Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

What today is an obvious mash up of Rosemary's Baby and Repulsion (complete with Mia Farrow clone) was a clever cash in on a then fresh genre. It's predictable, unoriginal and somewhat stale, but it's also one of the more lavish and well-crafted Italian giallo. It's not the best of the countless Occult horro films that came out of Europe but it's far from the worst.

It's hard to review gialli that deviate from the normal formula, because if you compare that film to a similar film, you're revealing some of the surprises of the plot. It's okay to compare, say, Strip Nude For Your Killer with Blood and Black Lace, because most people go into these film expecting a gloved or masked mysterious killer and plenty of suspects, but when that's all thrown out of the window, things become difficult. I avoided reading anything about The House With The Laughing Windows for years, and was glad I did so when I finally watched it. I'd recommend doing the same with this film. The Perfume of the Lady In Black is a strong contender for best looking Giallo ever, as the characters inhabit a world not only of strong primary colours (blue being a prominent colour in everyone's apartments), but also a world where various hues and shades of purple and pink are in abundance. There's also a strong floral theme to both the decoration of apartments and people clothes, with at least one of the characters also having a floral name. Stuffed animals and taxidermy also feature everywhere, and a lot of the time the shots are invaded by outside light sources, like lightening, or a flashing sign. It very much looks like a Peter Greenaway film, only without the OCD. Silvia, seemingly, has had a pretty rough childhood, with her Naval father often away for months at a time, and her mother having an affair with a nasty looking man who also tries to it on with her. We learn this not so much as flashbacks, but as real physical things happening right in front of Silvia's eyes. Something strange is happening to Silvia, but what could it be? What doesn't help is when her neighbours talk her into having her palm read by a blind medium in a scene that uses mirrors to great effect. Silvia's troubled childhood comes to light and things start to spiral out of control when she's apparently visited by herself as a child! Things get stranger and stranger, and reality becomes questionable, and I'm only skirting around a lot of the stuff that goes on here to avoid ruining it for the three or so people who'll read this on the IMDB over the next sixty years.One thing I will say is that not every question is answered by the end of the film, but I think that might have been deliberate. The end of this one makes you question everything that's gone before it, and even question reality in itself. That's not to say it's not without scares either. Or gore. So stick around for that too.

For those who have seen more than one giallo on their watch, please save yourself the time. If you must know what the hub-bub is truly about, I will release spoilers later in the review.To get right to the underlying reason for watching these kinds of films, Mimsy gets naked twice: once briefly in a fairly rapid love making scene (where the camera likes to pan away) and at the very end with the "surprise" twistish ending. The murders don't really happen until the 1:20 mark, and there is no real gore to speak of until the very end, so be prepared for a very LONG wait for anything to happen.By the way, did I mention that this film is very dull? When I see words like "hypnotic" and "dreamlike" popping up when describing any film, they seem to be code for "drawn out" or "putting me to sleep".The plot goes something like this: Mimsy Farmer is a technician at a factory (either producing chemicals or beer, I couldn't tell which), who has frequent nightmares about her childhood and her mother (particularly how she died). In the course of this, she has a meeting with her boyfriend and some friends of his, some of whom appear to be dignitaries from Africa who converse about the dawning of science over witchcraft. As the story progresses, Mimsy's mental health starts to deteriorate as she begins to see a little girl who looks strangely like herself at the same age, as well as her mother in mirrors and the like. By the end of it, she is dressing like her mother and has gone quite mad, killing her boyfriend, the elderly scholar who resided beside her and her mother's former lover. It is revealed that Mimsy interrupted her mother having intercourse with the "lover" (or payee, if you know what I mean) and killed her own mother by pushing her out a window...thus, over time, the guilt (and maybe a little bit of shamanistic help from the aforementioned African dignitaries) pushed her over the edge quite literally.Yet, while one could consider this to be a proper ending for the main character, it is further revealed that the 3 people she killed are indeed still alive (which I am guessing the entire sequence was "in her head"), and they proceed to take her body to an underground tunnel, where everyone given any screen time in the movie participates in a cannibalistic ritual, with her boyfriend gutting her and the rest lining up to pull out a piece to eat.Now I can respect the visual aspect of the last shot, which (other than the Mimsy nudity) is the only saving grace of the film. Otherwise (as a friend put it tonight after finishing the film), "that's a pretty convoluted way to get your dinner".All in all, I was just too bored in the end to care about either twist, as I could see the "Mimsy dying the same way her mother did" ending the moment the method was revealed, and the cannibal ritual stuff was never dealt with very well to the degree that it felt tacked onto the main story.

How come this film isn't ranked among the finest European horror movies of all time? Francesco Barilli's "Perfume of the Lady in Black" is one hell of a stylish, elegant and altogether disturbing piece of Italian cinema, that is just as good if not better than the works of Dario Argento. And no, it is NOT a giallo, that is, unless you count Polanski's "The Tenant" a giallo. In the vein of Val Lewton's films of the 40's, "Perfume of the Lady in Black" is a psychological chiller which follows Mismy Farmer, giving a truly outstanding and intense performance, as a young woman who is either a victim of a voodoo cult, or a victim of her own distorted mind. Barilli not only manages to make it visually striking, but also creates an intelligent and creative script that delights itself making questions without always answering them. Unlike most Italian horror films of this period (with the exception of Avati's "The House with Laughing Windows" and Argento's "Deep Red"), this one aged very well, as there are hardly any unintentionally cheesy moments in it, and it's also genuinely frightening. Also, it relies mostly on atmosphere and slow build up than beautiful woman getting offed, even though the ending is particularly gruesome and unbelievably violent (considering there's hardly a drop of blood throughout), being somewhat nausea inducing, as it is sick, depraved and as downbeat as it can get. Nicola Piovani's haunting music score perfectly fits with the film's twisted poetic beauty. Overall, a definite horror classic, that, as I've said before, needs to be talked about more often. 10/10!