Directors: Luchino Visconti,
Mauro Bolognini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi, Vittorio De Sica
Notable Cast: Silvana
Mangano, Annie Girardot, Alberto Sordi, Toto, Ninetto Davoli, Clint Eastwood
Outside of being an anthology centered around witches, I
tried to go into The Witches as blind
as possible. The Arrow Academy label is known for finding some truly under the
radar cinema classics for release and their recent slate had been ambitious and
robust. With that in mind, there are certainly expectations that go with a
release like this one. The Witches
presents an intriguing film watch. As an anthology film, it’s often muddled and
perplexing with a massive array of styles and approaches to the five stories
that it covers. Yet, it’s perhaps one of the more fascinating slices of Italian
cultural life from the late 60s that I’ve seen represented on celluloid. It’s a
film so inherently rooted in its time period that it’s hard to necessarily pull
it out for its commentaries and themes beyond that, but it’s one
that within its context is still a fascinating concept – even if the execution
is not nearly as dynamic as it might have been. For cinephiles, The Witches is one of those unique films
to add to one’s collection if the time period interests them, but it’s not a
film that the more casual film fan will necessarily buy into. It’s a curiosity
piece more than anything.