Before It Had a Name

2005 American film
  • September 2005 (2005-09) (Venice Film Festival)
Running time
101 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$450,000

Before It Had a Name is a 2005 film directed by Giada Colagrande and co-written by her and husband Willem Dafoe. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was retitled as The Black Widow when it was released on DVD. It marked the first time Dafoe had developed a project to the point of being shot as well as the first time Colagrande had written in English.[1]

Synopsis

After her lover Karl dies, Eleonora goes to his New York estate known as 'The Rubber House' in hopes of learning about him. While there, she becomes involved with the property's strange caretaker, Leslie.

Principal cast

Actor Role
Willem Dafoe Leslie
Giada Colagrande Eleonora
Seymour Cassel Jeff
Isaach de Bankolé Waiter
Emily Cass McDonnell Gail
Claudio Botosso Karl
Bari Hyman LP

Critical reception

Boyd Van Hoei wrote in Cineuropa:

With its narrow focus on two people in a passionate relationship and its abundant use of metaphors, the film certainly has more in common with the intimate auteur dramas of the old continent than with new American cinema... Whatever the reaction of American audiences will be, Before It Had a Name is certainly amongst the most pleasing – and decidedly auteur – surprises of the Venice Days.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Before It Had a Name : In the name of love". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2012-04-02.

External links

  • Before It Had a Name at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • Before It Had a Name at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Before It Had a Name at AllMovie