SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Not perfect but at times startling and even disturbing, this is a fine 1966 b/w film from the versatile director, Damiano Damiani, who made the very different, A Bullet For The General, the same year and later several crime films, including, How To Kill a Judge. Apparently Bunuel at one point considered making this, based upon the book by Carlos Fuentes, and he would no doubt have made it a little more sinister and a little less hysterical. Anyhow, here we have the lovely Rosanna Schiaffino, who would appear in the colourful and equally strange, Check to the Queen a couple of years later. Here she is the love/sex interest, although like her worrying elderly mistress, also takes a turn at the frighteningly weird when she becomes stressed. You will have never seen anything quite like this, despite the seeming familiar theme of possession, and should definitely check it out.

This one seems to pick up on the Bavaesque idea to stage a psychothriller in a lavish but rundown Roman villa—a terrific set with a labyrinthan Orson Wellesian quality--and includes some chase scenes reminiscent of Bava too. The plot involves Sergio answering a want ad for a scholar to reorganize an old library (as in the Hammer Dracula), by an old women and her here-one-minute-gone-the-next, and extremely beautiful daughter. The main problem is it took me about five minutes to figure out what was going on, then I had to sit through another 90 minutes of Richard Johnson not being able to figure what it all meant. Let's see, a reclusive old woman, rare flowers, magic tea, dead cats, a daughter who only appears now and then, then mimics the gestures of the old woman. And yet he just doesn't get it. It's OK when horror movie characters are a bit dumb, but to be utterly clueless stretches one's patience. This movie also blundered badly by trying to fill up a horror movie framework with psychological thriller soap-opera argumentations ad infinitum and, some of which, involving a male librarian already trapped in the old women's employ, are unwatchably tedious (had to hit the fast forward button a few times). Here and there, some sequences work, like when Johnson has to remove Aura's dress no hands allowed, or a very weird bathing sequence or the final scene, but generally a fatal case of genre confusion. Not watchable except for spelunkers after Italian movie witches (but this one is far downhill from Argento's Suspira and even the fairy tale witches in movies like Lucifera).

I had just recently revisited Wise's The Haunting, starring Richard Johnson in a role as dedicated, wonderfully humane "ghost hunter", so I realized just what kind of talent the man really has seeing him in a completely different role as a successful ladies' man, always moving from one sexual relationship to another, being pursued by a batty old former beauty, Consuelo(Sarah Ferrati)living within a ramshackle mansion which seems modeled after her..both setting and owner have lost their luster, beauty now deteriorating. Johnson is Sergio, a "historian"(..he has a profession, but it plays second fiddle to his ongoing duties chasing tail)sought by Consuelo for more than his skills at translation and setting her husband's old library, falling to waste and crawling rats, in order. Sergio is the kind of male used to getting what he wants until growing tired of whoever he's dating. But, Sergio, who doesn't seem that interested in the job, and less so with Consuelo who is hideous and ugly to him, finds a reason to remain when he meets Aura(Rosanna Schiaffino; a stunning Italian beauty of the 60's, with perfect curves and soft skin)who seduces him by merely walking and moving around a room..she has that effect on people, and would me as well. Sergio would be taking the position of Fabrizio(Gian Maria Volontè), a slightly off-kilter man who seems a little distraught, absolutely obsessed with Aura, almost to the point of quiet madness. Very protective of her, Fabrizio wishes for Sergio to leave, but seems awfully distracted with her designs to perhaps release him for the new man who presents a threat to their relationship. Sergio, quite a caveman desiring to snatch Aura away and have her for himself, will soon come to blows with Fabrizio, with tragic results. With a cover-up ensuing thanks to Aura and Consuelo's threatening not to absolve him for an accidental murder, Sergio will find himself at the mercy of them..he desires Aura to the point that he'd do anything to embrace her, a blissful passionate union results, but Consuelo doesn't wish for their happiness to last. Sergio finds that Aura is controlled by Consuelo, a form of witchcraft she uses to enslave men and he is caught in her web. Will Sergio ever get to have Aura when that horrifying wretch controls her comings and goings? Or, will he remain in an emotionally tortured state awaiting Aura's return, at the mercy of Consuelo? I watched a rather bad quality print, and believe the film is definitely worthy of a proper transfer. To see this in a pristine form, with quality sound and properly enhanced visual quality, "The Witch" might capture a wider audience. Director Damiano Damiani(Amityville-The Possession)crafts quite a tale of obsession and desire with quite a cast at his disposal. Johnson delivers in spades regarding a direct change during this film going from confident, manipulative male, quite able to conquer the beautiful supply of female populating the city, to a shriveling worm, weak-in-the-knees and pleading for his Aura..completely controlled and under his paramour's spell. Ferrati looks like a witch, and has all the right features at creating an older jealous woman yearning to have the looks that would attract the men that were once cowering at her feet, making life miserable for those who now wish for Aura, a goddess manifested from her dark power to bring those like Sergio to a place of disquiet and agony. Interesting idea that Schiaffino's beauty is used as a weapon against men for they are overwhelmed by her outer qualities than the person herself which might just be the moral of the story..being eclipsed by a Helen of Troy and willing to go to any lengths to inherit her, we find ourselves heading for a downfall. The film like Schiaffino's character is quite a tease, not giving us what we truly desire. That in itself also works within the story, men want Aura, but never truly *have* her. Volontè has a much smaller role, but he is incredibly vital to the story because he represents what Sergio will soon become once he has taken Aura to bed. He's our example of what Aura's power will slowly do to any man who finds themselves in her trap, swept away by lust. I think this is where Damiani's true strength lies, establishing Schiaffino as a ravishing creature, only available to the men in her circle when Consuelo decides so. Schiaffino is often shown disrobing(..Damiani never shows her nude flesh to my chagrin)with the director just giving us a taste of her smooth skin, the camera often moving away as her clothes come off. We are carried away like Sergio because Schiaffino has that kind of on screen allure that draws you to her. Damiani wisely often closes his camera in on Aura as she works her magical grip over her victims. Schiaffino has that kind of face that enchants and a body to match. The film is what I'd definitely call a sleeper, probably will often be discovered either by chance or word-of-mouth. The director takes his time so this film might not work for everyone, but the use of darkness(..for which Aura often appears in and out of)within the dying setting and the psychological elements within the story might just compel those willing to hang in there. My favorite scene would have to be when Aura makes Sergio unbutton/undress her with his teeth, no touching with the hands. This is a good example of achieving an erotic response without divulging actual sexual occurrences.

This is an absolute masterpiece of extravagant, sensuous Continental 60s art cinema, and provides an "incendiary" Gothic femme fatale to rival the Hayworths and Gardners of film noir. Nominally a horror film (which only becomes completely apparent during the last reel), it actually fits nicely into that 60s subgenre of manipulative mind games and metaphysical character duality, not unlike Losey's "The Servant" (though it's closer in execution to his elegiac "Eva"). Although it's constantly threatening to unravel under the stress of its own pretensions (as was the fate of many international art films of the time), Damiani is firmly in control as he continues to up the ante with a bacchanalia of outrageously stylish devices, visual metaphors and tactile atmospherics. Schiaffino is one of those classic beauties who seemed to fall out of Italian poplar trees at the time, Johnson is suitably arrogant in his machismo, and the exotic flute-and-bongo score is a retro dream driving the erotic game-playing. Many will find its excesses over-the-top or campy, and it's startlingly misogynist at times, but for those tuned in to the excesses of the 60s, this is a mindbending treat right up to the astonishing but fitting conclusion. (As a footnote, it's now plain that Bertolucci's "Last Tango" was not the first to play the make-love-without-touching game.) If you enjoyed this one, try to find the obscure "Death on the Four Poster", which plays with similar themes on a much more transparent, but enjoyable, level.