''Before It Had a Name'' is a 2005 film directed by Giada Colagrande and co-written by her and husband

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

. The film premiered at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

and was retitled as '' The Black Widow'' when it was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. It marked the first time Dafoe had developed a project to the point of being shot as well as the first time Colagrande had written in English.

Synopsis

After her lover Karl dies, Eleonora goes to his New York estate known as 'The Rubber House' in hopes of learning about him. While there, she becomes involved with the property's strange caretaker, Leslie.

Principal cast

Critical reception

Boyd Van Hoei wrote in ''

Cineuropa Cineuropa is an online information portal dedicated to the promotion of European cinema. It publishes daily news, reviews, interviews, and industry reports and maintains a database of information. It is available in four languages: English, Fre ...

'':

References

External links

* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, the_black_widow_2007 2005 films Films shot in New York (state) American independent films Films produced by Randall Emmett MoviePass Films films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films