Siesta (1987)

In this plot-twisting, surreal, often confusing and odd arthouse film and erotic mystery-drama, it was the first time directorial effort of Mary Lambert. (Lambert's next film was the Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary (1989), and she followed up with its sequel in 1992.) It was praised for its jazzy-trumpet score by trumpeter Miles Davis.

The film's fragmented, often incoherent and subjective plotline about obsessive love and the acceptance of destiny and change told about the strange adventures (fantasies and memories) of a daredevil stuntwoman who had returned back to Spain. There over a 5-day period, she was reunited with her married ex-boyfriend (a Spanish trapeze acrobat and the love of her life) for an eventually-deadly love affair. Much of the film reminded the viewer of the film Memento (2000) with its plot-twist 'death-dream' ending. The title was referenced in the film's tagline: "The time of day when mystery and eroticism become one."

Its screenplay (by Patricia Louisianna Knop, who had just written the screenplay for Adrian Lyne's 9 1/2 Weeks (1986), and would go to similar erotic films, such as Wild Orchid (1990) and Delta of Venus (1995)) was based on a novel by Patrice Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter) first published in 1987.

It was a major box-office flop - budgeted at $5 million, its box-office revenue was only $700,000. It was nominated for two Razzie Awards in the Worst Supporting Actress category: for Grace Jones as Conchita, and Isabella Rossellini as Marie.

• in the intriguing opening scene, an unidentified female (Ellen Barkin) awakened at the edge of an airport runway near Madrid, Spain - on the Fourth of July; she was clothed in a bright red party dress (without underwear) and she noticed that her body was covered in bruises and someone else's blood; she screamed, and ran down a roadway (avoiding an oncoming truck) to a nearby stream

Opening Sequence with Claire (Ellen Barkin)

• there, she stripped off the dress and rinsed out the blood; she mumbled to herself that she might be involved in a murder (SPOILER: yes - her own!), although she was completely confused and forgetful of what might have happened to her: "It's not my blood, must be somebody else's. I must have really hurt him. I must have hurt him pretty bad."
• then, she dried herself by the sun's rays on the muddy bank of the water before reclothing herself; afterwards, she ran down a road, hailed a taxi, and in the back seat, she exclaimed: "I'm in Spain! Aw, jeez. What the f--k am I doing here?"
• her passport, money and everything else were in her bag - which she realized she didn't have: "I don't have money. Everything's in my bag. My passport, everything. My god, what's happened to me?...I remember coming here, and I don't remember anything else"
• suffering from amnesia and not knowing her past, the film then flashbacked (with mixed-up or scrambled memories including flash-forwards) to five days earlier on June 29th, to reveal her identity:
  • she was a professional daredevil stuntwoman at Death Valley, CA named Claire, who was lovelessly married for six years to Del (Martin Sheen), her shameless, Southern-drawling promoter
  • Del was pressuring Claire to perform a free-fall stunt (death-defying without a parachute) on July 4th into a giant safety net stretched over an artificial, man-made volcano - the event was heralded as "Claire on a Dare" (similar to various real-life stunts performed by US dare-devil Evel Knievel)
  • before the July 4th event, Claire had hurriedly abandoned Del and flown to Spain to see her old boyfriend - Spanish trapeze-artist Augustine (Gabriel Byrne) who had trained her for aerial acrobatics as his "star pupil"
  • she left a message on their own phone-answering machine to alert Del to her whereabouts, while standing in front of an insignia ("LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG") [Note: Actress Ellen Barkin was marrried to Byrne in 1988 and then divorced him in 1993.]
• back in Spain, the lewd taxi driver (Alexy Syale) with steel-capped teeth dropped Claire off in downtown Madrid, where she entered a church and prayed: "I must be in some kind of trouble"
• she met up with ex-boyfriend Augustine, a trazepe acrobat who had taught her the fine art of high-wire stunts, and wanted to reignite their love affair despite the fact that he was married to a very jealous Marie (Isabella Rossellini), a wealthy woman; Augustine clearly warned her: "Go away from here, Claire. Please! There will be trouble if you stay" - knowing that she was unable to recover from the end of their past relationship
• in the street, Claire noticed a newspaper article about herself - an American Female ("Daredevil") who remained lost or missing; apparently, she was being pursued by local police who suspected that she had murdered someone (Marie?)

Kit (Julian Sands), An Artist

Nancy (Jodie Foster)

Meeting with Kit

• after being stalked and propositioned by the cab-driver, she entered a posh photo-exhibition gallery party in progress (one of the photos exhibited was of herself); she met up with a number of profligate and dissolute individuals (exiles), including:
  • Kit (Julian Sands), an artist
  • Desdra (Anastassia Stakis), Kit's possessive wife
  • Nancy (Jodi Foster) an upper-class, bi-sexual socialite with a British accent, who was sexually-partnered with Kit and also developed feelings for Claire

Claire's Sexual Swinging Escapades with Kit and Nancy

• Claire expressed her confused worries to Kit about what she thought might have happened to her: "I killed someone. I'm in love with a man and I killed his wife"
• when Claire met Marie (Augustine's jealous wife), Marie stated that Claire's death-jumps without a parachute meant: "Perhaps feeling closer to death makes her feel more alive"
• one afternoon during 'siesta' time, Claire approached Augustine and propositioned him: "Make love to me," but he declined, although he suggested they get together at the same time in the future
• meanwhile, Claire was also experiencing premonitions of her own death/murder, although she didn't realize it: ("Somewhere, I don't know where, I turned a corner and there was no turning back. Somewhere I made a mistake"); Kit advised her that she might learn from her mistakes: "Don't mourn it, sweet. It's alright. The marvelous thing about making mistakes is that you can keep making them, the same ones, over and over again," but Claire disagreed with his assessment: ("You maybe, not me. To me, mistakes are desperate things. If I make a mistake, even a very tiny one, I'm through, the end, the eternal black"); Claire seemed to have a death-wish - exemplified by her crassly-commercial daredevil-jump: "When I jump, I know that if I make a mistake, I won't have to account for it later"
• strangely, she jumped onto the roof of a tour bus that dropped tourists off at a bull-ring, where she fled and was picked up by the same cabbie who was now threatening rape ("You f--k with me on top, OK?"); Claire claimed she wouldn't feel or know anything if she closed her eyes: "I'll forget it when it's over. I'm forgetting it right now...You call the rules, fat boy. Whatever you say. I'm not going to feel it anyway..."; a car crash interrupted his threats.
• during a fateful sexual rendezvous between Augustine and Claire at siesta time, she requested that he run away with her; the sequence was interspersed with the cabbie's rape-assault on Claire, as he beat her and yelled: "You're no good!"; after Claire removed her panties, Augustine touched her breasts as he pulled down on her red dress; they were both naked and began to make love

Claire's Fateful Love-Making Rendezvous with Augustine

• there were deadly results to their love-making; police sped to the scene of a murder, and Claire was swept along with a group of townspeople who rushed through the streets to view the crime scene; Kit appeared along side Claire and advised her: "Don't fight it any more, love. Go where you're being taken"
• when she awoke in Augustine's arms after sex, Claire was attacked by the wronged and crazed Maria wielding a knife, and viciously stabbed in the abdomen; Augustine fought off Maria, and then crouched over the body of his loved one

Claire's Love-Making Rendezvous with Augustine - With Deadly Consequences

• the killer Maria was arrested and led away by the authorities - much later it was revealed that she had disposed of Claire's body at the airport: ("Maria, why did you leave her body at the airport?"); Augustine walked by Claire, but he didn't see her as she spoke the film's final line of dialogue to him: (Claire: "Augustine, tell me. If it wasn't her who was killed, if it was me, why do I still feel such love?")
• the film's often-used gimmicky plot twist at the end was that Claire had been murdered by Augustine's crazed wife and her experiences were only the jumbled, fantasy thoughts and dreams of her final moments before her death