A Lizard in a Woman's Skin

 

A lawyer's wife (and the daughter of an affluent family, with a father quite established in the rule of law) finds herself under suspicion thanks to the murder of a neighbor known for throwing wild parties often featuring lots of booze, sex, nudity, and drugs. As Johnny Law seems nipping at her heels, is this woman innocent with another person the actual killer? Or is she actually the one responsible?

*****/*****

 

Word of Warning: Adult content

A few years ago, we used to have good back-and-forths on dream logic and its place in horror/fantasy. If used well, dreams can be fun story-telling devices. I do like it when we aren’t left completely in the dark, but a lot of the time surrealists know what they are presenting to us—it is perfectly realized within their own imagination—while we are left on our own to interpret what is on screen. A lot of the time I imagine filmmakers laugh at us when we offer theories of our own that are probably far from their intentions. But some filmmakers do tell us sometimes throughout a film, like a dream’s unfurling, layers revealed until everything makes sense in the end. I fell in love with Fulci’s Lizard in a Woman’s Skin the very first time I ever watched it, and it remains easily my favorite film. It opens with quite a dream and the film’s protagonist may not be exactly who we believe her to be.

I think as Franco’s Venus in Fur will attest to, a good bit of surreality can go a long way with the right presentation and music. I think music can certainly increase a level of weird or eerie to any presentation. Image and sound in tune to create the otherworldly can work if there’s talent behind the camera and creative energy surround the making of the film.

 

 

Anita Strindberg may have been in this film for like fifteen minutes, but she certainly leaves her impression. She doesn’t even speak. With a wind machine in Fulci’s arsenal, he has her primarily in Bolkan’s dream. We do see her outside of the dream realm, holding a swinging hippy shindig with the whole drug-culture orgy scene notorious for this particular time in Europe and the States. Wearing smoky eye shadow, she disrobes and makes out with some wasted stoner. She does seem cast for her stunning body and willing to get nude. Fulci knows what he has, though, and so he gets all the mileage he can out of her while she is in the early part of his film.

 

 

 

 

 

However, Strindberg has a part to play in the film, but she’s only a piece. Bolkan is the star of this film, and it’s her journey we follow. According to her psychiatrist, Bolkan harbors a desire to be free from suppressed desire. Strindberg wallows in excess, while Bolkan, externally displaying a disdain for this randy, self-destructive type of behavior and activity, perhaps yearns for such illicit freedom. It seems in the dream when Bolkan “kills” Strindberg she has somewhat freed herself from those plaguing yearnings, but when the real woman haunting her is actually murdered in reality, the film’s star is the obvious suspect. The rest of the film ponders whether or not Bolkan did kill Strindberg. This is that journey.

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing a murder in her dream, and then learning that this is exactly how Strindberg was killed in real life, the film follows Bolkan as she appears to descend into turmoil as a result. Could this dream mirror a real murder committed by the very one who had it? That distinct possibility could torment and disillusion.

 

 

 

Two key pieces of evidence—fur coat and paper knife (that stabbed her multiple times) not belong to the victim—are what the police detectives have to go on. Both belong to Bolkan. Not just these are against her. Wet footprints, a particular fingerprint, being in the same apartment complex; as all the evidence emerges, it does appear as if Bolkan is the ideal person of interest and very one responsible for Strindberg’s murder.

 

Jean Sorel is Bolkan’s philandering husband. It is no surprise considering how Bolkan’s character seems so frigid, cold, and rather emotionally adrift. Sorel keeps up a good act, a face of concern and worry for Bolkan’s mental state and possibility of guilt while taking every opportunity afforded him to shag a babe in her home when time permits.

 

More to come...