Passion: No Backstabbing. Just business. The offices of a prominent multinational corporation is the setting for this story of a power struggle between two contemporary women. Isabelle has unlimited admiration for her direct superior, Christine, a woman well-schooled in the ways of power. Christine enjoys holding sway over Isabelle, leads her one step at a time and ever more deeply into a game of seduction and manipulation, of dominance and servitude. The game is played for keeps, and there is no turning.
Brian De Palma returns to the sleek, sly, seductive territory of Dressed To Kill with an erotic corporate thriller fueled by sex, ambition, image, envy and the dark, murderous side of PASSION. The film stars Rachel McAdams (Midnight In Paris, Sherlock Holmes, Mean Girls) and Noomi Rapace (Prometheus, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) as two rising female executives in a multinational corporation whose fierce competition to rise up the ranks is about to turn literally cut-throat.
As the maze-like story begins, Christine (McAdams) — a gorgeous, powerful executive at an international ad agency in Berlin — is searching for a killer idea to impress her bosses, helped by her clever but naive protege Isabelle (Rapace). Isabelle admires Christine’s polish and devotion to her work and Christine feeds on Isabelle’s admiration. But when Isabelle comes up with a brilliant viral marketing idea that wows the client, it is Christine who gleefully takes the credit.
Thus begins what starts out as typical office back-stabbing — or “just business,” as Christine explains it — yet soon turns into something ferocious and primal. As Christine and Isabelle jockey for power, a cat-and-mouse game of scheming — professional, sexual and ultimately homicidal — erupts between the two women. But as they become more and more entangled in each other’s ambitions, desires and dreams, who will be the greater manipulator, and who will have the final revenge?
With his trademark mix of wit, melodrama and lush cinematic style, De Palma peels back the layers of a spiraling murder mystery that is as full of jet-black humor and villainous fun as it with doubts and suspense. For deep beneath the icy, cool veneer of modern life and work, De Palma playfully exposes a realm where the wildest passions rage.
Passion
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Karoline Herfurth, Paul Anderson, Rainer Bock, Benjamin Sadler
Screenplay by: Brian De Palma, Nathalie Carter, Alain Corneau
Production Design by: Cornelia Ott
Cinematography by: José Luis Alcaine
Film Editing by: François Gédigier
Costume Design by: Karen Muller Serreau
Set Decoration by: Ute Bergk
Music by: Pino Donaggio
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, language and some violence.
Studio: eOne Films
Release Date: September 7 2012 (Venice), February 13 2013 (France), May 2, 2013 (Germany)
Related Link: View the Full Production Notes for Passion
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