Wild Side (1995 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Wild Side is a 1995 erotic thriller film co-written and directed by Donald Cammell and starring Christopher Walken, Joan Chen, Anne Heche, Steven Bauer, and Allen Garfield. It went straight to video.
Premise
By day, Alex Lee is a California banker. By night, she moonlights as "Johanna", a high-end call girl. When she is drawn into the sordid life of infamous money launderer Bruno Buckingham, Alex must learn to safely navigate her way past Bruno's infatuation, deal with the unwanted advances of Bruno's driver Tony, and come to accept the growing attraction between herself and Virginia -- Bruno's wife.
Cast
- Anne Heche as Alex Lee
- Christopher Walken as Bruno Buckingham
- Joan Chen as Virginia
- Steven Bauer as Tony
- Allen Garfield as Dan Rackman
- Adam Novak as Lyle Litvak
- Marcus Aurelius as Agent James Reed
- Michael Rose as Agent Morse Jaeger
- Lewis Arquette as The Chief
- Candace Kita as Lotus Ita
Release
There are three different versions of the film. Cammell committed suicide shortly after seeing it drastically re-edited by its producers. A "director's cut" version by Cammell's wife and co-screenwriter China Kong, and his editor and sometime producer Frank Mazzola, was released in 2000 and was noted by critics. The film is known for its graphic lesbian love scenes between stars Joan Chen and Anne Heche. The scenes proved controversial to the point that after Wild Side's initial airings on HBO, the network subsequently chose to air a version of the film with those portions deleted.