The Laughing Woman (1969)

10 May 2023

Rating: 3.5/5

A rich man abducts his new assistant with the intent of torturing her and then murdering her at the point of orgasm

Thankfully, the movie has a bit more in mind than (just) prurience, and the game of domination morphs into one of humiliation and exposing the childish fear at the heart of sadism, as well as the irony of power embedded in masochism

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a movie so of it’s time — the fashion choices, the car park with the horizontal wood-paneled doors, the trippy art piece of the spread legs with teeth in between them

The whole film has an espionage tone — maybe that’s just childhood inundation of this era’s James Bond films. No, it’s the car that they drive around in the water — I’ve seen that in a Bond movie

The movie can get away with many insane choices by never being anything other than insane. It’s nothing brilliant, but it has more than a few ideas, however oversimplified the execution may be

Stray Thoughts


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