GUEST COLUMN: All About 1993's "The Washing Machine"
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All About Movie The Washing Machine (1993)
by Emma Wilson
At the time of production, the movie's director Ruggero Deodato expresses his disappointment about the film. He talks about how the movie was produced too fast hence raising some challenges with casting. He believes that the casting did not get done correctly, and the casts that appeared in the movie were not the correct group to portray the movie's intimacy. He expresses his desire to have a better group of actors do the film.
Some viewers would agree with the director's statement that the casting was not okay since the few actors carry the entire plot. The movie features four significant characters, inspector Alexander Stacey and the three sisters, namely Vida, Ludmilla, and Maria, in a murder case.
The Plot
You would agree with the director that due to the plot and the sensitivity of the whole content, perhaps a better cast was necessary; this explains why the movie never got an A-rating but a B and never had a theatre release in Italy.
Anyway, you find the movie intriguing; the opening scenes are like some of the creative scenes we see in the movies produced in the 2010s and beyond. Imagine starting a movie by discovering a body in the washing machine. In the beginning, we are shown the playboy Yuri having a pleasant time with his girlfriend Vida; the movie raises more curiosity by offering one of Vida's sisters spying on them.
Later, we get introduced to the third sister, who joins the scene as Yuri walks out of the apartment. Everything seems okay until Ludmilla, one of the sisters, wakes up due to some noises and finds Yuri's body in the washing machine.
The beginning of the movie introduces the audience to the anticipated murder investigation mystery. Everything becomes mysterious because there is nobody to display as the investigation goes on, nor the twin wash machine. This raises more suspense leaving the audience glued to the screen in the hope of discovering the body. It also leaves the audience questioning Alexander's objectivity in the investigations and why he hasn't found the body yet.
The scenes get better with many twists and turns to attract and retain viewers' attention. This movie is also filled with sexual sleaze while delivering the tale of love mixed with jealousy and murder, which is predominant and accompanied by suspense. The body disappears before the police arrive, and you get introduced to Alexander. He is not much focused on collecting information from the sisters by emphasizing the crime that was committed. The sisters decide to shift his focus and seduce him, sending him to a downwards spiral of lusts and obsession, which messes with his investigations.
His affairs with the sisters introduce us to many scenes of dresses falling, skirts sliding up, and shoes popping up, a common trend for movies of its time. For instance, Alexander goes to the museum to see Maria. Maria has a passion for helping the needy; she spends quality time with the blind besides offering music lessons. The museum was closed to the public on this day, but Maria and her blind colleagues were allowed in the museum and had permission to touch the sculptures. She walks up to Alexander and removes her clothes to allow him to feel her body. The movie stimulates adrenaline by showing the audience how dangerously close she came to being caught naked with colleagues and museum staff.
His obsessions with the suspects lead him astray and capture the audience's attention, who can't wait to find out what happened and answer certain mystery questions. Many want to find out where the washing machine and the body have been carefully hidden from the audience all this while. Every sister has their version of the story, making their testimony's reliability an issue for the cop.
Shortcomings
During the investigations, Alexander and his colleague Nikolai come across potential evidence such as a suitcase full of money, jewelry, and money laundering incidences. These scenes introduce many subplots, which I feel makes the movie complex and stretches the level of complexity. Anyway, the crew tries hard to contain all the sub-scenes and redirect them to the main plot of murder. The introduction of many plots also leaves the audience with a lot of suspense. We get introduced to subplots about S&M, which leads to a character committing suicide; after that, the whole subplots get abandoned, leaving the audience curious about what could have caused the death. The scenes leave many wondering whether it was a part of the story and how it connects to the whole scene.
Strengths
Though it did not get a good rating, it was a masterpiece of its time. Deodato tries to maintain the common trends in the era, such as simulated eroticism but interlinks the whole incidence to a mystery. This is also complemented by the movie's ability to manipulate the audience's moods by shifting their attention to other things when they expect other incidences to occur. Throughout the movie, the audience is introduced to other incidences as they await the climax and the final revelation, which does not come as anticipated.
Bottomline
The ending disappoints many; though considered a fake ending, it communicates more to come. The director tries to fit all the twists and turns into one plot; he covers all the incidence of eroticism and nights of deceit and other incidences to bring the movie to a grand finale which still leaves some audience wanting more or confused. For many, the end marked the beginning of curiosity about the movie. At the same time, some were disappointed and felt like continuing with the murder investigation and understanding what happened to the three sisters and what were they up to.
