La donna invisibile (1969)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Paolo Spinola

Writers:

Ottavio Jemma (writer)
Dacia Maraini (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Affair | Female Nudity | Marriage | Beautiful Woman | Lesbianism

Cast

Giovanna Ralli	...	Laura
Carla Gravina	...	Delfina
Anita Sanders	...	Anita
Silvano Tranquilli	...	Andrea
Gigi Rizzi	...	Carlo
Elena Persiani	...	Tania
Gino Cassani	...	Tania's husband
Raúl Martínez	...	Osvaldo
Franca Sciutto	...	Maid

Also Known As:

The Fantasies of a Sensuous Woman (USA) (dubbed version)
The Invisible Woman (International: English title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Clesi Cinematografica

If Harold Pinter wrote a RED SHOE DIARIES episode

This film had long been a subject of curiosity for me due to the very good score by Ennio Morricone which is available on CD. That music is basically the best thing the movie has to offer. Like many would-be "adult" dramas from overseas made in the late '60's to early '80's, it's very slow and static, especially in the dubbed version which I saw.

The slim plot involves Laura, a woman married to a respected college professor, who feels herself becoming so marginalized in her marriage as to be, as the Italian title states, invisible. Of course, it isn't helped that there's a quasi-predatory redhead with a pixie living in their stately home, ostensibly a cousin, but really just trying to have her way with the husband and wife. Or that's what she thinks anyway; the underlying theme is that her perceptions are often at odds with the reality of the situation. (Hence the alternate U.S. title of THE FANTASIES OF A SENSUOUS WOMAN)

As implied by the above summary, there are lots and LOTS of silences that I suppose are for dramatic tension, but just play badly. All of the characters are appropriately affluent, elegant, and bored; there is an even slimmer subplot about student rioting against the bourgeouisie, represented by Laura's professor husband, and how intrigued by the rebellion, she has an afternoon quickie with one such rebel. Maybe there was more to this that got cut by the American distributor, but ultimately, it gets abandoned. You could say this movie dramatizes the lives of the people who were at the EYES WIDE SHUT orgy outside of that castle. Unfortunately, those lives are not terribly interesting.

But do buy the soundtrack. You can't go wrong with the great Morricone.