To be fair, there are some inspired moments herein. However, his ambivalence about their relationship is reflected in a final hallucination that sees him present as Maddalena is burned at the stake-and lighting the fire himself! From there David gives into his desires fully, ravishing Maddalena in a park later that night. This doesn’t stop David from falling further under her spell, going so far as to make out with her during a conference with many of his high-level colleagues in attendance.

Maddalena’s behavior, meanwhile, grows increasingly erratic. David also has elaborate hallucinations in which he joyously partakes in erotic pagan rituals involving Maddalena and a bevy of fellow witches. David is immediately smitten with Maddalena, to the point that he neglects his wife.

Currently interned in an insane asylum, Maddalena claims to be a witch who for 300 years has been searching for a suitable man to take her virginity. That probably explains why Bellocchio packed so much sex and nudity into the present film, which does not make for a good or terribly compelling product.ĭavid is a young shrink examining the seductive Maddalena, who’s on trial for murder. As for THE SABBATH’S director, the vastly overrated Marco Bellocchio, he was coming off an international success of his own, 1986’s DEVIL IN THE FLESH, a film that received the majority of its attention because of a much-debated oral sex scene. Any movie featuring the delectable Beatrice Dalle involved in orgies and medieval torture can’t possibly be all bad-or so I thought until I sat through this mess, which under the direction of Italy’s Marco Bellocchio comes off as pretentious and dull.ġ988’s THE SABBATH (LA VISIONE DEL SABBA) had an irresistible selling point in the presence of French actress Beatrice Dalle, then an international superstar due to her performance in BETTY BLUE.

La visione del sabba