Tags:
Film: The Forbidden Room (Anima persa)
Year: 1977
Director: Dino Risi
Writers: Bernardino Zapponi and Dino Risi
Starring: Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Deneuve and Danilo Mattei
Review:
This was a film that I learned about due to searching for the highest rated horror movie from Italy that I hadn’t seen yet. What caught my attention is that this stars Catherine Deneuve, who I’ve seen in a couple of films. The poster and the synopsis caught my attention. I was able to find this streaming so that helped as well. Other than that, I came into this blind.
Synopsis: bizarre events keep occurring in an old mansion in Venezia and it’s soon obvious that something mysterious is up in the attic.
We start this at night. Tino (Danilo Mattei) is on a gondola in Venice. He’s coming to stay with his Uncle Fabio Stolz (Vittorio Gassman) and Aunt Sofia (Deneuve). The reason is that there is an art school he’s going to attend. When he arrives, his uncle isn’t home. He’s shown around by Sofia. Their house is the mansion from the synopsis. She points out that it is expensive, but they’re slowly fixing up the rooms. That brings them to a door to the attic. She informs him that it is locked and the stairs are rotting.
Now it is from here we get to know more about Sofia and Fabio. She seems nervous by nature. Fabio is rude toward her and it comes off misogynistic. He talks down to her as an element of it. There is some of this toward Tino as well. What I’ll say to end this part here is that Tino hears strange noises coming from the attic. His aunt and uncle notice it as well, but carry on like it is nothing.
Fabio then walks with Tino to school. It is taught by an old artist who seems a bit eccentric. It is in this class that Tino meets Lucia (Anicée Alvina). She is their model and poses nude. Tino does what he can to get her attention so he can chat with her. These two end up spending quite a bit of time together.
There is something else that Tino is interested in. The housekeeper, Annetta (Ester Carloni), reveals what is being kept in the attic. Fabio’s brother Berto had a mental break. It is truly heartbreaking when we learn about the cause. Fabio didn’t have the heart to put him in the nearby asylum. Without spoiling, it involved Sofia’s daughter from a previous marriage, Beba. There are little hints about what happened provided and Tino wants the truth. Not everything is as it seems though.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is an interesting little film. While watching, it reminded me of Don’t Look Now. Partially is the location of being set in Venice. There’s another element here that the mystery we get and needs to be solved to explain things. I also would say that I also got the vibes of another Italian film in The Possessed. The variation here is that this young man of Tino notices odd things and wants to know the truth so he investigates.
Now that I have that set up, let’s delve deeper into what we’re getting here. Something else that I get vibes of would be Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher. What I mean here is that we have this old mansion that has fallen into despair. Sofia points out that the stairs of the attic are rotten, as a way to keep Tino from going up there. She also says how the people need to be fixed up, but it is too expensive. The house being in the state that it is makes for a good representation of her marriage to Fabio, it is falling apart. I appreciate the visual commentary.
I do want to then look at the character of Tino. He is someone that I think most of us could associate with when you’re younger. A mystery gets presented and as threads bring the picture together, it is difficult to not follow them. What adds to it is how odd his aunt and uncle are. I feel for Sofia. The loss of her daughter and her nervous disposition makes her shrink away. Fabio is arrogant, but he also provides information to Tino. Then when the young man is afforded time to look around, he takes advantage of it. Mattei does a great job in his role.
I’ll then just include other themes that I noticed. The fabricated reality upheld by Tino's aunt and uncle—a façade of normalcy amidst decaying aristocracy and family dysfunction—hides secrets. The locked attic room is a metaphor for the torment of Sofia and Fabio, who stay in the crumbling house to keep the secret and the shared trauma about Beba. This environment risks corrupting the innocent Tino, which makes the ending perfect for everything that we build toward.
That should be enough for the story so let’s shift over to what carries this which is the acting performances. I’ve already said that our trio of leads are good. Gassman is someone I’ll give credit to as the story is revealed. He is given more to work with than the other two. Deneuve does well at this tortured mother who is putting up with abuse for a specific reason. Mattei works as this young man trying to solve the mystery. I like Alvina to push Tino where he ends up. The rest of the cast help do the same as well.
All that is left then is the other aspect that carries this, the filmmaking. The film excels at capturing Venice's beauty and decay, showing the mental asylum and trash in the water alongside the family's crumbling grand mansion. This duality is powerfully conveyed through the cinematography and framing. The detail of looking through a peephole into the locked attic enhances the forbidden atmosphere. Minimal effects are used. The effective sound design and music create the mood.
In conclusion, this compelling, atmospheric Italian film successfully blends gothic mystery and psychological drama, evoking works like Don’t Look Now and The Possessed sharing thematic ties with Poe. Director Dino Risi expertly uses the decaying Venetian setting, particularly the crumbling Stolz mansion, as a metaphor for the family's crumbling aristocratic façade and secrets. Strong performances from Gassman, Deneuve, and Mattei build palpable dread, leading to a dark resolution. Highly recommended for fans of Italian genre cinema and psychological thrillers, the film offers a rich narrative and powerful commentary on repressed trauma.
My Rating: 8 out of 10