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To Die For (1995)
In director Gus Van Sant's thriller and media satire
based, in part, on a real-life relationship and notorious incident
in New Hampshire between a teacher (Pamela Smart) and her young lover/student
(who was seduced into murdering the teacher's husband):
- the character of icy blonde New Hampshire local
TV weathercaster Suzanne Stone Maretto (Nicole Kidman) with her
memorable words: "You aren't really anybody in America if
you're not on TV"
- her flashback trial - told Rashomon-style
- for the murder of her sweet-natured but obstructive Italian-American
bartender husband Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon) on their first anniversary
- the sequence of her dancing in the rain to the tune
of "Sweet Home Alabama"
- and the scene of her taped interview when she defends
the use of her maiden name for professional reasons
- Suzanne's seduction of dim-witted infatuated loser
high-school teen Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix) to kill her husband
- the film's final scene - punctuated by Donovan's
tune "The Season of the Witch" -- Suzanne's off-screen
death by a "Hollywood producer"
(a cameo by director David Cronenberg) hired by her husband's father
Joe (Dan Hedaya) (with Mafia connections)
- her dead body in a lingering closeup under the ice
of a frozen pond as Larry's sister Janice (Illeana Douglas) skated
and performed twirls and pirouettes on the frozen lake (above the
location of the frozen body) before the credits rolled
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