Here's another gorgeous Italian production. Unfortunately my copy has no subtitles so I'm doing a little guessing but it's not hard to see what's going on here. Margaret ( Rosanna Schiaffino) is some sort of fashion model / actress or...I don't know...style consultant maybe...but apparently she takes in girls on the side and trains them to be willing playthings for the wealthy jet set friends she hangs out with. How she procures these girls, I'm not quite sure. Sylvia comes to her at the beginning with no real explanation, at least not an obvious visual one aside from her penchant for psychedelic masochistic daydreams. Sylvia is taught how to dress, walk, be a footstool and generally behave like a good little slave. She discovers that she will be punished after being caught with a man and uses this knowledge to set herself up for more abuse, although she never seems to reach the levels of her fantasies which become increasingly bizarre including one where she is cooked and served up at some sort of Roman orgy. This is perhaps the reason Sylvias facial expression remains coldly impassive throughout the film. She never manages to crack a grin or a grimace except at the most extreme of her mistresses mood swings. One lonely tear manages to escape when Sylvia finally gets the arse whipping she's been craving since the beginning. The real story appears to be about the affectionate relationship the develops between mistress and slave, but before you know it she's been auctioned off to some geezer and life begins anew. I'm really surprised this hasn't been rediscovered and remastered in Hi Def. It's got cult classic written all over it and sumptuous in sets and apparel. Margarets interior decor is some of the coolest I've seen yet. A world of curvy sofas and glowing translucent floor tiles. Not to mention a life size mechanical horse...? There's a particular scene during a photo shoot where Margarets face is made up with golden glitter and stuck through an oval hole in a mirror ( see the screen shots below). This image was used for some publicity shots and on the soundtrack cover, but was only on the screen for maybe 5 seconds tops. To me, that scene epitomizes what makes Italian cinema of the 60's and 70's so great. That they would go through the amount of work that it must have taken to set up that shot just for one absolutely stunning image that lasts for all of 5 seconds. Beautiful stuff. See it!
What does a girl like me do with all this Lire, you ask...?
...I'll show you...
...A fully functioning mechanical horse!
WOOOHOOO!
