In Pavia, Italy, the businessman Nino Monti (Marcello Mastroianni) lives a loveless marriage with his wife Teresa (Eva Maria Meineke). One day, he decides to go to his office by bus and he sees an old woman without small change to pay the bus ticket and he pays her ticket. While having dinner, he receives a phone call from the woman and she tells that she is Anna Brigatti (Romy Schneider), his former lover from twenty years ago. When his wife goes to the church, Nino decides to walk along the old neighborhood where Anna lived and she meets and kisses him. The disturbed Nino returns home and on the next morning, he learns that Anna´s former super was found dead and the suspect is her nephew. Soon Nino has an encounter with his friends and he learns that Anna died three years ago. He drives to her husband´s house in a nearby town to meet her husband, Conte Zighi (Wolfgang Preiss), but he finds Anna instead. He rekindles his love for her and they schedule an encounter by the lake. While rowing a boat with Anna, she falls off into the lake and vanishes. Nino calls the police and they do not find any corpse. What is happening to Nino?"Fantasma d'amore" is an uncanny and melancholic love story with beautiful cinematography. The greatest attractions are the adorable Romy Schneider and Marcello Mastroianni in the lead roles. The conclusion is ambiguous, with Nino obsessed for Anna and not letting her go to the afterlife. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Fantasma de Amor" ("Ghost of Love")

I have not seen much of director Dino Risi's work but this film is clearly not one of his best efforts. The script doesn't seem very original either, based on a novel by Mino Milani which mixes romance and mystery with a bit of horror and gore. We have seen it all before: a man meets by chance an old lover and the relationship is rekindled. The hitch is that the woman could be dead and he is having an affair with a ghost. Is she or isn't she? The whole movie runs on that premise except for a subplot in which another woman is brutally murdered and her runaway nephew is the main suspect. This adds the possibility of a diabolical revenge to our reunited love birds.The atmospheric color cinematography by veteran Tonino Delli Colli is adequate and there's some great music in the proceedings but if it were not for the magnificent Romy Schneider and the equally great Marcello Mastroianni all the mayhem would have been unbearable.By the way, this review is based on a DVD released in Spain which lists length as 85 minutes approx.

Intriguing romantic fantasy/drama: well-matched stars Marcello Mastroianni and Romy Schneider play former lovers, both conservatively married to other people who meet again after many years; however, the woman’s looks (and fortunes) have dissipated so much that the incident greatly disturbs the man.When he recounts the fact to his old buddies, he’s shocked to learn that one of them had signed the woman’s death certificate some three years earlier! Undaunted, he goes to her old home in town – where she turns up again…but he also becomes an unwitting witness to a bloody murder! At a party, he’s forewarned of an unexpected but fateful journey by a creepy-looking priest. In fact, a chance visit to Schneider’s own hometown occasions a third meeting at her husband’s mansion – where Mastroianni’s surprised to find her re-invigorated and more beautiful than ever! Having told his doctor/buddy of Schneider’s perfect health, the latter opts to show the hero her death certificate…but he expires from a heart attack before they can meet!The couple then reprise their affair and they take a boat ride for old time’s sake; on his way to pick her up, he sees a man on the beach (he turns out to be the nephew and suspected murderer of the gossiping woman he had previously seen killed!). Events take a tragic turn as the boat capsizes and Schneider is drowned before Mastroianni’s very eyes! He reports the fact to the Police, whose investigation turns up only the body of the presumed murderer – it could well be that both violent deaths were a case of retribution from beyond the grave! Guilt-stricken, our hero decides to confront the woman’s husband (Wolfgang Preiss) who drives him out, having re-awakened painful memories of his wife’s death – which he too claims to have occurred long before! The lovers meet casually one more time on a bridge – where she’s reverted back to her ‘old crone’ look. The last scene finds Mastroianni at a mental hospital where the nurse taking care of him is a dead-ringer for Schneider…! From this synopsis, one can get an idea of what the film is like: a celebration of “amour fou” in the vein of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948) mixed with a bit of ghoulishness; director Risi handles the twist-laden proceedings with his customary elegance but also an atypical glumness – indeed, the ‘second chance at love/time manipulation/doppelganger’ concept cried out for Alain Resnais!

This elegantly mounted romantic thriller has everything going for it except script and direction. Mastroianni and Schneider are excellent; Tonino delli Colli's photography is appropriately dreamy and atmospheric; Riz Ortolani's haunting themes are beautifully played by Benny Goodman, but Dino Risi's usual ability to combine broad comedy with pithy social comment is absent. The wildly old-fashioned plot machinations get sillier and sillier, until you just want it all to stop.