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Before It Had a Name

  • 2005
  • PG-13
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
3.3/10
717
YOUR RATING
Willem Dafoe and Giada Colagrande in Before It Had a Name (2005)
Home Video Trailer from First Look
Play trailer0:46
2 Videos
5 Photos
Dark RomanceTragedyDramaRomance

A young Italian woman inherits from her deceased lover an enigmatic modern house in the New York country side, and goes to see it for the first time. When she arrives she meets the caretaker... Read allA young Italian woman inherits from her deceased lover an enigmatic modern house in the New York country side, and goes to see it for the first time. When she arrives she meets the caretaker of the house...A young Italian woman inherits from her deceased lover an enigmatic modern house in the New York country side, and goes to see it for the first time. When she arrives she meets the caretaker of the house...

  • Director
    • Giada Colagrande
  • Writers
    • Giada Colagrande
    • Willem Dafoe
  • Stars
    • Willem Dafoe
    • Giada Colagrande
    • Seymour Cassel
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    3.3/10
    717
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Giada Colagrande
    • Writers
      • Giada Colagrande
      • Willem Dafoe
    • Stars
      • Willem Dafoe
      • Giada Colagrande
      • Seymour Cassel
    • 23User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos2

    Before It Had A Name aka "The Black Widow"
    Trailer 0:46
    Before It Had A Name aka "The Black Widow"
    Before It Had a Name
    Trailer 0:45
    Before It Had a Name
    Before It Had a Name
    Trailer 0:45
    Before It Had a Name

    Photos4

    View Poster
    View Poster
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    View Poster

    Top cast8

    Edit
    Willem Dafoe
    Willem Dafoe
    • Leslie
    Giada Colagrande
    Giada Colagrande
    • Eleonora
    Seymour Cassel
    Seymour Cassel
    • Jeff
    Isaach De Bankolé
    Isaach De Bankolé
    • Waiter
    Emily Cass McDonnell
    Emily Cass McDonnell
    • Gail
    Claudio Botosso
    • Karl
    Bari Hyman
    Bari Hyman
    • Local Policewoman
    Spenser Leigh
    • Girl crossing street
    • Director
      • Giada Colagrande
    • Writers
      • Giada Colagrande
      • Willem Dafoe
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews23

    3.3717
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    Featured reviews

    4ksf-2

    sooooo bad. all around.

    Such very low ratings on IMDB! Willem DaFoe is Leslie, caretaker on a farm in new york. and the italian woman Eleonora (Giada Colagrande) arrives on the scene to see what exactly she has inherited. Colagrande's acting is terrible..this was only her second role, and it's very over-done. and there's a loud clock ticking for the first half of the film.. it's out of place, and we don't know why it's ticking, so we don't really care. we see some dirty photos, but nothing is explained, and it's shown so briefly, that we aren't sure what's going on. bad directing. now we know why it's rated so low on IMDB. big giant yawn. is there a marx brothers movie on somewhere? skip this one! Written and directed by Giada Colagrande, this one is also known as Black Widow. Filmed in various locations in New York.
    2hockeymom2005

    Hmmmmmmmmmmm...........

    I am not an artistically inclined individual. I am a science minded woman and I felt that this movie was maybe one of those campy artsy type films on a budget. I watched part of it with my fiancé and my future step daughter. We tried very hard to find something in this film to keep our interest. My fiancé and his daughter voted it off and we moved on to Ocean's 13,but that is another story. Not to be deterred I awoke the next morning and gave the movie another shot. I began again watching this movie in earnest. I just don't get it,I thought I would get it.I thought the funniest part was the flushing of the ashes and the urn finding a spot by the fireplace being used as a vase for what appeared to be dead flowers. Interesting and still it had dead stuff inside. It was an odd and bizarre movie. Maybe this is what they were after,however I won't be tricked a second time!
    2stark3923

    I did not get it! and I tried

    I understand wanting to make a movie that is edgy and different. I understand the previous reviewer comments that this is a miss-understood movie. My point is as soon as this movie ended my first comment was: " this is what happens when a rich princess wants to be a movie star and has no talent".....she uses daddy's' money to make a movie she wrote, directs, and pays for.....obviously to close to the movie to realize there was no character development and no directions such as a beginning, middle and ending.....the voyeur part was good and edgy but what was the point? I saw a women go to a house, find some pictures, screw the caretaker, come out side on a very cold night (not believable) to check on noise and runs over her caretaker lover....movie ends......some one educate my ignorant arss?? I really want to know what the point is....what was the directors' vision.....why no development of the dead lover? Why no background on the caretaker? What is the point of the night vision? What is the point of the lipstick on the car? Why a dead caretaker? Why tell us about an escaped mental patient/peeping tom? What's with the urn? Oh and the lamp is that suppose to signify whose' house this is? Territorial? Why? Why would the caretaker feel like it's his house? that aspect was never pursued......as for William Defoe...I rented this movie because he was in it and known for edgy characters.....write back and do tell me what I need to learn....I am just a mom in middle America who loves movies....Chris....
    1defcharlie

    Plot less & Pointless

    This title seems more like a filming exercise than a film that should have been released to be seen by the public. For Dafoe and his wife it must have been fun working together in a film for the first time, without taking into consideration that people might actually watch it. I felt like it was 90mins wasted as I waited anxiously for a plot to develop, or even begin.

    Try to fit this film into a genre and you won't, because it lacks a beginning, middle or ending. I've seen 'arty' movies before and this doesn't even come close to being arty, abstract or original, it just seems to me to be completely pointless.

    I think it speaks for itself when the only persons that rated this film a 10 were the under 18 age group. No doubt for the constant pointless erotic scenes that the film was insistent on throwing at us. That is if you can call it erotic. It certainly didn't have taste.
    1filmscholar35

    It's TRUE, this IS awful!

    I am a huge Willem Dafoe fan, and really sought out this film (I had to get a Region 5 Chinese DVD of it!). But, it is truly one of the worst that I've seen in quite a while.

    The acting (except for Dafoe) is horrible. Dafoe and Colagrande BOTH wrote and directed this ( though he isn't credited as a director), and they have NO discernible talents for writing or directing. (Stick to acting Willem; Giada get out of the business, PLEASE!)

    Absolutely nothing happens. Except a series of completely unconvincing, totally without believable motivation, acts by these two people (that just met) in this house. Colagrande's sleepy, I couldn't care less expression practically NEVER changes. And the sex scenes are downright lame. I actually cringed twice at one of them. Yuck! They're definitely not the least bit erotic, and yet are the only time the film isn't putting you to sleep. Then, it's busy repulsing you.

    Just awful.

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    Drama
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    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Ben Van Hoei wrote: "With its narrow focus on two people in a passionate relationship and its abundant use of metaphors, the film certainly has more in common with the intimate auteur dramas of the old continent than with new American cinema . . . Whatever the reaction of American audiences will be, Before It Had a Name (2005) is certainly amongst the most pleasing --- and decidedly auteur --- surprises of the Venice Days."
    • Connections
      Features This American Life (1995)
    • Soundtracks
      Domani e un Altro Giorno (The Wonders you Perform)
      Written by Jerry Chesnut (as Jerry Chesnut)

      Performed by Ornella Vanoni

      Published by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • 2007 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Black Widow
    • Filming locations
      • New Paltz, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Bidou Pictures
      • Canary Films
      • Emmett/Furla Oasis Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $450,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 30m(90 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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