THE DEVIL IN MADDALENA (1972)
Label: One 7 Movies
Duration: 113 Minutes
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English & Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono
Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Cast: Lisa Gastoni, Eric Woofe, Ivo Garrani, Nando Gazzolo, Umberto Orsini
The previously hard to come by Italian/Yugoslavian production The Devil In Maddelena a,k.a. Maddelan was directed by Polish-born director Jerzy Kawalerowicz (Pharaoh), and stars the voluptuous Lisa Gastoni (Wake Up And Die) front and center as the titular bedeviled woman who is nearing middle-age, but still quite a desirable sex pot. The film is a dreamy slice of arthouse with flashbacks aplenty and feverish dream sequences that blur the line between reality and what could be the woman's fantasies. She is seemingly separated from her wealthy husband (Ivo Garrani, Waterloo) following a car accident, in which she appears to have left him to bleed out on the side of the road, now seeks to find something to fill the void inside her.
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English & Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono
Director: Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Cast: Lisa Gastoni, Eric Woofe, Ivo Garrani, Nando Gazzolo, Umberto Orsini
The previously hard to come by Italian/Yugoslavian production The Devil In Maddelena a,k.a. Maddelan was directed by Polish-born director Jerzy Kawalerowicz (Pharaoh), and stars the voluptuous Lisa Gastoni (Wake Up And Die) front and center as the titular bedeviled woman who is nearing middle-age, but still quite a desirable sex pot. The film is a dreamy slice of arthouse with flashbacks aplenty and feverish dream sequences that blur the line between reality and what could be the woman's fantasies. She is seemingly separated from her wealthy husband (Ivo Garrani, Waterloo) following a car accident, in which she appears to have left him to bleed out on the side of the road, now seeks to find something to fill the void inside her.
We first glimpse the black haired beauty dancing seductively at an cult-like erotic party where encounters a young timid priest (Eric Woofe), who is forced to attend the hedonistic party after being kidnapped off the street by some hooligans. She leaves the part with the priest and is intrigued by him, so she sets out to seduce the priest, tempting him and inserting herself into his life at every turn, it seems her presence is inescapable, popping up at his sermons and running into him on the street. That's not to say she's adverse to other diversions, setting her sights on a local fisherman who scratches her itch, and who proves to be as inescapable to her as she is to the priest, and just as troublesome.
It's a strange sort of love story that seems to have a lot going on beneath the surface, often cited as a variation on the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, with Maddelana slipping into reality blurring fantasies where she is now a blonde trapped in a prison with horny prisoners, and overlapping flashbacks and weird biblical dreams of washing Jesus's feet. While she endeavors to find happiness by corrupting the priest he struggles with issues of temptation and faith, and the film has an eerie finale that nicely buttons up the doomed love story.
This is a film long sought by collectors as it was unavailable on legitimate home video release for years, now thanks to the diligence of the often enigmatic distributor One 7 Movie who bring it to Blu-ray, this being their second Blu-ray after Wax Mask. I had never seen this one before but was aware of several of Ennio Morricone's songs from it, it's a gorgeous and lyrical score, which is how a lot of people probably first heard about this film. A word or warning though, the artwork seems to hint at erotic delights within, but this is not that sort of film, it's a gorgeous artful doomed love story with some euro-cult appeal, and I hope that doesn;t scare you off, this is quite a fantastic film.
Audio/Video: The Devil in Maddalena (1972) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from One 7 Movies in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. Advertised as being "fully restored directly from the original camera negative", but there's no other information about the scan. That said, it looks great, the grain looks organic, the colors and skin tones are warm and natural looking throughout, and the black levels are strong - it simply looks great on Blu-ray.
Audio comes by way of original English and Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with no subtitles. Subtitles would have been appreciated but the audio is solid, though I thought both tracks were a bit low mixed and I had to crank the volume up on it. There is a slight bit of hiss that creeps into the audio from time to time but it sounds appropriately vintage, and that beautiful haunting score from Ennio Morricone sounds terrific.
No extras whatsoever on this release, which is a shame, I would have loved an uncompressed isolated score or CD soundtrack at least given that this is one of Morricone's most desired soundtracks. The single disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork. The artwork is framed landscape on the front cover, and interestingly the spine in lettered from the bottom up and not from the top down, which might drive the OCD afflicted a bit nuts seeing the ascending logo staring out at them from the shelf. The artwork itself is not great, I am also not a fan of the layout and design, but this is a movie that doesn't seem to have a lot of great original movie posters either, so a newly commissioned illustration would have been appreciated.
This is a nice return to form for One 7 Movies and I hope they continue to unearth euro-cult treasures like this on Blu-ray going forward. Those expecting sexploitation or a lurid sleaze-fest are gonna be disappointed, but if you're down for a sensual slice of arthouse with a gorgeous Morricone score this is a fantastic watch.
Screenshots from the One 7 Movies Blu-ray:
