La donna scarlatta

Ok...nothing really to "upset" you in anyway here...but the atmosphere...colors...Paris...clothes.....music....everything just makes me wanna travel back in time and be a part of this filmproduction. Easy viewing film you can "easily"(!!) label this little Euro gem. Monica Vitti looks wonderful...a bit like Elke Sommer in Mario bava's Lisa And The Devil. But it's lightweight context here...nothing to worry about. No violence...sex....creepiness....just a charming experience which I recommend you check up on any day. I saw the extremely rare danish x-rental version...83.02 mins... letterboxed....english language. Best of all...I'll add it to my collection...no other collector buys this off'a me...nope.

Like anybody else who watches this film, it is for Monica Vitti and not because it has the awful US title; The Bitch Wants Blood or even the far more charming Italian; La Donna Scarlatta. She is lovely throughout, in various costumes and the late 60s décor and tempo help a lot. The rather amusing notes on my DVD include; '….will surprise those who know her only from the grim existential parables of Michelangelo Antonioni…' which is not only a bloody cheek but somewhat ironic. This is by no means a particularly sombre and thoughtful piece but does not really warrant the 'comedy' description and does actually have something of an existential theme and a very fine Anotonioni inspired sequence when she revs her car up and the street signage flashes by as we hurtle as if to oblivion. Seriously though this is for the most part a delightful, colourful and amusing Sunday afternoon movie with the serious added bonus of the lovely Vitti.

I stand to be corrected but I think it probably true to say that neither Monica Vitti nor Michelangelo Antonioni were ever quite as effective separately as they were together.

Here she is directed by someone named Jean Valere in what is essentially a vehicle for this mercurial, enigmatic and utterly enchanting artiste. Unfortunately the film itself is absurd, trivial, shallow and a complete waste of her talents. The same comment might easily apply to her co-star Maurice Ronet. He prophesied that he would never again be given a role to match that of Alain Leroy in Louis Malle's underrated masterpiece 'Le Feu Follet' of 1963 and he was, alas, absolutely right! As a rat Robert Hossein plays the kind of role he can do in his sleep. Signorina Vitti proved to be as equally adept at Comedy as she was at Tragedy but she is fighting a losing battle here. Thanks to Valere's insipid direction, the long-awaited scene where she exacts revenge on the man who has wronged her is, like the film itself, a damp squib.

After a gap of sixteen years she and Antonioni made 'The Mystery of Oberwald' based on Cocteau's 'Eagle has Two heads' and showed that the old magic was still there.

02/02/22. Farewell Monica Vitti. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

i found a copy of this on the old fletcher video label its a lost classic engaging story fantastic acting monica vitti looks stunning as is the photography lovely lighting editing nothing to offend anyone just a film you can sit back and watch and enjoy pity they can't make them like this no more a euro classic.

French-Italian co-production (in French with subtitles) stars Monica Vitti as a perfume factory owner in Paris who loses everything to her scheming lover and commercial manager. She contemplates suicide before deciding killing him might be more satisfying. A featherbrained piece of fluff from director Jean Valère, sexy at times and great eye-candy, but nothing more. Vitti--who, from some angles, resembles Barbra Streisand in a blonde wig--is charming picking up a strange man on the street and telling him her plans over lunch at the Eiffel Tower; however, her sojourns with members of a rock group (dancing and getting high) are silly and just take up time on the clock. ** from ****