Malpertuis (1972) (Limited Edition) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Harry Kümel
STARRING: Orson Welles, Susan Hampshire, Mathieu Carrière
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:85/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1
AVAILABLE FROM Radiance Films
Malpertuis is the kind of movie that strolls up to you wearing a velvet cape, holding a candle, and whispering, “Do you want to see something beautifully confusing?” And before you can answer, it locks the door behind you.
Harry Kümel’s 1972 gothic fever dream is equal parts art film, haunted mansion melodrama, and “What if Greek mythology had a nervous breakdown in a Belgian townhouse?” It stars Orson Welles, who appears to be having the absolute time of his life, delivering lines from a bed so opulent it probably needed its own screen credit. His character is dying, but somehow you get the feeling Welles insisted on doing all his scenes lying down just because he could.
The plot, adapted from Jean Ray’s novel, is a surreal labyrinth involving a family full of weirdos who are either eccentric, cursed, mythological beings, or just really dramatic Europeans—it’s hard to tell, and the movie is absolutely not going to help you. Calling the film “dreamlike” is far too polite; Malpertuis is a full-on cinematic hallucination, the kind you’d have after reading too much Lovecraft in a drafty attic.
Visually, it’s gorgeous in that decadent, aggressively 1970s Euro-gothic way where every wall looks like it’s seen some things and every candle is absolutely a fire hazard. The camera glides, the colors pop, and the atmosphere is so thick you could spread it on toast.
Acting-wise, half the cast looks like they’re performing in an avant-garde stage play and the other half looks like they’re wondering how they got talked into this. But that’s the charm! Malpertuis doesn’t care if you understand it—it barely cares if it understands it. It just wants to lure you into its maze, pat you on the head, and whisper, “Good luck.”
Is it confusing? Absolutely. Does it make sense? Not unless you already have a PhD in Symbolism and European Weird. But is it mesmerizing? Oh, completely. Malpertuis is one of those rare films where you don’t watch it so much as you surrender to it.
In the end, it’s haunting, eccentric, deeply stylish, and just mythological enough to feel like someone adapted a fever dream from an ancient library. If you like your cinema strange, elegant, and proudly incomprehensible, Malpertuis will treat you very well—whether you understand what happened or not.
Bonus Materials
- New 4K restoration of the film overseen by director Harry Kümel
- Audio commentary by Harry Kümel and assistant director Françoise Levie (2005)
- New interview with Harry Kümel (2025)
- New interview with author and gothic horror expert Jonathan Rigby (2025)
- Malpertuis Archive – an archival documentary on the making of the film featuring Kümel, actor Mathieu Carrière and director of photography Gerry Fisher among others (2005)
- Orson Welles Uncut – a featurette on the casting of Welles, including rare outtakes of the actor (2005)
- Susan Hampshire: one actress, three parts – an archival interview with the actress, including screen tests and contributions from cast and crew (2005)
- Archival interview with Michel Bouquet and Harry Kümel from Belgian television (1971)
- Jean Ray, John Flanders 1887 – 1964 – an archival interview with the source novelist and co-writer of Malpertuis (2005)
- Malpertuis Revisited – Harry Kümel revisits locations from the film (2005, 4 mins)
- Malpertuis: The Cannes cut – the rejected version of the film which premiered in Cannes(100 mins, SD)
- The Warden of the Tomb – Kümel’s early film based on Franz Kafka’s play (1965, 37 mins)
- Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition 80-page perfect bound booklet featuring new writing by Lucas Balbo, Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, David Flint, Willow Catelyn Maclay, Jonathan Owen
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in rigid box and full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
