The read
Critics rate it 30 points higher than audiences do. Scores higher than 92% of the 2,032 1990s drama movies in this catalog.
Synopsis
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?
Ratings
Critics rate it 30 points higher than audiences do.
50 audience votes
Key crew
- Stephen QuayDirector
- Timothy QuayDirector
- Lech JankowskiOriginal Music Composer
- Timothy QuayWriter
- Alan PassesWriter
- Stephen QuayWriter
Cast
- Alice KrigeLisa Benjamenta
- Mark RylanceJakob
- Gottfried JohnHerr Benjamenta
- Daniel SmithKraus
- Joseph AlessiPepino
- Jonathan StoneHebling
- César SaratxuInigo
- Peter LovstromJorgenson
- Uri RoodnerSchilinski
- Peter WhitfieldCast
