Un Beau Monstre (aka Love Me Strangely) (1971)

A bisexual sadist (Helmut Berger) abuses women, both physically and psychologically. After he drives his wife (Edith Scob) to suicide, he sets his eyes on his beautiful neighbor (Virna Lisi), marries her and then proceeds to drive her crazy. Based on the novel by Dominique Fabre and directed by Sergio Gobbi (ASPHALT WARRIORS). When it works, it's good but when it doesn't (which is most of the time), it's just silly. It's one sick puppy of a movie! First off, I've never understood what attraction Berger is supposed to have (to straight women, anyway), he's just inherently creepy. Yet Virna Lisi goes ape for him and as soon as he starts abusing her, does she go out the door? No, she takes it! The film's ending leaves us with questions: Accident? Suicide? Murder? The only decent character in the movie is the police detective (Charles Aznavour), who tries to warn Lisi to no avail. Overlong (it runs over two hours), the film wastes too much time on montages and an overdose of pop songs accompanying the images. Someone should have taken shears to it. With Francoise Brion and Alain Noury.