Films

Edwige Fenech plays the wife of a diplomat based in Vienna, who is tormented by a violent former lover while a killer targets women. Near the end, in Sitges, the sun-drenched Mediterranean replaces the autumnal city, creating a false sense of security. Ernesto Gastaldi co-wrote the screenplay for Sergio Martino’s first giallo, which would establish Fenech as one of the divas of Italian genre cinema. The narrative evokes the work of Henri-Georges Clouzot and Alfred Hitchcock, but Martino develops a distinctive visual style, with slow-motion shots and stylised lighting amid violent flashbacks and erotic nightmares, from the torrential rain sequence to the scene in which the lovers engage in sex among shattered glass.