Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Frightened Woman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 6, 2024

Piero Schivazappa's "The Frightened Woman" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shameless Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with actress Dagmar Lassander and archival program with Piero Schivazappa. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Viewing Piero Schivazzapa’s film The Frightened Woman is a unique experience. As soon as its opening credits disappear, it does something that forces the mind to unplug itself from reality and plug itself into a very weird place where seemingly normal people do various strikingly abnormal things. But the mind does not register them as such, and the more abnormal these things get, the more intrigued it becomes.

The Frightened Woman was completed in 1969 and is not an oddity, but part of a big trend that produced quite a few mind-benders like it. For example, at approximately the same time, Pasquale Festa Campanile directed The Libertine and The Slave, which are lighter but equally twisty films. A few years earlier, Alain Robbe-Grillet directed Trans-Europ Express, which is a bit more arty but just as twisty. On this side of the Atlantic, Radley Metzger also attempted to emulate what Italian and French directors were doing at the time with projects like The Image and Camille 2000.

But what was this trend exactly? And what precisely were these films trying to accomplish?

The trend was initiated by the sexual revolution that began sometime during the early 1960s and legitimized the exploration of taboo subjects in various mainstream films. Initially, virtually all of the taboo subjects had something to do with sex and kink, but later drugs expanded the trend even more. For example, everything that Schivazzapa and Campanile’s films tried to accomplish with sex and kink, Barbet Schroeder’s More and Roger Corman’s The Trip did with drugs. Schroeder even switched to sex and kink with Maitresse to make this very point. The main goal of these films was to take their audience to The Forbidden Zone where previously mainstream films did not dare to go. Of course, some of these films transitioned to The Forbidden Zone better than others, so they rightfully acquired different reputations. (Schroeder’s film, for instance, very quickly acquired a cult status because of its association with Pink Floyd’s album More, which it uses as its soundtrack).

The Frightened Woman is broken into three acts, each depicting different types of transgressive behavior between a middle-aged man (Philippe Leroy) and a young woman (Dagmar Lassander). He is a wealthy psychiatrist, she is a curious journalist. They meet, he welcomes her to his lavish home, and shortly after the two engage in a series of experimental S&M games. Initially, he dominates and humiliates her, supposedly to study a wide range of behavioral patterns that interest him. However, while the S&M games are underway, the man reveals weaknesses that the woman exploits and, while both undergo quite dramatic transformations, the balance of power is disrupted.

Even though the opening fifteen or so minutes promise plenty of intense sexual fireworks, The Frightened Woman is virtually impossible to describe as an erotic film. It does have some nudity, but the tricks that it uses to excite are psychological. For example, after the S&M games begin, it produces several twists that reset the mind’s interpretation of the relationship between the dominator and the dominated, and at the same time, it does some pretty bold things to suggest that the two sexes wear protective masks to hide identical immoral desires. It is irrelevant whether the twists are scientifically credible. In the context of the S&M games, they are effective, which is why the mind becomes intrigued by them.

The visual style of The Frightened Woman is very effective as well. Many of the set designs and color lighting, for instance, create an ultramodern environment that would have been perfect to highlight the work of Yves Saint Laurent and Halston. There is an appropriately chic score by the prolific Italian maestro Stelvio Cipriani (Highway Racer, The Great Kidnapping).

*Shameless Entertainment's release introduces a 4K restoration of the fully uncut version of The Frightened Woman, which can be viewed with original English or Italian audio tracks.

The Frightened Woman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Frightened Woman arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shameless Entertainment.

I own the DVD release of The Frightened Woman that Shameless Entertainment produced way back in 2008. At the time, it was the only release that had the fully uncut version of the film. This Blu-ray release introduce a 4K makeover of the fully uncut version of the film as well. It is beautiful and so strong that I did not even feel the need to pull out my DVD release and perform comparisons.

The overall quality of the visuals ranges from excellent to outstanding. A lot of the darker footage with the colored lighting, in particular, looks fabulous, which is not easy because some nuances are rather tricky. Shadow definition and highlights are handles very well, too. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. Density levels could be a tad better, but I still liked what I saw on my system a lot. Color balance is very good. All primaries and supporting nuances are properly set and look very healthy. I did not see any anomalies to report in our review. Image stability is very good. Finally, the entire film looks immaculate as well. All in all, this release offers a fabulous and unquestionably definitive presentation of The Frightened Woman.

The Frightened Woman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles (for the English track) and English subtitles (for the Italian track) are provided.

My very first viewing of The Frightened Woman was with the Italian track, which was long before Shameless Entertainment produced the old DVD release of the uncut version of it, but at the time there were no other options. The English track is the one that works best for the film because most actors, including the leads, utter their lines in English. Unsurprisingly, both tracks feature overdubbing, but both are very healthy. The English track has very nice dynamic amplitude as well.

The Frightened Woman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Female Gaze - in this new program, Dagmar Lassander addresses the main themes and conflicts in The Frightened Woman, the film's production and publicity history, and Piero Schivazzapa's directing methods. There are some particularly interesting comments about instructions that Schivazzapa apparently gave Philippe Leroy, which complicated the latter's relationship with Lassander, as well as the pool scene where her character is tortured. In Italian, with English subtitles. (29 min).

• Marquis de Sade vs. Praying Mantis - in this program, Piero Schivazappa discusses his background and explains in great detail how The Frightened Woman was conceived and shot. There are several very interesting comments about the casting choices that were made, the Santa Severa castle where the footage with the dwarf was shot, and the floating car. In Italian, with English subtitles. (33 min).

• Cover - reversible cover with original poster art for The Frightened Woman.

The Frightened Woman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Had Piero Schivazappa's The Frightened Woman emerged in the late 1970s, it most likely would have become a cult film. In the 1960s, in Italy mainstream audiences still flocked to see lavish pictures like The Leopard and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and traditional comedies like Seduced and Abandoned and Marriage Italian Style, so its arrival was rushed. I think that it is an incredible first film that matches the quality of similar, very ambitious projects like French director Henri-Georges Clouzot's final film, Woman in Chains, which has quite a reputation. This release introduces a fabulous 4K restoration of the fully uncut version of The Frightened Woman and a most interesting exclusive new program with its star, Dagmar Lassander. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.