Siesta is a 1987 American experimental drama film directed by Mary Lambert and starring Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne and Jodie Foster. According to a 1987 article in The Los Angeles Times, the film "follows a daredevil through her final days leading up to a potentially fatal leap. Rife with Jungian imagery, the film is a post-modern fable of destiny and change, peopled with a gallery of lost souls including a guardian angel (played by British heartthrob Julian Sands), a sorceress (played by pop star Grace Jones) and the angel of death (Alexei Sayle)." It also stars Martin Sheen and Isabella Rossellini.
Contents
Plot
Claire, an American daredevil, awakens near an airport landing strip in Madrid on July 4 with no memory of how she got there. Bruised and covered in mud and blood, she cleans herself up and takes a taxi into the city. Through a series of flashbacks, Claire recalls traveling to Madrid to visit her former lover Augustine, a trapeze artist who is now married to Marie. Claire is preparing to perform a dangerous skydiving stunt in which she will jump from an airplane without a parachute and land in a large net that will be set on fire.
As Claire attempts to reconstruct the events of the preceding days, she becomes convinced that she has killed someone, and specifically fears that she has killed Marie. She remembers rekindling her affair with Augustine and being attacked by Marie with a knife. Meanwhile, Claire encounters a number of eccentric characters, including the artist Kit, socialite Nancy, and the mysterious Conchita, while experiencing increasingly fragmented memories of her relationship with Augustine and her planned return to the United States for the skydiving stunt. Eventually, Claire sees police arrest Marie and realizes that no one can see her. Augustine walks past her without noticing her, leading Claire to realize that she is a ghost.
Cast
Ellen Barkin as Claire
Gabriel Byrne as Augustine
Julian Sands as Kit
Isabella Rossellini as Marie
Martin Sheen as Del
Alexei Sayle as Cabbie
Grace Jones as Conchita
Jodie Foster as Nancy
Anastassia Stakis as Desdra
Gary Cady as Roger
Production
The screenplay was written by Patricia Louisianna Knop, based on a novel by Patrice Chaplin. The film was shot on location in Spain, released by Lorimar Motion Pictures, and debuted in New York City on November 11, 1987. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis performed on the score for the film, Music from Siesta, which was written and arranged by frequent Davis collaborator Marcus Miller.
Reaction
Siesta received generally negative reviews. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 17% approval rating based on 6 reviews. It was hailed as "this year's Blue Velvet" by Susan Linfield, editor of American Film. The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin called it "the kind of excitingly bad, artily experimental film that has become an endangered species... Still, Miss Lambert's first feature has a game, mischievous spirit and a ripe bohemianism that are appealing." Critic Roger Ebert wrote that "The film is finally overwhelmed by its own ambition, not to mention one too many gimmicks in its plot, but it goes down swinging." However, Sheila Benson of The Los Angeles Times called the film “a monumentally bad, awesomely wrongheaded, pretentious conceit."
The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for director Mary Lambert at the 3rd Independent Spirit Awards in 1988. Grace Jones and Isabella Rossellini were both nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress (with Rossellini also being nominated for her role in Tough Guys Don't Dance) at the 8th Golden Raspberry Awards.