Woman Despiser
Kadin Dusmani
Onar Films
I
am always excited when I hear about a new release from Onar. They focus on rare
and unusual films which are released in very limited editions; this one has a
run of 500 copies. The films they locate are not your run-of-the-mill world
cinema, but titles which would never see the light of day except for the
dedication of this amazing company.
When
you hear the term Giallo Turkey does not immediately come to mind. Giallo was
primarily an Italian film tradition which took its name from street paperbacks
dedicated to crime which had yellow covers, hence Giallo or Yellow. These films
became a major success with many significant Italian filmmakers producing such
thrillers. They were usually marked by brutal murders and liberal servings of
sex and violence as well as twisted if not surreal plots. Dario Argento began
his career as a Giallo filmmaker notably with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
(1970), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972) and
has recently returned to the genre with his latest release which is aptly
called Giallo.
Woman
Despiser (Kadin Dusmani) is a 1967 Turkish Giallo, a rare breed indeed. It is a
strange and wonderful amalgam of crime, sleaze, violence and a uniquely Turkish
addition to the genre; gothic cinematography. The film has a wonderfully
confusing look with noir like photography, misty nights, a killer who dresses
with demonic masks and a bewildering and at times overpowering soundtrack. This
is truly a great find.
Woman
Despiser has a fascinating and convoluted plot, lots of sleaze and a mood which
is surprisingly edgy and tense, helped along by gothic/noir type black and
white cinematography and a camera style which seems to tilt and move from all
directions. While at first the killer looks rather silly in his demon mask,
slowly the strange even comic masks he wears become symbolic of the perverted
darkness which eats at him. With the police talking of rape, murder and
necrophilia as well as “abuse of the bodies” you know something is very wrong.
There is, of course, no graphic sex in the film but the use of inference and
the constant display of woman changing clothes, dancing, kissing and so on
gives the film a strong erotic charge. The mixture of a detective drama with a
crime story, gothic elements and a noir look creates a very weird Giallo
experience.
There
are also lots of unusual artistic touches which emphasize the gothic
presentation of the film. These range from the unexplained appearance of fog in
the room of the first murder to Ekrem Bora's girlfriend being pursued by a host
of masked devils though a cobweb infested mansion.
The
presentation of the film is exemplary, considering the age and rarity of the
film, once again Onar have done a sterling job. There is also Ayman Kole's bio
notes on Director Ilhan Engin and star Ekrem Bora.
Included
on the disc is segment three of the Turkish Fantastic Cinema documentary - this
one dealing with horror and sci-fi.
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This
review will appear in Volume 2 No.4
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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