The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
Directed by Luciano Ercoli
A psychotic pornographer blackmails a married woman into becoming his sex slave by threatening to reveal that her husband is a killer. Desperate to protect the man she loves, poor Minou is forced to endure kinky bondage games until threats of murder force her to go to the police. But when she brings the cops to the madman’s house, it’s empty, and soon, Minou’s sanity is called into question. Luciano Ercoli’s stellar giallo references classic Hollywood suspense thrillers, aided by a clever script from Ernesto Gastaldi (TORSO) and a superb score by Ennio Morricone.
A psychotic pornographer blackmails a married woman into becoming his sex slave.
Cast: Dagmar Lassander, Pier Paolo Capponi, Simón Andreu
Member Reviews
That was wild. Purely Wild!!!
What an incredible film! My brain is currently very foggy as I'm battling an illness, but this landed for me in a lot of ways that I will attempt to corroborate, but forgive me if it's some word soup. The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion plays upon many different tropes that exist within the horror and crime procedural genres and when it's consumed with an eye that does not value directness this might fall flat. I expected more sex, and more sadism, but in the end this film didn't need it and may have easily bordered on feeling like exploitation if it were present. Instead, we have a film that focuses intently upon our main characters perspective and perception of the events that unfold, and what that results in is something that reads as far more sympathetic than exploitative. There are a few things that this film taps into as far as BDSM and power exchange in relationships are concerned, and what it has to say about people who desire these things. In our main character we see a woman that is distraught by the absence of her husband, and in a moment even says "he is everything to me, husband, lover and father" – someone who so very deeply craves the hand of her husband in a way that is perceived by many (but not all) of the people around her as being a flaw. Her best friend throughout the film is wholly supportive, and begins to become suspicious to me at moments - but I realized by the end of the film that the only reason I felt that suspicion is because she was the only person reinforcing her autonomy in grand ways throughout the film. This film also highlighted to me a lot about why BDSM, heavy kink play, power exchange and other things like it are not abuse inherently – it's always the choice and the truth that matters. This is a great horror movie in spite of the fact that there is not a lot of blood, gore, kills or anything like that. There is very little physical sadism present, but what exists is true psychological and emotional sadism, which is horrific to me. A beautiful film, processed in true Technicolor, and it shows. Well worth a watch.
Not a bad giallo but it felt really long, rather than ratcheting up the lead’s madness and tension it felt like it was dragging. I enjoyed the cast of characters and great sets though.
A pretty decent giallo.
One of the things i love about this sub-genre is its not all about black gloved killers stabbing half naked women. This is a slow burn giallo well worth a watch, starring the equally gorgeous Dagmar Lassander & Nieves Navarro.