Original Sin (2001)

A woman along with her lover, plan to con a rich man by marrying him and on earning his trust running away with all his money. Everything goes as planned until she actually begins to fall in love with him.

Director:

Michael Cristofer

Writers:

Cornell Woolrich (novel), Michael Cristofer (screenplay)

Stars:

Antonio Banderas, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Jane

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Antonio Banderas	...	Luis Antonio Vargas
Angelina Jolie	...	Julia Russell / Bonny Castle
Thomas Jane	...	Billy / Walter Downs / Mephisto
Jack Thompson	...	Alan Jordan
Gregory Itzin	...	Colonel Worth
Allison Mackie	...	Augusta Jordan
Joan Pringle	...	Sara
Cordelia Richards	...	Emily Russell
James Haven	...	Faust - Stage
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	Jorge Cortés (as Pedro Armendáriz)
Mario Iván Martínez	...	Cuban Priest
Harry Porter	...	Stage Manager
Fernando Torre Laphame	...	Wedding Priest (as Fernando Torre Lapham)
Shaula Vega	...	Dressmaker Girl
Lisa Owen	...	Margareta - Stage

Storyline

When a man selects a mail order bride, he is surprised to see the beauty who appears before him. She alleges that she sent false photos to him to assure that he would love her for what she is and not for her beauty. However, what she is is a con artist, prostitute, and actress, who teams with a fellow actor to steal money from men. What she does not expect is that she falls in love with her new husband and ultimately must decide between him and her sadistic former lover. Contains explicit sex including sadistic acts as Thomas Jane cuts Jolie's back with a knife as part of their lovemaking.

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Plot Keywords:

sex scene | erotica | love | pursuit | lover | 

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Taglines:

Lead Us Into Temptation

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

France USA

Language:

English German Japanese Latin Spanish

Release Date:

3 August 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dancing in the Dark

Filming Locations:

Estudios Churubusco Azteca, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$42,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$6,402,741 (USA) (3 August 2001)

Gross:

$614,343 (Italy) (16 November 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hyde Park Entertainment, Via Rosa Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min 118 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michelle Pfeiffer's production company had originally purchased the rights to the novel with the intention that Pfeiffer herself would star. However the actress opted to simply serve as producer on the film.

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Goofs

When Luis and the maid find the dead bird, Luis' towel is inside the collar of his gown. In the next shot he turns around and the towel is outside.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Julia: You cannot walk away from love. That was the advertisement in a Baltimore newspaper. And that is how he found her.

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Connections

Referenced in Nostalgia Critic: The Legend of Zorro (2015)

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Soundtracks

Souvenir de la Havane
Written by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Performed by Ludovic-Amadeus Selmi, piano
Courtesy of Pavane Records

User Reviews

il Purgatorio

It is unfortunate that American audiences appear to want three things in a film: action, action and more action. Original Sin is a tale of emotion. With beautiful cinematography, wonderful costumery, the plot is rivalled only by Hitchock's Vertigo.

Set in Cuba in the late 19th Century, the story revolves around a man, named Luis Vargas, played by Antonio Bandaras, and the mail-order bride, with whom he falls in love. Vargas, who at the start of the film is marrying for convenience alone, because of his business, finds himself emotionally capsized by the sumptuous Julia Russell, played to the hilt by the fulsome-lipped Angelina Jolie. But when Vargas's new bride suddenly disappears, the businessman discovers that his life is now totally based in her.

Let us go back to Vertigo, the obvious source of this film. In it, Scotty Ferguson, played by James Stewart, is obsessed with Madeleine Elster, played by Kim Novak. When Scotty witnesses Madeleine plummet to her death, his world takes a dismal tern, until he meets Judy Barton, her physical twin. The thing is that Madeleine and Judy are one and the same. Here was Hitchcock's irony of the illusion of Madeleine falling to her death actually gives rise to the demise of Scotty's soul.

In Original Sin, Angelina Jolie plays Eve to Thomas Jane's serpent. Antonio Bandaras is poor Adam, with only one woman in all of the world for him. There is even Lillith, all too quickly dispatched. But forbidden fruit, once swallowed, the loss of Paradise is soon to appear. From my point of view, this is a must see film with intelligence, symbolism and beauty.