A VHS favourite of mine back in the day and still more fun than a bad, Italian Michael Dudikoff look-a-like can shake a katana at.
Letterboxd Review
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Demons (1985)
A VHS favourite of mine back in the day and still more fun than a bad, Italian Michael Dudikoff look-a-like can shake a katana at.
Letterboxd Review
Friday, 7 October 2016
Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971)
Giancarlo Giannini is excellent as disillusioned police inspector Tellini and the film features enough police procedure to allow it to be classed as a poliziotteschi/giallo hybrid.
Nope-Tober: Random Shit for an Ill-disciplined Mind
Letterboxd Review
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
The Black Cat (1981)
Bad things about cats
- They shit in your garden.
- They climb your curtains and your wife's legs.
- They steal your elderly neighbour's roast beef.
- Trying to get two of them in a box to take to the vet is a Gordian knot sized problem.
- Until you check, you can never be entirely sure if the little fuckers are alive or dead.
- They are the harbingers of death and leave misery in their wake.
- They are not wasps.
Letterboxd Review
Friday, 23 September 2016
Madhouse (1981)
A slow but well-crafted Giallo-tinged slasher that can be quite unnerving at times and has a great finale - yes, I even liked the dog hand-puppet! There's a decent amount of blood with a face smashing, some dog kills, stabbings and a nice hatchet job.
Not bad at all.
Nope-Tober: Random Shit for an Ill-disciplined Mind
Letterboxd Review
Sunday, 18 September 2016
Burial Ground (1981)
As wonderful and skanky as the rubber-masked and latex encrusted zombies are, they pale into insignificance once you've met Michael! A man-child so weird and spooky that the term 'uncanny valley' just doesn't do him justice. He's at the bottom of an uncanny crevasse, deeper and darker than the Mariana Trench!
At the 30 minute mark, you're thinking "how the fuck can they keep up this pace for another hour?" but it just keeps on giving! Could this be the perfect Italian zombie film?
I'm left with a migraine-inducing amount of questions but...
1) What the fuck was a bear-trap doing in the garden?
2) Why is green paint so flammable?
Fucking bonkers!
"You're getting a raise from me all right, but it has nothing to do with money."
Nope-Tober: Random Shit for an Ill-disciplined Mind
Letterboxd Review
Thursday, 8 September 2016
A Bay of Blood (1971)
Another great film from Bava with twisty-turns, a high body-count, grisly death scenes (Bobby's billhook to the face was a beauty and the double-spear-death would be resurrected nearly 10 years later in Friday the 13th), those octopuses, and what an ending!
Nope-Tober: Random Shit for an Ill-disciplined Mind
Letterboxd Review
Wednesday, 8 June 2016
The Antichrist (1974)
Letterboxd Review
Tuesday, 7 June 2016
Zombi 3 (1988)
"I'm feeling better Patricia, but I'm thirsty... for your blood!"
Letterboxd Review
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976)
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man is great title but will the film live up to it?
Directed by Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, House on the Edge of the Park), with a screenplay by Fernando Di Leo (Milano Calibro 9, The Boss) and starring Marc Porel (Don't Torture a Duckling, The Psychic) as Fred and Ray Lovelock (Almost Human, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) as Tony; a pair of plain clothes police officers who belong to "The Special Squad". They don't care about the rules and if anyone at city hall doesn't like it, they can swivel! Backing them up is their boss Adolfo Celi (Thunderball). How's that for an exploitation pedigree!
There really isn't much of a plot. There's a basic storyline in which our two heroes try to take down the local kingpin who, meanwhile, is trying to discover their identities. That's not really very important as it's all about how they get to that end point. It seems that there's a shoot-out, car/bike chase, punch-up or sex every 10 minutes.
The film starts with Lovelock (in full-on Robert Redford mode) getting a "backy" from Porel on his motorbike to some groovy sounds. They both look so clean cut. It's almost like a younger and more handsome Ratso giving Joe Buck a ride. This is a real pair of handsome fuckers! However, this no ordinary bike ride and the dynamic duo foil a nasty mugging and take off after the scumbags and into what is probably the best vehicle chase scene in Italian cinema history; impressively chaotic and destructive. No cardboard boxes or sheets of glass were harmed although a poor guide dog doesn't fair too well.
From here on in the film is a wild storm of sex and guns.
Often compared to Dirty Harry, to me Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man is more like those boy's own, buddy cop movies and shows from the 1970s: Starsky & Hutch, The Professionals, The Sweeney, and the freeze-frame ending was straight out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I've also read about the homoerotic subtext, but I believe that the two leads are more like two little boys who just never grew up. The women in the film treat them as boys and not men. The city is their playground where they play "war" against another gang of boys (note the target practice scene in the quarry at 01:12:00). When you think about it, most of these type of films follow the same pattern of men as boys and I don't think that there's anything particularly wrong with that at all. Fred and Tony may be sociopathic boys, but boys nonetheless.
Yes, there's a fair amount of chauvinism but this is tempered quite brilliantly by the attitudes of the women. During one scene they ask their boss's secretary with which of them she'd like to sleep; she replies with an unexpectedly brilliant comeback. A little while later there's a scene where both Tony and Fred are screwing a suspect's sister, the woman is dominant throughout and exhausts the men. Finally, their libido's nearly gets them killed. Most progressive and un-Italian!
The performances are terrific with a real chemistry showing between the two leads. There's a cool and funky soundtrack that's all full of horns, Rhodes keyboard and loads of groove. The film is immaculately shot with really impressive camera-work during the action scenes and some excellent gore effects with loads of Humbrol red blood. The dialogue has a natural touch and doesn't sound at all forced. It's also nicely witty in places.
The 88 Films Blu-Ray has an excellent picture and sound. The subs are pretty good and seem to follow the dialogue with only the occasional spelling or grammatical error. The only extras are a trailer and some stills, but both English and Italian soundtracks are included.
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man has high octane thrills, handsome fuckers with guns, bike chases and explosions. It's loud, crude, funny and energetic. One of the finest buddy/cop movies ever made.
Letterboxd Review
Sunday, 13 December 2015
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)
Young boys are being murdered in a beautiful Italian town and it's up the local carabinieri and a reporter to discover the rotten truth that lurks beneath its idyllic surface.
Don't Torture a Duckling stars the beautiful Florinda Balkan, previously seen in Fulci's Lizard in a Woman's Skin, the equally stunning Barbara Bouchet (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times), and Tomas Milian from Umberto Lenzi's violent poliziotteschi, Almost Human.
The film starts as it means to go on with a spooky opening scene of Bolkan's character, Maciara (an alleged local witch) digging up the skeleton of a young child in the hills outside a medieval Italian town. It's here that Fulci starts several juxtapositions running throughout the film, with the old stone buildings of the town and the new motorway overpasses that lead to it.
Fulci doesn't hang around and the suspects are introduced almost immediately; as well as Maciara there is Barra, a local peeping tom and Bouchet's character Patrizia, a rich young thing who loves to flirt with young boys.
The police are not totally ineffectual for once, although they are very quick to jump to conclusions and seem intent on solving the murders as quickly as possible no matter who gets hurt on the way. Running parallel to their investigations are the enquiries made by Martelli, a newspaper reporter played by Milian. Both methods run counter-productive to each other with the police leaping from suspect to suspect using overwhelming force, supposition and aggression, thus causing tension and breeding suspicion in the town. Whilst the quiet detective work of Martelli at first seems more effective it also has its problems; the most obvious being his rearranging of a crime scene to create a better photo for his newspaper.
The tone of the film is not unlike the rural horror films of the sixties. Duckling is shot through with the old: the crumbling town, witchcraft, the medieval trappings of Catholicism, dark churches, skeletal statues, ritual and litany intersecting with the new: the motorway overpasses, radio soap operas, the modernity of Patrizia's house and lifestyle. Juxtaposition and duality abound: rich/poor, old/new, tradition/modernity, outward appearances/inward morality, Christianity/Paganism, logic/superstition, innocence/sexuality, tolerance/persecution, light Patrizia/dark Maciara.
Very nicely shot and filled with close-ups and medium shots which, as well as giving the film an air of claustrophobia also does a great job of internalising the collective grief of the town. Some of the fast edits are excellent, with the same character moving from one location and time to another without any jarring at all.
There are several shocking moments, unusually involving the discovery of dead children and there are some very good, infrequent gore scenes of the type that Fulci is justly famous for. The scene where Maciara is attacked is extremely well done and very similar to the violent chain whipping from his later film, The Beyond. Also, the duck motif (obviously in the name but also as a child's toy in the third act) pops up again in Fulci's later exploitation classic The New York Ripper. Overall, for once Fulci is extremely restrained and forgoes his usual exploitative touches.
The film features an atmospheric soundtrack by the prolific Riz Ortolani (Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye, Cannibal Holocaust) although I wasn't too sure about the rock and pop tracks used during the persecution of Balkan's character. It does fit with the theme of duality but it is more than a little jarring.
The children are great and full of devil-may-care attitude, daring do, cigarettes, catapults, grazed knees and add a real air of realism to the film. Balkan is all wild hair and wide staring eyes - she really does look like she stepped out of Witchfinder General. Milian is very good as the dogged reporter but is a little underused in the first two acts. Really though the film belongs to the women and children.
The picture is okay but a little blurry or dark in places but really deserves a proper Blu-Ray release. Watch it as a double bill with The House with Laughing Windows or Who Saw Her Die.
Don't Torture a Duckling deserves its reputation as a gialli classic.
Letterboxd Review
Friday, 11 December 2015
Who Saw Her Die? (1972)
I'm a big fan of the social commentary lurking behind Aldo Lado's 1975 rape revenge flick, Night Train Murders (L'ultimo treno della notte) and his 1971 gialli Short Night of Glass Dolls (La corta notte delle bambole di vetro), and I'm hoping that Who Saw Her Die? will similarly deliver the goods.
Made a year before Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, Lado's Who Saw Her Die? shares similar themes of grief and guilt. Even the famous sex scene is here, admittedly in an abbreviated form but it still shows the outpouring of grief through sex.
In France, a young girl is viciously murdered whilst sledding by a mysterious black clothed killer. We are immediately asked the question "Who Saw Her Die?" in thick red lettering seen through the killer's black veil. It is simultaneously an open invitation for the viewer to solve the crime and also an indictment of our passivity as bystanders. Is it our fault that she died? Easily the best and most intriguing title sequence I've seen in a gialli.
The action then shifts to Venice and sculptor Franco (played by George Lazenby, who only two films earlier was on top of the world playing James Bond) and his young daughter Roberta. The wife/mother is absent and we learn that the couple have drifted apart. Instead of rushing headlong into the killings, Lado takes his time and introduces us to the film's characters. We lean about them, their backgrounds, motivations, relationships. We start to care about them.
From this point on the suspects and red herrings are laid on thick and fast. Is the killer the man who was scarred in a fencing accident, the friend who takes a little too much interest in the young Roberta? The decadent art dealer? Someone else entirely? The tension is then really cranked up with multiple failed attempts to kill Roberta until finally the inevitable happens. The killer strikes again.
From here on we follow Franco on a frantic hunt through labyrinthine alleys as Venice shifts from being beautiful and filled with laughter to a dark place that is twisted, confusing and frustrating. Meanwhile the killer shifts their attention from children to anyone who may have seen Roberta die.
The last 20 minutes of the film will have you on the edge of your seat as suspect after suspect is dealt with, until the final shocking reveal.
There is great cinematography from Franco Di Giacomo (Il Postino) and Ennio Morricone's soundtrack of children singing is evocative and fits both the film and its themes well. Lazenby is terrific as the grieving father and his performance far surpasses that of his 007. Nicoletta Elmi, who plays his daughter, is a little star who obviously had great chemistry with Lazenby and later appeared in both Dario Argento's Deep Red and Lamberto Bava's Demons.
As for the social commentary: it does seem that Lado, yet again, has it in for the bourgeoisie. It may not be as overt as in Night Train Murders but it's there nonetheless. The victims are daughters of upper middle class families (the first has a nanny, the second's father is a sculptor). Venice itself being an affluent and bohemian location. Conversations about art, money, travel are heard throughout the film. Even something as simple as the white clothes that the father and his friends wear display social position - no poor person could afford to wear something that could get dirty so easily. Also many of the main characters are portrayed as morally bankrupt and corrupt; of course there's one thing more corrupt to a socialist than the bourgeoisie but I don't want to give the game away. Finally there's also a strong hint of the type of conspiracy found in Lado's Short Night of Glass Dolls.
Who Saw Her Die is, like Short Night of Glass Dolls, not too bloody but what blood there is is of that bright red Italian stuff that looks like Humbrol enamel paint, and either you love it or hate it. I love it.
The quality of the Shameless DVD was very good with a sharp and colourful print (apart from what seems to be the occasional splicing fuckup), and a soundtrack that doesn't overpower the clear dialogue. In fact the dialogue is far better than the usual badly translated dubbing we get with Italian films.
I may be biased due to my Lado love but I really enjoyed this film and think it has a lot to offer. A top notch gialli!
Letterboxd Review
Thursday, 12 November 2015
The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)
So, are we ready to head down the rabbit hole? There may be a few small spoilers on the way.
Influenced by the first two films in Polanski's Apartment Trilogy (Repulsion [1966], Rosemary's Baby [1968]), the occult films of the late 1960s (Night of the Eagle sprigs to mind), a touch of Gaslight [1940/1944] and the psychology hidden behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Perfume of the Lady in Black is a gialli that plays with the standard elements of the genre to give us a hallucinatory psychodrama instead of a slasher flick. Yes it has certain well-known giallo motifs: light/shadow, architecture, mental collapse, hallucinations, the macabre, sex/violence, mirrors and glass, spiral staircases, and of course J&B Whiskey; but don't go expecting a black gloved killer and an ending that wraps everything up in a nice neat package.
Mimsy Farmer plays Silvia, a chemist who begins to see visions of her dead mother and flashbacks to her life as a child, her mother's suicide, abandonment by her father and abuse by her mother's lover. Slowly her world starts to crumble but is it her memories or a bizarre conspiracy that causes her breakdown.
Yes, The Perfume of the Lady in Black does borrows liberally from Rosemary's Baby but this is very much it's own film and to suggest otherwise does it a great disservice. The theme of witchcraft and the paranormal is introduced subtly and from various sources: the wind rustling through the trees whilst Silvia looks at her mother's grave, the black cat, small incidental conversations witchcraft, the clairvoyant, a thunderstorm. We get the idea that something supernatural is involved but it's never actually stated as such. The same goes for the conspiracy; friends and family act a little oddly, strangers glance knowingly, coincidences abound, but nothing is too obvious. In fact we start to feel as paranoid as Silvia.
Throughout the film we have the idea of dreams as reality. A cat seen in a vision later appears in real life, likewise with a vase and this is where my earlier reference to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland comes in. At one point in the film Sylvia, in effect, grows smaller as she conjures a vision of herself as a child who then accompanies her throughout the last third of the film. Even the Mad Hatter's tea party makes a horrific appearance. Just like Alice, Sylvia builds her own world from the crumbling bricks of her psyche and in this world everything is a little skewed and off centre.
Childhood is another major theme throughout and Farmer portrays Sylvia as innocent and childlike, from her waif-like appearance (Rosemary's Baby again) to the toys (small doll, model theatre, Mickey Mouse clock, the Alice in Wonderland book) she still keeps from her childhood. During a game of tennis, she pricks her hand on a nail (a fairytale needle or thorn if ever there was one) and her boyfriend's business partner "kisses it better". There is even the proverbial "monster under the bed" in the shape of her mother's lover. This all leads slowly towards the inevitable corruption of childhood and her final break from reality. We know her mental collapse is complete when, in a taxidermist's, she writes her childhood address down in a hesitant child's handwriting. Unfortunately all this leads to the greatest crime and the destroyer of innocence - paedophilia. Firstly implied in a vision and then later it becomes reality when, as an adult, she is raped by the same man from her vision; her dress, mental state and the way she cowers makes her a child again.
Oddly, at the end of the film she sprays herself with perfume and dresses like her mother. She replaces her mother and is the parent to her hallucination of the child Sylvia. She becomes her own mother.
Anyway, I'll leave it there before I give too much away.
The creepiness of the supporting characters is perfectly handled. They're not spooky in that John Carradine "You're all doomed" way, it's more subtle with little gestures, glances and demeanour that makes you shiver.
Beautifully shot by cinematographer Mario Masini with bright, hyper-real colours (I've no idea what they shot on but it's got that lovely Eastman or Technicolor feel). I wouldn't be surprised if Argento watched this film before making Suspiria as it's a real kaleidoscope of colours.
The score is suitably menacing with discordant violins and some well judged silences. There is some nice use of diegetic sound during a scene in a shop.
There is no black gloved killer in The Perfume of the Lady in Black, but it is definitely gialli of the highest order and I loved every minute of it.
"Life, what is it but a dream?"
Letterboxd Review
Sunday, 1 November 2015
Milano Calibro 9 (1972)
A simple story of a missing $300,000 which the local mob, headed by il Americano, assumes has hidden by Ugo. Recently released from prison, Ugo must either find the money and clear his name with the Americano or die. As if that's not enough, Ugo has to deal with the local Milano fuzz.
Milano Calibro 9 is an Italian crime thriller from '72 with a super cool title (damn those Italians and their titles!) and it is not your average Poliziotteschi - this film adds a dash of socialism to the mix of guns, money and girls.
Gastone Moschin is terrific as the morose Ugo. While everything around him is exploding he somehow manages to be the calm in the eye of the storm. Even when getting slapped around you know that there will be payback, even if you're not entirely sure how or when. Of course we need a hothead to play against taciturn Ugo and that is ably supplied by Mario Adorf's Rocco. A veritable whirlwind of energy, wisecracks, gurning and one of the dirtiest laughs I've heard on screen. He reminded me of a cross between George Cole's Flash Harry from the St. Trinians films and Pops from the League of Gentlemen - a scenery chewing spiv! Then we have il Americano, played by guess who? Only fucking Hart to Hart's Lionel Stander!
So where does the socialism come from? The police! We have the usual incompetent police force, but this time it's not their stupidity that stops them from solving the crime, it's their inability to work together without bickering over politics. We have one detective who believes in the capitalist economy and the other who wants prison reform and the re-distribution of wealth. This is also mirrored with the differences between il Americano (the capitalist) and Ugo (the socialist).
Another interesting theme is the way the film juxtaposes the traditional against the modern, with Ugo's old boss Don Vincenzo, now living in a crumbling tenement with his ageing enforcer Chino, against il Americano's brash young thugs. The director could also be showing us the effect of American influences on Italian society (the old traditional Don in poor health, blind and with no influence versus il Americano).
To balance the political message we have the usual Poliziotteschi action sequences including the novel use of dynamite to get rid of some bodies. There are black Mercedes', shoot-outs, explosions, punch ups and go-go dancing. Even J&B Whisky makes makes several, hilariously obvious, appearances.
Some favourite moments: Rocco silencing his punch by pushing a pillow against someone's face; the aforementioned dynamite scene; the swimming pool shot towards the end looking remarkably like the scene from Magnum Force (even though that film came out a year later); the way Chino doesn't throw his pistol away (a la Hollywood) when it's empty.
Possibly my favourite scene though is when Chino fights Rocco and his hoods. Rocco finds out that it is Chino (and by implication Don Vincenzo) he is fighting and even though Chino is obviously washed-up, Rocco still gives back the money he stole from Ugo and asks permission to leave the apartment. Money and influence comes and goes; reputation is everything in Milano Calibro 9.
The film is economically shot and very nicely paced. The performances are excellent all round and the soundtrack is full of strings, heavy bass, flaming guitars and flutes. Groovy, with a heavy Euro-funk vibe that manages to not come over like a continental Starsky & Hutch. The Arrow Blu-Ray is excellent with no noticeable DNR and a nice subtle grain.
Whichever way you look at it Milano Calibro 9 is a fine film with hidden depths.
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Hitch-Hike (1977)
Rather than your average bloody and violent poliziotteschi /exploitation film, Hitch-Hike comes over as more of a character study with exploitation elements. Each of the three main characters are well rounded and essential to the story, with the husband (Nero) being an unsuccessful journalist who relies on his wife's inheritance to survive and treats her as a possession to be protected. The hiker (Hess) is a man used to taking what he wants and treats the woman as a trophy to be won. Hess is honest in his brutality whereas Nero is the typical apologetic wife-beater. The wife (Cléry) slowly gains control over her life and understands that she is not defined by men.
Hitch-Hike is a film in the grand-tradition of "Lonely Road" films such as The Hitcher, Spoorloos (The Vanishing) and Duel where the road and the journey is as important as the characters and propels the plot. This has prompted me to build a list of similar films which I'll add to the review when complete. The photography by Franco Di Giacomo and Giuseppe Ruzzolini is stunning and really captures the wide open spaces with only a few lapses in focus. The cast is great with both Hess and Nero (against type) playing nasty bastards perfectly and Cléry bringing great strength and subtlety to her character. The soundtrack is fantastic with Ennio Morricone excelling himself with a dirty desert influenced score that fits the film like a glove.
There is one particular moment during the film that I would have assumed that the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) would have trouble with passing uncut and that's the pivotal rape scene. Whilst there are various rapes throughout the film this particular scene, if taken out of context, has Cléry's character seemingly enjoy being raped. As the BBFC have passed the film uncut (2015), I think they agree that Cléry does not submit to the rape or actually enjoy it. She instead takes control and says, "this is my body, and I am allowing you to have sex with me". This nullifies the rape, removing control from Hess and taking it for herself. Importantly during this scene, she continually looks at her husband, displaying that he too does not own her. It's an interesting, potentially inflammatory scene and I would be interested to hear what others think.
If there is a fault, I would say the last five minutes, as alluded to above, negate a lot of the preceding character building. Yes, it's a perfect exploitation ending, but it could have been so much better.
I've hitched a fair bit in my life and also offered lifts to hikers and I know that there's always that first few seconds when you get in the car (or vice-versa) where you wonder if the person opposite you is be a nutter. In fact I've only ever had one experience even remotely like that when I once gave a lift to an armed robber going to see his parole officer, and he turned out to be quite a lovely bloke.
Hitch-Hike is a great exploitation film-cum-character study that deserves to be on your watch-list.
Letterboxd Review
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Seven Death's In the Cats Eye (1973)
Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye is a Gothic horror (the castle, crypt, fog, secret passages, candles), heavily influenced by the Hammer films of the period and whilst not a pure gialli it does contain various superficial motifs including black gloves, bizarre dreams, sex and a straight razor. As well as Hammer there are touches of Edgar Allan Poe, with the, admittedly terrible, ape being a nod towards his Murders in the Rue Morgue short story, considered the be the worlds first modern whodunnit, and also the inclusion of the cat as a constant witness (The Black Cat). There are some nice touches of humour; one that jumped out at me, whether intentional or not, was when James mentions that the blood on his palette knife is actually red paint - and we all know that Italian movie blood looks just like bright red paint!
The cast are all pretty good with Jane Birkin standing out as a wholesome young naïf. The photography and lighting is above standard and sometimes rises to the great; the zoomed freeze-frame on James and Corrinda stands out (used to great effect in Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot), as did the lighting in the dark castle passageways and the crypt. The soundtrack is suitably overblown and melodramatic with kettle drums, quivering violins and crescendoing horns.
The Blue Underground transfer was good with only a slightly muddy soundtrack slightly marring what would otherwise be a great DVD. Although the dialogue is all in English there are three scenes in the original Italian which I'm guessing were cut from the international release.
Agatha Christie crossed with Poe and M.R. James with a dash of Nancy Drew.
If Hammer did giallo then it would look something like Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye.
Je t'aime!
Letterboxd Review
Sunday, 7 June 2015
Rabid Dogs (1974)
The film starts with an outstanding and typically "Bava" title sequence in lurid colours and then straight into the action with a violent robbery. During this scene the editing is frenetic and almost nonsensical. You have no real idea what is going on. A bit like what I would guess a robbery would be like! This is followed by an escape in a wee little Fiat in which gigantic George Eastman is continually bumping and rubbing his head on the ceiling. Following a police chase the criminals take a father and his young, ill son and an unrelated young woman hostage and make a break for the countryside. It's here that the rest of the film takes place - in real time, and this is the cause of most of the issues with the film.
After such a frantic first act there's no way that Bava could keep up the pace and the film drags in places as we are treated to endless shots of cornfields and gorges interspersed with some pretty nasty dialogue and exploitation scenes. Rabid Dogs was filmed at the end of Bava's career and only six years before his death. On occasion, I could almost feel Bava's embarrassment at filming the more exploitative scenes and could imagine the producers saying to Bava: "Come on Mario, this is what the audience want nowadays! They don't want shadows and atmosphere. They want humiliation, piss and rape" and then Bava, crying silently into his cappuccino. Something that could have helped would have been some focus on the Police's attempt to stop them which, at least for me, makes Lenzi's Almost Human the superior film.
The criminals are full of menace and unpredictable and barely controlled aggression. Bava doesn't want you to feel any form of sympathy with them. There is none of the romanticisation that is used to coat villains in today's films. The title Rabid Dogs is perfect as you can almost see the foam spilling from their mouths. The blood is of that 70's Italian type; thick and bright and unnaturally red. The photography and editing are great, but the score is far less successful with some misjudged organ driven jazz funk being used over a chase through a cornfield being a case in point. It's not used for emphasis or even for counterpoint (a'la Last House on the Left - which was obviously an influence on other aspects of this film), it's just like someone the their record player on. There's a nice twist at the end that I unfortunately guessed a good 45 minutes before it happened - it was still good when it happened though. As for the restoration? There are colour and resolution shifts during the scenes cut from the Kidnapped version which is understandable considering this original cut of the film was originally thought lost and perhaps never even fully edited. These are not really too intrusive and we should be grateful to Arrow for at least attempting what must have been a difficult restoration. Finally, J&B Whiskey makes a welcome appearance!
Where's One-Shot Finch when you need him.
Original Letterboxd review
Monday, 25 May 2015
Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
Even from the start credits I know I'm in for a treat. The music, the visuals, and then Florinda Bolkan; I'm overdosing on gorgeousness! A bewildered Bolkan, breathing heavily, runs down a train corridor which then beautifully segues to her still running, but this time down a white corridor filled with naked bodies, fucking. Falling, then running again, this time in darkness, and finally lesbian sex on a Marilyn Monroe style red bed. Fucking hell, this is good!
Bolkan plays Carol Hammond, daughter of a politician, wife of a cheating husband. She and her husband are not sleeping together and because of this sexual frustration she dreams of making love to Julia, her next door neighbour - the only person she can get sexual satisfaction from. Everyone around Carol is having sex, even the old fluorescent woman upstairs is fucking her chauffeur. Then the dreams turn nasty and she kills her dream lover and Carol is the main suspect. But hold on, this is gialli and we can be certain that things are never as simple as they appear.
Bolkan is brilliant as Carol and Fulci uses every trick in the book to highlight her neuroses including some wonderfully wobbly and slightly distorted POV shots.
In Woman in a Lizard's Skin we have art, sexual repression, anticathexis, gore, fetishism, police procedural, dreams as reality (Descartes First Meditation), and red herrings aplenty. Man, this plot twists and turns like a twisty turny thing! And that bat scene - it sure beat the tarantulas in The Beyond!
The film is stunningly shot and edited with judicious use of POV, split screen, wipes, macro zoom shots, wild pans. A great soundtrack that I think I may have to track down on CD, and that cover; a great piece of graphic design. Regarding the audio; it's really weird watching an Italian film set in London with English characters speaking Italian! I think I may try the English dubbed version next time.
I'm a big fan of Fulci's horror films and own four of them but this beats them hands-down. A trippy mindfuck of a psycho-sexual giallo masterpiece.
Original letterboxd review
Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970)
Blue Underground DVD with English dubbing.Just how far would you go to protect your husband?
The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion is a film made at the tail-end of the sixties sexual revolution and portrays a traditional marriage torn apart by domination (both inside by her husband and outside by a sex-crazed blackmailer), and the search for liberation. Everything this "good wife" does is ordered; don't move, stay there, be quiet, stop it. She has no free will and flaps around like a puppet.
As an example of how much of a dick her husband is: his wife is thrown to the ground, has her dress cut open and a knife held to her throat and he says "Yes, but he actually didn't do anything. He just held you down. Threatened you. Probably some kind of prank".
An unusual giallo in that you think you know what's happening but not why; what is the motive? There's jealously, architecture, a spiral staircase, art, dreams, oddles of flashbacks, bondage, mental collapse, an external investigator, there's even some black outfits and gloves although not where you expect them and Carlsberg lager replaces the usual J&B Whiskey product placement. The film is quite noir'ish with flashbacks and voice-overs and good use of lighting and shadow. There is one film that springs to mind when watching this, but don't click on the link if you don't want a major spoiler. The first part moves quite slowly and has a lack of atmosphere and tension but gathers steam towards the end.
The dialogue is pretty poor in places and I don't think an Italian soundtrack would have helped - maybe it's that I've been spoiled lately. It's nicely shot with another groovy score by Morricone.
The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion is chock full of innuendo, suggestion and sex, perversion, and BDSM. A pretty bloodless giallo with a distinct lack of bodies but I quite liked it.
Finally: there's a tortoise in it for no apparent reason! Can anyone tell me why it's there? Did I miss something?
Original letterboxd review
Sunday, 24 May 2015
The House with Laughing Windows (1976)
The weirdness starts from the very beginning. The following voice-over plays whilst a young man is shown being stabbed to death:
"My colours... my colours...
They run hot in my veins...
So soft, my colours...
My colours are soft, like Autumn,
they are like fresh blood...
They are smooth like syphilis
And they... they get into people's eyes
contaminating everyone.
My colours
they flow through my veins
My Lord
and they get far... far away
Yes they go far.
One must die for them.
Oh my lord, I must purge myself
get them out. Out...
Purity
These are the colours. All my colours
Son of a bitch
Here we come. My Lord, I feel death coming
He's dying.
I need purity, I need to be pure.
Keep him still."
The premise is pretty Lovecraftian. A young artist starts work restoring a fresco of Saint Sebastian (symbolically pierced with knives rather than arrows) and uncovers a story of torture and madness in the idyllic Italian countryside!
The House with Laughing Windows is full of strange characters, surreal imagery and the bizarre superimposed over the normal; it almost seemed like a David Lynch film. Everything is slightly off-kilter. Like the village is in a different, distorted plane of reality. The colours are lurid, too bright, too vivid, unreal, like a grotesque painting by the mad artist featured in the film's plot!
While it may not have a black gloved killer this is most definitely giallo, but giallo of a strange sort. There's an outsider as the investigator, the macabre, disturbing phone calls, interesting architecture, a shed-load of strange and suspicious characters, red herrings, sex, perversion, insanity, obsession, death, blood, and a dream like quality. Giallo. Then there's the mouse cooking advice, the refrigerator full of snails, the odd flower lady (or, going back to Lynch, the log lady).
You can definitely see where Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani got their inspiration from for Amer and All the Colours of Your Body's Tears, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was an influence on TV's The League of Gentlemen.
The House with Laughing Windows is a rural giallo with a screenplay by H.P. Lovecraft (the madness, if not the cosmic horror) and directed by an Italian David Lynch. I'd love to see this on Blu-Ray!
Pupi Avati, you mad bastard!
Original letterboxd review
Saturday, 23 May 2015
Almost Human (1974)
A small time crook in search of respect and the big score, descends into a pit of violence and mayhem.
I think this may be my first Poliziotteschi and I'm pretty excited! I've seen a far few gialli, the usual Italian cannibal and zombie films, but Crimi films have somehow always escaped my attention. Here's goes...
The first shot shows a black Citroen DS, so we're off to a good start as I always identify this car with Euro-crime thrillers. Admitted in the past these films have nearly always been French and star Alain Delon but viva Italia! We then move to a botched kidnapping and a pretty thrilling and very nicely shot car chase through the streets of Milan. Good stuff!
Tomas Milan plays Giulio Sacchi, a repulsive and cowardly small time crook eager to move up in the crime world and, after bungling a kidnapping for some "proper" criminals, strikes out on his own with another kidnapping - this time of a rich businessman's daughter. Whiny and pathetic Sacchi is willing to do anything to get noticed including killing anyone who gets in his way. It's almost like school - a kid gets picked on and then, over-compensating for his perceived weakness, bullies other children weaker than himself. In one scene he even gets his hostage to write "They'll put my head in the toilet bowl, and they will pull the chain" - he has become the school bully and is demanding respect.
Milan is excellent as Sacchi and seems to be channelling Tony Montana, with his shades, haircut and matchstick chewing (yes, I know that this film is 9 years older than Scarface - but it's true!). Montana would never be seen dead in a duffle-coat though. Sacchi is a man who makes up for his lack of intelligence and incompetence with violence. He wants everything but is too lazy to work for it, unlike the cops who work hard, get paid little but finally win out.
Speaking of which... Henry Silva is great as Walter Grandi, a calm and efficient police detective, and serves as a counterpoint to the out of control brutality of Sacchi. Grandi is the first to relalise that the body count is only going to increase as Milan spins out of control and that he needs to be stopped, at whatever cost.
There seems to be two subtle themes to Almost Human: religious and societal subjugation of the poor. In one memorable scene Sacchi and his cronies are hiring guns from a dealer called "Daddy" who refers to his firearms using reverence and religious quotes. Religion features again when the criminals break into a rich person's home and also occur later in the film. The rich are portrayed as just as criminal as Sacchi and his brethren, intent on making money with as little effort as possible (the 1973 oil crisis and how it will make money for the rich).
Almost Human is a film where you don't cheer on the bad guy. Sacchi is no Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and poor alike and kills anyone who gets in his way. He has no redeeming features at all and is throughly repulsive. I won't give away the ending although, to be honest, if you know your crime films you know how it ends. The law is an ass and you need to fight violence with violence.
The soundtrack is clear but has occasional pops and crackles. The image is fine if a little blurry at times. The subs are in yellow and were adequate if sometimes a little to literal. Morricone nails the score yet again!
Original letterboxd review
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)