Le streghe (1967)

English title: The Witches.

Second viewing; previously seen on August 19, 1997.

Five segments, all with a thirty-five-ish woman as a protagonist. (1) A movie star makes an unexpected appearance at a party; (2) a woman in a car in a hurry is stopped due to a traffic accident on her way; (3) a widower and his son go on a quest to find a woman who would be their respective new wife and stepmother; (4) a woman who has been seduced and abandoned tells her father about what happened; (5) an executive's wife nags her tired husband about his lack of vitality and romanticism.

(2) and (4) are just short jokes, respectively superb and mildly funny. (1), (3) and (5) are longer, and provide each an angle of the woman's situation in modern, i.e. 60's society. (1) is very specific to show business, and pretty awesomely written and directed. (3) is extraordinary in its surreal slapstick, but its 6 final minutes are very hard to make sense of, unless one ventures into the realm of allegorical interpretation, in which case the "moral" is a statement about its female protagonist and exploited women in general. (5) is an amusing analysis of the dilemmas of the modern couple in a capitalist environment, with the woman still in a pre-feminist mindframe and wondering about "the emancipation of women". The film's idea of showcasing the lead actress's versatility is a success. Judging from the number and contents of the external reviews in the IMDB, this film was poorly received. Critic Dale Thomajan, on the other hand, placed it among his top tens for 1969, this being the reason I have decided to re-watch it once the opportunity came up.

Rating: 72 (up from 69)