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The Frightened Woman (1969)
By lngway2go | March 24, 2009
(aka Femina Ridens, The Laughing Woman)
Director: Piero Schivazappa
Starring: Dagmar Lassander, Philippe Leroy, Lorenza Guerrieri
The Frightened Woman is an obscure little movie released by a small, but seriously cool, label in the United Kingdom, Shameless. Directed by Piero Schivazappa, this visual gem of a movie finds it’s subject matter firmly planted in a battle of the sexes. So, all those couples out there, you can put away those dueling gender games and once and for all let The Frightened Woman give us the answer we all know to be true: there’s just one that has the upper hand.
Dagmar Lassander (House By The Cemetary, and Naked Werewolf Woman) stars as Maria, a reporter from the publicity department of a company that has conducted experiments on male sterilization. She is putting together a story on the subject and asks for more materials from the director, Dr Sayer (Philippe Leroy). When asked what she thinks of the concept, Maria’s all for it. “Why should the woman always be the one to take precautions” she tells the director. The director is absolutely appalled, thinking that the act of sterilization is “barbarous”, stating that the potency of man should remain intact. The materials Maria needs are in at Dr Sayer’s house and they make arrangements for her to pick them up after she promises to write the kind of article Sayer wants.
Once at the house she is impressed by his collection of artwork and knives, but what had initially appeared to be an innocent meeting suddenly takes a turn for the worse when Maria collapses to the floor. She awakens bound, with Dr Sayer overlooking her. He begins to reveal his disturbing beliefs, that women are trying to be sexually self-sufficient so there is absolutely not need for man. Disturbing for 1969 perhaps, but today it’s something of a reality. What with sperm being frozen so women can undergo in vitro fertilization and bare ungodly numbers of children - a recent example being the single mother who gave birth to eight babies here in America - Dr Sayer would have a coronary over it.
There is something slightly different about The Frightened Woman, there is a look to the film that is fairly unique, although baring similarities to films such as Fahrenheit 451 (1966), or say, Barbarella (1968). Visionary works that transport people to a place with elements that are alien and somewhat abstract; something that is very unique to the 60’s. The whole pop art and psychedelic movements brought healthy and unnatural blends of color into cinema, along with set designs which were tinged with foresight and excitement of what the future was to bring.
Maria manages to escape the clutches of Dr Sayer, but is soon driven back into his lair where he begins the ultimate battle of the sexes. It’s unclear just what Dr Sayer is trying to prove, other than masculine dominance over women. This need to dominate comes from a moment when as a child Sayer saw a female scorpion copulating and then devouring the male in it’s moment of climax, and that image scarred him. After to traumatic vision Sayer believed that all women devoured men in the same fashion. Now he’s out to get is revenge on women by capturing them, controlling and dominating them. He sadistically tortures and breaks them down. When he has lured them into a false sense of security about their chances of survival, once the women have bent to his will, he uses his manly charms to lure them into the bedroom and at the moment of his climax he kills them.
Maria is Sayer’s next victim, but it’s quickly apparent that she isn’t quite the push over he expected. She begins to taunt him with her alluring feminine qualities, convincing him to change his evil ways by finding repeated joy from the warm flesh that isn’t going to be made cold by his brutal hands. He breaks down after not being able to perform the final act in this play, confessing that it was all staged, and that hers was to be his first murder but he just couldn’t perform. Their love seems to blossom after this confession, but something isn’t quite right in this romance and we get a finale that is so very Italian.
As obscure as The Frightened Woman perhaps is, it is a remarkably well constructed tale that will probably find an audience of admires fairly easily. Where the film probably succeeds the greatest is in it’s visual elements; in moments like the vaginal entrance way between two legs bent at the knees, where the figure of Sager enters to be devoured by savage lips that leave nothing but a skeleton in their parting. This heavily symbolic scene represents a powerful visual moment in the film, one which that isn’t hard to decipher in relation to the film, regardless of whatever other statements the director might be making.
There are no real depravities to witness, and the over all film is fairly tame by exploitation standards. There are heavy erotic overtones, Maria manages to spice things up pretty effectively by dancing erotically to Sayers interest. There’s nothing to graphic which actually works in the films favor. Our concentration is on the psychological battle that these two strange characters are waging with one another, although you can’t help but wonder what visual treat might be around the corner.
Shameless Films have actually done a very nice job on this film. Restoring footage from a lesser quality source to construct a version that is the longest that has ever been released, even securing the approval of the director. This lesser quality footage is definitely noticeable, but it’s also better being there than not. The disc comes with a collection of trailers for this and other Shameless releases. Unfortunately there is no background on the film, which isn’t unusual for Shameless releases and something that is continually disappointing. Still, this is an interesting little release and one that is definitely more interesting that it perhaps appears.
Topics: Erotic |