Rating: 3/5
Martha is a bored housewife. Her husband, Michael, goes out of town all the time. In her loneliness and boredom, she tries to be sociable, but they misunderstand her intentions — a delivery boy invited up for wine makes an advance that she turns down
Martha regularly listens to the footsteps of her upstairs neighbors, Victor and Julie. On one insomnia-laden night, she hears a loud thud and footsteps that leave her wondering what has happened. As she makes her regular visits to folks in the apartment, she notices Victor’s absence and comes to the only logical conclusion: that Julie and a lover have murdered Victor
Her only actual friend in the apartment is her landlord Richard, who is also a nude model sculptor (gotta get those Giallo boobs into the movie somehow!). She confides in him her suspicions — his dogs aren’t eating, and he keeps smelling decomposing flesh — but he accuses her of being a voyeur. Their relationship dynamic leads to a kiss that leaves Martha feeling guilty and her head full of nightmarish possibilities
The film has moments of energy and captivating filmmaking, but they’re so sparse as we spend such a long time with Martha’s suspicions and her inability to act on them. The film has a side plot with Richard sculpting some teen girl, but it doesn’t go anywhere
It isn’t until the final few minutes that the plot progresses forward in an explosion of exposition and physicality (vague enough to avoid spoilers?), but it’s hard to make up for the previous 80-odd minutes
This is a solid movie that’s easy enough to watch, but I won’t be thinking about it anytime soon (though I may try to give it a rewatch since it seems folks are getting more out of it than I did)