The Comfort of Strangers is a 1990 psychological thriller film directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, and Helen Mirren.

Over several bottles of wine, Robert regales the couple with intimate, bizarre details of his life, including stories about his sadistic father, an Italian diplomat, as well as cruel pranks his younger sisters played on him during his childhood.

At dawn, the couple awaken and visit a cafe in the square at St Mark's Basilica.

Over tea, Caroline tells Mary her back injury stems from years of sadomasochistic sex that she and Robert engage in.

She is escorted by Caroline to a bedroom, where she finds the walls covered in photographs of Colin taken over the course of their vacation.

Caroline explains that Robert has been stalking him since the day they arrived, having passed the couple on the street.

[4] Vincent Canby of the New York Times reviewed the film positively, saying "Mr. Schrader is a director of great rigor and discipline.

Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review, rated it 2.5 stars out of 4, and said:[5] Paul Schrader sees the story as literate, elegant eroticism.

It is based on a novel by Ian McEwan, the best-selling British novelist of the perverse, and the screenplay is by Harold Pinter, so expert at suggesting the terrifying depths beneath innocent words.

The actors are well-chosen for this material, particularly Walken, who can project decadence and danger without doing anything in particular to call attention to his methods [...] Perhaps the arbitrary, unfinished nature of the story is part of its purpose.

But I felt that characters this interesting should not be allowed to remain complete ciphers.Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also wrote a generally positive review, commenting that "Schrader is an astute guide through the circuitous byways of sexual manipulation.