The Cinematheque

“Charming, goofy, and sometimes poignant, The Witches is a delightful confection featuring the underrated Silvana Mangano.”

Nicholas Bell, IONCINEMA

Led by the legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis, The Witches brings together five renowned Italian auteurs—Visconti, Bolognini, Pasolini, Rossi, and de Sica—asking them to serve up their best witch. Each vignette stars the magnetic Silvana Mangano, and presents a filmmaker’s idea of the witch within the context of cultural tradition and their own film language. In turn, the witch becomes a kaleidoscopic reflection of female personas (wife, mother, mistress, object of love) and emotions bound up in the director’s approach (lust, awe, joy, longing, but also fear, envy, and endless male frustration). Blurring the line between fantasy and reality, The Witches invites the viewer to discern between the witch and the bewitched. This underseen gem comes complete with a prancing Clint Eastwood and his best Italian rendition of ​“Giovanna, to the movies! To the movies!”

In Italian with English subtitles

One of the Ten Greatest Films of All Time
Alice Rohrwacher (La chimera), Sight and Sound 2022 poll