The Ape Woman

The Ape Woman is a 1964 Italian-French drama film directed by Marco Ferreri. It was entered into the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. The film was inspired by the real-life story of Julia Pastrana a 19th-century woman exploited as a freak show attraction by her manager Theodore Lent. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." Plot Marie, the "Ape Woman", is completely covered with hair; the entrepreneur Focaccia discovers her in a convent in Naples; he marries her (a condition imposed by the nuns) and begins exhibiting her to the public. He tries to sell her to a man who insists on her virginity, but she is a little reluctant. After tasting success in Paris, she dies during childbirth. Focaccia recovers her mummy from the museum of natural history and exhibits it in Naples. Cast Ugo Tognazzi as Antonio Focaccia Annie Girardot as Maria Achille Majeroni as Majoroni Filippo Pompa Marcelli as Bruno as Sister Furgonicino (as Linda De Felice) Elvira Paolini as Chambermaid Ugo Rossi as Ponszoner