This beautiful poster that cries out for display in a frame was made for the suspense movie Il demonio, known in English as The Demon, starring Israeli actress Daliah Lavi. This is top work. Despite our best efforts we couldn’t find out who painted it, and with so many excellent Italian movie poster artists active during the mid-century, we can’t even make an educated guess. Somebody out there probably has the answer to this mystery, so if you can see your way clear to drop us a line we’d very much appreciate it.
The movie is about a village woman named Purificazione—Purif for short—who’s beautiful but disturbed. She’s in love with a man named Antonio, but has been rejected. That sets her off—and we’re talking about someone who already scuttles around the village and the heights above like Quasimodo. Because she fancies herself a witch, or at least someone willing to attempt magic, she tricks Antonio into drinking a love potion containing her blood. When that fails and he marries someone else, throws a dead cat at his doorstep, curses the newlyweds to have a stillborn child, and commits other bizarre acts.
By behaving in this way she makes herself a target of superstitious villagers. When a little boy dies she’s blamed, of course, accused of witchcraft, but it isn’t until she proclaims herself possessed that the villagers decide to solve her problem for her—they exorcise her. But even that isn’t the end of her problems. She’s caught in a downward spiral that can be summed up this way: When there’s a witch around there’s always someone to blame. In short order she goes from the cauldron into the fire.
Since Il demonio is an Italian film, we presume the local customs portrayed are accurate. Having village elders prepare your wedding bed, placing a scythe under it to “cut the legs of Death” should he enter, making a cross of raisins on the bedspread, villagers whipping themselves in Biblical reenactments, is very strange. But in terms of storytelling it’s all necessary—you can’t realistically go from zero to exorcism. The preliminary village weirdness helps set the stage for later, and exorcising Purif can be seen as an inevitable step for such backwards people.
Lavi is really good in what is a physical role. She contorts her body in ways that would be freaky as hell if you saw them with your own eyes. Having only known her from cheesy American spy flicks, we can now understand why she became a star. Her commitment to her role is complete. Unsurprisingly, however, many Italians hated the movie’s portrayal of village superstition. The film was even banned in Italy at one point—this despite screening at the acclaimed Venice Film Festival (today in 1967, in fact). Well, time heals all censorships. Il demonio is well worth a watch.
