La strega in amore (1966)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Damiano Damiani

Writers:

Damiano Damiani (writer)
Carlos Fuentes (novel)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A historian goes to a castle library to translate some ancient erotic literature. While there he discovers what he believes to be supernatural forces at work. |

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Witch | Based On Novel

Cast

Richard Johnson	...	Sergio
Rosanna Schiaffino	...	Aura
Gian Maria Volontè	...	Fabrizio
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sarah Ferrati	...	Consuelo
Margherita Guzzinati	...	Lorna
Ivan Rassimov
Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia
Vittorio Venturoli
Elisabetta Wilding

Also Known As:

Aura
Creatura del diavolo (Italy)
Strange Obsession
The Witch
The Witch in Love

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Arco Film

Trivia:

Both Luis Buñuel and Carlos Saura had considered making a film out of the novel "Aura" by Carlos Fuentes. Fuentes wasn't too happy with this version and declared that either Buñuel or Saura would have done a much better job.

strange and surprisingly good

I ordered this thinking that it was something else (Superstition, actually, which was AKA The Witch), and when I got it, I looked at it, decided to keep it anyway and forgot about it for about a year. I dragged it out and watched it and was rather surprised that it was actually pretty good. It's Italian from about 1966, I believe, and in stark black and white, which actually fits the film quite well. A young man, Sergio (Richard Johnson) is being followed by a strange woman and finds that she left behind an ad at a newsstand, which provides an address that he goes to, and finds that he's been staked out as the person that she WANTS to answer the ad. Which, really, would make most people say "no thanks, really" and leave as quickly as possible. But no, Sergio is interested, and the job entails translating and compiling a strange library of this woman's deceased husband's writings. While there, Sergio encounters a young woman named Aura who is supposedly this woman's (Consuelo) daughter, and he becomes quite taken with her. He agrees to move in with them to take this job and then encounters another man there who was also hired to do this job but has now outlived his usefulness, it seems. There's something about Aura and Consuelo that's not quite right, and I was expecting to never see them together, but that's not at all the case. After the hasty and involuntary departure of Fabrizio, the "other man", things start to get even stranger, if possible, and Sergio begins to be sucked into a web that he can't get out of. This is an interesting film and definitely odd, and the stark black and white photography adds to the atmospheric quality of the film. Not top-notch but actually better than a lot of "Giallos" I've seen lately. 7 out of 10.