Sinister Film recovers, for its arthouse horror series, Le Diavolesse (France - 1971), a film somewhere between gothic, erotic, and black fable that is vaguely reminiscent of Jean Rollin's sexy/horror films. Written and directed by Bruno Gantillon, Le Diavolesse is also known by the titles Morgane et ses nymphes and Les sortileges de Morgane.
Plot: While traveling by car, Françoise and Anna are forced to spend the night in a haystack due to lack of gasoline. The next morning, no longer finding her friend, Françoise starts looking for her. A dwarf named Gurt, whom she meets on the road, directs the girl to Morgana's castle. Here the young girl is taken in by Sildan, Sara and Jael, Morgana's slaves/ancestors, who, having fallen in love with Françoise, tries to keep her. To regain her freedom, the girl will have to break the spell with which the lady of the castle has bound her.
Amidst appreciable gothic atmospheres, the story of the Le Diavolesse unravels too slowly providing the viewer's eyes with languid and frequent erotic skits in which the protagonist is involved or passively witnesses. The almost whispered esotericism is an underused or under-marked component that, if emphasized, could have enriched the orgiastic rituals present in the story.
Indeed, the film has limitations from a narrative point of view, but also from the point of view of pacing. The very muffled, dreamlike and purposely nonsensical story is devoid of plot twists and is limited solely to the depiction of Sapphic situations (visually well done) with hinted sex, which in the long run, however, risk boring the viewer. A flaw, this one, that could be a virtue for those nostalgic for 1970s French cinema.
Nonetheless, the film boasts beautiful set design and neat costumes, and although it has its downsides, it is imbued with an undoubted as well as obvious charm.
In the cast: Dominique Delpierre, Alfred Baillou, Mireille Saunin, Regine Motte, Ursule Pauly, Michelle Perello, Nathalie Chaine, Velly Beguard, and Solange Pradel.
[divider]
Distributed by CG Entertainment, Le Diavolesse is a Sinister Film-released title that offers it in a special edition featuring the short film Un Couple d'Artistes (1970) by Bruno Gantillon. Suddetta edition presents an acceptable video quality. This cannot be said instead of the indefensible Italian audio, which is bad and annoying (with fluctuating volume), due to which the dialogues are almost incomprehensible. Perfect instead is the French audio, which can be accompanied by Italian subtitles.
The special content section is interesting.
DVD Edition:
Video: 16/9 1.66:1
Duration: 82′
Audio: Dolby Digital Dual Mono | Italian, Dolby Digital Dual Mono | French
N. Discs: 1
Subtitles: Italian
Extras: "Un Couple d Artistes" (1970), short film by Bruno Gantillon; Film Trailer; Photo Gallery
