Late Night Trains (1975)
If in some alternate reality Michael Haneke was an Italian genre director, he might have made something like this. On the surface it does sound like a typical rape-and-revenge film, and it is, but there is so much more interesting to unwrap than the standard one-note revenge films.
I like train films in general, and there is no lack of train atmosphere. The film also takes its time with showing the very different kinds of passengers, and without many words the types are well established. Both characters we never see again and those that become main ones in the plot. Aldo clearly wants to make us see the different social classes and reflect on our prejudices on what we think of people by just looking at them. Social status and appearances become a major point going forward.
We have the innocent girls, later victims, just going home for Christmas. There is obviously the two violent thugs, who aimlessly pester and attack random people. And then we have the well dressed upper class lady whom despite appearance turns out to be the most sadistic of them all.
Many rape and revenge films go for a very violent and screaming rape scene, sometimes with gratuitous nudity, which can paradoxically make it easier to stomach watching it. This takes a different approach that makes it very unpleasant, as it should. It takes it long time with the cruel power dynamics at play, the terrifying tense buildup and the aftermath with the broken victims. It is up there with Irreversible, though for different reasons.
In addition, the revenge aftermath doesn’t give any release or redemption, as the most sadistic of the perpetrators manages to get away with it, because they are more cold and calculated, than the more impulsive thugs.
Like with many other Italian crime exploitation films of the era, there are plenty of political overtones, which is why I keep coming back to them.
Rating: 4