Anima persa (Lost Soul). 1977. Italy. Directed by Dino Risi. Screenplay by Dino Risi, Bernardino Zapponi. With Catherine Deneuve, Vittorio Gassman. In Italian; English subtitles. 100 min.
A gothic thriller set in Venice, Lost Soul was Risi’s attempt at going beyond comedy to explore the psychological malaise of bourgeois life and the destructive forces of Eros and Thanatos. Vittorio Gassman is the Jekyll-Hyde paterfamilias, Catherine Deneuve his repressed wife on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and their Venetian villa a character unto itself, a mausoleum that hides a dirty secret in its attic. New 35mm print courtesy Luce Cinecittà.