Perfume of a Lady in Black
By Chris Hyde
February 16, 2005
The Italian company Raro Video issues an R2 disk of Francesco Barilli’s Perfume of a Lady in Black.
At this point in the existence of the DVD, genre retailers who specialize in works of Eurohorror have covered lots of terrain in their exploration of material of this nature. Filmmakers such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento are well represented in the medium - and though one might perhaps wish for a little more Riccardo Freda or an obscurity or two, it’s obvious that when it comes to the classic period of the Italian horror film that there generally isn’t a whole lot of new ground to break. Enter Raro Video, a small Italian operation whose taste evidently runs towards both the arty and the peculiar, given their catalogue’s interesting mix of Andy Warhol and William S. Burroughs films with more typical Italian genre offerings.
One of their latest releases is an overlooked piece of swinging '70s mod horror titled The Perfume of a Lady in Black. Perhaps not completely a giallo in form (though we’ll leave the pigeonholing nitty-gritty to those with a better historical knowledge of this sort of thing), this Francesco Barilli outing touches upon many of the elements characteristic of the Italian horror films of the period. The movie stars Mimsy Farmer, an American-born actress who should need little introduction to film fans steeped in genre tradition given her appearances in films like Four Flies on Grey Velvet, The Black Cat, Autopsy and Hot Rods to Hell.
Farmer is introduced to us here as Silvia, a lab workaholic whose boyfriend (Maurizio Bonuglia) continually exhorts her to please take some time off once in awhile. This apparent doting results in their visiting the house of an African professor (Jho Jenkins), who regales the pair with tales of voodoo from the Dark Continent as they sit in a fantastic fountain filled room that you might think would be hard to maintain on an academic’s salary. Unfortunately for our protagonist, all this talk of witch doctors and cannibalism seems to kick up some long repressed memories - and before you know it, she’s traveling down of pockmarked road of childhood trauma, insidious “friends” and baffling death that leads her to question her own sanity.
The plot of The Perfume of a Lady in Black is pretty loose at times, as the tenuous hold that Silvia may have on reality allows the director to play with the film’s approach to reality and the audience’s perception of it. Luckily, however, Barilli is sharp enough never to take the cheap way out and violate the covenant of trust he builds up with the viewer. Throughout the film, though perplexing events may constantly take place, it never feels as if the director is working behind the audience’s back - instead, one tends to get swept up in the stylish and engaging way the story is told. There’s a great bit of craft in the way this movie is made, with sweeping crane shots and jetset art nouveau interiors the order of the day. Also adding to the overall feel of the movie is an atmospheric score by Nicola Piovani, a prolific composer for Italian film who continues to work in the industry today.
With the main event an off-the-beaten-path bit of Italian horror, a simple bare bones release of The Perfume of a Lady in Black might suffice for genre fans - especially given the sharp transfer here that allows the film’s colors to seep through the frame and shows off the nicely naturalistic cinematography of Mario Masini. The soundtrack options on the DVD are of varying quality, with both the English and the Italian tracks included for completeness. The Italian audio is in better shape than the other, though, and the English subtitles provided there do seem well done and coherent making the language of the film’s origin the preferred listening mode. As far as extras go, included on this disk is a really excellent 23 minute interview with filmmaker Barilli himself that is conducted in Italian but has been smartly subtitled by Raro. The director talks amiably for a bit about many aspects of the film’s production, and he’s so personable and engaging that the entire chat is really a pleasure to listen to.
While based in Italy and issuing their disks in PAL with Region Two coding, Raro Video appears to have at least one eye arched towards the North American market given that they’ve applied English subtitles to even the extras on this release. This seems to be a consistent approach with the company, as most of their product line is issued in a bilingual form including the bonus material like interviews and booklets. Add in a fascinating aesthetic approach to selecting their releases that allows Fassbinder, Fukasaku, Bava and Fernando di Leo to co-exist, and the end result is a company whose future slate should be watched with a close eye. On the other hand, domestic viewers who presently have the capacity to play import disks might want to take a look at Raro’s previous catalog as there is plenty there for perusal. And if the heyday of the Italian genre film is an era whose cinema holds an attraction for you, then you may as well just start out with The Perfume of a Lady in Black - for this little seen psychological horror piece is well worth a rediscovery.
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