Fantôme d'amour

In Pavia, Italy, the businessman Nino Monti (Marcello Mastroianni) lives a loveless marriage with his wife Teresa (Eva Maria Meineke). One day, he decides to go to his office by bus and he sees an old woman without small change to pay the bus ticket and he pays her ticket. While having dinner, he receives a phone call from the woman and she tells that she is Anna Brigatti (Romy Schneider), his former lover from twenty years ago. When his wife goes to the church, Nino decides to walk along the old neighborhood where Anna lived and she meets and kisses him. The disturbed Nino returns home and on the next morning, he learns that Anna´s former super was found dead and the suspect is her nephew. Soon Nino has an encounter with his friends and he learns that Anna died three years ago. He drives to her husband´s house in a nearby town to meet her husband, Conte Zighi (Wolfgang Preiss), but he finds Anna instead. He rekindles his love for her and they schedule an encounter by the lake. While rowing a boat with Anna, she falls off into the lake and vanishes. Nino calls the police and they do not find any corpse. What is happening to Nino?

"Fantasma d'amore" is an uncanny and melancholic love story with beautiful cinematography. The greatest attractions are the adorable Romy Schneider and Marcello Mastroianni in the lead roles. The conclusion is ambiguous, with Nino obsessed for Anna and not letting her go to the afterlife. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Fantasma de Amor" ("Ghost of Love")

This elegantly mounted romantic thriller has everything going for it except script and direction. Mastroianni and Schneider are excellent; Tonino delli Colli's photography is appropriately dreamy and atmospheric; Riz Ortolani's haunting themes are beautifully played by Benny Goodman, but Dino Risi's usual ability to combine broad comedy with pithy social comment is absent. The wildly old-fashioned plot machinations get sillier and sillier, until you just want it all to stop.

I have not seen much of director Dino Risi's work but this film is clearly not one of his best efforts. The script doesn't seem very original either, based on a novel by Mino Milani which mixes romance and mystery with a bit of horror and gore. We have seen it all before: a man meets by chance an old lover and the relationship is rekindled. The hitch is that the woman could be dead and he is having an affair with a ghost. Is she or isn't she? The whole movie runs on that premise except for a subplot in which another woman is brutally murdered and her runaway nephew is the main suspect. This adds the possibility of a diabolical revenge to our reunited love birds.

The atmospheric color cinematography by veteran Tonino Delli Colli is adequate and there's some great music in the proceedings but if it were not for the magnificent Romy Schneider and the equally great Marcello Mastroianni all the mayhem would have been unbearable.

By the way, this review is based on a DVD released in Spain which lists length as 85 minutes approx.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Fantasma D'amore; before launching into my critique, here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 1.50 Direction - 1.50 Pace - 1.50 Acting - 1.50 Enjoyment - 1.50

TOTAL - 7.50 out of 10

I don't class myself as a romantic so imagine my astonishment when Fantasma D'amore affected me; the film isn't a weepy, hence you can forget the tissues. The story may have moved me due to my age. Being in my midlife provides some new experiences, particularly emotional ones. 'Nuff Said. But I can't deny this little horror mystery tale does possess something special. And, if I knew what it was, I'd bottle it up and sell it; I'd be a millionaire overnight.

The ghostly yarn the writer's spin-out is well-structured and beautiful. The twists and turns along the way are superbly executed and keep the viewers' attention within the story. Not once did my interest shift. The characters are realistic in their personalities, even the highly-strung Ressi - and it would have been easy to make him too over-the-top. I know folks who are similar to the people in Fantasma. By making the people relatable, you can accept the strange occurrences that plague them.

The director is similarly skilled in his profession. He adeptly uses light and shade to add an eerie atmosphere. The scenes in the alleyways of the old part of town are creepy. He makes them more spooky by adding a distorting fog. He also slows down the pace, which adds an uneasy tension. Dino Risi is a maestro conducting the camera and light. Risi's filming style is polished, and as with the writers and the story, his camerawork kept my eyes on the screen.

Add a cast of first-rate actors and actresses, and you create a movie to remember. Nobody is terrible in this picture, and moreover, nobody stands out above anyone else.

I would highly recommend this one to the older generation of horror fans. Fantasma is a slow-boil ghost mystery that ponders some awkward questions about love and relationships, though these are now dated. If you want gore, then this is not for you - but I strongly suggest you give it a try. This film is a "One To Watch" on my list. I will be revisiting Fantasma D'amore in the future.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror and Dramatisation Of Life lists to see where I ranked Fantasma D'Amore.

Take Care & Stay Well.