Las crueles

A grumpy publisher receives a mysterious yellow package in the post while at work and discovers to his alarm that it contains a human hand. He convinces his secretary that it's a wax hand but doesn't seem so convinced himself when he buries the package and doesn't tell his wife, who is already suspicious as there is another package waiting for him when he gets home from work, and this one contains a torn dress and a picture of a mysterious woman. Subterfuge, chin stroking, pretension - it's one of 'those' Gialli.

The grumpy man is being stalked by a woman with a fake hand (who is being stalked by the man's wife) and the questions start to arise - Does he know this woman? Does his wife? Who's parts is he receiving in the post? Why does his body turn yellow for no reason halfway through the film? Why does the woman with a fake hand have two normal hands for the duration of the film?

Flashback aplenty (it's up to you to decide what's real and what is not I guess) and loads and loads of very arty shots make up the bulk of this film, as well as a lot of mumbling, bad poetry, LSD taking and staring off into space. It seems to have equal amounts of good and bad and even though the premise starts of well enough, the last half hour (which tries to explain things) drags on a bit.

There's also a feminist slant about it that I thought was kind of unique to The Laughing Woman, so I was wrong again I guess.

If a beautiful and mysterious woman, dressed in black, invites you, without words, only with her eyes, to follow her, are you going without asking anything in her car and you'll let yourself be taken in an unknown direction? If yes, you'll find out later that she has an artificial arm. Would you step with her then in her house, although it is night, is raining and the owl is singing? If you'll do that, after a drink, you'll find the corpse of another woman, young and beautiful, hidden in the refrigerator. That woman tried to commit suicide many times, putting her head on the rail, trying to throw herself from a tall bank into the sea, shooting herself with a pistol in the mouth, everything from obsessive love for you. Eventually, she managed to kill herself with some pills. And the woman with the artificial arm, who loved that woman, severed her head and a hand, and she sent them to you by post. And finally, after you supposedly gone all mad, she stuck with your wife, with whom you have two children. Basically, that's what you'll see in this film. You think it worth? It remains to discover for yourself...

A real surprise, this Vincent Aranda movie that plays more like a French movie. Uneasy narrative flow, many arty moments, different versions of the story unfold and reality not always something certain and a surreal edge. Indeed the main guy in this reminded me of Gaston Modot who starred in L'Age D'Or - he seemed to hold his jaw the same way and move with that slightly awkward motion akin to a lurch. Everyone performs well and helps this sometimes demanding movie always compelling and memorable. The English actress, Judy Matherson is excellent as the mysterious girl with a death wish who only appears in flashbacks. Strange to think that the same year she made this she also appeared in an episode of Coronation Street. Indeed after this and a few Hammer movies she returned to TV. Aranda made the equally compelling, Blood Spattered Bride after this and I recall that too having a similar dream like quality. There is an amazing scene involving a fridge but as I've resisted this long, I won't give it away now.

A book editor (Carlos Estrada) receives a delivery at his office, the package containing a hand; this is just the start of a strange chain of events orchestrated by Lucia (Capucine), who is punishing the man for having jilted her lover Esther (Judy Matheson), who consequently committed suicide.

The Exquisite Cadaver is a bizarre Euro-horror from director Vicente Aranda, who also gave us the better known The Blood Spattered Bride. Aranda's arthouse style is quite impenetrable a lot of the time, the experimental film-making techniques, 'dreamlike' atmosphere, and offbeat dialogue making the film far too pretentious for my liking. The film is slow-moving, frequently baffling and often very boring, the only good thing about it being the fact that it helped to launch the acting career of the very lovely Matheson, who went on to become a Hammer babe.

2.5/10, rounded down to 2 for the scene where the focus repeatedly shifts between the editor and his wife (Teresa Gimpera) as they robotically deliver their lines - it's incredibly awkward and unintentionally funny.

Carlos (Andre Argaud), a well-do-do publisher and family man, receives a severed hand in the mail at work and buries it before going home but once there, his beautiful wife (Theresa Gimpera) reads him a telegram asking if he'd like a forearm. Carlos makes up a lame, work-related explanation but now suspicious, she follows her husband and spots a mysterious woman in black following him as well. That woman is Parker (Capucine), whose lesbian lover, Esther (Judy Matheson), was once Carlos' mistress who never got over being cast aside. Esther committed suicide but Parker kept the body and, holding Carlos responsible, devises a complicated plan to have him framed for Esther's murder...

THE EXQUISITE CADAVER is a slick, stylish, and very strange Spanish soap-opera with a decidedly Feminist agenda. Some unusual directorial touches, lyrical cinematography, and a somber jazz score by Marco Rossi give the film an Art House air that blends easily with the glossy grisliness of a few grind-house plot elements. The beautiful Capucine is coolly elegant as the enigmatic avenging angel and the secret bond all women share can turn the tables on a "common, ordinary Romeo not worth the pain he caused". A very unusual but not uninteresting film if one goes in with no expectations but it's usually marketed and sold as either a Giallo or horror film, so there's bound to be disappointment in some quarters.