Piero Schivazappa's "Femina Ridens" (aka. "The Frightened Woman"/"The Laughing Woman") of 1969 is a picturesque and rather bizarre Italian Sexploitation effort that combines sadomasochistic sleaze with a psychedelic art-house atmosphere. Both in terms of style and theme, the film strongly reminded me of another artsy European Exploitation highlight from the same year, Jess Franco's "Venus in Furs" (aka. "Paroxismus"). Although quite tame in explicitness, especially compared to the vast load of European Sleaze films from the early 70s, "Femina Ridens" is delightfully perverted and deranged, and a visually overwhelming piece of psychedelic atmosphere.
The wonderful Dagmar Lassander plays Maria, a beautiful journalist with feminist views. One day, she gets kidnapped by the demented Dr. Sayer (Philippe Leroy), a rich and powerful man, who has a sort of paranoid misogyny which leads him to believe that the female species wants to exterminate the male, and who therefore delights in the degradation and fear of women. Sayer holds Maria hostage in his personal castle of demented tortures and humiliations, where he intends to make her his slave; while submitting her to all sorts of degradations, he also shows her pictures of women who had shared her fate, and whom he says he murdered during intercourse, at the point of orgasm. I spite of his cruelty and sadism, Maria grows a strange, Stockholm-Synrome-like fascination for her kidnapper... or does she?
The film is highly surreal, sometimes like a fever-dream. Sayer's mansion alone holds a vast variety of bizarre items, and the entire film oozes a surreal atmosphere. Even though feminism may not be a usual trait of European cult-cinema, it was pretty obvious to me that Maria was going to turn the tables towards the end. The style is very peculiar, but supremely elegant, with a great cinematography, fantastic set-pieces and a wonderful musical score by Stelvio Cipriani that sometimes mixes the art-house atmosphere with archaic, Spaghetti-Western-like tunes. Dagmar Lassander is beautiful and fantastic as always, and Philippe Leroy seems to be predestined for the role of the narcissistic, misogynistic and perverted psychopath. Overall, "Femina Ridens" is definitely an unusual and innovative experience that is highly recommendable to fans of European cult-cinema. Definitely not for everyone, but not to be missed by fans of Italian Cult. My rating: 7.5/10
The wonderful Dagmar Lassander plays Maria, a beautiful journalist with feminist views. One day, she gets kidnapped by the demented Dr. Sayer (Philippe Leroy), a rich and powerful man, who has a sort of paranoid misogyny which leads him to believe that the female species wants to exterminate the male, and who therefore delights in the degradation and fear of women. Sayer holds Maria hostage in his personal castle of demented tortures and humiliations, where he intends to make her his slave; while submitting her to all sorts of degradations, he also shows her pictures of women who had shared her fate, and whom he says he murdered during intercourse, at the point of orgasm. I spite of his cruelty and sadism, Maria grows a strange, Stockholm-Synrome-like fascination for her kidnapper... or does she?
The film is highly surreal, sometimes like a fever-dream. Sayer's mansion alone holds a vast variety of bizarre items, and the entire film oozes a surreal atmosphere. Even though feminism may not be a usual trait of European cult-cinema, it was pretty obvious to me that Maria was going to turn the tables towards the end. The style is very peculiar, but supremely elegant, with a great cinematography, fantastic set-pieces and a wonderful musical score by Stelvio Cipriani that sometimes mixes the art-house atmosphere with archaic, Spaghetti-Western-like tunes. Dagmar Lassander is beautiful and fantastic as always, and Philippe Leroy seems to be predestined for the role of the narcissistic, misogynistic and perverted psychopath. Overall, "Femina Ridens" is definitely an unusual and innovative experience that is highly recommendable to fans of European cult-cinema. Definitely not for everyone, but not to be missed by fans of Italian Cult. My rating: 7.5/10