Conspiracy of Torture
| The Conspiracy of Torture | |
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Italian poster
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| Directed by | Lucio Fulci |
| Produced by | Giorgio Agliani |
| Written by | Roberto Gianviti Lucio Fulci |
| Starring |
Adrienne La Russa Tomas Milian Georges Wilson |
| Music by |
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino Silvano Spadaccino |
| Cinematography | Erico Menczer |
| Edited by | Antonietta Zita |
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Release date
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Running time
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84 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
The Conspiracy of Torture (Italian: Beatrice Cenci) is a 1969 Italian historical drama film directed by iconic horror film director Lucio Fulci, starring Adrienne La Russa and Tomas Milian. It depicts real life events of Francesco and Beatrice Cenci, emphasizing the horrific elements of the story. Fulci always considered this one of his favorite films, as did his wife Maria Fulci (who committed suicide soon after this film was released in Italy in 1969.) The film was only released in the USA in 1976, as Conspiracy of Torture.
Opening in the year 1599 in Italy, the entire Cenci family awaits their fates on the morning of their execution for murder. Most of the film shows frequent flashbacks leading up to this moment in time.
In a flashback to four years earlier, Francesco Cenci (George Wilson) is a rich landowner and nobleman, but is hated by everyone, including his entire family. He's a vicious, conniving, cynical tyrant of the household and a domestic abuser to his wife and children. He also has made numerous enemies within the close-knit halls of the Catholic Church and the state. Francesco's beautiful teenage daughter, Beatrice (Adrienne Laurussa), confides in her mother that intends to take the cloth and enter a convent, as much to escape from her abusive father as for spiritual reasons. When Francesco hears about this, he is enraged and reacts by imprisoning Beatrice in the basement of the Cenci castle, observing that there is little difference between dungeon and cloister.
In the present day, it is announced that the Cenci patriarch has been killed in a fall from the battlements, an accident which looks suspiciously like murder. Suspicion closes around Beatrice's lover Olimpio (Tomas Milian), who is taken into custody and brutally tortured for information about the mysterious death.
In another flashback, Beatrice is released from her father's dungeon after nearly one year in solitary confinment by Francesco to celebrate news that her two older brothers where killed in war. Beatrice defies the atmosphere demanded by her abrasive and callous father when she attends the party wearing a black funeral dress. A little later that night, Francisco confronts Beatrice in an upstairs bedroom, and the specter of incest emerges when he drunkenly rips off his daughter's black dress and stands swaying over her before he rapes her.
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