Dagmar Lassander plays Maria, a journalist writing an article on male sterilization and Philippe Leroy plays a cold robot-like sadistic villain who claims to like killing women at the point of climax. He detains her in his apartment and sexually, physically and psychologically abuses her. If Alejandro Jodorowsky or Dario Argento had directed The Collector it would have been something like this. A sadistic film but never even approaching torture-porn, it is more influenced by 60s experimentalism of films like Blow Up than horror and the dialogue is far more intelligent than a typical giallo film, overtly dealing with sexual politics. The most memorable element of the film is undoubtedly the visually arresting distinctly 60’s art deco production design somewhere between A Clockwork Orange and Barbarella. After a tense first hour the film suddenly descends into a cutesy love scene which even includes their car working as a boat and sailing across a lake. This last third of the film is whimsically absurd, with the woman undergoing what can be assumed to be Stockholm syndrome, and while this somewhat ruins the film, it is followed by a strong ending that further surprises. An entirely unique movie.
4/5
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