The Escape

The good news: The Escape’s main focus is psychologically exploring its lead character. The bad news: the school of psychology the film utilizes is hardcore Freud nonsense.

The Escape is abut an unhappy housewife. Despite Piera’s seemingly ideal life with a husband who loves her and offers her a steady life, Piera is restless and unhappy. She also has some incredibly non-subtle metaphoric dreams. So, off Piera goes to therapy. Here, she delves into details of her backstory. This includes a child she and her husband had who died and her thoughts on her parents’ separation. Around this time, she also meets a new friend. This new friend is Luisa, an interior decorator. Piera finds herself connecting to Luisa in a way she doesn’t feel with her husband. Soon, Piera starts to have lesbian feelings for her friends. The solution to this is obviously more therapy. Because her attraction to a beautiful woman whom she has a lot in common with must surely be a result of trauma or “neurosis.”

I really like the look and vibe of The Escape. It’s a very Italian-looking film. The women dress beautifully and look like they were born with impeccable eyeliner. The visual aspects of the film are sharp, meticulous and beautiful. Extensive planning evidently went into every shot. For better or worse, this is something lost with the rise of digital filmmaking. Actual film costs money. So in The Escape and other movies shot in film, you had to plan that shit. You can see that planning in how well framed the shots are. You can see it too in how the film has a consistent and clearly intentional look.

Similarly, this is a really crisp black and white film. I dislike a lot of modern black and white films. The black and white often seems added in post production while the film was likely initially shot in colour. ButThe Escape hails from 1965. Black and white was probably the only option. And damn, if it isn’t some absolutely standout black and white. This is a film that knows how to its palette of only black, white and the occasional shade of grey. The bold contrast is particularly excellent. The blacks and whites are so crisp and sharp.

And then there’s the story. The Escape probably was pretty progressive for its time. But it’s aged poorly. Every feeling that Piera experiences needs to be examined in detail. And then, the wrong conclusion is reached. The Escape depicts a woman who is slightly unhappy in her marriage. This unhappiness is treated as Piera basically being mentally ill and in need of a fix or cure. It’s very caught up in the idea that women are both separate and beholden to men. It can be very frustrating to sit through because much as they explore their female lead character with depth, there’s a pretty blatant misunderstanding of the fact that women are you know, people.

The freudian psychology here is so blatant. It’s like, Freud 101. Piera has dreams of trains going into tunnels and apparently has always tried to fashion herself after the mistresses and women her father paid attention to. The Escape really bought wholesale into Freud’s bullshit. This is also the explanation for Piera’s lesbian attraction. It’s not that human sexuality is fluid and Luisa is hot. No, it’s that homosexual desire is a immature expression of sexuality that needs correcting. Go fuck yourself, Sigmund.

The film frequently discusses Piera’s queerness but rarely shows it. Piera never acts on her desires onscreen despite the fact that Luisa would definitely be down. Part of this may be the time the film was shot, though. In 1965 it’s possible that either censorship boards or reluctance from the actresses could be why we never see any lady kissing. We do see a scene of Piera taking a bath while Luisa sits on a chair beside her, wearing a fur coat and smoking a cigarette. That’s pretty great. By the end of the film Piera’s marriage has ended. However, what she deems as her “friendship” with Luisa continues. It’s unclear as to whether this relationship is or will be romantic. Either way, it outlasted Piera’s heterosexual marriage at least.

The Freudian focus of The Escape is the rotten centre of a stylish and intriguing vintage WLW film. A film deep diving into its character’s psychology is super interesting to me. But not like this. It’s been over 50 years since The Escape premiered and parts of it have not aged well. Its opinions on sexuality and women tie heavily into a largely debunked field of psychology. Still, I can’t discount how much effort and talent went into the directing of the movie. A lot of care clearly went into the story and the visuals of The Escape. Director Paolo Spinola is clearly very good at his job. He’s just not super good at understanding women. I may not have liked The Escape’s views on psychology, but it sure made me want to put on some eyeliner, buy a fabulous coat and take up smoking.

Overall rating: 5.2/10

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