the movie for you..
The original premise was to make a film (play, actually) with a two-person, one-room cast.
It tells the story about a female author of children's books who one night is taken from her place of residence and brought to an unknown place where she meets a man who claims to be associated with the government and who initiates an interrogation by implying that her novels are allegorical writings with hidden political meanings.
While notable for it's surreal interior milieu depictions, low keyed production design by Japanese costume designer Eiko Ishioka (1938-2012) and use of sound, music and animation, this dialog-driven, narrative-driven and abridged chamber-piece from the early 1990s depicts an in-depth study of character and contains an efficient score by modern classical composer Richard Einhorn.This conversational, political, literary and psychological mystery drama where a novelist's imagination becomes her strongest survival mechanism, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, esoteric voice-over narration and the fine acting performances by English actor Alan Rickman and American actress Madeleine Stowe.
Both Rickman and Stowe play their roles to the hilt in this tale of a childrens' book writer who-- maybe?-- has written a subversive tract.
This film, with only two characters, takes you closer to these two people, the interrogator and the prisoner, than most films take you to any character, however well-crafted.The sheer confusion, terror and pain which Madeleine Stowe's character undergoes is deeply disturbing, as is Alan Rickman's sadistic yet charming interrogator.This film is all too possible, and builds to a shocking climax, the effect of the film as a whole leaving you sitting in silence at the end.
i happen to admire movies that can effectively recreate the sensation of watching a stage play, it creates an inharmonious eeriness that works well with this flick.
Closet land is not at happy movie.
The distance from specific time and nations strengthens the message, makes it more powerful and rips away the burden of nationalism and propaganda you often sense in movies made to criticize nations in opposit of ones own (I am of course primarily speaking of the USA propaganda in some commercial film).
Anyway, Closet Land is a movie worth it's time if you are ready to make a trip into the abyss of the human nature.And of course for us who really loves the Always Evil Alan Rickman..
"Closet Land" was sponsored by Amnesty International and does have a lot of political overtones, but there's so much more to this richly stirring story than that...This is not just about the political tension of the late 80s - it's about the personal persecution that a woman puts herself through as a child who was molested by a family friend.
The psychological ramifications of even asking this question force us to a place where we are brought to develop our own answers.In the end, our young lady writer (Stowe) has a similar moment to the one at the end of Hensen's "Labyrinth" - she realizes in one shining, brilliant moment that the idea of having her power stolen from her by the secret police (Rickman) is an illusion.
The acting is outstanding, with Alan Rickman and Madeleine Stowe having the duty of carrying every scene.I first saw this film in 1991, soon after it came out on video.
It illustrates what happens when a small group of people decide what is best for everyone; when government becomes the ruler of the citizens, rather than the servant.Madeleine Stowe is a children's author who has been dragged from her bed in the night and subjected to terror and torture.
The interrogator is the one trapped by the state.This movie was made during the height of the Cold war, Apartheid, and at a time when the crimes of many governments throughout the world made daily news.
A female children book author (Madeleine Stowe) is kidnapped and finds herself in a room with a male interrogator (Alan Rickman) who appears to work for the government, accusing her that her latest book is a thinly veiled allegory of subversive nature.
Males are per definition the victimizers and women are the victims, just like the government is per definition evil and the people are good.
It also uses copious amounts of sexism as part of the interrogation/torture and a rape plot device which in a better film would probably seem fine but just adds more predictable elements to this unimaginative allegory, making them feel like clichés.But it isn't all bad, at least towards the end it DOES have some interesting things to say that can make 'Closet Land' a nice conversation piece, most notably it forcefully drives home the point that the seeds of obedience to (male) authority and the acceptance of the (patriarchal) status quo are planted at a very young age, often through actions that may not even seem directly related to obedience to authority and so on.
Anyway, it's a movie that is powerful and covers themes of torture, persecution, interrogation and individualism.