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Film: The Possessed (La donna del lago)
Year: 1965
Director: Luigi Bazzoni and Franco Rossellini
Writers: Giulio Questi, Luigi Bazzoni and Franco Rossellini
Starring: Peter Baldwin, Salvo Randone and Valentina Cortese
Review:
This was a movie that I first heard about through podcasts so it went on a list of films to check out. It appeared on a couple shows since it was moved into my more urgent section, which is still lengthy. I decided to seek this out since it was the highest rated horror film for Italian Horror Month that I hadn’t seen, making it a double feature on Journey with a Cinephile.
Synopsis: while visiting his favorite resort town during the off-season, a novelist investigates the assumed suicide of a woman he was infatuated with.
We start this with Bernard (Peter Baldwin) in a phone booth. He is talking to someone that I believe he was romantically connected to, but he’s informing her that it is over. She begs him to change his mind to no avail. What I’ll include here is that Bernard is a writer. He hits the road to a resort town that he used to go to as a child and continued as an adult. It seems like this is a setting for books he’s written in the past.
There is another reason for coming as well. He is in love with a woman who works at the hotel he stays in. Her name is Tilda (Virna Lisi). He requests the same room he had previously, which is easy to accommodate since it is off-season. He rings the bell for room service, but a different woman shows up, Irma (Valentina Cortese). Bernard is disappointed so he checks a closet for the workers coats. There is reassurance here as he sees Tilda’s coat.
Things don’t go as he planned though as this coat that he saw belongs to Irma. Bernard starts to ask around about Tilda, first to a friend of his who is a photographer named Francesco (Pier Giovanni Anchisi), then to her boss, Enrico (Salvo Randone). He learns that she committed suicide and it rocked this community. There is more to it though and there might be a cover up by people in the village. Francesco says her throat was slit. He also has a picture of her that she might have been pregnant at the time of her death. This doesn’t correlate with the death certificate or what Bernard saw.
Something else of note is that Enrico’s son is married to Adriana (Pia Lindström). She looks similar to Tilda and she doesn’t talk much. It seems like she has a nervous disorder that didn’t have until after her honeymoon. Enrico thinks it is natural, but the more Bernard looks into what happened to Tilda, the deeper the secrets being kept here run.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start with so I’m glad I checked this film out. It is still early into the history of the giallo film and this one feels similar to movies from the United States that were in the film noir genre. There are elements of gialli here that we see throughout, like a character who isn’t a detective doing an investigation. This isn’t as sleazy as ones that will come and it is also interesting that we only have one murder that is sparking Bernard to search for the truth. This came out a couple years after The Girl Who Knew Too Much so that makes sense.
Now that I’ve set that up, where I want to start is with our lead Bernard. I’d say that this is a character study of him at the heart of this, with what happened to Tilda as the catalyst as to why we’re following him. What is interesting here is that I’m not entirely sure outside of in passing if these two ever talked. She left an impression on him that he needs to go back to where she lives and works to ‘shoot his shot’. He’s devastated to learn that she’s dead. Things are odd with like how Francesco didn’t tell him about her when he first came to him and then Enrico saying it was a suicide with what he learns, it sparks his investigation. As this goes on, Bernard comes down with a flu. It seems like he’s running himself ragged, not eating and staying out in the elements is taking its toll. His drive to find the truth also is descending himself into a fevered madness. I did like this concept and Baldwin has a great performance here.
Another good touch is this isolated, vacation village. It isn’t overly well known about it or that is how it is presented. It definitely is a spot that makes it money during the summer and then survives on what it did during the off-season. This being a tight-knit community, they take care of their own and hide the darker side of things. Francesco doesn’t reveal what he knows until Bernard learns more. He then goes quiet and leaves when our lead gets too deep into what he’s learned. Not everyone provides him with ‘truths’, it is more just giving what they can to placate him, hoping he gives up. I do like this as it feels like my hometown, which is just a bigger version of this.
I’m not sure there is more to delve into for the story so let’s go then over to filmmaking. I thought the cinematography and framing were good in capturing this isolated place. We see enough characters to know it has its everyday citizens. There aren’t many of them though so it feels small. It also does well to capture that it is cold, especially at night. I appreciated that. Even more so seeing how rundown that Bernard gets. We don’t get much in the way of effects, but it is more about the story and the performances. I did also think that the soundtrack fit what was needed.
All that is left then is the acting performances. I’ve already said how good Baldwin was. Randone, Cortese and the other people are good at the hotel to give what Bernard needs to hear to give up his investigation. It doesn’t work though which makes sense. I like how Anchisi seems to be toying with Bernard until things get dangerous for him. Lindström works as this catatonic woman and I like the reveal there. I also like how they present Lisi’s character to where she is in the end as things get shown to us. The acting was good across the board.
In conclusion, this is a solid early giallo film. It has elements that would go on to be a staple in this sub-genre like a non-detective doing an investigation. Being that he’s a writer, it also makes sense. The acting here from Baldwin is great. The setting is as well and how close villages like this are. I thought that the cinematography and framing were good at building that atmosphere. The soundtrack also helped there. This is definitely a giallo inspired by film noir and I appreciated what it was doing here. Would recommend to someone doing a bit more of a dive into the gialli, especially if you love film noir.
My Rating: 8 out of 10