Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

The Perfume of the Lady in Black Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 21, 2024

Francesco Barilli's "The Perfume of the Lady in Black" (1974) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video. The supplemental features on the release include arhcival program with Francesco Barilli; short film; and fully restored international trailer. In English or Italian, with optional English subtiltes. Region-A "locked".

Several of Gaston Leroux’s classic novels have been turned into films, but the most famous ones are The Phantom of the Opera and The Secret of the Yellow Room. The former routinely inspires different theatrical productions, too. However, the brilliance of Leroux’s writings has never been replicated -- in a film or theatrical production.

This is almost certainly the reason why Francesco Barilli’s directorial debut, The Perfume of the Lady in Black, is only loosely based on Leroux’s novel of the same name. Indeed, even though Barilli and screenwriter Massimo D’Avak worked with original material from Leroux’s novel, the former did not set out to deliver a proper cinematic adaptation of it because it would have been a project doomed to fail. This is a crucial detail to remember whenever Barilli’s The Perfume of the Lady in Black is discussed.

Mimsy Farmer is Silvia Hacherman, a young woman with a complicated, mysterious past. She is in a romantic relationship with Roberto (Maurizio Bonuglia), but even though the two genuinely love each other oftentimes they are alone. Silvia is the one who enjoys the luxury of choosing when to be alone. Roberto is forced to be alone whenever his job dispatches him to destinations that are thousands of miles away from Italy.

While Roberto is on a regular business trip in South Africa, Silvia suffers a nervous breakdown that tricks her mind into overlapping her childhood memories with her present. The initial overlapping episodes are short, but as more time passes by, they expand and become almost unbearably intense. After a trip to a local medium recommended, Silvia’s condition evolves into a classic paranoia, and several of her neighbors, including her best friend, a retired professor, become very concerned. Just hours before Roberto lands in Italy, Silvia then kills a man who, according to her, had emerged from her past and attacked her. But when Silvia leads the utterly perplexed Roberto to the scene of the crime, where she claims to have left the cold body of the attacker, her entire story falls apart.

It is best not to mention what happens after that because two major, interconnected developments reset the entire narrative. While this is hardly surprising considering that The Perfume of the Lady in Black emerged during the golden days of giallo, even by the most flexible standards of the time one of these developments is quite unusual.

The clues that prepare for the inevitable reset begin emerging very early and their management is where Barilli’s inexperience shows the most. All have something to do with Silvia’s deteriorating condition, so after a while, they quickly become repetitive and predictable. Instead of intervening, Barilli only rehashes several visual tricks that these types of genre films loved and used to strengthen their atmosphere.

The other obvious and unmissable weakness of The Perfume of the Lady in Black is Farmer’s performance. It is often very melodramatic, creating contrasts that instantly begin to look out of sync with the narrative. Admittedly, some genre films, and especially Italian genre films, like The Perfume of the Lady in Black are worth seeing precisely because they produce over-the-top melodrama that can appear most attractive, but here there is just too much that looks and feels very artificial. A more experienced director undoubtedly would have requested that Farmer adjust her performance so that this particular element of it is avoided.

Barilli completed his directorial debut with cinematographer Mario Masini, who several years later collaborated with the Taviani brothers on their award-winning film Padre Padrone.

* D’Avak worked with Umberto Lenzi on the very twisty thriller So Sweet... So Perverse, which has a similar reset and flexible genre identity. However, before the reset, multiple characters pull it in different directions, so the clues that emerge along the way are never repetitive.

The Perfume of the Lady in Black 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 Perfume of the Lady in Black arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video.

The technical presentation of The Perfume of the Lady in Black is enormously frustrating. It appears that sometime in the past the film was fully restored, and clearly from a very nice element, but the party that did the hard work used one of these notorious scanners that adds the dreaded 'scanner noise'. As a result, now the film produces visuals that look very clean but do not have a proper organic appearance. In fact, many are even poorer than the ones you would get from a decent DVD release. What is even more frustrating is that the same party, or another, color graded the master incredibly well. So, all visuals look very clean and boast wonderful, very nicely balanced primaries and supporting nuances, but also look harsh and smeary. What a shame. On large screen, only an occasional close-up here and there reveals how beautiful the film could have looked with a proper grain structure, which easily could have been retained. Image stability is excellent. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Perfume of the Lady in Black 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 subtitles are provided for the Italian track.

The Perfume of the Lady in Black should be viewed with the English track because Mimsy Farmer and most other actors that have meaningful parts in it utter their lines in English. However, as it is usually the case with these tracks that were made for Italian genre films, you should expect to hear overdubbing that is a bit uneven. If you love these films and collect them, you should know by now that this is an inherited limitation they all share. This being said, dynamic intensity is quite good. In fact, The Perfume of the Lady in Black has several sequences with rather impressive dynamic contrasts. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

The Perfume of the Lady in Black Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Barilli - in this archival program, Francsco Barilli explains how he fell in love with cinema and discusses the evolution of his career. Barilli also highlights some of the reoccurring themes in them and addresses the production of The Perfume of the Lady in Black. In Italian, with English subtitles. (16 min).

• The Wandering Knight - a short film directed by Francsco Barilli. In Italian, with English subtitles. (24 min).

• Trailer - a fully restored international trailer for The Perfume of the Lady in Black. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

The Perfume of the Lady in Black Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sadly, Francsco Barilli is probably right that films like his directorial debut, The Perfume of the Lady in Black, will never be made again. Why? For multiple reasons. In the 1970s, these types of projects could easily get funded and young directors, like Barilli, had all the freedom they needed to be creative and impress. This is why so many of these films are now considered cult -- they were bold and different. While flawed, The Perfume of the Lady in Black is very much worth seeing because it is one such film, bold and different. Unfortunately, even though it was fully restored, it does not have a proper organic appearance. If you want Raro Video's release in your library, consider picking it up only when it is on sale.