Saturday 28 January 2012

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)

Dir: Francesco Barilli

The delightfully named Mimsy Farmer stars as some kind of industrial scientist who starts to believe she's losing her mind after a creepy friend talks to her about witchcraft and she experiences some bizarre hallucinations. The story unfolds in the same surreal, occasionally dreamlike manner as other "women on the edge"-style gialli like "Footprints" or "All The Colors Of The Dark" and, at times, this becomes frustratingly oblique. The beautiful photography (Barilli seems to frame every shot like a painting) carries it through the most puzzling sections but almost nothing about what's going on is revealed until the very end, at which point (conveniently) the sudden, unexpected gore and nudity kicks in too. However, the ending is one Hell of a kicker and pulls it back from the brink majestically. If you manage to guess what happens, I'll be amazed. I also probably wouldn't want to run into you in a dark alley. The climax shares a sombre, nightmarish tone with some of David Lynch's work and, if you've the patience to stick with the rest of the film, you'll be richly rewarded. ***

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