Surreal Estate (1976)
An English novelist is lured, with disconcerting and disorienting results, into purchasing a crumbling mansion by what he imagines are the deliberately "literary" ploys of its housekeeper and two mysterious, lurking women.
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Powerful
Absolutely Brilliant!
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
This is a pretty, stylish, spooky, sexy film from France which is the serious version of Jacques Rivette's "Celine and Julie Go Boating" Without those two whimsical psychic sleuths, the mysterious hauntings proceed unhampered by the silly intrusion of physical comedy. Surprisingly, Marie France Pisier and Bulle Ogier- reprising their roles as slinky shades from that previous film, get through this repetition in just under 90 minutes! Corin Redgrave is excellent in this film (and very handsome!) Production quality is high Euro art film style. Especially recommended to fans of Rivette's film and the lovely Bulle Ogier!
I saw this film under a retitle - _The Deception_ - and I caught it on an old (now defunct) satellite channel, The Caribbean SuperStation, which showed lots of obscure movies. This film is about a novelist who's out looking at real estate and finds a huge, decaying old mansion in the woods. A somewhat-demented girl named Arianne gives him a tour of the place, but halfway through she runs away and hides from him. He decides that the situation has potential for a novel, so he goes back to the house. This time there's a maid, and a different girl named Agathe, who says no one named Arianne lives there. So, she shows him the house, and some things in it have changed. He thinks they're trying to trick him, so he comes back later and Arianne is there again, acting even crazier, showing him pictures on the walls which aren't there. Then she seduces him. The maid tells him that there are two girls, and he figures out they were playing a game to try to get him interested enough to buy the house, using Arianne as a "phantom." Even though he knows it's a trick, he buys the house anyway, thinking he can have both girls with it. But they have plans for him, too... Very odd, artsy, rather creepy film, half in English, half in subtitled French, and contains some nudity. Bizarre and very obscure.