Product Details

• Actors: Deborah Harry, James Russo, Paige French, Tim Thomerson, Grace Zabriskie
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302315999
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #249,865 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Fans of documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner are familiar with his illuminating work about the far-reaching influence of family history on every aspect of life. His award-winning 1986 feature Family Album, for instance, is a moving, ghostly portrait of a vanished American age as captured in the home movies and audio recollections of some 60 families. A decade later, Berliner's 1996 Nobody's Business is a determined look into the story of his then 80-year-old father's life, despite the old man's insistence there's nothing there worth knowing. Between those two works came the 1991 Intimate Stranger, the edgiest and most mysterious of the three. The film concerns the odd saga of Berliner's maternal grandfather, Joseph Cassuto, an Egypt-born Jew who fashioned his place in the world as a pioneering businessman in the Middle East and Japan. Sold on the importance of maintaining the distinctive image of a big fish in a small pond, Cassuto had a knack for placing himself at the center of important events, knowing just how to work a photo opportunity both for immediate purposes and the long view of history.

Part of that image was the window dressing of a wife and children kept nice and cozy in New York while Cassuto spent years and years enjoying his esteem in postwar Japan. There, Cassuto imported cotton and became a capitalist godfather in the defeated nation's rebuilt economy, all the while so indifferent to the needs of his family that he rarely wrote, let alone visited. Berliner's explorations into all this proceed from his own, formative impressions of the pain Cassuto's absence cause his wife (Berliner's fragile, overwhelmed grandmother) and their father-starved kids (the director's mother and uncles). The result is a sad but fascinating story of one man's contradictions and the legacy of his choices on subsequent generations. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheesey, but fantastic movie!, May 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Stranger [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Here's the good stuff; see a sexy Deborah Harry chain smoke, talk really, REALLY dirty, and fight a maniac! Now, seriously, this is one great little movie you got here. If I'm correct, this was a made for TV movie, which would help to explain the look to it. The acting is very good at points, but then seems to fade at others. The maniac, for example, sounds incredibly scary over the phone, but when you see him face to face with heroin Deb, he doesn't seem to be that great. Just a small example. The plot is a little bit thin, but what can you say? It's a cat-and-mouse style movie, which usually doesn't includee much of a plot. The plot, however, doesn't seem to matter here, because the style of it all is great. It has a very eary look and feel to it, and the soundtrack is great (especially the Debbie songs!). So, yes, it may not be the best movie ever made, but it still deserves 5 stars for its creativity and the great sense of horror about it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars COOL PERFORMANCE, February 16, 2000

By 

JOHNNY VEE (BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intimate Stranger [VHS] (VHS Tape)

FOR BLONDIE FANS, ASIDE FROM THE PLOT WICH IS COVERED BY OTHER REVIEWS, IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE SHE PERFORMS ONSTAGE WITH AN UNKNOWN BAND IN A SMOKEY DIVE IN GOTHAM CITY & HER VOICE'S GOLDEN ESSENCE IS STARTLINGLY CAPTURED. IF FOR NO OTHER REASON, THESE PERFORMANCES ARE WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION, NOT ON ANY LP'S MIGHT I ADD!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Harry gives a Brilliant performance, January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Stranger [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Deborah Harry , who has appeared in almost 20 films ,all of which were supporting or cameo, finally gets a starring role playing a chain smoking phone sex call girl and struggling rock singer in this cat and mouse thriller. Harry gives a brilliant performance as Corey Wheeler being chased by a killer. The soudtrack is super eerie and Debbie also sings a couple Janis Joplin covers in nightclubs scenes. Top notch