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vollständige Wiedergabe auf Italienisch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHOtp2o0My0
Streckenweise gleicht der Film einem "The Exorzist" mit erwachsener Frau. Der Übergang von dem Ausruf "attacco epilettico", der gleich zu Anfang zu Hören ist, nachdem Lisa zu zucken angefangen hat, zur Besessenheit ist hier rasch, während er sich im "Exorzist" längst der Zeitlinie einer detaillierten medizinischen Diagnose vollzieht. Um so ausführlicher sind die Überblendungen von klinischer Behandlung, die einer Anstaltsverwahrung gleichkommt, und nunmehr kaum noch als "epileptisch" zu erkennenden Geschehen.beiden Filmen liegt die Verwechslung wohl bewusst nahe.
Auffallend ist, dass in so kurzer Zeit - die Entstehung von Bava's und Friedkin's Film liegt wenige Jahre auseinander - der Anfall als Besessenheit ikonische Gestalt angenommen hat. Die 75er Version des Films arbeitet sichtlich auch aus kommerziellen Gründen die teuflischen Symptome von "The Exorzist" ab. Später wird sich der Katalog weiter verfestigen und die Asservatenkammer weiterer "Exorzismusfilme" bevölkern.
"After the financial success of his rather uninspired return to gothic horror, Baron Blood (1972), producer Alfredo Leone gave Bava the chance to direct a project entirely of his own choosing. Free from outside influences, Bava wrote and directed Lisa and the Devil (1973). A stunning film with a vividly realised dreamlike atmosphere, it was simply too slow and sedate for audiences at the time, competing against films like The Exorcist (1973). Despite highly positive reviews, the film was not picked up for distribution in any of the major markets and sat on the shelf. When it became clear that the film had no commercial future, producer Alfredo Leone, trying to recoup his investment, wrote a new script around the existing footage and shot new scenes in a determined attempt to turn the visionary horror film into commercially viable exploitation.
Leone's changes are simple - he takes an off-the-shelf possession storyline and uses the dreamlike original footage as the nightmarish world in which Lisa's soul is trapped during her possession. Although quite few, the newly added scenes are a very crude Exorcist (1973) rip-off that tick-off clichés like an I Spy book - crude language, sexual insults, convulsions, petty vandalism and of course, green vomit - the appearance of a Priest is far too quick to be believable, as is his decision that she must be possessed. The exorcism itself is a similarly generic and uninspired affair with a non-sensical ending. The composite storyline is surprisingly able to make something of a sense of the tie-ins to Bava's original storyline, although this somewhat destroys the beautiful ambiguity of the original.
Like the new storyline, the newly directed footage from Alfredo Leone is bland and unexciting - the contast between the directing styles works well however as Bava's scenes are supposed to be a dreamlike world and Leone's are the real world. There are a few clever transitions between the two sequences to start with, but this is generally forgotten as the film progresses. Bava's footage is generally untouched - the original dubbing and editing remains as does the music although the two nude shots of the original are more visible now (the later shot of Elke Sommer has a matte removed that obscured some of the image, the earlier scene with Sylva Koscina might be extended, although the only remaining print of Lisa may have been slightly cut, so the footage might be the same as in the original).
Elke Sommer is the only member of the cast to return for the reshoots - Savalas is represented by a good looking body double in an extended version of one of the opening scenes although his insistance on keeping his back to the camera betrays the mimicry and fortunately they do not try this again. Sommer has a very challenging part as the possessed Lisa and seems to be really giving it her all.
Throughout his career, Bava stepped in numerous times to save productions that were in trouble. With I Vampiri (1956) he was forced into a major rewrite to complete the half-shot film in just two days after Riccardo Freda walked off the set, working a new storyline around existing footage. However, such an act was not going to save this film and although it finally secured commercial interest and saw the film distributed, the House of Exorcism cut is greatly inferior, turning a stunningly visionary film into a mediocre exploitation project - the new scenes in particular are utterly meritless. Bava himself had his name removed from the credits on most prints. Impossible to recommend on its own merits, the film is however quite interesting to demonstrate just how radical producer's cuts can be and the fact that the original cut still exists offers the rare chance to compare both versions directly. " zitiert, Quelle verloren
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