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The Witches

74 votes

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1967-02-22

Runtime: 111 mins

Director: Mauro Bolognini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Franco Rossi

Spoken language: Italiano

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Original title: The Witches

Production Companies: Les Productions Artistes Associés, DDL Cinematografica

Production Countries: France, Italy

Cast

Gloria / Lady in a Hurry / Assurdina Caì / Nunzia / Giovanna

Silvana Mangano

Valeria (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Annie Girardot

Paolo (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Francisco Rabal

Sportsman (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Massimo Girotti

Young Girl Friend (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Véronique Vendell

Gossip (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Elsa Albani

Ex-Actress (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Clara Calamai

Waitress (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Marilù Tolo

Gloria's Secretary (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Nora Ricci

Dino, the Waiter (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Dino Mele

Hotel Page (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Helmut Berger

Pianist (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Bruno Filippini

Industrialist (segment "La strega bruciata viva")

Leslie French

Elio Ferocci (segment "Senso civico")

Alberto Sordi

Reviews

r96sk

Rather zany, <em>'The Witches'</em> entertains sufficiently. Anthology films aren't usually my thing but I found the oddness of this production to be worth watching. It somehow works. There are five stories portrayed, all of which have their moments even if some are definitively better than others. The music is good, also. "The Witch Burned Alive", the opener, is the standout, "Civic Spirit" is amusingly short, "The Earth Seen from the Moon" is one of the weaker entries as it drags a little, "The Sicilian Belle" is a little forgettable and, the finale, "An Evening Like the Others" is the most strange but does satisfy due to its unusualness and comical nature. That last one's weirdness is elevated by the appearance of Clint Eastwood - which is made even more peculiar as he doesn't even voice his character due to the Italian language barrier; Giuseppe Rinaldi provides the voice, fwiw. It is bizarre yet, again, does work. The star of this 1967 release, though, is Silvana Mangano, who leads all five stories. She is excellent across them all, this is my first exposure to her and I'm intrigued to potentially see more of her work in the future.

2022-01-11