The Perfume of the Lady in Black 4K 1974

Italian giallo is another genre of cinema rich in visual delights, where the plot often played a secondary role to spectacular bloodshed and beautiful, often naked women. The Scent of a Woman in Black is an intriguing mix of classic giallo and the strong influence of Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, which had recently caused a sensation at the time. But while in the latter case the main character was pregnant, which could have sparked debate about the reality of the events happening to her, in the former case, according to the laws of giallo, the main character is also a woman, but one who is tormented by her own psychoses, which is again a common plot for such films.

The main character reasonably believes that she is being totally watched, that the people around her are plotting something bad against her, and that all her actions are part of some sinister plan. Given her encounter with a representative of the art of necromancy, who tells her how magic drives people mad, the author immediately gives a hint as to what is really going on. Francesco Barrile is an experienced man in this regard. He cannot boast of a rich portfolio, but even before 'The Scent...' he had already written the screenplays for the first shocking cannibalistic exercise, The Man from the Deep River, and the not-bad detective thriller, Who Saw Her Die. Here, he literally combined his penchant for man-eaters and convoluted plots. For a while, he maintains the mood of an atmospheric and eerie mystical thriller, ending it all with an absurd scene that pays homage to his first screenplay. That is, a mass cannibalistic mass, which in the context of the plot seems somewhat... strange. On the other hand, it may inspire reflections along the lines of ‘how we in modern society devour ourselves just like cannibals in a literal and figurative sense, carrying out monstrous natural selection and satisfying our predatory natural instincts’. Something like that. But, you know, I don't really want to...

Conclusion: a decent example of Italian giallo with an unpredictable ending. But it is unpredictable because of its unnaturalness and absurdity.