Leonor

Don't expect 70s Eurohorror in the vein of Jess Franco and the like, and don't expect anything ingenious like the efforts of the director's father. It's a loose adaptation of motives by early romanticist Ludwig Tieck, and since there was no vampirism in literature back then, THERE ARE NO VAMPIRES IN THIS MOVIE EITHER! Just Liv Ullman coming back from the dead after 10 years and strangling children. Great locations, good acting, but neither a convincing drama nor a satisfying horror film. But I've seen much worse than that and young Ornella Muti's a treat. And I like the fact that some screenwriters of the seventies got back to classic seldom filmed literature (like Ado Kyrou did in the far superior 'Le Moine') instead of copying plotlines, themes and motives that have been used a thousand times before.

Michel Piccoli plays Richard, a nobleman whose wife Leonor (Liv Ullmann) dies fairly young. Some years later (although the film doesn't make this clear), he impulsively marries a much younger woman, Catherine (the luscious Ornella Muti). But he simply cannot get over the memory of Leonor, entering into a forbidding bargain with a charismatic stranger whom he meets near a bridge. The ramifications of the resurrected Leonor are chilling, as the local children start perishing. And all of this while The Plague is decimating the populace.

The fact that director Juan Bunuel is the son of the legendary Luis Bunuel will ensure that curiosity is raised among many interested viewers. The result here is one of those slow, stately foreign films that straddles the line between art house cinema and (not so traditional) horror stories. It has plenty of atmosphere and a very melancholy feel, so it's not something that one can just easily dismiss. Its wonderful international cast is very easy to watch, especially the enchanting Ms. Muti, whom many people will likely know best for the 1980 "Flash Gordon" feature film. Antonio Ferrandis is also excellent as the despairing Father Thomas.

"Leonor" is provocatively designed (by Enrique Alarcon), photographed (by Luciano Tovoli), and scored (by the great Ennio Morricone). It makes for rather potent entertainment, but people should be aware that the cheesy poster art does not really indicate the nature of the story. This is something far more serious and portentous. The bottom line is that if one admires the European art / horror films of the 1970s, they will find much to enjoy here. Leonard Maltin may have saddled it with his bottom-of-the-barrel "BOMB" rating, but in no way does it deserve that level of scorn.

Eight out of 10.

When his beloved wife Leonor (Liv Ullmann) is crushed by her horse, medieval nobleman Richard (Michel Piccoli) rushes to be by her side, the woman dying shortly thereafter. Richard attempts to assuage his grief by 'getting back in the saddle', so to speak, immediately marrying local beauty Catherine (the stunning Ornella Muti, of Flash Gordon fame) - and by 'immediately', I mean the very same day that Leonor carks it. That should take his mind off things!

Of course, some guys are never happy...

Catherine bears Richard two sons, Matthew and Gregory, but even after ten years, the wealthy lord still longs for the companionship of his first wife. So when a mysterious stranger tells Richard that he can reunite him with his long dead Leonor, he jumps at the chance. Sure enough, Leonor is resurrected, leaving Richard to make Catherine disappear - by stabbing her in the guts and chucking her down a well (divorce clearly not an option in medieval times).

This being a dark, tragic, gothic love-story/horror with strong art-house leanings, Richard's happiness is short-lived, as his undead wife begins to feed on local children, the black death approaches his castle, his livestock becomes uncontrollable and nothing grows in his garden. The atmosphere is one of morose futility, with death and decay always lurking around the corner - not exactly a barrel of laughs. Director Juan Luis Buñuel (son of cinematic surrealist Luis Buñuel) conducts proceedings with an eye for an interesting shot, but employs a languorous approach that I imagine will alienate many modern-day viewers - let's be honest, not a lot happens for much of the film. For a '70s Euro-horror, there's also a distinct lack of nudity and gore.

That said, I still found Leonor interesting enough to stay the course: there's a lyrical, haunting quality to the film, the cinematography is impressive, Ennio Morricone supplies the score, there's a scene where a young girl is burnt alive with a container of gunpowder around her neck, and the film kicks off with gang of bandits attacking Richard, one of whom is a dwarf (naturally, Richard makes short shrift of him!). I also like that the ending is totally bizarre: Richard and Leonor escape from the castle only to ride their horse off a bridge and into a ravine.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

The combination of "slow," "arthouse," "surreal" and "horror" is very appealing to me, so it was disappointing upon finally seeing this mid-70s flop to find out that it does actually deserve its rep as something of a lifeless slog. The problem isn't the lack of overt "horror" content (at least that's not a problem for me), though if you're expecting more, it will no doubt be disappointing that Ullmann's quasi-vampiric slayings of children are no more explicit than her enfolding them in her cloak. But the film simply lacks style and atmosphere, as well as verve, so the human aspects are as limp as the supernatural ones.

We only meet Leonor on her deathbed, so we get no sense of her (before her revival from the dead), or the Piccoli character's supposed great love for her. It's a bit hard to believe in the latter, as the very day she's buried he demands to marry young Ornella Muti, to the bafflement of her, her father, and the viewer. Nor does he express any notable emotions (beyond eventual impatience and hostility) towards his new bride, either. Ergo we feel nothing about the passion that supposedly leads him to resurrect one wife and neglect, then destroy another. He's a selfish, combative, unappealing character. That element might have provided its own social commentary, but the film doesn't seem to be saying anything in particular with it. The two women are beautiful, but their considerable acting skills are put to little use here. (Nor does it help that both are dubbed by others in the English language version I saw--it's particularly weird to be deprived Ullmann's familiar voice.)

The film is not so much badly as indifferently made, which is odd considering the director's pedigree (and the fact that it was his debut feature). It's watchable, but stubbornly refuses to become hypnotic, frightening, insightful, or any of the other things you might hope for. I saw the longer original cut, presuming it would be better than the shorter (by about 15 minutes) U.S. version, which was very poorly received. But I suspect the shorter edit simply made the story less comprehensible, without making it any livelier, and the long version isn't exactly dull, just very flat. If a director with more visual and atmospheric flair, say anyone from Bava to Herzog, had made this around the same time, it might have turned out brilliantly. But the best you can say about Juan Bunuel's handling is that it is technically competent if uninspired--not what you want from a film about a love that defies death itself.

This film is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Gothic short story "Wake Not The Dead" by Ernst Raupach (which is misattributed to Ludwig Tieck in many sources, including the opening credits of this film). Definitely read the source material before you watch the film, and your enjoyment of the film will be much greater. Of course, as is often the case, the short story is better, and the few ways in which this film diverges from the original story are detrimental to the film. Nevertheless, it is overall very faithful to the tone and message of Raupach. It has a lovely Medieval setting and Gothic tone.