A Lizard in a Woman's Skin

(1971) ****1/2

I was highly impressed with this film, which was written and directed by Lucio Fulci. The film begins with a woman, dressed in a fur coat, frantically trying to get into several compartments on a moving train, but is continually ignored by the passengers. Next, she is shown running down a corridor, which is suddenly filled with naked men and women desirously embracing each other. Unexpectedly, she begins falling through darkness, until finally landing on a vivid red bed belonging to an erotic blond woman that slowly removes the woman’s fur coat from her naked body, leading to sex (I swear this not a porn movie). This scene, with its wave like distortions, creating a feeling of disorientation, turns out to be a dream that is being psycho analyzed by Carol Hammond’s therapist.

This opening scene is great for several reasons. It’s bizarre, disorienting, and adds insight into Carol’s character through symbols. The fur coat could indicate her class in society, the “ignoring” passengers could represent her feelings of alienation, and the sexual images could be a signifier of her repressive household. The blond woman in the dream is Carol’s “seedy” neighbor Julia Durer that has a reputation for throwing wild parties with various drugs and lots of sex. Carol’s dream, according to her therapist are symbolic of both her attraction to and disgust towards “degradation and vice.”

Shortly after, Carol has another dream, equally as strange as the former, ending with her violently stabbing Julia to death with a paper knife while being witnessed by two hippies. Her therapist concludes that this dream symbolizes her killing the part of herself that is attracted to “degradation and vice,” and sees this as a liberating dream.

This explanation could be true; however, this dream turns out to have significance that reaches far beyond psychotherapy. Oddly, Julia has turned up dead, and even stranger, she was killed in the exact same manner as Carol’s dream with her fur coat and the paper knife found at the crime scene.
Here is where the mystery begins. Is Carol the murderer or is she being set up? Surprisingly, with its small number of possible suspects, this film will keep you guessing with every twist.

The camera work in this film is creative at moments. For instance, in one scene, split screen is used to juxtapose Carol’s refined, stuffy life with Julia’s wild orgies. Also, at times, particularly in a climatic moment towards the latter part of the film, a feeling of claustrophobia is produced through angles and lighting.

Another honorable mention is the musical score, composed by Ennio Morricone, who I am learning is well accomplished, having composed and arranged scores for over 400 films and television shows, and he also composed the score for the last film I reviewed, What Have You Done to Solange?, although, I was not nearly as impressed. The music in this film is diverse; it ranges from melancholy to menacing, and compliments the imagery flawlessly.

While searching the web for pic's, I repeatedly came across this image, which is not in the film. Intially, I dismissed it as accidently finding itself on the page, but after the third time, I did a little reading, and found out this image is the controversial "animal cruelty" scene that was not included in the US theatrical release (don't you love censorship?). Additionally, I read, that some of the dream sequences were cut, and that the dialogue does not translate as well in the dubbed version. Now, I, of course, need to get myself a copy of the subtitled Italian version.