The Last Seduction

THE LAST SEDUCTION (1994)
30th Anniversary Screening
Tuesday, October 8, at 7PM
Laemmle Royal Theatre
Special Guest: Director John Dahl

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 30th anniversary screening of John Dahl’s sexy neo-noir thriller, ‘The Last Seduction.’ Linda Fiorentino plays a reincarnation of the treacherous femmes fatales of 1940s classics like ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and ‘Double Indemnity.’ Bill Pullman and Peter Berg play the patsies whom she entraps. Bill Nunn and J.T. Walsh co-star. The dark, twisty screenplay was penned by Steve Barancik.

Fiorentino plays Bridget Gregory, who steals a payoff that her crooked lawyer husband has scored in a drug deal and flees to a small town in upstate New York. There she seduces a naïve young man played by Berg and eludes and outsmarts her husband, a detective, and all other men who try to get the better of her. The character’s name may be a kind of homage to the character of the treacherous Brigid O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) in ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ the film that helped to launch the film noir cycle in 1941.

In the 1940s the rigid Production Code mandated that femmes fatales be punished for their misdeeds, but Hollywood morality had changed in recent years, and characters played by Kathleen Turner in ‘Body Heat’ and Sharon Stone in 'Basic Instinct' got away with their crimes. Fiorentino’s character took the new amorality even further. According to Roger Ebert, who ranked the film one of the 10 best of 1994, ‘The Last Seduction’ “gives us a diabolical, evil woman and goes the distance with her… We keep waiting for the movie to lose its nerve, and it never does.” Leonard Maltin agreed that the film is a “sizzling, sexy thriller from modern film noir expert Dahl and writer Steve Barancik.”

The New York Times’ Janet Maslin called the film “a devilishly entertaining crime story,” and she added, “Both Mr. Dahl, who directs this film with stunning economy, and Ms. Fiorentino, whose performance is flawlessly hard-boiled, exult in the sheer wickedness of Bridget’s character.” Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle agreed that Fiorentino’s character was “the most full-blown yet utterly believable femme fatale to come along in years.” Fiorentino was named best actress of the year by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the London Film Critics Circle.

Dahl had previously demonstrated a flair for film noir in ‘Kill Me Again’ and ‘Red Rock West.’ He went on to direct ‘Rounders,’ ‘You Kill Me,’ and ‘Joy Ride,’ along with episodes of acclaimed TV series ‘Dexter,’ ‘Ray Donovan,’ ‘Billions,’ and ‘Yellowstone.’