A WOMAN KILLS (1968)
Label: Radiance Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 66 Minutes 46 Seconds
Audio: French PCM Dual-Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Director: Jean-Denis Bonan
Cast: Merlin, Solange Pradel, Myriam Mézières, Jackie Raynal
Made during the tumultuous social unrest of 1968 in France, Jean-Denis Bonan's A Woman Kills (La femme bourreau) never found distribution due to controversy surrounding the director, and so it languished in obscurity on a shelf somewhere for 45 years incomplete, that is until Luna Park Films brought it back to life with a new restoration in 2010, followed by some festival screenings that brought it back into the fringes of the cinematic consciousness.
In the city of Pigalle, France a series of prostitute murders has left it's mark on the public mindset, Hélène Picard, a prostitute herself, was sentenced and executed for a earlier string of murders, but shortly thereafter similar crimes continue, leaving the public to question if the right person was sentenced to death. A man named Louis Guilbeau, who was Picard's executioner, develops a relationship with the police officer, Solange (Solange Pradel, The Rape of the Vampire), who is investigating the current rash of murders, and along the way she discovers that her new friend Louis may be involved somehow. The film is shot in a style that falls somewhere between the French New Wave and German expressionism; the film narrative starts off a bit fractured (and sort of stays that way), we're left to put the pieces together, and sure enough the plot does come to together well-enough, telling the psycho-sexual tale of a serial-killer stalking the streets, murdering prostitutes while trying to work out a trauma that has scarred their mind. The lensing is a mix of the French arthouse, moody Germán expressionistic shots and wild student film enthusiasm that does good work putting you in the mind of the killer and never lets you feel at ease with it's verité POV. The nudity and violence is not leered on to the extreme, but there is plenty of nudity (some of it erotic, some not) and there's also a few splashed of blood, but both are captured in a way that is more arthouse than grindhouse. The film sets up that a prostitute named Hélène Picard who has recently been put to death after a series of prostitute murders, but after she is put death by guillotine the murders continue - leading some to speculate that she was innocent of the crime. It's not too long before we are made aware of the identity of the current serial-killer, their motives relayed through narration throughout the film, so there's not a lot of mystery or depth to it. The final twenty minutes of the film unfold quite kinetically as the cops launch a sting operation with a female decoy to draw out the demented killer of women. This culminates in an electrifying manhunt featuring the killer running down alleyways and a wild rooftop foot chase above of a city ravaged by rioting and civil unrest - the scars and debris of the aftermath seems to be everywhere.
It's not a film that I would say is easy to get on board with, the fractured storytelling, arthouse editing style and peculiar lensing are not the stuff of mainstream thrillers, but I found it so completely fascinating.
Audio/Video: A Woman Kills (1968) makes its worldwide HD debut from Radiance Films with a 2K restoration sourced from the original 16mm elements. Considering the film languished for decades what we get here is quite pleasing, presented in full frame 1.37:1 the image show some degradation by way of staining, scratches, stray hairs, and blemishing, but depth and clarity are often pleasing and the image maintains it's 16mm filmic appearance with plenty of fine detail throughout, but lacking the crispness of a more refined production. Audio comes by way of French PCM dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Narration and dialogue sounds fine, as does the jarring discordant jazz score by Bernard Vitet, there are also folky songs throughout that spin tales of murder.
Extras kick-off with a 5-min Introduction by critic Virginie Sélavy who speaks about the unrest in France during teh time of filming; and Sélavy again appears by way of a terrific Audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Virginie Sélavy - in it they further discuss the civil unrest in France, how director Jean-Denis Bonan took advantage of the unrest to capture some truly stunning visuals of the city in his film, and talking about if this is a genre film or an avant-garde film. They also get into how obscure the film was for many years and how it was resurrected and completed in 2010. There's also a 38-min expanded documentary On the Margin: The Cursed Films of Jean-Denis Bonan (Francis Lecomte, 2015/2022) featuring director Jean-Denis Bonan, cinematographer Gérard de Battista, editor Mireille Abramovici, musician Daniel Laloux, and actress Jackie Rynal. In it the director's early works are discussed, his way of doing things and why A Woman Kills fell into the ether, having run afoul of censors.
We also get 70-minutes of Short films by Jean-Denis Bonan: these include the 13-min The Short Life of Monsieur Meucieu (La vie brève de Monsieur Meucieu) (1962), the incomplete 6-min Crime of Love (Un crime d’amour) (1965), the 23-min Sadness of the Anthropophagi (Tristesses des anthropophages) (1966), 18-min Mathieu-fou (1967), and the 16-min A Season with Mankind (Une saison chez les hommes) (1967). The big-deal here is the inclusion of the once banned Sadness of the Anthropophagi (Tristesses des anthropophages) (1966), a terrific slice of scatological absurdity that left my mind reeling. The disc extras are buttoned-up with a 2-min Luna Park Trailer for A Woman Kills.
The single-disc release arrives in a clear, full-height Scanavo keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by maarko phntmwith, both options featuring a numbered spine [this being #8], with the a-side featuring the English title and the reverse offering the French title, plus it has Radiance's Removable OBI Strip, aka a spine card. The OBI strip is an additional removable strip of paper wrapped around the spine of the release containing a rating, synopsis, technical info and advert for other Radiance releases on the flipside of it. Inside there's a meaty 51-Page Illustrated Booklet containing new writing on the film by author and scholar Catherine Wheatley, writer and broadcaster Richard Thomas on the short films, writing on gender identity tropes in A Woman Kills and the horror film, an interview with Francis Lecomte of Luna Park Films, the French distributor who rescued the film, newly translated archival reviews and film credits, plus cast and crew info, notes about the transfer, and release credits.
Special Features:
- 2K restoration of the film from the original 16mm elements
- Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Audio Commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Virginie Sélavy
- Introduction by Virginie Sélavy (5 min)
- On the Margin: The Cursed Films of Jean-Denis Bonan (Francis Lecomte, 2015/2022, 37 mins) – a newly updated documentary programme featuring director Jean-Denis Bonan, cinematographer Gérard de Battista, editor Mireille Abramovici, musician Daniel Laloux, and actress Jackie Rynal (38 min)
- Short films by Jean-Denis Bonan: La vie brève de Monsieur Meucieu (1962, 13 mins), Un crime d’amour (1965, 6 mins), rushes of an incomplete film; Tristesses des anthropophages (1966, 23 mins), Mathieu-fou (1967, 18 mins), Une saison chez les hommes (1967, 16 mins)
- Trailer (2 min)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by maarko phntm
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by author and scholar Catherine Wheatley, writer and broadcaster Richard Thomas on the short films, writing on gender identity tropes in A Woman Kills and the horror film, an interview with Francis Lecomte, the French distributor who rescued the film, newly translated archival reviews and film credits.
A Woman Kills (1968) is an imperfect but enthralling film, running at just 68-minutes long the at time erotic psycho-sexual thriller is kinetic and off-kilter, it's a mixture of arthouse, the French new wave, and sleazy exploitation, and it's a combination that makes for a heady cinematic brew. While it might be too dissonant or pretentious for your average thriller-cinema fan I think that if you like it weird, wild and love the obscure Radiance Films have quite the psycho-sexual serial-killer platter for you to dig into. This release has plenty of extras, including an intro, a mini-doc, and over an hour of the director's short films, and is packaged quite exquisitely as well. It's a fascinating watch, and taking it all in with the benefit of the in-depth extras really enhanced my appreciation for this highly stylized French thriller.
Screenshots from the Radiance Films Blu-ray:
