Exorcismo de amor

If you answered "Yes" you should not bother seeing this movie. However, if you can view a haunted house dark ride style movie as a satisfying cinematic viewing experience, then strap yourself in and enjoy the view as creepy weird unexplained visions flash in front of you. Pouty-lipped Valentina is smack-dab in the middle of the art house European revolution crowd of the time - photographing nude woman by day and walking the lonely city streets at night alone, which is how she meets up with "Baba Yaga" a mysterious woman who dresses in black (played by the always lovely Carroll Baker). She instantly weaves a spell over Valentina haunting her thoughts, her dreams and her camera. She also does a pretty decent job of weaving her magic spell over the viewer. "Baba Yaga" takes Gothic Horror, stylish pop art, comic books and bondage sex, whirls them in a blender and spews the concoction forth. Although very often defined as a "Giallo" film this certainly belongs more to the "Art Horror" genre. Those who are fans of the trippy stylish body-baring Giallo/Horror output from Italy circa 1970 should put "Baba Yaga" on their "must-watch" list.

In Milan, the professional photographer Valentina Rosselli (Isabelle De Funès) takes a ride close to her home with two friends in a party and decides to walk alone in the middle of the night. She saves a dog from a fancy car driver by Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker), a mysterious older woman that insists to drive her home. From this moment on, the life of Valentina changes and she has nightmares and her camera seem to be cursed. She believes Baba Yaga is a witch and that she is under a spell to possess her but her skeptical friend and filmmaker Arno Treves (George Eastman) does not believe. Until the day Valentina visits Baba Yaga´s house.

"Baba Yaga" is a film with stylish cinematography, beautiful music score that becomes tiresome after many repetitions, and a storyline typical from the Italian films from the 70´s (especially from Jesse Franco) with eroticism and cult elements such as references to Goddard and "The Golem". The conclusion is a plus in this interesting witch movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Baba Yaga - A Bruxa Maldita" ("Baba Yaga - The Coursed Witch")

I saw this in my local video store for a while, and only rented it after finally reading the reviews here, and I must say, it was quite bizaare.

Valentina is a photographer who, one night, has a run-in with a mysterious woman named Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga asks to borrow something from Valentina, promising to give it back the next morning. (I have no idea what the thing was--I decided to just forget it.) Valentina agrees, and after a very odd photoshoot with one model the next morning, she finds Baba Yaga at her door, with the item as promised. The woman also inspects Valentina's camera, and then everything Valentina photographs is plagued by something horrible. Things continue, including a creepy photoshoot at Baba Yaga's home, the gift of a strange leather-clad doll named Annette, all leading up to an extremely bizaare ending.

Definitely not for everyone, but still an okay movie. Fans of giallo thrillers will like this very offbeat, trippy movie. I didn't really understand the meaning behind Valentina's SS-influenced dreams, and in fact, they were quite disturbing. The bottomless pit in Baba Yaga's house was a nice touch, and actually, the house in total was quite creepy. Annette was very weird, the living doll. And the ending--that was the oddest part of the whole movie! As I said, not for everyone, but still entertaining. And am I the only one who thought the music was nothing special? Sorry, I didn't get what all the hype was about from the other reviewers. Oh well. Still, check this movie out if you can find it.

Guido Crepax erotic comic 'Valentina' was the basis for this movie. The comics themselves were not very plot-driven so the screenplay here was more inspired by them rather than being a straight adaption. Perhaps because of this, plot is not a strong point in this one. A fashion photographer called Valentina encounters a mysterious witch called Baba Yaga. The latter puts a hex on Valentina's camera meaning that anyone she photographs experiences some trauma. It's a fairly basic narrative but it has been used as a framework here for all manner of stylish madness.

Isabelle De Funès plays Valentina and she looks suitably chic in the part, regular Italian genre actress Carroll Baker is the enigmatic Baba Yaga, while George Eastman gets to appear in a role that unusually does not call for him to be a psychopath but instead is a romantic lead of sorts who works as a director of commercials (his effort for a soap powder advert really has to be seen to be believed!). The director here is Corrado Farina who had previously helmed another strange art-horror film called They Have Changed Their Faces (1971). While both films are in the horror bracket, it would be fair to say that their arty leanings are at least as strong as any horror angle. Baba Yaga is very dreamlike in tone with a deliberate pace. It is highly stylish in its visual approach with its sensibilities being divided between pop art and surrealism. Of the latter there are several dream sequences involving Nazis. Odd moments happen in the dead of night such as Valentina discovering a puppy lying within a circle of candles. There are strange items such as an S&M doll which has the power to transform into a woman. So, there is a great deal of oddness to this one, resulting in a film with a strange tone. Farina executes this kind of stuff with a bold visual style which is the movie's main strength. Particularly nice were the sequences in which the action suddenly becomes visually formatted like one of the fumetti comics from which it was inspired. Piero Umiliani provides a pretty varied musical score which splits itself into three styles - upbeat easy-pop for the fashion shoot scenes, slower orchestral stuff for scenes involving Baba Yaga and jazzy compositions to accompany the more surreal episodes.

On the whole, this is quite a strange movie which will not have widespread appeal. It's quite restrained as a horror movie and is not visceral in any way. While it does have some erotic elements, they aren't very exploitative. This is very much an art-house/horror hybrid in a lot of ways. It's not necessarily entirely successful in execution but it definitely does a lot of things very well and has some admirable ambition. It's one that is mainly aimed at those who have an affinity with style-heavy early 70's Italian movies. A very intriguing oddity that's for sure.

I saw it last night for the first time and thought it was spectacular! Filled with style and inventive camera work that could leave Argento in shame, the movie had a bizarre, interesting story. The pace was slow and lethargic (similar to Franco's Succubus and Vampyros Lesbos); the music was excellent, including a melancholic jazz tune and a stylish rock score; and the acting was above average: Carroll Baker, as opposite of what many reviewers said, shines in the role of the evil witch (and looks very attractive also), and Isabelle de Funes was a nice revelation. Cult favorite George Eastman is also good in is supporting role. For the sleazy guys, there was also some mild S&M and some T&A, but nothing worth mention . Too bad the director only made this film, as he looked very talented. A 8/10 from me.