The Possessed

A writer named Bernard returns in winter to the lakeside hotel he visits every year. The person he is looking for is Tilde, who worked there and whom he has loved from a distance. Told she has killed herself, he refuses to accept it and starts his own investigation. Everyone staying at the hotel seems to know something, and no two accounts agree. Luigi Bazzoni's film sits in the pre-giallo vein of Italian mystery: black and white instead of colour, ambiguity instead of blood. Winter, the empty hotel and the frozen lake set the atmosphere. What Bernard remembers and what he sees keep mixing, and the film deliberately leaves it unclear which scenes are real. Peter Baldwin plays Bernard, Salvo Randone the hotel owner, and Valentina Cortese one of the town's key figures. Who it's for: Viewers interested in 1960s Italian mystery, atmosphere-driven suspense, and the period before giallo. Who it's not for: The narrative is slow and deliberately confusing. The resolution offers no satisfying close.