Death and the Maiden

A dear friend is quite heavy and had an infected gall bladder. She said afterward the pain was so severe she would rather have a baby (she has had two) than have a gall bladder attack or have the organ removed. She said this after the operation. The discussion took place when I had my gall bladder removed and was recuperating and probably asked for sympathy. But she was the first and only woman I’ve met who says there is any pain greater than childbirth.

Some don’t often think of women as subjects of torture, where the pain could be increased ad infinitum, but there were women who were tortured in Argentina thirty years ago who could testify to the horrible talents of dictators in an era when young people were “disappearing” there by the thousands. The bodies of the desaparecidos were hidden partly to conceal evidence of the torture that killed them. Iraq competes for the worst torturer’s award today, I think, in numbers if not in degree of pain administered. Wouldn’t you think humanity would have better things to do than practice giving pain to its own kind?

If you ever have a chance to see the movie entitled “Death and the Maiden” you would see magnificent performances by Sigourney Weaver (as Paulina Escobar), Ben Kingsley (as Dr. Roberto Miranda) and Stuart Wilson (as Gerardo Escobar). The characters are caught up in their own hate and fright and flashbacks of the horror. And they are only too human in the face of their accusers.

I mention this movie (directed by Roman Polanski) because it deals with the torture of Paulina in the past maybe by Dr. Miranda and displays the depth of psychological damage to the subject years later – the time of the drama. Her husband is about to be appointed to the supreme court of a Latin American republic that regrets its bad past. Dr. Miranda gives the husband a ride home in a storm. Paulina thinks she hears her old torturer’s voice. It must have been a stage play done up for movies, but it is powerful and significant on film. Rent it. It will never come back to your theater.