The working motto behind this pretentious blood-and-sex psychodrama seems to have been a paraphrase of Murphy's Law: if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly. Here's a film with nothing to recommend it besides perverse casting, starring Ellen Barkin as an amnesiac skydiver wandering semi-naked around Spain, thinking she might have killed someone. But is she only dreaming, or has she gone insane? Attempts were made to camouflage a fatally weak script by needlessly fracturing the scenario into convoluted flashbacks and flashforwards, but the results are not unlike the rock videos director Mary Lambert once made, offering little else except the same self-absorbed imagery, artfully posed to no apparent purpose.

I first saw this movie the year of its release - and I loved it. 14 years later, being a huge David Lynch fan, I watched Mulholland Drive upon its release. I also fell in love with Mulholland Dr., and I couldn't help but notice so many parallels to Siesta. I didn't own Siesta, so I raced out on my bike to the only video store in town that had it available and took it home to watch it again. I was not disappointed; the film was just as good as I remembered it to be, and it is very Lynchian in style (having Isabella Rosselini in its cast really adds to that feeling). I truly recommend this movie to any fans of David Lynch.

This is a wacky, extreme, insane movie. When she isn't stalking around in a black leather jacket emblazoned with a bald eagle, Barkin is running madly through Spanish streets in a flaming red dress. She wants to sleep with Gabriel Byrne (who doesn't?), who's married to Isabella Rosselini, who wields a knife, while Julian Sands lowers his trousers for Jodie Foster, who kisses Ellen Barkin on the lips. There isn't much sensuality, but there are countless tragically, monumentally bad lines. This is a masterpiece of bad taste, kitsch, bad accents, etc. And Barkin is often naked, putting it in five star territory.Did Ellen Barkin kill someone? Was Jodie Foster cloned from Myrna Loy? Who is the most beautiful man alive, Byrne or Sands? These and ten more profound questions are posed over the course of Mary Lambert's "Siesta."

On 4th July, Claire (Ellen Barkin) wakes up semi-naked with amnesia in a field in a Spanish airport. She runs to the road, trying to figure what has happened with her. She recalls the events along the last five days of her life, culminating in the amazing truth. This odd and intriguing movie is the work of the excellent Mary Lambert before `Pet Sematary'. The original non-chronological screenplay is supported by a cast that is indeed a constellation: the delicious and sexy Ellen Barkin leads the cast, with a wonderful interpretation (and what a beautiful body!) in the role of Claire, followed by names like Isabella Rossellini, Martin Sheen, Jodie Foster, Gabriel Byrne and Julian Sands. The music of Miles Davis gives a touch of class to a story full of mystery, romance and drama. In 1990, Adrian Lyne used the same idea to develop the also excellent `Jacob's Ladder'. Further, the idea of recovering memory by steps was recently used in outstanding `Memento'. I am impressed how this movie is underrated in IMDB. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): `Marcas de uma Paixão' (`Marks of a Passion')