| The Witches | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Luchino Visconti Mauro Bolognini Pier Paolo Pasolini Franco Rossi Vittorio De Sica |
| Screenplay: | Giuseppe Patroni Griffi Cesare Zavattini Age & Scarpelli Bernardino Zapponi Pier Paolo Pasolini Fabio Carpi Enzo Muzzi |
| Producer: | Dino De Laurentiis |
| Starring: | Silvana Mangano Clint Eastwood Annie Girardot Totò Alberto Sordi |
| Cinematography: | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| Editing: | Mario Serandrei Nino Baragli Giorgio Serrallonga Adriana Novelli |
| Music: | Piero Piccioni Ennio Morricone |
| Studio: | Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Les Productions Artistes Associés |
| Distributor: | Dear Film (Italy) United Artists (international) |
| Released: | (Italy)(France)(USA) |
| Runtime: | 110 minutes |
| Country: | Italy France |
| Language: | Italian |
The Witches (Italian: '''Le streghe''') is a 1967 commedia all'italiana anthology film produced by Dino De Laurentiis in 1965.[1] It consists of five comic stories about witches, directed by Luchino Visconti, Franco Rossi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mauro Bolognini and Vittorio De Sica. The film features Silvana Mangano; Clint Eastwood appears in the final story. It was the last film starring Totò to be released in his lifetime.
A famous actress arrives in an Austrian chalet to spend an evening with friends. The woman is gotten drunk by the guests, and when she falls unconscious, friends remove her makeup to look at the imperfections of her face, always believed beautiful by her fans.
A man is wounded in a traffic accident. A woman stops the car and offers to take him to the hospital. The woman, however, only does this to pass the road traffic. When she arrives at her destination, she throws him out.
This comic episode, directed by Pasolini, tells the story of a red-headed father and son, Ciancicato and Baciu Miao (Totò and Ninetto Davoli). Ciancicato has just lost his wife and wants to marry again. Ciancicato finds a deaf girl among the shacks on the outskirts of Rome and makes her his bride. To buy a better house nearby, he concocts a plan for her to threaten to commit suicide (distraught by her sick children) by jumping from the Colosseum, and take a collection to save her, but she slips on a banana peel and falls, and is buried next to his former wife. Soon after, she reappears at their home and their happy life continues. The story ends with the moral: "Being dead or alive is the same thing."
In this short episode, a Sicilian woman tells her father a man made a pass at her; he retaliates by massacring the family.
Clint Eastwood is a western movie lover who does not know how to change the flat relationship with his wife. One day the character disguises himself as a gunslinger to entertain his wife, but she is not impressed and he realizes that their relationship is broken forever. In the final scene, she imagines herself as a glamorous star, walking along in an evolving series of haute couture while being ogled by a growing crowd of middle-aged businessmen. She lastly dons a magnificent gown made of multiple layers of silk, each in a vibrant shade, which she peels away layer by layer.
| Luchino Visconti | Director | |
| Story and Screenplay | ||
| Piero Piccioni | Composer | |
| Rinaldo Ricci | Assistant Director | |
| Mario Serandrei | Editor |
| Mauro Bolognini | Director | |
| Story and Screenplay | ||
| Piero Piccioni | Composer | |
| Massimo Castellani | Assistant Director | |
| Nino Baragli | Editor |
| Pier Paolo Pasolini | Director | |
| Story and Screenplay | ||
| Ennio Morricone | Composer | |
| Sergio Citti | Assistant Director | |
| Nino Baragli | Editor |
| Franco Rossi | Director | |
| Age & Scarpelli Bernardino Zapponi | Story and Screenplay | |
| Piero Piccioni | Composer | |
| Nello Vanin | Assistant Director | |
| Giorgio Serralonga | Editor |
| Vittorio De Sica | Director | |
| Cesare Zavattini With the collaboration of Fabio Carpi Enzo Muzii | Story and Screenplay | |
| Piero Piccioni | Composer | |
| Luisa Alessandri | Assistant Director | |
| Adriana Novelli | Editor |
| Director of Photography | ||
| Alfredo De Laurentiis | General Production Manager | |
| Mario Garbuglia Piero Poletto | Art Directors | |
| Costume Designer | ||
| Goffredo Rocchetti | Makeup Artist |
Le streghe was never released outside of Europe as United Artists bought the film when Clint Eastwood's career began to ascend. United Artists decided not to release it in theaters but instead kept it in its library vault to prevent its viewing.[2]