Fantasma d'amore (1981) User Reviews

Obsessive Love

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 14 April 2018]

In Pavia, Italy, the businessman Nino Monti (Marcello Mastroianni) lives a loveless marriage with his wife Teresa (Eva Maria Meineke). One day, he decides to go to his office by bus and he sees an old woman without small change to pay the bus ticket and he pays her ticket. While having dinner, he receives a phone call from the woman and she tells that she is Anna Brigatti (Romy Schneider), his former lover from twenty years ago. When his wife goes to the church, Nino decides to walk along the old neighborhood where Anna lived and she meets and kisses him. The disturbed Nino returns home and on the next morning, he learns that Anna´s former super was found dead and the suspect is her nephew. Soon Nino has an encounter with his friends and he learns that Anna died three years ago. He drives to her husband´s house in a nearby town to meet her husband, Conte Zighi (Wolfgang Preiss), but he finds Anna instead. He rekindles his love for her and they schedule an encounter by the lake. While rowing a boat with Anna, she falls off into the lake and vanishes. Nino calls the police and they do not find any corpse. What is happening to Nino?

"Fantasma d'amore" is an uncanny and melancholic love story with beautiful cinematography. The greatest attractions are the adorable Romy Schneider and Marcello Mastroianni in the lead roles. The conclusion is ambiguous, with Nino obsessed for Anna and not letting her go to the afterlife. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Fantasma de Amor" ("Ghost of Love")

GHOST OF LOVE (Dino Risi, 1981) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 1 July 2008]

Intriguing romantic fantasy/drama: well-matched stars Marcello Mastroianni and Romy Schneider play former lovers, both conservatively married to other people who meet again after many years; however, the woman’s looks (and fortunes) have dissipated so much that the incident greatly disturbs the man.

When he recounts the fact to his old buddies, he’s shocked to learn that one of them had signed the woman’s death certificate some three years earlier! Undaunted, he goes to her old home in town – where she turns up again…but he also becomes an unwitting witness to a bloody murder! At a party, he’s forewarned of an unexpected but fateful journey by a creepy-looking priest. In fact, a chance visit to Schneider’s own hometown occasions a third meeting at her husband’s mansion – where Mastroianni’s surprised to find her re-invigorated and more beautiful than ever! Having told his doctor/buddy of Schneider’s perfect health, the latter opts to show the hero her death certificate…but he expires from a heart attack before they can meet!

The couple then reprise their affair and they take a boat ride for old time’s sake; on his way to pick her up, he sees a man on the beach (he turns out to be the nephew and suspected murderer of the gossiping woman he had previously seen killed!). Events take a tragic turn as the boat capsizes and Schneider is drowned before Mastroianni’s very eyes! He reports the fact to the Police, whose investigation turns up only the body of the presumed murderer – it could well be that both violent deaths were a case of retribution from beyond the grave! Guilt-stricken, our hero decides to confront the woman’s husband (Wolfgang Preiss) who drives him out, having re-awakened painful memories of his wife’s death – which he too claims to have occurred long before!

The lovers meet casually one more time on a bridge – where she’s reverted back to her ‘old crone’ look. The last scene finds Mastroianni at a mental hospital where the nurse taking care of him is a dead-ringer for Schneider…! From this synopsis, one can get an idea of what the film is like: a celebration of “amour fou” in the vein of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948) mixed with a bit of ghoulishness; director Risi handles the twist-laden proceedings with his customary elegance but also an atypical glumness – indeed, the ‘second chance at love/time manipulation/doppelganger’ concept cried out for Alain Resnais!

True Love Never Runs Smooth. 1-2-Watch.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 8/10 · 18 April 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Fantasma D'amore; before launching into my critique, here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 1.50 Direction - 1.50 Pace - 1.50 Acting - 1.50 Enjoyment - 1.50

TOTAL - 7.50 out of 10

I don't class myself as a romantic so imagine my astonishment when Fantasma D'amore affected me; the film isn't a weepy, hence you can forget the tissues. The story may have moved me due to my age. Being in my midlife provides some new experiences, particularly emotional ones. 'Nuff Said. But I can't deny this little horror mystery tale does possess something special. And, if I knew what it was, I'd bottle it up and sell it; I'd be a millionaire overnight.

The ghostly yarn the writer's spin-out is well-structured and beautiful. The twists and turns along the way are superbly executed and keep the viewers' attention within the story. Not once did my interest shift. The characters are realistic in their personalities, even the highly-strung Ressi - and it would have been easy to make him too over-the-top. I know folks who are similar to the people in Fantasma. By making the people relatable, you can accept the strange occurrences that plague them.

The director is similarly skilled in his profession. He adeptly uses light and shade to add an eerie atmosphere. The scenes in the alleyways of the old part of town are creepy. He makes them more spooky by adding a distorting fog. He also slows down the pace, which adds an uneasy tension. Dino Risi is a maestro conducting the camera and light. Risi's filming style is polished, and as with the writers and the story, his camerawork kept my eyes on the screen.

Add a cast of first-rate actors and actresses, and you create a movie to remember. Nobody is terrible in this picture, and moreover, nobody stands out above anyone else.

I would highly recommend this one to the older generation of horror fans. Fantasma is a slow-boil ghost mystery that ponders some awkward questions about love and relationships, though these are now dated. If you want gore, then this is not for you - but I strongly suggest you give it a try. This film is a "One To Watch" on my list. I will be revisiting Fantasma D'amore in the future.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror and Dramatisation Of Life lists to see where I ranked Fantasma D'Amore.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Terrific Romy & Marcello...So so film

[whatsupomar · 6/10 · 15 November 2013]

I have not seen much of director Dino Risi's work but this film is clearly not one of his best efforts. The script doesn't seem very original either, based on a novel by Mino Milani which mixes romance and mystery with a bit of horror and gore. We have seen it all before: a man meets by chance an old lover and the relationship is rekindled. The hitch is that the woman could be dead and he is having an affair with a ghost. Is she or isn't she? The whole movie runs on that premise except for a subplot in which another woman is brutally murdered and her runaway nephew is the main suspect. This adds the possibility of a diabolical revenge to our reunited love birds.

The atmospheric color cinematography by veteran Tonino Delli Colli is adequate and there's some great music in the proceedings but if it were not for the magnificent Romy Schneider and the equally great Marcello Mastroianni all the mayhem would have been unbearable.

By the way, this review is based on a DVD released in Spain which lists length as 85 minutes approx.

Mastroianni and Schneider are in fine form; delli Colli's photography is beautiful, as is Benny Goodman's playing, but Dino Risi's story and direction are both old fashioned and way over the top.

[BOUF · 8 March 2000]

This elegantly mounted romantic thriller has everything going for it except script and direction. Mastroianni and Schneider are excellent; Tonino delli Colli's photography is appropriately dreamy and atmospheric; Riz Ortolani's haunting themes are beautifully played by Benny Goodman, but Dino Risi's usual ability to combine broad comedy with pithy social comment is absent. The wildly old-fashioned plot machinations get sillier and sillier, until you just want it all to stop.

Ennui

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 16 December 2023]

Nino (Marcello Mastroianni) is a married man who does taxes. His life is, well, quiet and somewhat boring. And then one day he sees Anna (Romy Schneider), a woman he was in love with decades ago. Time has not been kind to her. He pays for her busfare and she disappears, only to call him that night and offers to repay him. He meets her at her dilapidated apartment, only to learn that she has died three years ago.

His wife Teresa (Eva Maria Meineke) is growing upset with his obsession with the past. Despite him being sure that she is gone, she calls again and asks him to visit her mansion. When she answers the door, she is the same woman he knew years ago, young and vital. She tells him that she still loves him, but can't make love to him, as she is married to the man who owns this gigantic home, Conte Zighi (Wolfgang Preiss). She changes her mind and says that they should take a boat to where they once would get away to be with one another, except that she disappears by falling into the water. When Nino informs the police, his wife leaves him and a tearful Conte Zighi tells him that his wife died three years before. His servant even takes him to see her gravestone.

At the end, Nino is in a wheelchair in his senior home, watching the sun set. A gorgeous woman comes to bring him inside. It is Anna.

Directed by Dino Risi (Anima persa), who wrote the script with Bernardino Zapponi based on the book by Mino Milani, Fantasma d'amore is about a man who has no passion left, a life which has no joy and only memories, which have become colored by the idea that they are the past, of a great love lost for good to keep him warm in the dark nights of the soul. Yet Anna says to him, "You really believe time exists...time which makes us age, which consumes us, that indeed exists. But inside of me, I'm not aged at all." The fact that this woman, for a time, loved him is enough to sustain him all the way to the loneliness of the grave.

Speaking of age and remaining young through memory, the Riz Ortolani score features a 72-year-old Benny Goodman playing clarinet.