Leonor 1975

The much longer, international cut of the film is reviewed here.Please note that details of the plot are discussed in the following paragraphs.In the 14th century, Richard, a middle-aged Spanish noble loses Leonor,his young, beloved wife, in a horse-riding accident.Stricken by uncontrolled grief, he has her interred immediately in the family crypt, without the proper Christian rites.Without waiting for the proper mourning period, he immediately marries Catherine, a nubile girl of ravishing beauty.Ten years later, Catherine has given him two sons, who fill him with immense paternal pride and joy.Richard, however, is restless and still pines for Leonor. He occasionally catches fleeting glimpses of her shadow.Then Richard meets an strange, itinerant hermit, who provides him with the sorcerous means to resurrect Leonor.When he succeeds, Richard murders Catherine, so that the resurrected Leonor can again be his consort.He thus sets into motion a chain of events that will claim dozens of innocent lives,and precipitate the destruction of his domain, of his sons and himself.All these events take place while the Great Plague comes marching, devastating the land and its people.There is blind panic, famine, burning of suspected witches, processions of penitents.With the exception of the burning of a young girl, suspected for witchcraft, there is little overt horror in the film.Undead Leonor chases her young victims in broad daylight.There are no horned devils, fangs or torrents of blood.There is just forlorn longing for the life that has been, and unbridled sexual passion-as symbolized by the red raiments of Leonor and Richard.The film is enchantingly shot in the olive groves of Castile, Spain, in the stony scrublandsof the Pyrenees, in real castles and ancient ruins.

As stated, this features the sexy and talanted Ornella Muti. She's been in great films. She's been in bad films. She's been in good films. She's been in Flash Gordon. All worth watching. Alas, this might be the lone exception.Slow, vague and filled with arty pretensions, this has all that a healthy budget can buy. The art direction, settings and costumes all adequately bring to life the Middle Ages/ Black Plague setting, and the outdoor shooting locations (crumbling tombs and castles; rocky embankments, dusty landscapes with dead trees, an old stone bridge overlooking a huge ravine) are pretty breathtaking. The cast is a who's who of international cinema and even the English-language track is well-recorded. (Optional original language w/english subs for this bluray). Cinematographer Luciano Tovoli (who'd later shoot SUSPIRIA) and composer Ennio Morricone, who contributes a truly powerful score, both do very nice jobs. Luis Bunuel's kid, while uninspired, didn't make hash of things.What can go wrong?Well, it was seemingly made for critics; not genre fans (horror, exploitation, whatever), not even fans of pop entertainmentBecause this clearly aspires to be More Than Your Average Horror Tale, but instead a classy / romantic one, all of the supernatural aspects are handled with restraint, subtlety and ambiguity. Though it's pretty clear what Leonor has become she bears no fangs and shows no signs of having supernatural gifts. There are also no traces of bite marks or anything on her victims, though she does appear to be feeding from necks in several shots. Leonor isn't even back amongst the living until the final 30 minutes, after we've sat through about an hour of Richard's incessant brooding over her. And therein lies one of the major problems with this one; all of the production quality in the world cannot make up for a routine, predictable screenplay. Nothing really happens that hasn't already been done numerous times before. At its core it's just your typical tale of obsessive, unhealthy love. And what love that's true love isn't obsessive and unhealthy? It does not have anything to say beyond that. Not that I mind per se, it's just that the people who populate this film are so morose and miserable, and there's no humor, warmth or real depth to make us care about any of them.Despite the Buñuel pedigree and some internationally known stars, there's not enough substance here for it to really work as a serious film, not enough sex and violence for it to work as exploitation and not enough terrifying content for it to work as a horror film. As a result, it's never been able to find much of an audience. In America, it received a brief theatrical release in 1977 from New Line; reduced from its original run-time to just 85 and rated PG. They titled it Leonor: Mistress of the Devil and gave it poster art clearly hoping to rope in fans of The Exorcist and The Omen. It didn't work. Still doesn't: even with original cut restored for this Scorpion Bluray.

Fine performances by two of the best: Liv Ullmann as Leonor and Michel Piccolo as her husband Richard. Still longing for his dead wife Leonor, he sells his soul to get her back. Despite the fact that she returns as a murderous vampire, Richard still wants her. Tragedy ensues. Nice location photography, great color. Horror subject matter is not for everybody.

Juan Luis Buñuel's LEONOR has not been treated kindly over the years. I originally came across it on an inferior quality dvd, and was still entranced by the atmosphere and cinematography. While the story deals in Edgar Allen Poe territory (longing for the return of a dead lover and the consequences of getting what you wish for) it plays out mostly in stark, bright daylight, the opposite of what one would expect. It works well and makes the film unique. Death, the agony of loss and the decent into madness and evil are palpable.Some complain the pacing is slack and meandering, and that is an understandable reaction if you're not in the mood. It's even more so in the International cut, which is about twelve minutes longer than the U.S. version. Still, I would recommend it over the shorter cut.Scorpion's blu-ray looks excellent, but there is a problem. The audio choices are Spanish and English on the International version and normally the Spanish might be preferable, but it's slightly out of sync. The English dub is okay, but the performances are perfunctory and blunt the overall effectiveness of the film.Still well worth checking out if you're up for a slow build supernatural tale.

not memorable