I liked it, but I was just a little bit sad at how it ended. Not too much, because it ended well of course, this is not the kind of movie that one could accept ending badly, but I would have liked it if she didn't have to choose one or the other..
Well, this is the story of a witch, Gillian (Kim Novak). Her brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon), her aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and their closest friends are all witches and warlocks. They have powers, but honestly not all that much, the most of them. I mean, what can Nicky do, other than turn on and off the lights in the street? Their world is not explained detailed, because this is after all a love story not a story about magic, so I don't know if there's anything more to her being a witch. She has the same lifespan as everyone else, I think. Still, she's bored to death, she hasn't much fun with the idea of making magic, and she always have the same friends, and is bored bored bored.
She lives with her cat Pyewacket, and she uses the cat to do her magic.. she can't do magic without the cat... I would have wondered "is it her or is it the cat?" if she hadn't done a spell without Pyewacket, with her Christmas gift.
It is said that witches can't fall in love and can't cry, and also that if a witch falls in love she loses all her powers and stops being a witch.
Gil likes Shep (James Stewart) her new upstairs neighbour, but when Queenie suggests winning him over with a spell she replies "I don't want him that way"; she meets him on Christmas Eve, because Queenie had 'broken' his phone and he came to Gil's shop to make a phone call. They exchange a few words, he's a publisher and he would like to meet the author of the book she's reading, then Queenie comes to take her to go out and they go their separate way. That same night, Shep and his girlfriend Merle go to the Zodiac club, the club Gil had spoken to him about. It turns out that Gil and Merle know each other, they were at school together, in the same dormitory, but they didn't get along. It's a bizarre club, more Halloween than Christmas, very noisy, but Shep seems to enjoy himself, but he has to go because Merle hates the noise (well, Gil and Nicky were doing it on purpose to distress her :-p) (p.s. I sort of liked that French performer, he was cool :-p)
Gil tells Queenie that "all the girls loathed her. She was a liar and a sneak" speaking of course of Merle.
Back home, Gil Nicky and Queenie exchange gifts, and we see again how Gil prefers normal gifts to magical gifts, although occasionally she enjoys it. Nicky gives her a magical gift, a sort of liquid to summon people using an image, and Gil summons the writer :-p Nicky says here that it didn't work when he tried to use it, but when Gil tries it (without Pyewacket) it works. The procedure includes burning the picture, and a sort of green fire comes out, and passing-by Shep sees that fire and comes in "I thought the place was going up in flames", and she offers him a brandy. Nice Queenie leaves the two of them alone taking Nicky away with her :-)
Gil starts flirting a bit, saying how it is nice to have him there (more or less :-p) and he immediately goes "Merle and I are getting married tomorrow. I mean today!" and he starts blabbering, so she understands she has no time and calls Pyewacket; she sings a tune to the cat and Shep does NOT go away. He was about to, but he comes back and kisses her. They spent the rest of the night together (wandering around the city and kissing) and then Shep says things like "I feel spellbound", and "what has it meant for you? these hours?" and "I know it doesn't make sense but I have an idea I must be in love with you. Has it hit you that way?"
He's supposed to get married in a few hours, but he breaks it off. "I'm not drunk. I may be intoxicated but not drunk" :-p and of course Merle doesn't understand what's going on: "you're almost like another person" - "that's exactly the way I feel Merle, like another person, and I just don't seem to want to marry you any longer, and you wouldn't want me to marry you when I don't want to, would you?" and "let's just say that we are 'uncoupling'" and "I almost forgot my hat" :-p I like how he laughs saying that :-p but then again, I always like him :-)
Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs) the writer comes to see him :-p saying he's writing a new book, on witchcraft, and that the Zodiac is their headquarters, of witches and warlocks. He says "ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle. That's how they used to exorcise them, put them out of business, in medieval times of course" when Shep takes him to meet Gil and her relatives. Gil doesn't like this book idea, and tells Nicky "put him off the track", but instead Nicky reveals himself to Redlitch and helps him with the book, for a 50-50 of the money.
After two weeks together, Shep starts talking about marriage and Gil is evasive, saying she's not the type for marriage, then she says "I wish I could", and to herself "I wonder if I could" then her cat looks at her and she says "I will if I want to" and to Shep "I will" accepting to marry him. Shep is all happy and adorable :-) Really adorable :-)
She decides that if she wants to marry him then "renouncing" is the only way, still she does one last spell so that nobody will ever publish that book; obviously now Shep turns it down as "absolute trash".
Gil confesses anyway to Shep, or tries to as he won't believe a word she says to him. He says if you have magic prove it but she won't because she gave it up, but she could if she wanted to, she still has her powers, only she says that if she keeps doing it she'll never stop the habit, sort of.. kind of silly if you ask me, she should have prove it anyway.
She also confesses she put a spell on him, and he recalls that first night and says "I seemed to see you for the first time". He can't believe it but keeps thinking about it, then Queenie admits to him that she's one too but can't prove it either because she swore not to do magic in the apartment house, she took an oath :-p To make him believe and understand, the explains to him about the thunderstorms that troubled so much Merle when they were at school: "Gil made them happen, but she had to do it to settle accounts with her, just as she had to do what she did about you" and she also says that Gil put that spell on him "otherwise you'd have gone and married Miss Kittredge".
This upsets him a lot, because he still doesn't believe in the magic bit yet, but what he understands is very much troubling: "you mean that Gil went after me out of spite against Merle?" and when Queenie replies: "not altogether, she liked you" he gets even more angry: "she liked me?" raising his voice. Queenie doesn't see his side of things, and goes on "that's a great deal for us Shep, it's not as if we could fall in love, love is quite impossible" ... oh dear... of course he's out of himself..
He's very angry now and goes straight to Gil: "you didn't tell me that you went after me deliberately just to spite her, did you?" and "are you in love with me now?" because that's what matters to him, of course, not silly things about magic. He's upset because she doesn't love him!
The only thing she can say is: "I'm more in love with you than I've ever been with anyone", but that's not an answer that can satisfy him of course, and he thinks that "it's all been a merry little adventure" for her.
"I'm getting out of this building" he says, and "I'm not coming back, ever" but Gil says "you will, you have to". He doesn't believe it at first, but he finds himself right back and this time he understands it's all true. He goes to Nicky for help, and Nicky takes him to see Mrs De Passe. She gives him a disgusting potion to drink and asks for 1000 dollars :-p Now he's free from her spell, and he moves apartment. She's angry, she thinks (and threatens) to put a spell on Merle but she can't find Pyewacket, he has left her. When she finds tears on her face, she understands why. It's all clear now, the cat has left her because she's no more a witch, she has lost her powers by falling in love.
Of course in a way she already was, but "I didn't know what it was".
Only now she's alone, and what she feels hurts: "I don't want to be human, not now"
Nicky doesn't care at all "she asked for it" but after two months Queenie is worried for her: "she's so alone, even Pyewacket left her. If only something could be done about getting her and Shep together nature might take its course".
She can't tell him because Gil made her promise not to, and Nicky won't help so Queenie sends the cat to him, so he has to bring it back to Gil - not knowing of the latest news, he still thinks Pyewacket is her cat, but actually he's now Queenie's, and I wonder, now that Pyewacket is her cat, is she more powerful or not? Anyway, I'm sort of sorry that Gil has no more powers now, seems unfair that she had to choose between what she was and love :-/
While there, Shep sees her cry, and now everything changes because he knows she loves him, so happy ending for the two of them, together again, madly in love :-) and "it's real this time, or has it been real all along?"
Of course it had, if you think about it Shep liked her from the start, otherwise why did he go to the Zodiac that time? Merle didn't want to, and it was Christmas Eve and they didn't even know where the club was, and yet he dragged her in search of this place where he knew he would find Gil...
Anyway, magic or not, it ends with them hugging hard, being all happy :-) Sweet :-)
ITA una strega in paradiso
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