This month sees the release of erotic thriller Olivia (1983) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, also known as A Taste of Sin, Prozzie, and Double Jeopardy. It’s the kind of film that defies simple titles or descriptions, but I am sure as hell going to try, because this film needs to be seen. Directed by Ulli Lommel (1944–2017), he originally made a name for himself as as an actor working with the likes of Fassbinder and Andy Warhol, before transitioning to working behind the camera as well. Olivia stars his wife and DuPont heiress Suzanna Love (yup, her real name) and was a blind watch for me, based simply on the gorgeously hand painted cover art of the disc and blurb on the back promising a woman out for revenge after witnessing the death of her prostitute mother.
I mean, if you’re a fan of exploitation, how can you ask for anything more?
Olivia, is the story of a young girl who lived in an apartment overlooking the London Bridge where her loving mother worked nights as a prostitute. After witnessing her violent death at the hands an angry John, we then jump 15 years into the future with Olivia (Suzanna Love) trapped in a marriage with an abusive and controlling night shift factory worker. As Olivia celebrates her birthday alone she hears the voice of her mother, calling to her, urging her to go out and work under the bridge where she worked and get revenge for her. I would’ve been happy if the film was simply about Olivia out for payback, but it’s so much more! Olivia kills one guy in an odd Maniac homage and then falls in love with her next would-be victim, American engineer Michael Grant (Robert Walker Jr.), who’s in London working with the British government on what to do with the London Bridge. It’s here we start to notice the bridge is the only constant, and the film’s plot keeps evolving around it.
Olivia’s husband discovers her affair because she didn’t kill the guy like she was supposed to, or do a great job hiding the fact she was sleeping with him. There’s a violent confrontation on the bridge that results in a death, and then the film jumps again, four years later. Now we are in sunny Lake Havasu City, Arizona. USA, where they moved the London Bridge — where even more twists and turns await us. I read that Ulli Lommel and Suzanna Love discovered the bridge while preparing for Boogeyman II (1983), which inspired him to craft a story using the relocated bridge as a plot device. In Arizona we catch up with Michael Grant, who now appears to be stalking a young realtor who appears to be Olivia’s doppelganger. I don’t want to dig further except to say this: Olivia as a film plays by its own rules, and I respect that.
If it wasn’t for Suzanna Love and Robert Walker Jr., I don’t think the film would hold its bizarre narrative together as well as it manages to. Both actors play this insanity completely straight, and make it so you can accept some of the film’s stranger jumps in logic that had me wondering what possibly could Ulli Lommel hurl at me next. The newly restored UNCUT 4K scan here is accompanied by interviews with star Suzanna Love, writer/asst. director John P. Marsh, cinematographer Jon Kranhouse, and editor Terrell Tannen. What keeps coming up is how DIY this production was and how hands on director Ulli Lommel was in all departments. I particularly enjoyed Love’s interview, which, like the film, goes into some pretty strange places as she admits to drinking her way through the film and the night she witnessed the aftermath of a hate crime. It’s this odd stream of conscious deep dive into the making of the film that doesn’t help explain why they made a love letter to the London Bridge, but it does help to show that the behind the scenes were equally as strange as what went on in front.
Olivia is the kind of film you just have to accept on its own terms and let it narrative unravel before you. It doesn’t hurt that the film is also competently put together, well scored, and has some great cinematography. The camera just loves Suzanna Love here, and it’s a damn shame she didn’t do more after this. While there is a bunch of nudity here, primarily on Suzanna’s part, she legitimately carries the film and gives a more nuanced performance than I expected given the setup. I think that kind of range really breathed life in this story that could have just toppled over if entrusted to a less courageous/talented actress. So if you’re the kind of guy like me that goes to the Vinegar Syndrome site for exploitation off the beaten path, this is pretty damn far out there and a pretty solid watch too.
