"Femina Ridens”, known variously as “The Laughing Woman” or “The Frightened Woman” from director Piero Schivazappa is a truly extraordinary piece of work. It is an intellectual proto-giallo and art-house sex-movie, overflowing with Freudian symbolism and psychedelic settings. The film revolves around a hugely creative storyline that works as a surreal framing for a “battle of the sexes” narrative. Journalist Maria (Dagmar Lassander) is writing an article that requires the participation of philanthropist Dr. Sayer (Philippe Leroy). Sayer invites Maria to his apartment to pick up papers and research materials, but no sooner does she arrive than Sayer drugs her and transports her to his fashionable, but secluded weekend mansion retreat. Maria recovers consciousness to find herself caged and trussed-up. Possibly even worse she finds herself subjected to a long and rambling discourse by Sayer on the evil of women and their conspiracy to subjugate men and steal their sperm. He then embarks on a campaign to humiliate Maria through a series of increasingly bizarre rituals – his goal apparently, to make Maria a slave who will obey without hesitation his every whim. He develops a series of humiliating scenarios, but slowly and subtly Maria turns the tables on him and emancipates herself from his control. She becomes master of the situation and begins to lead Sayer down a deadly path. “Femina Ridens” is superb film, which can be read as a straight-forward, though off-kilter giallo, or a nightmarish tale of the incompatibility of men and women. Schivazappa’s film is incredibly bold for 1969, with many of the issues of sexual politics only recently breaking into the mainstream political landscape and discourse. The narrative provides for a complex and dark sexual drama that bears many different readings around the basic theme of how men treat women and how women treat men, with the viewer is left to extract their own meaning. It can also be credibly viewed as a simple murder mystery story devoid of any meaning other than the surface plot. The film is wonderful to look at – a gloriously lush and artfully composed film, which uses geometry and symmetry to symbolise the struggles between Maria and Sayer. Production designer, Enrico Sabbatini, sets are a sumptuous psychedelic wonder of Freudian symbolism, which cinematographers Carlo and Sante Achilli make excellent use of. Their camerawork is beautifully elegant, sweeping through the pop-art designs and cleverly enhancing the psychedelic art-house atmosphere. The two leads are perfectly cast – Dagmar Lassander is beautiful, demure and dangerous, while Philippe Leroy brings a Teutonic psychopathic iciness that melts to a fragile vulnerability. The score by Stelvio Cipriani brilliantly adds to the overall feel of the film. He brings a range of themes to the piece ranging from psychedelic folk through to a spaghetti-Western tinged finale, which adds to the overall outré atmosphere. It is difficult to be overly complementary about this gem of a movie – it is an intelligent, imaginative, surreal fever dream of a film, with a brilliantly lysergic and sleazy art-house atmosphere. “Femina Ridens” is a hugely underrated movie that deserves reappraisal, rediscovery and a much larger audience. ( )