''The Possessed'' ( it, La donna del lago, lit=The Lady of the Lake) is a 1965 Italian

mystery film A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, i ...

written and directed by Luigi Bazzoni and Franco Rossellini and starring Peter Baldwin, Virna Lisi, Pia Lindstrom and Philippe Leroy. It is based on the novel ''La donna del lago'' by

Giovanni Comisso Giovanni Comisso (3 October 1895 – 21 January 1969) was an important Italian writer of the twentieth century, appreciated by Eugenio Montale, Umberto Saba, Gianfranco Contini and many others. Life Comisso was born in Treviso, where, during ...

. The film was years later released on U.S. television as ''Love, Hate and Dishonor''.

Plot

Bernard (Peter Baldwin), a well-known writer, arrives in a small Italian town near a lake to spend his winter vacation. He checks into an old hotel owned by Enrico and his daughter Irma (Valentina Cortese), secretly hoping to become reacquainted with their maid Tilde (he had developed quite a crush on her the last time he stayed there, and had even stalked her a few times). He is shocked to hear that Tilde (Virna Lisi) committed suicide the previous winter, and then learns that she was pregnant. Apparently she not only ingested poison, but she also managed to slash her own throat. Bernard refuses to believe that Tilde committed suicide and decides to discover what really happened to her. When Enrico's son Mario (Philippe Leroy) and his wife Adriana (Pia Lindstrom) arrive at the hotel, the two begin acting suspicious, silently walking around the lake at night. Enrico isn't too happy about Bernard snooping around the hotel either. Bernard becomes obsessed with learning what happened to Tilde and begins to experience daydreams, flashbacks and hallucinations.

Cast

Production

''The Possessed'' was based on the 1962 novel ''La donna del lago'' by

. Giulio Questi was hired to write the screenplay. Along with directors Luigi Bazzoni and Franco Rosselini, a fourth uncredited writer was added to work on the film: Ernesto Gastaldi. For their contributions to the script, Gastaldi, Bazzoni, and Rosselini received 700,000, 500,000 and 250,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

respectively. Questi received the highest pay, earning 3 million lire.

Release

''The Possessed'' premiered at the Swiss

Locarno Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

on 24 July 1965. It was released in Italy on 14 August 1965, where it was distributed by Telexport, a minor distribution company that only released the film in a limited area in Italy. The film grossed 100,116,000 Italian lire domestically. ''The Possessed''s poor commercial performance prompted producer Manolo Bolognini to approach Sergio Corbucci to make a

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

that would recoup its costs; this would become '' Django''. In the United States, the film was released straight to television by AIP-TV in 1972 under the title ''Love, Hate and Dishonor''; unlike most of the company's catalogue, which were offered in packages for

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

, the film was presented as a standalone "special feature". ''The Possessed'' was released by Arrow Video on

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

on April 2, 2019 in the United Kingdom. This release utilizes a 2K restoration of the film with Italian and English audio options as well as several special features, including an

audio commentary An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...

by Tim Lucas and an appreciation of the film by

Richard Dyer Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. Specialising in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment ...

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Possessed (1965 film) Italian mystery films 1960s mystery films Films directed by Luigi Bazzoni 1965 directorial debut films 1965 films Films scored by Renzo Rossellini 1960s Italian-language films 1960s Italian films