A Woman Kills (1968 / 2010)

[GlacierTuba]

This one was a blind buy (standard edition) I watched last night. No idea what it was about, saw it in a 2 for 20 lids deal and bought it on a whim. Turns out it was actually alright and has a bit more to it when you look under the hood.

A Woman Kills was originally filmed in 1968 but, due to a host of reasons - in part, some issues with political movements going on at the time (which the director went out and filmed while making this 'shortish' film), meant it was shelved in 1968 but then forgotten about and eventually presumed lost until it was rediscovered in 2010. At which point in 2010 plans were afoot to revisit and restore the film and a DVD edition was released then by Lunar Park. It's only fitting then that a Blu Ray release would come along now from Lunar Park and Radiance Films, which is great to see for a film that may so very nearly have been lost forever if not discovered just over a decade ago.

What of the film? It's essentially about a series of prostitute murders around the Paris area in the 1960's. Police believed they had caught the killer, a woman, and had her executed, yet the murders persisted until 1968 when police received a lead on a possible suspect. I won't expose more of the 'plot' so as to give it away (even though you will have it sussed about 5 seconds in to the film).

This is one of those films that comes with a nice introduction before it, giving you a bit of history on what you are about to watch. That's all well and good, I love all that stuff.

Then the intro mentions stuff with words like 'avant guarde', 'abstract', 'art house', 'bizarre' ....and Jean Rollin.

My face dropped in disbelief as my mug of tea (featuring a photo of Penelope Keith as Margot in The Good Life) crashed to the floor. I mouthed the words "oh for f**k sake".

What the hell was I about to get in to? I had visions of beatnik jazz music and bongos playing out, while a horse called Alan, dressed as a bottle Daddies brown sauce and with a colinder on its head squeezes a pair of lemons between it's hooves like castanets while a piece of toast is stood on the ruins of a castle wall somewhere near Colchester, playing the saxophone. All shot on 16mm in black and white at jaunty angles and peppered with blatant nudity of course.

I took a deep breath, hit the play button and went for it...

First the black and white in 16mm.

Then the offbeat lyrics over bongos and guitars.

Then the jaunty camera angles.

Oh for Christ sakes what is this shit?

And then...from the murky depths of avant guarde hell, emerges this rather interesting tale.

Okay so it's still a bit bongos, jazz and jauntyness, but if you can put that to one side and stick with it, the film does become oddly engrossing. You'll have it figured out before you take your first sip of tea from a glued together again Penelope Keith mug, but trust me, stick with it. The last 20 minutes or so (so about a 1/3 of the film) are quite something as events build to quite the bloody climax. The fancy camera angles get their pay off too, as in, it's really nicely shot - actually to be completely fair, it's nicely shot throughout and fairly well put together as a whole.

So in essence A Woman Kills was, for me at least, more of an experience and a bit of a lesson in not judging a film too quickly; to give films a chance despite your preconceptions of what they may be like. Look back at the time when this was made and you may soon appreciate just what a piece of work this is. I'd even say it was perhaps a little ahead of it's time perhaps?

Would I watch the film again? Probably not any time soon, but I'd certainly recommend it as a blind viewing at the very least.

What of the disc itself? Well you get a very nice, informative introduction piece. I'd recommend playing that before the film so it gives you more context and prepares you. Yer wan doing the intro does a good job and I'd like to listen to more of what she has to say on this sort of cinema.

The film itself still appears rough in places, I guess here is where the booklet of the Luxe Edition might have mentioned restoration notes? I've no idea, the Peasant Edition for us folks at the back in Coach, has no mention of it, which is a shame. The audio is really nice though and sounds great if you have your sound system set up right (no fake Surround processing etc).

You also get a commentary track (not listened to it yet but I will rip it and put it on my DAP for later listening), a trailer and, most interesting of all, a bunch of short films made by the director. One of which was a film made up of cutting room floor splices from newsreel footage he had shot during his time as a news photographer. It plays out like a beatnik, bongos and jazz version of Wickers World but is actually quite impressive.

Would I recommend this disc? Absolutely. Just a shame there was no pieces of toast playing the saxophone...