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The Possessed Blu-ray Image 1

Arrow Films

The Possessed is a wonderfully atmospheric proto-giallo based on one of Italy s most notorious crimes, The Alleghe killings, and adapted from the book on that case by acclaimed literary figure Giovanni Comisso.

Peter Baldwin (The Ghost, The Weekend Murders) stars as Bernard, a depressed novelist who sets off in search of his old flame Tilde (Virna Lisi, La Reine Margot), a beautiful maid who works at a remote lakeside hotel. Bernard is warmly greeted by the hotel owner Enrico (Salvo Randone, Fellini's Satyricon) and his daughter Irma (Valentina Cortese, Thieves Highway, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire), but Tilde has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Bernard undertakes an investigation and is soon plunged into a disturbing drama of familial secrets, perversion, madness and murder...

Co-written by Giulio Questi (Death Laid an Egg, Arcana) and co-directed by Luigi Bazzoni (The Fifth Cord, Footprints on the Moon), The Possessed masterfully combines film noir, mystery and giallo tropes, whilst also drawing on the formal innovations of 1960s art cinema (particularly the films of Michael Antonioni). A uniquely dreamlike take on true crime, The Possessed is presented here in a stunning new restoration.

Special Features

  • Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
  • Original Italian and English soundtracks, titles and credits
  • Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM audio
  • Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
  • New audio commentary by writer and critic Tim Lucas
  • Richard Dyer on The Possessed, a newly filmed video appreciation by the cultural critic and academic
  • Cat s Eyes, an interview with the film's makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi
  • Two Days a Week, an interview with the film's award-winning assistant art director Dante Ferretti
  • The Legacy of the Bazzoni Brothers, an interview with actor/director Francesco Barilli, a close friend of Luigi and Camillo Bazzoni
  • Original trailers
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips

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One of Italian cinema’s most singularly strange and glacial thrillers!

'La Donna Del Lago' (aka) 'The Possessed’ (1965) is a splendidly enigmatic, darkly mysterious, almost impenetrable quasi-Giallo by the excellent film stylist, Luigi Bazzoni, the hugely talented, intellectual auteur behind the equally idiosyncratic, almost anti-Gialli, 'Footsteps on the Moon'(1975). Since 'La Donna Del Lago' was also written by fellow dramatic iconoclast, Gulio 'Death Laid an Egg' Questi, one might certainly expect a similarly oblique tone, and in terms of confounding genre conventions, he most certainly doesn't disappoint! While some might consider 'Lady of The Lake' to be just another example of overwrought nouvelle vague-esque cinematic doodling; but to dismiss this elegiac work as mere self- indulgence is to miss out of one of Italian cinema’s most singularly strange and glacial thrillers!

2021-10-10by Weirdlingwolf

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Unknown Noir Masterpiece

The Possessed (or La Donna del Lago) is a slept-on masterpiece of noir cinema. The film plays out like a fevered dream as we follow the writer Bernard who searches for a girl he wishes to reunite with romantically. However, he finds once he gets to the small lakeside town where they met that there is a great mystery surrounding her. The dreamlike inky B&W cinematography perfectly depicts the film's enigmatic events. The score is eerily dramatic, matching the desperate theorising of our protagonist in solving the mystery. The performances across the board are convincing, with each actor delivering their material in uniquely different ways for maximal suspense. The plot throws out red herrings through both its visuals and storytelling keeping the viewer guessing — and even once all is revealed, there is still a lack of objectivity. While toward the end there is a sense of explanation, the full truth remains shrouded. Ultimately, Bernard the protagonist and consequently the viewer must accept that what happened can never be fully known, but merely interpreted through fragments. I highly recommend. The Arrow restoration is absolutely stunning.

2024-03-14by JCJBergman

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