The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Echoing Polanski's apartment trilogy, this has a pretty bizarre psychological unease and a nightmarish rape scene reminiscent of the one in Rosemary's Baby. The film feels a bit unfocused, whimsical, but once in a while there's some pretty beautiful and tense moments with hints of visual imagination. Not very effective, but charming.

More psychological thriller than horror. The meandering pace lets the uncertainity about her sanity slowly creeps in. Meanwhile Barilli inserts uncanny elements to the plot adding to me mystery. But ultimately those elements don't pay off, resulting in an unsatisfactory mysterious ending that detracts from the work done before. Turning into horror territory instead of being content in being purely a psychological thriller about a woman losing her sanity over a dark secret.

Tentatively a giallo, but missing many of the genre tropes. It is really nicely shot, making the most of some attractive locations with generally decent camerawork. Terrific use of colour and light really adds vibrancy and an occasionally dreamlike quality to things. There is a likeable lead in Mimsy Farmer, and the 1970s supporting actors generally have plenty of character. The deliberate pacing helps build the mood, sustaining the uncertainty until the slightly unexpected ending. Surreal.

Melancholy occult nightmare with delirious dreamlike narrative. Unusually for a giallo, it saves the shock to the very end & focusses instead on slow buildup to create an uncanny ominous atmosphere & surprising psychological depth. Perhaps too slow in the start & leans heavily on Polanski but really captivated me by the end with its layered open-ended story. This could easily come out just weird & disjointed without Farmer's talent. Overall disturbing yet strangely classy as well.

A B-movie that really wants to be a Polanski movie but only succeeds ending like one.

Francesco Barilli says: horror movies never make any sense. this movie is a proof. Nightmares, cerebral madness, visions, filled with morbid style.

Interesting "arty" giallo. A bit slow going, but it builds to a memorably demented fianle.

This seems to be considered a giallo, but I think that's a stretch. It's just an Italian horror film made during the 70s. It's far more Polanski-esque, with a slow burn paranoid horror with more in common with something like Rosemary's Baby than Argento or Bava. The ending (while surprising) feels a bit unearned and the whole thing doesn't really make a ton of sense, but I'm usually far more tolerant of that in a horror film presented as a nightmare like this one. Great tension.

Both draggy and mediocre in execution which is a shame as there are multiple elements that deserve a better treatment in the totality. Really nice use of cinematic storytelling in the psychological characterisation of memory and insanity.

Fairly by the numbers Italian riff on Polanski. Highly convoluted and barely sensible as many gialli are, but lacking the style of better examples. The musical score is fantastic though, especially the repeated dissonant string bit.

Its long drawn out and borders on being boring at times. When it works it works well and got me roped in to the mystery. Hard to tell about the acting since I was only able to see this dubbed.

A cheap ending unfortunately greatly diminishes the effect of all that wonderful atmosphere and tension-building.

fuck yeah