Deep End / The Witches

DEEP END, 1971, Paramount, 88 min. Dir Jerzy Skolimowski. John Moulder-Brown stars as an innocent teenage psychopath working in a public bathhouse who becomes obsessed with doe-eyed Jane Asher, with shocking results.

THE WITCHES (LE STREGHE), 1967, MGM Repertory, 105 min. Silvana Mangano stars in five metaphorical tales delving into women’s sexy sweetness, cold-bloodedness, being put on a pedestal, destructive manipulation and rebellion against domesticity that undoubtedly would have gotten them burned at the stake in medieval times. Standout segments include Luchino Visconti directing Mangano as a movie superstar held prisoner by her fame; Pier Paolo Pasolini’s live-action cartoon sequel to his THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS with Toto and son Ninetto Davoli in search of a new matriarch and meeting green-haired, mute Mangano; and Vittorio De Sica’s look at bespectacled housewife Mangano’s sexual fantasies as she banters with complacent, overworked husband Clint Eastwood.