7/10
Art-giallo brain damage
15 March 2018
Nutty giallo of the mysterious nature as unlikely 'hero' Andrea, who is a surgeon who now fears his instruments and also has trouble using his personal instrument, much to the hilarity of his annoying young wife Barbara, who ridicules him every time he tries it on with her and fails. Trying to get himself together, he sets off for Istanbul with his wife, his mate Omar, and his assistant Sylva. Once there, Andrea starts boozing heavily and staring at the sea, mumbling stuff while Barbara does some dancing to a tune that sounds a lot like Iron Butterfly.

It's hard to describe the plot because half the stuff that happens may not have happened at all, but let's give it a try. Omar explains that the house belonged to a friend of his, a sculptress named Claudine, who killed herself but then may not have killed herself. Omar then has a vision of Sylva hanging from a tree while the creepy maid arranges drinks on a plate with the signs of the zodiac on it. Andrea can't get it up with Barbara and Barbara seems to be hitting it off big style with Sylva, as we get a couple of montage scenes of them running around Istanbul. Around this time some unknown person attacks a stone triptych with three faces on it and smashes one of the faces to pieces. Plus, there's two guys following Andrea everywhere, one of whom wants to kill him.

Andrea turns out to be the main focus of the film and the whole thing (I guess) might have something to do with his impotence? Or is Claudine really coming back and inhabiting the body of Sylva, who starts dressing and acting like Claudine about halfway through the film. The line between reality and dream becomes further blurred to the point where even Andrea looks confused about what happened in the last ten minutes of the film. The whole film is off the wall, with many characters suffering from visions throughout the film. I thought this had something to do with the maid putting something in everyone's drinks, but then that was never explained either so who knows? And what was that bit where Sylva struts down the street with that marching band? Or that creepy camera shot while Andrea and the maid are playing chess?

It was all strangely watchable, by the way.
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