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Equating imperious sexual cruelty with a totalitarian mind-set, Nicolas Roeg's "Two Deaths" makes one of the riskiest comparisons that a serious movie could formulate between private behavior and public deportment. Yes, we know power corrupts, and we've all heard stories about pedophilic dictators and sadistic generalissimos.
But how reasonable is it to assume that organized political oppression has its corollary in the imperial bedroom? This alternately talky and gory allegory about the fall of communism and sexual power games makes a vivid if somewhat muddled argument for the existence of such a relationship.
Set in a nameless city in a country that suggests Romania during the early days of perestroika, "Two Deaths" cuts back and forth between a violent revolution in the streets and an obscenely lavish dinner party given by a successful, politically well-connected surgeon named Daniel Pavenic (Michael Gambon).
As this Mephistophelean bon vivant serves a sumptuous banquet to three old school friends who have gathered for their annual reunion, the streets below his elegant house are raked with gunfire.
Every so often, the host excuses himself to go downstairs to attend to wounded policemen and soldiers from his security forces, then...