The Forbidden Room (Italian: Anima persa) is a 1977 thriller film directed by Dino Risi.

[2] Tino (Danilo Mattei) arrives as a guest in the large family home of the Stolz's, Fabio (Vittorio Gassman) and Elisa (Catherine Deneuve) in Venice, eager to take a painting class at art school.

To further disturb Tino's stay, there are strange noises coming from the attic, a place he is initially forbidden to visit, but which he then - thanks to the elderly housekeeper - discovers is the secret room where Berth, his uncle's brother, and ex-science professor.

The man apparently went mad after the death of Elisa's ten-year-old daughter, Beba, born from her first marriage and to whom he was very attached.

The Forbidden Room was based on the novel L'anima persa written by Giovanni Arpino and published in 1966.