trashfilmaddict

I'm alive.

2012-01-16T15:41:00.005Z

Hello world.

Been living without the internet for the past six months or so.

Done a bit of filmmaking during this period.

Check it out if you feel like it.

ZÄRTLICHKEIT from P.Schund on Vimeo.

possible of the impossible : Godard's NOTRE MUSIQUE (2004)

2011-07-19T15:52:00.001+01:00

If you've seen any post-1968 Godard, you'll feel at home with NOTRE MUSIQUE.
Lack of story, suspence, action. Bare ideas.
Familiar didactic offscreen commentary.
That deliberate editing (anti-editing?) which is not building up an illusion of fluid continuity and seamless cuts but violently clashing images and sound.
To destroy, disembowel traditional narrative.

Grainy B/W newsreel footage VS oversaturated, fuzzy video.

Silence VS music.

No matter how much JLG pisses me off,I always find myself coming back for more.
A couple of weeks back I was left very frustrated with FILM SOCIALISME(this film was clearly designed to frustrate). Still, I was drawn to more Godard. NOTRE MUSIQUE is perfectly bearable (compared to FILM SOCIALISME) and very nice to look at.

Forget APOCALYPCE NOW. When it comes to cinematic war atrocities, Godrad's your man!
He clearly knows how to pile on amazing stock footage from various sources to create an operatic, confusing, almost orgasmic collage of explosions and corpses.

Despite the grim subject matter, NOTRE MUSIQUE is not depressing and very easy on the eyes.

I would definitely recommend it over such reasonably well-known stuff as WEEKEND(1967) PASSION (1982) or the overlong HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA (1988-1998)

bewildering and atmospheric: THE CATALYST

2011-07-12T15:59:00.003+01:00

Jerome is a painter. He's eager to express pain and suffering on canvas. So eager that he chooses to cause/experience real violence in order to channel it into his work. His loved one falls victim to his obsession and soon other people who get exposed to Jerome's work begin to lose lives unable to cope with the anguish he so powerfully portrayed.

the happy couple

THE CATALYST is a recent short by Kidderminster-based filmmaker Thomas Lee Rutter (his brother Andrew John Rutter is also a filmmaker, the author of STATICA).
Recently I received a screener DVD entitled Quadro Bizarro which contains 4 short films including THE CATALYST. At about 17 minutes, THE CATALYST is quite tight and barrages the viewer with beautiful, grainy and at times surreal images. The creepy narration helps shape the unusual but vaguely connected scenes into a coherent whole.

A cameo by the director himself (left)

The cast features Rutter's frequent collaborators Luke Coates (SHOE) and Corina Harper (A CHILD'S TOY).

Jerome and his work

I suppose it would be appropriate to bitch a little about the technical shortcomings of THE CATALYST. But I won't. Fuck it. If you want big explosions and well-recorded live sound you don't delve into UK no-budget DV filmmaking scene. And you don't come to blogs like TRASHFILMADDICT. You get my point.

As usual, camera loves Luke Coates

There are moments in THE CATALYST which feel like pure Jean Rollin, others reminded me of American experimental cinema. But on the whole this is 100% Thomas Lee Rutter.
The music is effective and appropriate. Some of the cold electronic stuff made me think of Giovanni Cristiani's work for Fulci's DEMONIA (1990). But again, these are merely my associations.
What you get here is quality self-produced unusual stuff.

HALLOWEEN meets SUSPIRIA?

THE CATALYST exists because Thomas Lee Rutter wanted it to.
This is not a crowd-pleaser. It's a film that a man has made first of all for himself.
Not to win over financial backers or to gain commercial profit.
Depending on how tired you are of current studio product, THE CATALYST may strike you as either too rough or highly promising. If you liked the screengrabs I suggest you see for yourself.

Thomas Lee has recently started his own blog Carnie film production which covers his newest, most eccentric output.

a quality giallo: LO STRANO VIZIO DELLA SIGNORA WARDH (1971)

2011-07-08T13:19:00.001+01:00

Setting: Austria and Spain.
Black gloves? - yes.
Murders and tits at even intervals? - yes.
A disco dancing scene? - No, but there is a party scene.
Bizarre flashbacks? - Yes.
Police procedural routine padding? - Yes, some.

It was without much hope that I put on this Martino giallo.
I'd had the DVD for a while and thought it was time to give it a shot.
After 5-10 minutes I was hooked.

LO STRANO VIZIO DELLA SIGNORA WARDH exibits tremendous level of technical craftsmanship.You get plenty of shots of breathtaking fluidity as well as some original lighting effects.

Bruno Corazzari (THE BLACK CAT) has a great little part in the film.

He enters the story unexpectedly and has a brief but intense episode with one of the victims.

Ivan Rassimov. What a photogenic man! His first apperance in a surreal and violent flashback sequence is memorable and his powerful presence is really felt throughout the film.

If I had to criticize some aspect of LO STRANO VIZIO DELLA SIGNORA WARDH, I would focus on the the murders. Poorly executed. Some unconvincing slashings, some red blood sprayed. No wounds. Jess Franco-style almost.
Another problem is the trademark Martino lightness. The film doesn't try to grab you whole. There are self-conscious silly moments, but thankfully, not too many. The impact of suspence scenes is lessened a little but that's Martino for you. Only Dario ever took his black-gloved heroes totally seriously, I guess.

Now I am not a fan of Edwige Fenech, George Hilton or Sergio Martino. So when I say that LO STRANO VIZIO DELLA SIGNORA WARDH is a damn fine giallo, I mean it.
Superior to TORSO in every respect.

Tobe Hooper's CROCODILE is a pile of shit

2011-07-05T15:45:00.001+01:00

Film proper starts after a terrinly boring opening ten minutes of exposition/filler during which the nondescript soon-to-be eaten healthy dumb teens are introduced.
Giant crocodile messily kills two fat ugly fishermen and then proceeds to dump their car in the lake, like some sort of a reptilian Norman Bates. So we know we're dealing with a cunning, devious huge monster here.

What doesn't work:
The way CROCODILE is lit is just terrible. Lazy-TV-movie kind of terrible.
Cinematography is really dull with dead-on, unimaginative framing.
Blood takes ages to get flowing. And during the kills the editing is fucking frustrating.
It's like they didn't have any good takes so they tried to paste together the briefest flashes of violence possible from the available poor footage.
Music is sleep-inducing.
All the protagonists are mere cardboard cutouts.

I hate Adam Gierasch's sripts. He co-wrote such sad shit as DERAILED with Van Damme and Argento's sorry loser MOTHER OF TEARS. Gierasch apparently has a small acting part somewhere in CROCODILE. Fuck it, enough about that guy.

What works:
Well, the cover image of the Russian VHS release of CROCODILE kind of worked for me.
That's it.

Utterly forgettable. No inventive kills. Zero tension.
CROCODILE is so flat-out-dull it's not even worth reviewing in full.
Not even at a blog called TRASHFILMADDICT.

For more giant croc mayhem read this review over at NINJA DIXON

a few words about PETER CHATEL (1943-1986)

2011-06-14T09:18:00.001+01:00

I've only seen two films with Peter Chatel: Aldo Lado's WHO SAW HER DIE? (1972) and Reiner Werner Fassbinder's FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1974). In both films this slim, charming actor portrayed corrupt bohemian types.

Chatel started out in German TV, appearing in the crime series DER KOMISSAR in 1969. More television roles followed. Chatel also enjoyed a brief film career in Italy, working for Giorgio Albertazzi and Aldo Lado. In 1971 Chatel had to leave Italy following a drug scandal.

Back in Germany he began a fruitful collaboration with Fassbinder, appearing in no less than seven films for the workaholic director,among them THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS (1971).

Around the same time Peter Chatel took to writing and directing for theatre. His plays were successful with both critics and the public.

Peter Chatel died at the age of 42 from AIDS.

This post is part of Queer Film Blogathon over at GARBO LAUGHS blog.

I would like to know more about the man,but there isn't much on the web. Most of the above info comes from the German Wikipedia entry on Chatel.

the dubious charms of GIALLO A VENEZIA (1979)

2011-05-14T15:34:00.000+01:00

Venice is a playground for strictly softcore perversion in this film by trash genius Mario Landi (who helmed some of the hugely successful 1970's 'comissario Maigret' series for Italian television).

Not a movie to watch with your girlfriend, GIALLO A VENEZIA is an exercise in misogyny.

Two corpses are discovered at the Giudecca island in the Venetian lagoon. The man was repeatedly stabbed in the crotch with a huge pair of scissors, woman - drowned. Why did the killer himself phone to notify the police and why did he drag the woman's body out of the water after drowning her? Inspector De Paul is on the case...

Judging by lack of elaborate mise-en-scene and limited number of locations, GIALLO A VENEZIA may have well been filmed in under two weeks.

Dialogues are hilarious in their crudeness.

The inappropriately bright & breezy Berto Pisano score (at least some of which was lifted from INTERRABANG soundtrack) is a bonus.

What this film lacks in substance it makes up in sheer bad taste.

If GIALLO A VENEZIA excites you, you know you're a trash fan at heart.

You might also want to check out the director's similarly demented and un-PC, but slightly more polished PATRICK VIVE ANCORA (1980)

No, this isn't a young Vladimir Putin!

It's Italian cult actor Gianni Dei.

an ode to NOSFERATU A VENEZIA (1988)

2011-05-14T12:16:00.001+01:00

A review at CINEZILLA blog prompted me to seek out and watch NOSFERATU A VENEZIA.

Tired looking, morbid Klaus creates another haunting hero in this expensive looking, baroque and occasionally rambling tale of the ancient vampire curse.

Late 1980's was a bad period for Italian film industry. Shit like ZOMBI 3 was playing in theatres, and masters such as Argento were using awfully inappropriate metal music to score their elegant films.

It is in such a difficult time that NOSFERATU A VENEZIA was made.

I can think of few Italian films from that era that looked as lush or were as atmospheric as NOSFERATU A VENEZIA.

Considering the fact that no less than three (or, perhaps, five) different directors were involved with the project, NOSFERATU A VENEZIA forms a surprisingly harmonious whole.

Editing doesn't have a rhythm typical of Italian genre productions. We have something a little more elaborate and clearly more ambitious here, but also more confusing. The bloody story of the immortal seems to develop on several time planes at once - very appropriate for a picture that deals with a being outside time.

There's a scene of Nosferatu wandering along the shore at night. He encounters some gypsies. Is it another flashback? There's no indication of the epoch in which the episode takes place, not until we see the gypsies' very modern caravans.

Cinematography exhibits that lovely heavy grain and rich colours which characterize the finest European cinema of those times.

Beauty and poetry aside, NOSFERATU A VENEZIA has undeniable trash appeal. Scenes of Kinski chasing girls through the streets of Venice and ripping clothes off nubile virgins should make fans of wild European cinema cheer.

Kinski is one of very few actors who could make a convincing vampire. His own face was by 1988 a haunting mask, and didn't need excessive make-up.

Kinski, who looks just as natural and convincing dressed in a period costume as he did when wearing various swanky outfits in his 70's films, dominates every scene he's in. He looks more like the titular character of Herzog's COBRA VERDE than of NOSFERATU.

The good guys are dull, dim-witted loser types and their failure to deal with the decadent blood-sucker is unsurprising.

Donald Pleasence is cast in a totally redundant part of a cowardly clergyman. Nevertheless, he does get an opportunity to shine in his final scene.

NOSFERATU A VENEZIA is an example of tremendous poetic effect achieved through episodic narration and one of the more interesting vampire films out there.

impenetrable INNOCENCE (2004)

2011-05-09T16:34:00.002+01:00

Mechanised sex dolls slaughtering soldiers with their bare hands, a cyborg cop looking after his pet Basset Hound (also cybernetic) and lots of quotes from various philosophers. Does it all mix well? You decide.

INNOCENCE's stylish, gorgeous look kept me glued to the screen despite the deliberate pace and fractured, cryptic story.

Even during the well-thought-out action scenes there's not much sense of dynamism.

As a rule I dislike use of CGI in cinema. INNOCENCE uses 3D modelling to a striking effect, which couldn't have been achieved without the use of computer graphics. My favourite aspect of production design was the cars, which, when on screen, eclipsed the sullen protagonists.

A version of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjues (a piece which Mario Bava used in LISA E IL DIAVOLO ) plays on the closing credits.

INNOCENCE is not a thrill ride, but a visual stunner and one of the most intelligent and ambitious animated films I've ever seen.

riding the SHOCK WAVES (1976)

2011-05-09T08:12:00.000+01:00

A group of thinly-written stereotypical characters is cruising some tropical islands aboard an old yacht which belongs to a nutty Captain (John Carradine).

At night the holidaymakers' fragile vessel is hit by a 'ghost ship' and promptly starts sinking, forcing everyone to get into a dingy and seek help on the nearest island, where a former Nazi (Peter Cushing) is living in 'voluntary exile'. Soon creepy goggled zombies come out of the sea and begin picking off the living one by one.

The best scenes of SHOCK WAVES seem to be wonderfully atmospheric silent film. Uniformed automatons wading through the water and doomed characters wandering about the deserted island.

Lack of a strong identification point really hurts the film.

Despite being introduced as protagonist, the lovely Brooke Adams remains a peripheral character throughout the film, with very few lines given to her.

Luke Halpin's character is also not much of a hero. Just think: in the beginning of SHOCK WAVES he's the only guy on deck at night. A gorgeous bikini-clad girl joins him and attempts to chat him up. So what does Luke do? His response to her advances is: 'I love the middle-of-the-night watch... it gives me a chance to be alone'. He might as well have just told her to beat it and try her luck with the Captain.

SHOCK WAVES shares with classic Italian zombie films such aspects as excellent location photography, eerie keyboard music and simple plot structure. The one important thing it has that no film by, say, Fulci could offer is on-set sound recording, which helps some of the very average performances fare better than they would have done otherwise.

Peter Cushing gives a wonderful performance as the SS Commander, although his attempts at German accent aren't entirely successful.

A film that deserves to be seen again and again for its effective simplicity.

hanging out with FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1975)

2011-04-11T08:46:00.000+01:00

A carnival worker (Fassbinder) wins a lottery but his wealth doesn't last long as predatory 'friends' begin to swarm around him.

In FOX AND HIS FRIENDS painfully skinny Fassbinder essays one of his most memorable lead roles.The film explores the director's favourite theme: longing for and simultaneous deep distrust of any kind of relationship.

A lot of the cast of this gay drama occasionally featured in Eurocult films.
Harry Baer (Fernando Di Leo's I PADRONI DELLA CITTA '76) plays the man whose charms threaten to destroy Fox's idyllic cohabitation with Peter Chatel (Aldo Lado's WHO SAW HER DIE?). Adrian Hoven (producer of a Jess Franco classic SUCCUBUS'68, in which he also co-stars) is cast as Chatel's father who also wouldn't mind a piece of Fox's fortune to save his firm from bankrupcy. Karl Boehm (PEEPING TOM) has a part as the furniture dealer who introduces Fox to the gay community.

The story is dramatically flawed, but purposely so. Fassbinder isn't just constructing a tear-jerker here. He is trying to make a point: exploited people are complicit in their own misery and suffering.

FOX AND HIS FRIENDS can be alternatively viewed as a colourful melodrama or as an anti-gay (!), mysoginistic picture, as well as a critique of capitalism. But it's worth seeing all the same.

post # 100 : THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)

2011-04-11T08:19:00.000+01:00

Helen, a mute girl, works as a maid at a sinister mansion where a psycho killer happens to reside...

Enjoyable melodrama with several effective suspence scenes.

Dorothy McGuire is instantly believable in the lead. Her moving performance elevates THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE above it's genre origins to the level of true drama.

Good story (the final killer identity reveal is no big surprise, though) and excellent monoschrome photography are also worth noting.

This Robert Siodmak film has undoubtedly influenced the early horror films of Jess Franco - GRITOS EN LA NOCHE and especially LE SADIQUE BARON VON KLAUS (both from 1962).
Dario Argento included an explicit visual reference to THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE in his 1975 giallo classic PROFONDO ROSSO.

Recommended to those who don't need their horror to be graphic and enjoy B/W Academy ratio compositions.

JESS THE RIPPER!

2011-03-31T12:21:00.003+01:00

By day Dr. Dennis Orloff (Kinski) treats London's paupers at his private clinic. By night he cruises the seedy streets, brothels and cabarets, picks up prostitutes who he later rapes, slashes to ribbons and disposes of in the 'Thames' (actually a canal in Zurich). The Ripper's case is being leiusurely investigated by Inspector Selby, who's more preoccupied with courting a ballet dancer (Josephine Chaplin). Eventually the police (aided by a blind street beggar!) do catch up with the notorious murderer in a very anticlimatic finale.

In Jack the Ripper Franco creates the ultimate outcast. A hero tormented by society's false moral code, leading a solitary existence and periodically venting his frustration by explosions of violence. From Dr. Orloff in his many incarnations to Dr. Flamand in FACELESS, not to forget Mathis Vogel of EXORCISM - this ostracised, violent loner is a stock JF character.

Herbert Fux (MARK OF THE DEVIL) plays a fisherman who discovers that Kinski is the Ripper and foolishly tries to blackmail him. Fux also shared screen with Kinski in Herzog's disturbing VOYZECK. Josephine Chaplin went on to appear in Franco's last big-budget affair, the little talked about DOWNTOWN HEAT/CIUDAD BAJA.

in company of WICKED WOMEN

2011-03-30T07:33:00.004+01:00

A beautiful villa by the lake. Two naked blood-splattered bodies inside.
The cops arrive on the scene, to find hysterical Lina Romay hiding in the attic.

Skip WICKED WOMEN.
The fairly interesting opening aside, this is just a standard erotic film.
Poorly-staged action is sort of fun, but all the sex is too softcore and dull.

Franco creates a world where fucking is everywhere.
All the characters are constantly groping each other.
This ever-present nudity is montonous.
Like those endless close-ups of zombies getting shot through the head in Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD, repeated ad infinitum.

What works: A few blurry, tricky shots and a grand WTF moment when a black-clad assassin suddenly pops up.

The music is the same as in other Erwin C. Dietrich productions of the era.
You might have heard these cues in JACK THE RIPPER or LOVE CAMP, for instance.

This throwaway film gets first-class treatment from Elite Entertainment, while Jess' more exciting work, such as PLAISIR A TROIS, remains without a good DVD presentation. Shame.

playing with BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976)

2011-03-25T08:12:00.004Z

Cheap looking, bored female extras armed with toy guns are guarding some decaying ruins on a small island (supposedly a women's prison). Hot female inmates spend the time talking crap, smoking and masturbating in their cells, represented by painted canvas-and-plasterboard sets.
BARBED WIRE DOLLS is yet another variation on Franco's own 99 WOMEN, shot for a price of a takeaway meal.

In JF films I pay the most attention to the camerawork. Unlike the simple, repetitive plots and stories of the actual films, camerawork speaks volumes about the creator of this trash universe. There's someone behind the camera who has a child's immence curiosity in exploring the space. Zooming in and out of background. Shifting focus seemingly for the sake of it. Panning away from the supposed main action to capture something accidental. This raw, unrehearsed quality of 'a film in the making' is both a blessing and a curse of JF cinema.

Anyone who has ever tried making a film all by himself, without support or experience, won't be able to write JF films off as worthless. They are attempts at cinema. Admirable attempts, even when resulting films are boring (BARBED WIRE DOLLS can be very slow). But the film is worth a look. Witness that jaw-dropping 'simulated slow-motion' flashback, see young and pretty Lina Romay, enjoy yet another strong performance from the ever-reliable Paul Muller.

No passion for murder: LA TERZA MADRE(2007)

2011-03-20T19:12:00.006Z

They call her Mater Lacrimarum - the trashiest of the three and the least convincing...

There's no denying we have a bona fide bad movie classic here.

Plot in one sentence: Asia Argento gets chased by a monkey, has to trudge through an underwater river of puke and features in a 100% gratuitous shower scene.

LA TERZA MADRE is a hodgepodge of bad CGI, nice prosthetics, silly story and wild overacting.
Sergio Stivaletti's hugely uneven THE WAX MASK comes to mind as the next of kin.
There's the obligatory taxi ride, the Three Mothers Book, Varelli and Suzy Banyon are mentioned.
No amount or references can make LA TERZA MADRE a legitimate entry into the trilogy.
Stylistic unity established by the first two films has been disrupted.
Argento destroys the mythos built up by the previous two films.
The soundscape is disappointingly poor.

In the last shot of the film the surviving protagonists are laughing hysterically - seemingly at the very film which they had to participate in.

Argento's recent films are best appreciated if one forgets about his 'classic' early stuff.
The fact that LA TERZA MADRE is the final installment in the Three Mothers Trilogy makes comparisons to his past work inevitable, and these comparisons are not in favour of LA TERZA MADRE.
It's to Argento what DEMONIA was to Fulci - a botched rehash of once interesting themes.
The film is not scary. Neither were INFERNO and SUSPIRIA.
Those were two unique films though, Dario having really achieved something original with them.
I'd prefer the trilogy unfinished.

Something trashy this way comes...

2011-03-06T11:49:00.009Z

Fred Anderson, the Swedish writer/actor/director/producer/publisher has now decided
to turn his hand to releasing DVD's.
He's launching a label called Attackafant Entertainment.

Among the first releases will be the amazingly titled Thai film KILLER ELEPHANTS (1976)
I haven't seen this film, but, judging by the reviews and artwork, it's pretty amazing.

Attackafant Entertainment is also planning to put out Godfrey Ho's cut-and-paste epic THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT (1988) on a quality DVD.

Those interested should visit THE HOUSE OF NINJA DIXON for more information.

Celentano does a heist: SUPER RAPINA A MILANO (1964)

2011-02-24T14:41:00.013Z

Members of the Celentano Clan rob a bank in the middle of Milan. Their valises full of money, the gang escape via a helicopter, leaving an armed dummy to guard the hostages. The robbers later land in the countryside, dress up as monks and occupy a recently abandoned monastery, intending to lie low for a while till the heat is off. Predictably, things don't go quite as planned. Celentano's former buddy-come Police inspector is after them. One of the Clan members decides to split, only to return shortly in the company of some armed bandits, a machine-gun-toting Ivan Rassimov (billed here as Ivan Rassimovich!) among them. The final act sees the monastery become a battle ground, phoney monks trying to save the real ones and and not to lose their money to the attackers.

The lovely Claudia Mori, Celentano's lifelong companion.

Direction of SUPER RAPINA A MILANO is credited to the star, Adriano Celentano. The IMDb, however, states that the film was actually directed by Piero Vivarelli, while the actor/singer simply received the on-screen credit. Celentano is a surprisingly confident lead. Not a properly trained actor, he exudes energy and is obviously enjoying himself throughout. Music by Detto Mariano (MIAMI GOLEM) is highly effective, rendering some scenes of this farcical film unusually dramatic. During the shoot-out, Gino Santercole is trying to get the gunman up on the bell-tower. After wasting a few rounds, he succeeds. The man plunges down. But before he hits the ground, Gino puts another bullet through him! Intentional or not, this moment of excess is one of the most hilarious in the whole film.

Ivan Rassimov, looking meaner than ever in B/W Cinemascope.

Gino Santercole went on to appear in Lenzi's nasty MILANO ODIA: LA POLIZIA NON PUO SPARARE while Don Backy essayed a part of Blade in Mario Bava's excellent CANI ARRABIATI. But these violent films would come much later, in the 70's. SUPER RAPINA A MILANO is from 1964, so things are fairly light-hearted and the whole armed robbery subject is viewed rather romantically. There is some blatant moralizing courtesy of Celentano, when Celentano-actor switches on the TV and sees Celentano-singer performing. The viewer is then treated to a blessedly brief monologue on the existence of legal ways of getting prosperous.

the luckless Inspector Callani.

As one expects from vintage Italian cinema, the Cinemascope camerawork is frequently mobile and highly inventive. There's no DoP credit on the print, but Giancarlo Ferrando was the camera operator. The over-the-top ending relies on a dodgy twist to spare the sympathetic robbers an inevitable term behind bars. SUPER RAPINA A MILANO is an excellent light-hearted 60's picture full of endearing eccentricity which makes European comedy so special.

LE PORTE DEL SILENZIO (1991)

2011-02-18T12:47:00.008Z

Plot in one sentence: a paunchy, psychotic estate agent John Savage spends a hellishly boring day on the road, driving towards an oh so predictable conclusion.

As the opening credits kick in, set to a wonderful big band score, you anticipate a great story which is about to unfold... alas, it's just one more Filmirage movie.

The first shot of John Savage in the film is so nice it feels like it's coming from a different, better quality production. Generally throughout LE PORTE DEL SILENZIO there are moments which stick out and hint at what could have been.

These two images could be coming from a certain Don Coscarelli movie...

Obstacles our supposed protagonist has to overcome are decidedly unexciting: he gets puled over by cops (but they let him go quite easily), his car gets stuck in the mud, he has to wait at a red traffic light and so on - and this is supposed to be a supernatural movie?

Although only Franco Piana is credited as the composer, there are also stock 'horror' cues in the film that sound like Carlo Maria Cordio's work. They possibly come from Fulci's THE TOUCH OF DEATH and Lattanzi's KILLING BIRDS.

Camera and crew reflected in the car door - a rare amusing moment
in an otherwise monotonous film.

LE PORTE DEL SILENZIO could have made a passable 20-minute film. As a feature it is insufferably long. Little is to be gained from the experience, even for people who are 'into' Fulci.

Can I recommend LE PORTE DEL SILENZIO? - Only to those who are absolutely dying to see what Louisiana back roads looked like circa 1991. Anyone looking for any substance or a story that actually progresses should steer clear of this one.

For an alternative take on Fulci's final film, please read Nigel's review HERE.
There is also a nice review from Eric Cotenas HERE.

revisiting BLOODY PSYCHO (1989)

2011-02-13T06:56:00.015Z

A distant castle.
Narrow street filmed through a rain-splashed windscreen of a car.
Wet newspapers spread over the cobblestones.
Opening shots of BLOODY PSYCHO accompanied by Lanfranco Perini music set up the mood with remarkable ease. The title card is also a bit more elaborate than what they tend to serve you up with in these 'Lucio Fulci presents' films.

BLOODY PSYCHO is full of talking heads

Doctor Vogler, portrayed by Peter Hinz (THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS) in a surprisingly sympathetic turn, arrives at a castle to treat a wheelchair-bound Signora Rezzori. In the meantime locals are getting killed by a zombie - also in a wheelchair!

Bizarre and suggestive yoghurt-feeding scene

Cinematography by Silvano Tessicini (who has lensed most of 'Lucio Fulci Presents' titles) is very good, considering the budget limitations. Of course, they couldn't afford elaborate tracking shots or anything - but a few imaginative set-ups really help big this cheap film up. Night atmosphere is captured especially vividly with just a few sources of light creating some nice visuals.

Tell me if this isn't a live action version of Ned Flanders!

There is an attempt at Fulci-style protracted gore scene but it doesn't come off too well.
A blonde clad in nothing but a Macintosh walking through an Italian castle on a stormy night is a highlight, though. There's also a Vaseline-lensed flashback!

This lady ends up tough-talking her own lewd
zombie grandmother!

I admit that I enjoyed BLOODY PSYCHO a great deal more the second time around. You accept a lot of the film's idiosyncrasies and just enjoy the ride.

Paul Muller, a 'Lucio Fulci presents' mainstay, stealing
the show as Lawyer Cohen

Modern day no-budget DV filmmakers could learn a thing or two from these films, which are examples of quality craftsmanship on minuscule budgets.

Vassili Karis of GIALLO A VENEZIA chewing scenery

All 'Lucio Fulci presents" fims I've seen are sloppy. But each of them also has something special. Some second-rate magic that has saved these films from total obscurity.

Evil sacristan from Soavi's THE CHURCH serving beer
in a village caf? - Only in BLOODY PSYCHO!

Umberto's descent: HELL'S GATE

2011-02-08T12:03:00.006Z

A group of speleologists led by a Boring Old Man (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart in one of his final screen appearances) descends into the caves in search of their colleague who's suddenly vanished after spending 76 days underground as a part of some experiment. Down below they find a paperback of Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose' and no trace of their fellow member. Before long, light bulbs and even video cameras (installed in the cave to monitor the progress of the experiment) begin to explode.

Veteran director tries to make up for the retarded story with regular firework displays and, for the most part, fails.

Lenzi's primitive time-waster was produced by Alpha Cinematographica, the same outfit that gave us some of the wonderfully awful 'Lucio Fulci presents' films.

John Carpenter famously created 'cheap scare' scenes by things suddenly popping up into frame or by racking focus to reveal something unexpected. Our beloved Umberto strives to achieve similar effect by employing the crash-zoom, which isn't exactly frightening but does have a certain charm.

HELL'S GATE was filmed (well, the above ground scenes of it) on the same location as Lamberto Bava's GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE and Deran Serafian's INTERZONE.

If you can get over the unimaginative visual style, HELL'S GATE can be enjoyable.
Just don't expect fresh ideas or anything remotely frightening.
Better be content with occasional gore scenes and a cameo by the one and only Paul Muller.

Exploitation pictures goes forth:THE TURNING (2010)

2011-02-06T13:06:00.020Z

Dillon and Stacey are having an affair. Stacey's husband Michael hires a P.I. to spy on her.
Soon the lovers are caught in flagrante. Michael attempts to strangle Stacey and Dillon accidentally kills him. The two stick the corpse in the boot of the car and drive off. Once they reach the woods the film shifts into zombie horror territory with Michael coming back to life a zombie. Various other shady characters also drift into the story.

Such is the plot of Jason Impey's THE TURNING, a film starring and produced by
Kemal Yildirim. Yildirim, himself a prolific director/cinematographer has collaborated with Impey on a string of films, including TORTURED a.k.a SEX SLAVE and TORMENTED.

THE TURNING is a more ambitious project from these guys at Exploitation Pictures.
Levels of violence and action have been upped in comparison to earlier works, while the sleaze have been dispensed with altogether. Eileen Daly (CRADLE OF FILTH) co-stars as Ilsa, a mad Hitler-worshipping scientist.

Jason Impey stays true true to his roots, once again setting his film in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Some of the B/W flashbacks offer you a sort of a guided tour of the city,
from the Shopping Centre to the Milton Keynes Pagoda (previously featured in director's HOME MADE).

There is a decent amount of obligatory zombie gore in THE TURNING

What works:

-There is a lot of great fighting and editing during the action scenes is way slicker than what you'd expect from a self-funded film where lead actors do their own stunts. THE TURNING generally feels more polished than Impey's previous work.

-Epic fight between Kemal Yildirim and Rami Hilmi is a definite highlight.

What doesn't work:

- Dialogue scenes could do with a little trimming. As it is, characters end up saying the same thing over and over again.

-THE TURNING cannot decide what type of film it is -a crime drama, a zombie film, or an over-the-top martial arts epic. These elements, while interesting in their own right, do not blend well to create a whole.

Scenes of Leon and Quaid getting into scuffles are among the
most amusing and hilarious in the film.

Not all the acting in the film can be called great, but THE TURNING compensates for that with sheer energy and some great zombie kills.

My favourite bit of the film (apart from all the action) is a scene inside the shack.
Dillon and Stacey listen to the tape record trying to figure out the reason behind the zombie outbreak. The scene is a little overlong but the distorted voice and all the the Nazi symbols adorning the walls help create an unsettling mood.

So we have a pretty mixed bag here.
On the one hand, a definite step up in terms of action and overall production value.
On the other hand, characters are sketchier than we have come to expect from Impey after
such solid work as, for example, TORMENTED. We never learn exactly what Dillon is. Presumably, just a 'good gangster' type. It's also unclear how the foul-mouthed townie Leon ended up working for the demented Ilsa. It's a shame, but these little things distract from the overall enjoyment of film. Still, the TURNING would make a great introduction to works of Impey and Yildirim for those still unfamiliar with the films of Exploitation pictures. Recommended to those who don't need their zombie horror to be high-budget, studio-funded stuff.

Russian necrorealism: BIPEDALISM (2005)

2011-02-01T19:16:00.009Z

Not an easy film to review.
Lots of interesting aspects.
An unusual work which I wouldn't want to pigeonhole.
There are too few films coming out of modern Russia that have a strong identity of their own.
BIPEDALISM is definitely original but also quite frustrating.

There is a story (something Yufit could easily do without in the old days),
told in a very deliberate manner.
Took me three viewings to sort of roughly piece it together for myself.
A painter called Victor Vindov takes his wife and two children to the old country house
where they plan to spend the summer. While playing in the basement of the house, the kids find
what looks like monkey bones, a diary and several cans of old 35mm film. Victor becomes increasingly unhinged as a result of this discovery . It seems, his primal memory has been awakened.In the meantime the military begin their search for several escaped (sub)human specimen bred as part of a secret 'anthropotechnics' experiment...

There are some very ugly bipeds in BIPEDALISM

Yufit does not try to engage the viewer in a traditional sense.
Whatever drive BIPEDALISM has stems from the sheer oddness of the proceedings.
There are shots of naked men creeping through the woods and across fields.
Their destination is not clear.
Their appearance and the way they move project menace but they're also fascinating to observe, like subjects in a wildlife documentary.

A Russian/Dutch co-production, BIPEDALSIM was financed by Sergei Selyanov (WAR, CARGO 200)
Visually the film is very strong with some elaborate framing.
The obviously post-synchronised soundscape is aggressive and memorable.
Lip movements and dialogue are wildly mismatched.
The director claims to have re-written most of the character's lines
during the sound looping stage, deliberately creating distancing effect and altering the story along the way.

Yevgeny Yufit (born 1961) is a Saint-Petersburg-based filmmaker, founder of the so-called 'necrorealism' movement in Russian cinema. Although his work is regularly screened at festivals across Europe, in his home country he remains a fairly obscure figure, known only to select film buffs. BIPEDALISM is his last feature to date.
Yufit's other recent films include KILLED BY LIGHTNING (2002) and SILVER HEADS (1998)

Moscow giallo: STEREOBLOOD (2002)

2011-01-17T08:14:00.006Z

Plot in one sentence: a female scientist's husband mysteriously disappears while a spate of

murders of beautiful young women rocks the Russian capital.

Giallo films aren't exactly renowned for being particularly deep or meaningful.

STEREOBLOOD, a modern Russian throwback to that 70's genre feels shallow and anaemic

despite the non-stop barrage of dazzling imagery.

Former director of music videos Roman Prygunov has no concern for strong narrative and is busy

practising his flashy editing tricks.

On the plus side STEREOBLOOD has great cinematography and a haunting central performance

by Ingeborga Dapkunaite, but these aspects do not redeem the film's many weaknesses.

Murders are nothing special.

The killer may be decked out in classic giallo fashion, but his nasty deeds are captured without

much panache, as if in a TV movie.

STEREOBLOOD is pretty but not for one second thrilling.

There's simply not much happening in the film.

We see our supposed protagonist do her household chores, have her nails done, or kill time

photographing oranges in close-up. Murders stay somewhere on the sidelines.

We see them reported on TV but not once is there any shade of threat to the hero's safety.

Lack of any tension or even basic cause-effect connection really hurts the script.

There are several exciting, inspired sequences in STEREOBLOOD but none of them are crucial to the plot.

What transpires from all this is that director Prygunov probably watched a few gialli but hadn't quite

figured out the recipe of making one himself.

He's much more at home showing isolation and boredom

of Metropolitan existence.

If you don't mind a movie being an empty (but pretty) package, give STEREOBLOOD a spin.

Lamberto Bava's IL MAESTRO DEL TERRORE is a balls-up

2011-01-06T18:42:00.020Z

Golf balls vanish while loos mysteriously overflow with blood in this barmy TV film.
What we have here is another movie-within-a-movie premise which was so popular in the late 80's/early 90's - MASSACRE, A CAT IN THE BRAIN also came around the same time.
Thomas Arana (Soavi's LA CHIESA, DERAILED with Van Damme) is Vincent Omen(sic), a cocky Italian horror film director. He owns a posh villa, has an icy beauty of a wife and a silly daughter. Vincent is also a keen golf player. More on the subject of balls later...

IL MAESTRO DEL TERRORE begins with Omen directing a scene which looks a lot like a scene from some typical Lamberto Bava made-for-TV movie. Vincent is unhappy with the way the episode turns out, he ridicules the make-up effects and than fires his old-time collaborator and screenwriter, played by David "Stagefright" Brandon (I love this guy). Later that night Brandon shows up at Vincent's secluded mansion (accompanied by some failed actor who looks like Claudio Simonetti) and begins to terrorize Vincent and his family.

David Brandon as Paul Hilary,
a scorned screenwriter out for revenge.

Arana's daughter freaking out at
the sight of some gooey Stivaletti SFX.

Dardano Sacchetti devised a script full of twists, each successive one undermining and contradicting previous events. Thus, all credibility is quickly lost but some entertainment value comes from the sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing. It's like having that old "it was all a dream" ending every five minutes.

No, the girl isn't vomiting - the toilet is!
Time to call Joe the Plumber...

No,- daddy gets there first!

Questionable fashions, dodgy acting and plentiful film references are abound in IL MAESTRO DEL TERRORE. Names of Henri-Georges Clouzot and Stephen King are dropped.
Lamberto also includes self-references. In Arana's house there's a room where props from his horror films are displayed. There one can spot the puppet monster 'Menelik' from DEMONS 2 and also the puppet dog used for transformation effect from that film. Even Vincent's daughter's dog is called Demon(or maybe Daemon)!

But the most obvious visual reference would have to be balls - a family trademark.
Remember that rolling apple from Mario Bava's BARON BLOOD, ghost with a bouncing ball from KILL, BABY KILL!, beads from a torn necklace showering down the floor in Lamberto's debut MACABRE and the freaky, tennis ball-obsessed culprit of A BLADE IN THE DARK? Well, IL MAESTRO DEL TERRORE fits into that pattern nicely with its repeated imagery of golf balls! It's pretty unsubtle this time, especially towards the finale, which has to be seen to be believed.

No fucking comment.

If Italian Horror was a city, IL MAESTRO DEL TERRORE would be situated right on the outskirts. It's not essential stuff by any means.
Still, those already too familiar with 'via Fulci' and 'piazza Argento' might venture to seek this one out. Even just to see a dummy vomiting golf balls... or to watch Thomas Arana put his hand down a toilet bowl!

Gotta love those endings on a freeze-frame!
Hmm,'Dialogue o'coach' - that's a fun job, I bet.

Tale of wax dummies and stock footage: THE GAME OF DEATH

2010-12-31T14:41:00.005Z

Plot in one sentence:
A Brue Lee stand-in is fighting his way through a third-rate story towards the magnificent leftovers of what THE GAME OF DEATH was originally intended to be...

Bruce Lee would have kicked both producer Raymond Chow and writer/director Robert Clouse through a concrete wall had he witnessed the atrocity they released in 1979.

What doesn't work:

-Billy Lo's girlfriend is hateful;

-There's no real Bruce Lee until the last twenty minutes;

-There's too much plot and it's pretty dumb.

What works:

-certainly, Bruce Lee.

THE GAME OF DEATH is one of the best-known cut-and-paste films of all time. Released five years after Lee's death the film turned out to be a bastardized version of his original concept.

Cinematography is rather lavish in places, but it does not redeem the complete brucelessness of the first hour.

There is some mild fun to be had spotting bits and snippets of archive footage inserted here and there but overall THE GAME OF DEATH is a let-down.

THE GAME OF DEATH wouldn't have felt like such a shameless cash-in had it delivered action goods. Instead it's a cliched drama with some fighting thrown to pass it off as a martial arts epic.

The fights involving Bruce Lee's stand-in aren't all that bad(Bob Wall getting killed in a locker room being a highlight), but they're few and far between. Even the trashy GAME OF DEATH 2: TOWER OF DEATH had a lot more going for it in that respect.

John Barry's score is excellent and moving. But it doesn't belong here. It's not martial arts film music. It's big mainstream drama music and often feels inappropriate in this tasteless trash masquerading as Bruce Lee's final film.

George R. updating(violating?) 'the zombie rules' with SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD

2010-11-20T16:00:00.003Z

After seeing the dismal trailer which boasted laughable CGI and a zombie on horseback I was prepared to hate Survival and pity Romero who, I though, has clearly lost the plot.
Only tonight did I muster the guts to watch his latest zombie effort and was surprised to find it fast-paced and hugely entertaining.

One complaint I have always had with Romero's movies was how static his cinematography could be.In such classics as Dawn of the Dead he seemed solely to care about editing.
However, in Survival Romero employs quite a few tracking shots(one or two begging to be qualified as magnificent), his camera creeping through the foliage after the characters. Perhaps this is something he'd liked to have done in his early films but didn't have the means for.

Most annoying aspect of the film apart from the usual pathetic CGI bis is the bland score. It's what you'd call stock horror cues. George, go for Dixieland jazz, go for prog rock - anything!Please no more typical string music that merely telegraphs every other zombie attack!

SCENES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CUT:
Clearly, a brief episode of Sarge shooting zombie heads impaled on sticks.
Unconvincing effects. Pointless and adds nothing to the film except serve as a faint echo of an early basement scene from the original Dawn.

Romero still enjoys devising (increasingly far-fetched)ways of despatching the ghouls.
In Diary of the Dead he had a hospital zombie's brain fried with a defibrillator.
In Survival he tries something of the sort with a fire extinguisher.
Old boy obviously has no intention of taking himself or his oeuvre too seriously.
Personally, I'm fine with that. Let him have his fun. As long his films remain as consistently entertaining as Diary and Survival have been, I'll stick with Romero.

Survival of the Dead is affected with that old syndrome, familiar from Italian zombie trash such as Hell of the Living Dead. The syndrome manifests itself in characters who have been handling zombie attacks throughout the film with cool efficiency suddenly behaving like retards and ending up bitten. Not really credible. But I don't blame Romero for that. A standard good gore movie formula is 'charters getting killed at regular intervals'. Even at price of losing any realism.

Why hasn't Survival gone to the cinemas while Land did? While both movies have lousy CGI, Land is slower and has a lot more annoying characters than Survival. Ah well, life's unfair.

-Has Romero lost it?
He sure lost the indie feel. His films have average Hollywood film production values now.
Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on the viewer's taste.
One thing is certain - Romero's cynicism is still there. There are great ironically downbeat moments scattered throughout the film.

Want to see zombies eat something other than humans? Check out Survival of the Dead!

I'm in a PAULA-PAULA state of mind

2010-11-11T13:16:00.005Z

PAULA-PAULA is a first film that Jess Franco has done in years which could be called reasonably tasteful. In it there are no mute nymphos urinating into cooking bowls or female vampires staked with dildos. In fact, there's very little of any substance, trashy or otherwise, in PAULA-PAULA. Running time is around an hour. Those familiar with JF's latest films may consider that a blessing. Sure, nudity is present, as is his 'trademark' slow-motion erotica. But delicious Gulda music and some great use of colour and light sort of make up for the overall inertia of the piece.

SCENES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CUT:

Well, I'd cut everything past the opening quarter of an hour.

All the points have been made by then, the rest is just hallucinatory flab.

Wouldn't it be bold - Jess returning to short film-making?

But that's just wishful thinking on my part.

What doesn't work:

-the whole film. People who are used to perceive cinema as a sort of a coherent story that can be followed would be enormously frustrated by PAULA-PAULA. There's little excitement to be had (unless from some magnificent jazz) from it. No sense of progression at all to the whole thing. But then, again, chances of normal film fans seeing or even being aware of PAULA-PAULA are, frankly, nil.

PAULA-PAULA is not the film I would like Franco to have made.

His recent output has invariably been of plot-less slow-motion lesbian feasts variety.

PAULA-PAULA, despite its undeniable artistic merit and aesthetic superiority to most of Franco's recent productions also does settle into cliched sex routine.

It would have been a true miracle to see Jess have a go at making something a bit more traditional and accessible these days. Just one more substantial film. Let it be dirt-cheap and out-of-focus, but with story that extends beyond two females on a couch. Will that happen? Technically, it's possible, as the 80-year-old cinemaniac is currently preparing new projects...

What works:

-Carmen Montes. That girl is phenomenal. Just see the screengrab. No wonder Jess is so enthusiastic about her in his interview. Unconventional but captivating look, very frank sexuality. Shots of her just staring down the lens in a daze or pulling on a stocking are truly charged.

As for Paula Davis, her patterned skirt is the source of some of PAULA-PAULA's most hypnotic imagery. It billows in slow-motion and blends into itself at the edge where mirrored split-screens meet.

-Lina Romay keeping her clothes on. Nice one, Jess! Cool idea to use her just as an actress and not a fetish, for once.

-'JF touch' - flaunting conventions.

In a scene of Carmen Montes dancing naked while the young cop is peeping, camera tripod can be seen reflected in the mirrored door behind her. Also, lighting equipment is in plain view several times, with no attempt to disguise that it's all just a film set.

One of the main reasons JF has shot PAULA-PAULA must have been his wish to make use of the terrific music left to him by composer Friedrich Gulda (SUCCUBUS score).

Is PAULA-PAULA any good? -As a 'proper' film, no.

What's it like? - Like watching a 10-minute striptease video at quarter of the speed.

Is it worth revisting? -Not really.

Is it any sort of revelation from the ever-busy Spanish cineaste? -Hardly.

Should JF carry on in this 'audiovisual experience/soft porno' vein? - I'd rather if he didn't and chose a different path.

Still, it's unlikely that Jess would change direction.

He's done well enough for himself anyhow, having survived in the madness of independent industry for many decades and produced scores of minor classics along the way. Do whatever you please, Jess. Not many directors today could make so many frustrating, self-indulgent films and still retain cult aura. You occupy such a unique niche in modern film pantheon that you can get away with just about anything...

I care for LAMBERTO BAVA...is that a bad thing?

2010-10-24T14:51:00.010+01:00

This filmmaker has a fairly massive biography. Despite making his solo directing début relatively late - less than a decade before Italian cinema's fatal standstill - Lamberto Bava has nevertheless managed to remain consistently active in the industry till present day. Yes, he has focused mainly on TV rather than film but he hasn't retired altogether.
His filmography, besides the genuinely atmospheric MACABRE and several derivative gialli, includes a RAMBO clone and a JAWS ripoff. He has collaborated with Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Ruggero Deodato and Michele Soavi, not to mention his legendary father Mario. Yet there don't seem to be any noticeable fan pages or articles about the man on the net. He's usually referred to as 'the son of Mario Bava' and father of Fabrizio "Roy" Bava . Nothing much about his films.
Never spoke to anyone who'd admit to being a massive Lamberto Bava fan.
OK, there are people who're really into DEMONS films.
But these very people most likely loathe the director's THE OGRE (a.k.a DEMONS 3) or GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE.
Now, is Lamberto really that boring and irrelevant?

Lamberto Bava's output could be very roughly divided into several categories:

-early assistant work on his father's films
from the 1966 sci-fi horror classic PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES onwards. Lamberto is also credited with being an assistant director on the infamous CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST but there's been some claims to the contrary. We can't just blindly trust the IMDb, can we? Well, certainly not after they have unveiled their hideous new layout...

-directorial work for the cinema
beginning with the excellent but commercially unsuccessful MACABRO and featuring such impersonal yet competent products as BLASTFIGHTER and LE FOTO DI GIOIA. DEMONS and DEMONS 2 also fall into this category. But are these Argento-produced straightforward, trashy shockers really the best Lamberto gave us?

-directorial work for TV
This is what Laberto primarily has been busying himself with since the end of the 80's. The endless Fantaghiro series, Caraibi, L'Impero. -Somewhere in between film and TV are stuck a number of feature-length horror - themed films produced for Reteitalia. GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE and THE OGRE belong to this category.

This classification is of course very approximate and is based on what little information can be found from the usual sources on the net.

Lamberto Bava's early films MACABRO and A BLADE IN THE DARK have brought me hours of viewing pleasure. They perhaps lack the bold approach which could have brought them mass popularity. Still, these are two distinct, skilfully executed works.
Yes, MACABRO is saddled with a WTF? ending(must have been the Avati touch) and the English-language version of A BLADE IN THE DARK has extremely poor dialogue and dubbing, even by standards of 80's Italian horror. Those things were hardly in Bava's control, though.
The moody, atmospheric MACABRO is a real achievement and demonstrates that Lamberto could manage decent psychological build-up in the right conditions. Shame that he wasn't able to perceive that style of filmmaking and was forced to execute whatever project came his way instead.
His editing of A BLADE IN THE DARK is top notch(and how about Battaglia's mobile camerawork - that film is one big tracking shot!).

I am curious about how does Lamberto Bava himself evaluate his films. When watching more recent stuff such as THE TORTURER, I cannot help but feel that genre cinema is nothing but a joke for Lamberto. Could he have inherited that sort of dismissive, ironic attitude towards the genre from his revered father? Or is just that Lamberto has to survive in the tough conditions of contemporary Italian film productions, survive at any cost, even if it means making obvious shit? I care to know more about Lamberto Bava. Do you?

Lamberto Bava presents a John Old Jr. film MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE

2010-10-17T09:05:00.012+01:00

Plot in one sentence: police inspector Paolo Malco is trying to save his dumb teenage daughter Lara Wendel from a serial killer.

Despite some diabolically bad acting which Italian genre enthusiasts have come to expect from 'John Old Jr.' productions, MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE starts out nicely enough.
There's a bit of violence, great score by Simonetti and pacing is good.
It all chugs along well until about 25 minute mark when we're introduced to an obligatory group of soon-to-be-slashed teenagers led by Lara Wendel. In case you forgot, she's the girl that's been first mauled by a dog and then hacked to death in TENEBRAE. But even then MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE remains fairly enjoyable for what it is.

The killer seems to have found his match in this
jaw-dropping episode

People that made MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE from a modest giallo to an enjoyable, special film are:

GIANLORENZO BATTAGLIA

Lamberto Bava’s regular cinematographer.
Battaglia photographed it all: from A BLADE IN THE DARK to DEMONS 1 and 2 (and even DEMONS 3: THE OGRE) to the shitty late 80’s TV stuff such as GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE. He also served as camera operator on some true classics, including Argento’s INFERNO.
Battaglia’s contribution to MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE is immense.
He gave this flawed film a look which makes it worth revisiting.
His camera expertly captures the chill of desolate wintry exteriors.
Watching the film in a remastered print allows one to appreciate the subtle colour palette as well as precise framing.

GIAMPAOLO SACCAROLA

Saccarola is perhaps best known as Arthur who “was looking for keys” in Fulci’s gore classic THE BEYOND.
In MORIRAI A MEZZANOTTE he’s just another red herring: a dodgy watchman (and former sex offender) at an opera house where a brutal murder has been committed.

Not a great film, but immensely watchable.
Fun appearances by some familiar faces in supporting roles.
My favourite(together with MACABRO) among the often unimaginative work of Lamberto Bava.

call him ANTHROPOPHAGUS...

2010-09-02T10:13:00.019+01:00

Plot in one sentence: PORNO HOLOCAUST plot - minus the porn.

A lot has been said about this hard to pronounce Italian genre classic.
ANTHROPOPHAGUS is certainly worth a look at least once for anyone interested in the golden age of European gore.
But how does it withstand repeat viewings?
My answer would be: fairly well, in comparison to most of this gifted director's exploitation drivel.

WEAK ATTEMPT AT ENSEMBLE ACTING

ANTHROPOPHAGUS has that trademark D'Amato look: great framing, fairly simple set-ups and inspired use of locations. There's actually a couple of tracking shots, but they're hard to notice due to,ahem, subtle lighting. But mostly it's creeping hand-held camera and an occasional crash-zoom accompanied by an appropriately violent sound effect. D'Amato even boldly imitates lightning flashes by overexposing film in places!In short, quality craftsmanship.

SERENA GRANDI - LOOKING GRAND IN HER FILM DEBUT

Obviously, ANTHROPOPHAGUS is a rough, low-budget affair.
It wouldn't have worked so well had it been a more polished, upmarket product.

For such a cheap film ANTHROPOPHAGUS manages to avoid a lot of common pitfalls:

- it doesn't repeatedly use the same cutaway shot to represent the same location(HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD does that),

-doesn't use footage from earlier scenes as flashbacks to pad out the running time(DEMONIA is gulity on that count).

-there are no redundant parallel plots which attempt to disguise the absence of a proper script, as in ZOMBIE 4:AFTER DEATH, for example.

JOE D'AMATO MAKING A HITCHCOCKIAN(D'AMATIAN?)APPEARANCE

What works:
-Slow biuld-up. The demented flesh-eating monster whose scarred face has graced dozens of video covers in every country doesn't enter until almost an hour into the film. Up intil that point D'Amato takes his time to show off some great locations and create a mysterious atmosphere with his grainy cinematography and bizarre music. ANTHROPOPHAGUS is slow, but enjoyably so. There is sufficient narrative drive and skilled suspense scenes to justify some minor padding consisting of tourist footage.

-Marcello Giombini's score. This is an acquired taste but lovers of the extravagant will fall in love with this discordant, violent and eccentric music.

WHENEVER TISA FARROW GOES BOATING THINGS INEVITABLY GO WRONG...

What doesn't work:
-The cast do a uniformly shit job. They're merely a soporific bunch on their way to pick up a (probably very modest) paycheck. It's hard to remember anyone except the grinning, wide-eyed Eastman whose now iconic part as Nikos Karamanlis/Klaus Weltman is actually quite small. Ah well, this film still works.

ZORA KEROVA WEARING HER BEST HAUNTED EXPRESSION

Oh, yeah - the gore. It's not really essential here. Sure, it was the violent scenes that made the film famous, but it has other things to offer - potent gloomy atmosphere and interesting visuals. The first time I saw ANTHROPOPHAGUS on battered VHS the murders were too dark and fuzzy to make out, but the overall impression of doom still worked. A solid low-budget film.
To conclude: I love this film and own several versions of it. The anamorphic two-disc DVD from MEDIA BLASTERS has the tint on the day-for-night shots at the cemetery restored, so they don't stick out as obviously as they did in previous Austrian edition.

Romero goes existential: SEASON OF THE WITCH

2010-08-21T15:49:00.006+01:00

Too complex to grasp on one viewing and hardly engaging enough to warrant a second one,
SEASON OF THE WITCH is more for the art-house crowd then for fans of 'dead' series.

Plot in one sentence: Mid-life crisis inspires a bored suburban housewife to take up witchcraft - with mildly disastrous consequences.

Some visually inventive interludes (car wash scene, for one) aside, SEASON OF THE WITCH is a purely dialogue-driven film.
While Romero films the majority of scenes in an artless, nearly pedestrian manner, his obvious screen-writing talent gets a good few opportunities to shine here . Unknown actors give terrific, believable performances - a thing often lacking from the visually more refined European genre films of the period (due to actors often having to speak their lines phonetically in a language they do not understand).

Romero, whose action-filled zombie films are admired by the young generation, has with SEASON OF THE WITCH made a film about adults, one which foregrounded the more mundane aspects of existence. It's an experience that's bound to appear dry and humdrum to those who haven't yet felt the fear of ageing and frustration which permeates everyday people's lives.

Apparently, when planning his feature début, Romero wanted making a pure art-house film, but ultimately reconsidered in favour of something more commercially appealing, resulting in the immortal NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Well, with SEASON OF THE WITCH he may have finally made his art-house film - a psychological picture without any gore and little in the way of crowd-pleasing entertainment.

Much as I like SEASON OF THE WITCH, it has to be admitted that, at just ninety minutes, the film feels a lot longer - and not in an enjoyable way.

Sitting through SEASON OF THE WITCH is about as exciting as spending an evening with a bunch of provincial housewives. Yet, from time to time, in the right mood, watching this early Romero may be a pleasant enough experience.

glorious macho bullshit: THE EXPENDABLES

2010-08-17T11:32:00.012+01:00

Everything will be like back in the day - from male bonding and one-liners to over-the-top action to the baddies trying to escape via helicopter in the end.

I don't remember seeing such massive shoot-outs at the cinema before,
at least not since Stallone's ridiculously action-packed RAMBO, which felt still a little less epic than THE EXPENDABLES.
Big cheers to Sly for bringing Gary Daniels, Eric Roberts and, of course, Dolph to the big screen again.

Thanks to Stallone anyone can buy a ticket and enjoy seeing:

-Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the same frame.

-Dolph Lundgen giving Gary Daniels a bitch-slap and trying to impale Jet Li on a metal spike.

-Lots of gratuitous violence and stuff blowing up.

Yes, THE EXPENDABLES is an unapologetic dumb movie without an ounce of meaning.
Script is typical straight-to-video fare, but oh my god - the cast, the budget, the panache of it all!
The very fact that this sort of thing is back at the cinemas after years is
e x t r a o r d i n a r y.

THE EXPENDABLES was produced by NU image, a company that for years has been putting out low-budget action and sci-fi mixtures: SHADOWCHASER series, OCTOPUS 1-2, SPIDERS 1-2, Tobe Hooper's CROCODILE (and it's sequel) to name a few.
They've produced a stock footage masterpiece that is TICKER (by Albert Pyun) which used footage from SWEEPERS with Dolph Lundgren, PROJECT: SHADOWCHASER 2 and OCTOPUS, among others.

Seeing them raise their profile dramatically in recent years was a shock.
First they did some very decent Van Damme straight-to-DVD films like THE REPLICANT.
And now they have the biggest blooming stars and have gone massive!

They obviously tried to make the finale epic and sure have succeeded.
Buildings collapse, numerous obligatory barrels explode while generic 'battle music' is threatening to drown out the gunfire noise.

The only real(minor) complaint would be use of 'shaky-cam' during the fight scenes. That is annoying, surely guys like Jet Li can do their stuff convincingly in a static wide shot, without all the editing and jerky shots?
As long as there still chance of films like THE EXPENDABLES appearing on big screen I will keep going to the movies.

This prop has been round the block...

2010-08-10T06:26:00.011+01:00

My mate Aaron over at THE DEATH RATTLE has kindly tagged me in this picture meme.
I am supposed to post any number of screengrabs connected by some theme.
My theme is simple: all the grabs show the amazing 'futuristic control panel' prop that has popped up in a few of my favourite Italian genre films.

1. Luigi Cozzi's fabulous chest-bursting CONTAMINATION (1980)

Louise Marleau and Carlo De Mejo behold 'the awesome thingie' before
questioning Marino Mase who's being kept in the quarantine.

2. Umberto Lenzi's immensely dumb and entertaining NIGHTMARE CITY (1980)

Not visible particularly well here, it's in the background behind Lenzi's regular actor Tommaso Felleghy. Umberto obviously didn't feel this cool sci-fi prop deserved a close-up...

3. Bruno Mattei's sickeningly stupid and amateurishly acted (yet loved by many)
RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984)

You see, by this point in time at least 4 years have passed since this prop's first documented appearance.
So whoever was the set designer decided it was time to get imaginative. He put the control panel upside down.

That's it from me.
I'm pretty sure this thing can also be spotted in Deodato's RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS (1983) but I don't have a copy at hand to prove that. Maybe you guys saw this piece of kit in other films, too?

Now I'm supposed to tag five more people in this but I won't.
I've annoyed enough people with my recent award already:)

Trashfilmaddict receives Happy 101 Award!

2010-08-06T11:02:00.003+01:00

Can you imagine my surprise when Jason of CINEZILLA gave me this nice award?

I mean, that is really nice, bearing in mind that trashfilmaddict is a pretty recent blog - less than a year old, with under a hundred posts!
I consider this a sort of an 'advance'. Things like that sure motivate you to keep at it.
So - cheers, Jason!
It was also really good to see friends at NINJA DIXON and ITALIAN FILM REVIEW get their awards:)

Ten things: (I didn't put 'watching movies' down as it goes without saying)

1. Receiving e-mails from old friends who are miles away and whom I haven't seen in ages.

Life scatters us across the globe and it's no surprise people loose track of each other. So it's a real pleasure to hear from an old friend who you hadn't had a chance of catching up with for a good while.
Keeping in touch is important and I'd say it's just plain good manners, damn it.

2. Reading a cool review of a film I'd thought no one else but me cared about.

3. Going for a run in the morning.
Not that I'm much of a fitness fan. But running causes endorphins release - an easy way to cheer up. I can only really afford to run in summer, so I'm a pretty happy boy right now.

4. Reading and re-reading books by XX century authors.
Georges Simenon, Vladimir Nabokov and H.P. Lovecraft never fail to inspire and impress.

5.Movie soundtracks.
No further comment necessary.

6. Learning Italian.
This language has fascinated me for years, and I've been trying to learn it by watching poliziotteschi films without subtitles. Would be cool to go to Italy one day and get some proper language practice.

7. Watching Eurotrash with my girlfriend.
I know, I wasn't gonna put 'watching movies' down, but this isn't quite the same thing. You see, watching far-out stuff like 'Ninja Terminator' or 'Snakewoman' with an uninitiated person is a totally different ball game - and I'm loving it.

8. Hearing that Dario Argento is making a new film.
No matter how tasteless Maestro's recent films have been, I am always very happy to hear that he is still going. Most of his peers are out of business by now. But Dario is still managing to raise decent funds to make proper 35mm films for theatrical release - at the age of 70! Much respect, Argento.

9. A nice cup of coffee.
That stuff perks creativity up pretty well.

10. Making movies.

Almost forgot to mention it. Being involved with any production, however cheap, primitive and obscure gives a major kick. It's always hard work, even if results are next to unwatchable. It's a challenge. It's a way of life...

Now here are the blogs that I think could do with an award or two:

Hans of QUIET COOL
- now here is a man who reviews some obscure, diverse films.
Not content with just sharing his opinion, he backs it up with extensive quotes from a variety of credible sources. I want to see your blog flourish man!

Armando of BLOGO TRASHO
- again, a wide range of some very obscure, awful and fascinating movies. Brief, unpretentious reviews with some lovely screengrabs.

Aaron of THE DEATH RATTLE
- this guy blogs A LOT. I mean that. And I have a lot of respect for prolific people. And if, in his opinion, the movie sucks, Aaron will put it plainly. Even if it's some 'sacred' classic.

Riccardo of JUDGE OF CELLULOID.
- One more place where I stop by to read about the movies I care and learn a bit of Italian in the process. Very concise reviews on some classic European films.

Luigi of OCCHIO SULLE ESPRESSIONI
- A man of broad tastes. Luigi writes about everything from the Soviet movies from the silent era to modern day digital oddities seen on youtube. Very interesting blog of truly international scope.

The Goodkind of LOST VIDEO ARCHIVE.
I've come across this superblog on various occasions in search of information on very different (but mainly bad) movies. This is a fascinating place which I haven't yet fully explored myself.

Bruce Holecheck of CINEMA ARCANA.
You need to check that blog out. Even just to see the fab banner. And they have cool movie quiz and other stuff. Recommended.

Richard of DOOMED MOVIETHON.
Now my opinion on certain films may frequently be opposed to Richard's but I have frequently been impressed by his writing style. It actually resembles 'proper' literature. Plus he's the first guy I know of who brought up the film adaptation of Nabokov's 'Laughter in the Dark'.

Mirko of MARISA MELL.
If a film has anything remotely to do with Marisa, Mirko will write about it.
If a shop window dummy looks a bit like Marisa, Mirko will be sure to post a picture of it. Respect to the keeper of the great Euro-goddess archive.

That's it from me.
Thanks again, Jason!

melodramatic giallo: DELIRIO CALDO

2010-08-02T12:48:00.013+01:00

I could never objectively review DELIRIO CALDO, as I am so crazy about it. This film is something else! Story is giallo, execution - over-the-top melodrama.

Some may say that framing is TV-like. Predominance of "talking heads", fairly static shots. I wish all television films were like this one - full of outrageous violence and perversion.

It is impossible not to fall in love with Rita Calderoni, who delivers her most memorable performance in DELIRIO CALDO, playing a woman who loses her sanity to passion.

Like certain other genre classics (Jess Franco's EXORCISM, for example), DELIRIO CALDO exists in at least three very different cuts. Both versions available on the BU DVD have lots of incredible fun to offer. The U.S. cut boasts grainy Vietnam stock footage, extra 2 murders and a totally different ending. The Italian cut has fantastic opening and closing credits sequences and a bigger part for Tano Cimarosa.

Often, police procedural scenes in gialli are totally dull padding. In DELIRIO CALDO they're fun due to an odd way in which they're staged and due to cops being dressed more like pimps than policemen.

There's earnestness in Mickey Hargitay's performance, even though it frequently slips into wild overacting. But that's the steamy universe of Polselli. A lot of my admiration for DELIRIO CALDO stems from the fact that it's a little movie. Many times cheaper than gialli of Martino or Lenzi.

I am so glad that DELIRIO CALDO didn't become a 'lost' film, like Polselli's MANIA. There really is something in the story and lead performances that is moving, even on repeat viewings. Plus the polyester shirts, the music...Aah, I'm smitten. This is delicious delirium - superior to Lamberto Bava's namesake DELIRIUM in every respect.

Mitchum VS Lee: DARK MISSION (Operación cocaína)

2010-07-31T14:15:00.020+01:00

The better cast and resources Jess Franco manages to get, the less original results he seems to deliver. COUNT DRACULA and JACK THE RIPPER are two good examples of decently-funded mediocrity. DARK MISSION is of the same ilk.
Plot in one sentence: Christopher Mitchum (CLOCKWORK TERROR) is our hero, an American special agent posing as a newspaperman to infiltrate the Colombian drug lord’s (the ever-decent Christopher Lee) organization.

Despite it’s obvious drabness, DARK MISSION is hard to resist because of the killer cast.

Mitchum, Lahaie, Lee, Richard “Ninja Master Gordon” Harrison and a Eurocine regular Henri Lambert (TRANS-EUROP EXPRESS) are all onboard, acting out yet another insanely boring scenario for Daniel Lesoeur.

Cinematography is rather competent with an occasional elaborate tracking shot.
There’s some stock footage of helicopters used in the poorly-edited action scenes which is in different aspect ratio from the main bulk of the film.

Some of the dullest Jess Franco films at least have amazing poster artwork and memorable music.
Unfortunately, DARK MISSION has a very poor score. It’s weak and inappropriate. Probably is just a collection of some stock cues. Daniel J. White’s contribution would have been very welcome.

Something extraordinary for a Eurocine product: there’s no nudity whatsoever (unless you count the Richard Harrison bathroom scene) and zero sexual tension. This plays very much like a TV film with unadventurous framing and simplistic action at even intervals.

Christopher Lee and Brigitte Lahaie do their best with the dull dialogue they’ve been given and emerge with dignity. Lahaie gets to do both an impressively emotional scene and an over-the-top action one. Seeing her lead the troops whilst firing a huge machine gun is a true highlight.

Christopher Mitchum’s performance is only marginally better than the totally wooden one he’d delivered in CLOCKWORK TERROR. Antonio Mayans has a supporting role as a doctor.

Although DARK MISSION is a well below average film, it does have a fairly clear story and some amusingly frantic action scenes so there’s something to salvage for the more dedicated enthusiast here.

Pete Walker’s SCHIZO - alas, no Sheila Keith this time…

2010-07-21T08:49:00.012+01:00

Gorgeous giallo artwork – totally misleading, of course.

Weak frights, muddled intrigue, “subtle” outfits and some totally schizo wallpaper patterns await the viewer in Pete Walker’s deservedly little-known murder mystery yarn.

Man with a great face

Plot in one sentence: Upon learning of Samantha‘s upcoming wedding, a very intense-looking man (Jack Watson) travels to London from up North and before you know it Samantha‘s friends start getting picked off by a killer…

Remember - SCHIZO is a British picture, not an Italian one. So expect bleak visuals, sour jokes and social commentary instead of blunt humour, dazzling camera-work and out-of-sync dubbing.

Lynne Frederick looks great (even in a yellow vinyl raincoat) and her distress is, for the most part, very convincing.

Nasty wallpaper.

Absurd macho posturing amidst some gaudy interiors.

Usually, 70’s fashions can be a plus, but some of the décor in SCHIZO is definitely too much.
SCHIZO is perhaps worth watching for a slice of Britain (and a certain style of filmmaking) that is no more.

A co-op bus...

There’s some wonderful low-budget violence, rather nasty in concept and modest in execution.

It's not uncommon seeing hammered people on Friday nights...

Lynne Frederick acting scared.

SCHIZO is a kind of film to put on while ironing your shirts or something. It hasn’t got the density, originality or drive to merit full attention.
The last half hour or so is close to excellent and does redeem the preceding boredom to an extent, though.

This has to be my favourite Pete Walker film, together with THE COMEBACK.

BLOODY PSYCHO, bloody stupid

2010-07-11T16:39:00.007+01:00

There's no need for you to watch BLOODY PSYCHO.
Really, there isn't.
Unless you're craving for some obscure, shot-on-16mm, incoherent, unambitious gore film.

Plot in one sentence:
A psychic doctor comes to a castle where a series of murders begins.

After an atmospheric opening BLOODY PSYCHO begins to fall apart.
The plot is hard to make sense of, and is nothing original.
Peter Hintz underacting as Dr. Vogler made a better impression than he did while going way over the top in Fulci's HOUSE OF CLOCKS.

PLUSES: The low-budget yet atmospheric score tells an entirely different story from the film it accompanies. It elevates the proceedings above dreary at times.

MINUSES: Editing is rudimentary.
Some unbearably long takes are left in.
An occasional special effect is impressive, but the majority of them is very basic.

Only very keen enthusiasts will be able to scrape some redeeming value out of this incomprehensible mess.
BLOODY PSYCHO doesn't care for being understandable.
It exists only to deliver the obligatory quota of cheap gore modestly sprinkled across the ninety minutes of a poor supernatural film.
If you can help it, avoid BLOODY PSYCHO.
But, if you're still reading at this point, you'll probably get suckered into viewing it.

JOIN BLOODY PSYCHO APPRECIATION GROUP ON FACEBOOK

New wave of British Indie Horror: THE TURNING

2010-06-19T19:31:00.007+01:00

There's Zombies, Neo-Nazis, Gore, abusive behaviour and non-stop swearing...
That's right - Jason Impey, that Renaissance man of British trash is up to his old tricks again! And this time he's got a a real scream queen on board!

Impey's latest project is entitled The Turning.
Director himself describes it as a mix of horror, action and art-house.

The Turning stars Kemal Yildirim, himself an independent filmmaker and Impey's frequent collaborator.
Eileen Daly of Razor Blade Smile is also in the cast, playing Ilsa (a wicked Nazi wardress, naturally)!
The film's currently in the editing after an intense 11-day shoot.
I'll be taking a closer look at The Turning end of this year.

Taking a break

2010-05-30T06:48:00.004+01:00

Half a year ago I didn't know anything about blogging.
Six months on and I'm none the wiser, but I do feel I've been overspending time in front of my PC screen.
Summer is coming and I have chosen to take the time off and try enjoying the great outdoors a bit.
Thanks to all who've been following Trashfilmaddict up to now.
I really appreciate all your comments.
This blog is entering a state of suspended animation for the next three months.
Back in September.
Have a great summer, guys.

everyday madness: WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK?

2010-05-23T13:32:00.007+01:00

Pressures of modern society upon an individual and the resulting dehumanizing effect are expertly captured in this low-key, little-known film.

Kurt(the excellent KURT RAAB) is a meek, withdrawn man. We witness his dull, soul-destroying office work and unfulfilling family life.
From successive scenes filled with brainless small talk and devoid of any sign of genuine emotional contact grows a sense of profound unease.
Kurt goes to see a doctor who declares there's nothing physically wrong with him, and merely advices him to quit smoking. Seemingly all is well, until...
When the final twist comes, the film-makers don't give any assessment of the events. They don't judge.
They're there merely to document the goings-on.
So the viewer is left to make out for himself, WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK?

The style and performances aren't as formal or theatrical as in other Fassbinder works of the period.
In fact, WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK?, doesn't feel much like a Fassbinder picture, despite having a lot of his regular cast. Actress Hanna Shygulla even claims Fassbinder had nothing to do with directing this film. That may well be. But it doesn't make WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK? any less brilliant.

There's no extra-diegetic music and the camera-work is hand-held, documentary-style.

WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK? is basically a Dogme-style film, but made nearly 30 years before the Dogme movement.

Fassbinder and Michael Fengler also co-authored the ambitious and uneven riff on Godard's WEEKEND, THE NIKLASHAUSEN JOURNEY.

Crash-zoom on Stoker: EL CONDE DRACULA

2010-05-19T16:37:00.005+01:00

EL CONDE DRACULA does not exactly grab the viewer's attention right from the get-go.
International stars Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom and Klaus Kinski are acting alongside Franco regulars of the period - Soledad Miranda, Jack Taylor and the excellent Paul Muller. Director himself has a tiny part as a creepy manservant. Apart from great cast and some odd stylistic choices there's nothing much to say about EL CONDE DRACULA. The best actors flit in and out, with most running time going to the bland "pretty boy" Fred Williams. The viewer is left to his own devices amidst a slurry of confusing scenes. Despite some undeniably effective visual touches, EL CONDE DRACULA is more of a missed opportunity than a forgotten gem.

Lucio hits the road: DOOR TO SILENCE

2010-05-12T18:45:00.006+01:00

DOOR TO SILENCE isn't going to win Fulci any new fans.

Plot in one sentence: On the way back home from a business trip, Melvin Devereux is desperately racing a hearse which seems to contain his own corpse.

Some neat, modestly effective scenes are lost among the endless filler driving footage.
John Savage drives, John Savage pulls over to fill up, John Savage drives on. Despite the continuous physical movement of the hero, story remains firmly clamped for most of the running time. Some may argue that was intentional. Either way, the film sure wears you out.

Reasonably slick technically, DOOR TO SILENCE does not feel like a totally impersonal hack-job, as ZOMBI 3 or GHOSTS OF SODOM did. Yet there's too little substance in DOOR TO SILENCE to make it worthwhile for anyone but the most dedicated enthusiasts.

Bratislava cyborgs: OMEGA DOOM (1996)

2010-05-07T11:22:00.002+01:00

Plot in one sentence:
Your basic plot of Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo”/Leone’s “For a fistful of dollars” with a cyborg twist.

What works:

-Tony Riparetti music.
It lends this modest production some great atmosphere and suggests a Spaghetti Western vibe at times.

-Roaming Steadicam camerawork.
Lots of flawlessly beautiful gliding camera shots keep the viewer visually stimulated, giving the film a bigger feel.

What doesn’t work:

-Some rather appalling blue screen effects.
Pyun obviously wasn’t in total control of post-production. I doubt he would have allowed the horrendous shot of Rutger Hauer’s lighter producing dodgy CGI “flame” to make it into the final edit.

Half the fun with watching Albert Pyun films comes from seeing how he’s working around the restrictions set by inadequately low budgets. Just like Jess Franco – another prolific trash auteur, Pyun often turns limitations into advantages. By employing a deliberately minimalist aesthetic he’d created such low-key yet impressively stylish pictures as the serial killer thriller “Postmortem”, or mellow crime drama “Crazy Six”. Pyun takes on a similar tactic with “Omega Doom” – yet another futuristic cyborg epic.

Directing this tale of Rutger Hauer playing two gangs of robots off each other Pyun only has one location to play with: a bombed out Eastern European city square(apparently filmed in Bratislava, Slovakia)

I really could do without “The Bartender” character with her helpless wining. She did give the whole film a slight depressing undertone. She’d have been better off killed in the opening scene.
Ah well…

Jahi Zuri is a lot of fun(and does a great “robot walk”) as demented violent Droid “Marko”. His over-the-top tough manner of delivery reminded me somewhat of Bobby Rhodes of Lamberto Bava’s “Demons 1&2” fame.

My favourite character has got to be “The Head” –a bodiless robot, played by Pyun veteran Norbert Weisser (and an obvious rubber head in some shots). His performance is lively and impressive, even the primitive blue screen effects cannot hamper it. Some of the editing (notably during the fights) is very choppy which once again makes an impression that “Omega Doom” was either finished in a hurry or without Pyun’s supervision.

I must have seen “Omega Doom” three-four times now, and it still doesn’t bore me. It’s not the fast-paced action film like “Nemesis”, of course. Yet it contains a lot of great touches which make it essential Pyun viewing.

Ursula, undress! – THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD(1978)

2010-05-03T15:40:00.012+01:00

La montagna del dio cannibale

Plot in one sentence: Stacey Keach and Ursula Andress go to the jungle in search of her missing husband and land in a cave populated by pig-fucking cannibals.

What works:

-punch-ups;

Rare cannibal film goes without a hero giving his girl a slap at least once. THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD is extraordinary in this respect. There are two instances of unintentionally hilarious "fights", greatly amusing stuff.

What doesn't work: THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD is boring.

Martino gets good mileage out of the available locations but cannot inject the primitive script with the necessary drive.

Giancarlo Ferrando's compositions are perfect, but his classic way of lighting ruins some of the natural charm the wilderness possesses. I mean, people walk around the supposed jungle and they have 4-5 shadows - come on! As a result, THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD cannot boast the same kind of gritty realism that Deodato achieved with his equally boring ULTIMO MONDO CANNIBALE.

A warm, emotional and dignified performance by Stacey Keach helps one sit through all the requisite spider attacks, snake attacks, booby traps and what not.

As usual with Martino, THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD has high production values and is rather faceless.
Sound is surprisingly good - some of it seems to be live on-set recording, which was pretty extraordinary for Italian productions in those days. Or it could be dubbing, but more carefully done than usual, with the entire principal cast doing their own voices.

The simply isn't enough going on in THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD to recommend it to anyone.
What good stuff there is happens in the last ten minutes, when the heroes are trapped in the cannibal cave. Finally some red stuff begins to flow. But it doesn't justify the slow build-up, no matter how well-photographed.

Pulsating score by De Angelis brothers would suggest a more savage, intense picture than the one Martino put together.

My favourite cannibal trash remains Lenzi's EATEN ALIVE.

updating Lovecraft: DAGON

2010-05-02T12:24:00.005+01:00

What works:

- the pacing;
DAGON doesn't let up for one second. As soon as the boat crashes near Spanish shores, it's chase-chase-chase with lots of weird and wonderful stuff going on. There all the awesome monsters, great deaths and thick atmosphere. A very fun film indeed!

-Handheld cinematography;
it's all very dynamic and makes the film feel a lot bigger.

What doesn't work:

- the score is frankly, shite. It's boring and doesn't help things one bit.

DAGON does follow the original story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" reasonably close, but as usual, they still had to change stuff.

-action shifted to present day - sort of inevitable, since budget wasn't unlimited

-action is set in Spain, not New England - again, has to do with where the production company is based.

However, the biggest and hardest to bear deviation from the source has to be the "comic relief" protagonist. Now Lovecraft was strongly opposed to anyone editing his texts once he was done with them. Had he still been with us, can you imagine his indignation at seeing actor Ezra Godden's behaviour as Paul Marsh?

Why on Earth they made the main hero such a clown?

Most of the time he looks like a whimpering, bespectacled rodent wearing a vile orange jumper(yes, I did notice that it says MISCATONIC UNVERSITY on it).

I don't think Godden's performance is bad, it could be considered successful in some other kind of film. But in the rainy, forlorn universe of H.P. Lovecraft his deliberate clowning about just doesn't cut it. It feels weird and out-of-place.
A square-jawed, no-nonsense hero could have been a lot more appropriate.
Hell, even wooden "tough guy" shit Hugo Stiglitz delivered on NIGHTMARE CITY would be a lot more a lot more suitable here than Godden's bitching and grimacing. Yes, he does kick some minor fishman ass towards the finale, but by then it's too little, too late.

It's a bit shocking to see how legendary actor Francisco Rabal (Antonioni's L'ECLISSE, Lenzi's NIGHTMARE CITY) let go of himself. The guy looks like hell, and they still gave him a topless scene! However, Rabal is never less than convincing as a demented alcoholic tramp.
The movie is dedicated to his memory.

Apparently, the original script for DAGON was ready as far back as 1985, but something held it back from being filmed. It would have been shot in the US and without CGI back then.
But hey, there's not a terrible amount of CGI in DAGON, and it's tolerable.
The film is damn entertaining, one of Gordon's very best

...but the book's still better:)))

disappointing pseudo-Fulci: ZOMBI 3

2010-04-30T18:11:00.006+01:00

The trailer makes “Zombie 3” look like a dream-come-true film: flamethrower action, explosions, helicopters, keyboard soundtrack and hordes of zombies. However, the actual movie is quite slow-paced and underwhelming.
I had pretty much zero reaction when first watching "Zombie 3", but had returned to this odd film numerous times over the years. Sequences involving soldiers in contamination suits are by far the most exciting ones.

80’s fashions are abominable and there’s an air of poverty hanging over the locations. Zombies look like tramps, limping about with mud caked onto their faces.
“Zombie 3” is lacking the dynamics Bruno had previously managed to lend to his own uneven, but faster-paced films: “Emanuelle in Prison” and “SS Girls”.
The film’s biggest problem has to be the bunch of hateful lead characters whom it’s impossible to care for. Beatrice Ring has always seemed to me the most unbearable of the lot. Ring, a late-comer to the Italian horror industry has dubious honour of starring in perhaps the weakest horror-themed work to come out of Italy, Lamberto Bava’s tedious TV production “Graveyard Disturbance”.
Massimo Vanni has the best scene – fighting a load of zombies by the swimming pool.
Action sequences are plentiful, but what’s in between is such dreck!
“Military VS doctors” scenes in Romero’s “The Crazies” on which Mattei modelled his film are just as boring as their imitations in “Zombie 3”.

Yet something makes me revisit this film now and again. Perhaps, it’s the near-legendary "flying skull" scene. Or the occasionally atmospheric synth score by Stefano Mainetti.
No matter what you think of it, “Zombie 3” will remain a unique film in the history of the genre just by virtue of strange circumstances under which it was made.

chilling and immaculate: Liebe ist kälter als der Tod

2010-04-27T14:51:00.008+01:00

What works:

-distinctive score by Peer Raben;

-Lommel, Shygulla, and even Fassbinder himself are (almost) turned into Gods (or at least idols) by Diretrich Lochmann's fetishistic framing;

What doesn't work:

-relationship between the trio of leads remains merely touched upon, never fully explored.

-Most banal of plots.

Liebe ist kälter als der Tod is likely to seem pretentious and overindulgent to some. Yet Fassbinder's feature debut is a work of impressive integrity. The film succeeds purely through direction (by which I mean both visual style and style of performances).Most common episodes stand out due to the way they are executed.

Sparsely furnished sets. Harsh light. Incredibly artificial, purposely comatose acting. Scenes extended well beyond the limit of most viewers' attention span. Decidedly fake, staged action. Mockery of Gangster film cliches.All the dialogue would easily fit on 20 pages. No character development. Long silent stretches that in hands of a less confident director would be terminally boring. Somehow, Fassbinder manages to breathe life into this unlikely combination.
Of course, Fassbinder relies on a lot of Godard's finds here, but Liebe ist kälter als der Tod stands on its' own feet well.

The ending twist is confusing and doesn't really clear up after repeat viewings. It would seem, RWF isn't ready to reveal something about his characters, leaving their motives somewhat vague.
A hypnotic experience that will likely prove too frustrating for the viewer not adjusted to Fassbinder's manner of storytelling.

Liebe ist kälter als der Tod(Germany, 1969)
Written and Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Starring Ulli Lommel, Hanna Schygulla, Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Bande à part in Bavaria: DAS KLEINE CHAOS (1966)

2010-04-24T12:56:00.006+01:00

Plot in one sentence: disappointed in door-to-door sales, a trio of youths choose to requalify into robbers.

One of the earliest surviving film works by Fassbinder, DAS KLEINE CHAOS was funded by Rainer's lover Christoph Roser in exchange for an acting part. You get youngsters being cocky, reading didactic texts aloud and attacking the establishment.

DAS KLEINE CHAOS feels very much like a short tribute to BANDE A PART. Heavy Godardian influence, excellent B/W cinematography devoid of unnecessary eye-candy, lively performances, tight running time - whenever you need a quick shot of RWF, DAS KLEINE CHAOS is the way to go.

Porn review: EL MIRON Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA

2010-04-16T08:36:00.014+01:00

What works: -Running time. The film's only about an hour long, and very wisely so for a plotless porn that doesn't try to arouse and only has weird imagery to offer by way of redeeming qualities.

-Cinematography. Images are colourful, camera movements - unpredictable. Jess zooms up people's assholes and pans along poster-covered walls with equal enthusiasm.

-Music. I don't remember actor's names or faces but the tunes playing over the yucky copulation scenes are quite memorable.

What doesn't work:
-Sex. No, seriously. I had great trouble watching most of it. Performers come in various shapes and sizes and the intrusive camera often captures them in rather unattractive detail. I'd say its healthier to go out for a cigarette during some of the less flattering closeups then to brave it and suffer nightmares.

-Lina's wig. H o r r i b l e . Somehow being caked in pale makeup and wearing a red wig made my favourite Lina Romay look sort of creepy. Like a witch smoking and wanking while looking right down the lens with her bottomless eyes.

-Having Antonio Mayans in the credits when he's nowhere to be found in the actual film.

Even though EL MIRON is sure to be a stressful experience for those more used to actually attractive nudity, it still shouldn't be considered a failure. Thanks to brief running time and Jess' boundless formal creativity behind the camera, EL MIRON is worth a glance. But mainly for those already fascinated enough with JF to bear the discomfort. Dear porn lovers - go watch APOCALYPSE CLIMAX or any other "proper" porn.

I don't plan to seek out other hc titles by Franco as EL MIRON is said to be the best of them(or perhaps the least painful). Honestly, it's easier to sit through this, than through director's absurd and worthless self-mockery MARI-COOKIE AND THE KILLER TARANTULA IN 8 LEGS TO LOVE YOU or mercenary LOVE CAMP.

science-fiction a la Tarkovsky: KRAFTVERK 3714

2010-04-09T13:21:00.016+01:00

Until recently my favourite self-funded digital film has been Miguel Coyula's award-winning RED COCROACHES. Now it's been pushed off the top by Markus Wiedegren's original KRAFTVERK 3714.

When putting the DVD on, I was a little worried by the running time stated on the sleeve: 136 minutes (in my opinion a good enjoyable film shouldn't really run over 75). My worries were in vain. KRAFTVERK 3714 doesn't drag or feel padded at any stage. I actually didn't want it to end.

KRAFTVERK 3714 is hard to categorize. On a superficial level it is about aliens appearing in a remote rural area. So, if one had to label it, it would be a "sci-fi movie" label. Only it would be more fun to enthusiasts of Andrey Tarkovsky and Lars Von Trier than to STAR WARS fans.

I loved the main characters who in the first half of the movie were just normal people doing normal things. It's a great achievement on the part of the director that the build-up doesn't feel routine or tiresome despite lack of superficial action. A lot of filmmakers today are afraid to use the zoom. Such is not the case with director/cinematographer Markus Wiedegren, who doesn't shy away from some adventurous shots and camera moves, creating a pleasantly unusual mise-en-scene.

I will not give away any of the plot, which is full of mystery and unanswered questions but remains interesting due to believable characters and good structure. The finale is actually pretty mind-blowing with some over-the-top action, stunts and crazy moments that reminded me a little of Takashi Miike's DEAD OR ALIVE final battle.

After the atmospheric opening the film could take a wrong turn. Too many nice premises get wasted in both studio and self-funded films. I was afraid the usual "alien invasion" clichés would kick in, with lots of stupidity, screaming and running around. Well, there was some screaming and running around (not to mention sex and explosions) in KRAFTVERK 3714. But none of it is done in a typical predictable way. Thankfully, characters don't do anything idiotic that could make the viewer hate them.

Screenwriters Markus Wiedegren and Fred Andreson obviously know a thing or two about their craft. Throughout the film I was glued to the screen, not knowing what the hell was going on but finding the whole thing fascinating. The story does come together in the end, after much mystery, and the few ambiguous moments that remain unresolved still somehow manage to work on a level of dream logic, like in Coscarelli's classic PHANTASM.

My favourite piece of music has got to be the melody playing when Elizabeth (Sandy Mansson) who's shopping at her local supermarket discovers that all the customers have been abducted by aliens.

KRAFTVERK 3714 gives one hope that the future of self-funded independent film is bright.
Unfortunately, unless you contact independent filmmakers directly, their amazing films remain quite hard to find today.

I know that I'll be revisiting KRAFTVERK 3714 before long. So many things that I consider beautiful and essential in good cinema come together in this unique film.

KRAFTVERK 3714 (Sweden, 2005)
Directed by Markus Wiedegren
Written by Markus Wiedegren, Fred Anderson
Starring Sandy Mansson, Maria Bergguist, Emil Jonsson, Michael Mansson, Fred Anderson.

persona: Alexander "FLE" Zhemchuzhnikov

2010-04-09T10:06:00.003+01:00

Alexander "FLE" Zhemchuzhnikov (born 9.04.1986 in USSR, now Russia) is a multy-instrumental musician currently based in Rio De Janeiro.

Apart from having recorded two albums with his band [Br]om, he is also active as a film composer and has recently formed a band called Biu.

Most reviewers of my film NAKED TRIP commented on the intense and original score he had provided.

But apart from all that, he's just a cool guy who I am very glad to know. Happy Birthday, man!

Alexander "FLE" Zhemchuzhnikov runs a blog(in Portugese) dedicated to quality Russian music called conexão russa

Dull, Baby, Dull - OPERAZIONE PAURA ('66)

2010-04-03T15:30:00.002+01:00

Ridiculous script has stock gothic characters saying banal things and behaving in that shockingly illogical fashion that has become trademark of Italian horror cinema. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (D'Amato's DEATH SMILED AT MURDER, Lenzi's HELL'S GATE) is bland and theatrical. The period costume does look good on him, however. Erica Blanc is good-looking but her character is forgettable. Most lovingly Bava films the clean-shaven skull of Luciano Catenacci.

Catenacci, playing the village mayor also gets "Producer" credit on OPERAZIONE PAURA - a project that famously ran out of money halfway through, with cast and crew finishing the picture for free.

The "ghost" played by a boy in drag certainly looks eerie but overall OPERAZIONE PAURA is a dull film. Despite some nice gimmicky cinematography, it's just gothic cliches without a speck of life.

the other side of Tinto Brass: L'URLO

2010-04-01T08:25:00.011+01:00

Guest review by MARIO

What is a "Tinto Brass fan" and what is a "Tinto Brass film"?
Long before Tinto Brass has established himself with his erotic T&A movies
he made movies in the late 60's /early 70's that could be tagged under a "arthouse" or "surreal" category. Describing L'URLO entirely is difficult, perhaps impossible, but for sure it would need more space to write about it.

Basically the movie is a slideshow of grotesque surreal and psychedelic scenarios and idejas,
where lead actress Tina Aumont jumps from one "adventurous" event to another.
She is supported here by the very fine performance of Luigi Proietti who plays a not too deadly-serious character...
In the first minutes of the movie, we see the "altar of marriage" : a priest with a weird "shrinkhead" as an amulet, a man with shampoo on his head.

Anna (Tina Aumont) who is covered with white make-up and strong black eyeliner…
Seemingly she isn’t very convinced about this marriage. She sees Coso (Proietti) lurking on the side, and decides to "run away" with him.
After a grotesque "Hitch hike" drive in the car (including dialogues...) they both piss on the front-window of the car.

Both "check in" to a bizarre hotel with some special rooms:
Nude, semi-nude people around, somebody with a gas mask on, a woman with a swan, a goose that gets beheaded.
Behaviour somewhere between "zoo" and "lunatic asylum".
A weird scenario as if a Hieronymus Bosch painting comes to live with an extra dose of "psychedelics".

Another scene: a nude and "great philosopher" as he calls himself, who wears an ancient wig
first welcomes the two strangers into his home... the free nature, just to notice afterwards that he is a cannibal!
In one scene we see Tina Aumont and Luigi Proietti running in a hurry : here a short scene is intercut and edited from Brass previous movie COL CUORE IN GOLA where we see Jean-Louis Trintignant running and screaming (which sort of suits to this moment) Anna asks "who was this?" and Coso replies to this simply : "Trintignant"… this makes almost the impression of a slight tongue-in cheek self-parody.

The film features also various short archive footage from war and executions, speeches from Mussolini and a certain Führer from Germany.
Scenes of people demonstrating...

In one scene a ludicrous "mini-version" midget of the Führer appears, as a sort of parody.
Soldiers appear relatively often in the movie who also in one scene rape the "heroine"
In the end of the movie, after a fatal car crash of Anna (which changes the scene with a big question mark that zooms up!) she marries the man she first escaped from.
In her wedding dress and again with the strong make-up, this ceremony somewhere in the woods… makes a bizarre impression.

Surely, the film is a "work of it's time" which shows a psychedelic culture linked to "revolutionary idejas" which don't exist today.
Speaking of Tina Aumont, it can be said that this is the role of her life.
Besides the great ideajs and music, etc... it’s as if the movie was made "for her"... as if everything is circling around her..
I don’t believe there is "another" L'URLO in her filmography!
(Fellini's CASANOVA can be considered also "grotesque" but she had a small side role in it).
In an old interview Tinto Brass explained the reason why she never became a real "star"… she was a "moody" person that shifted from happiness to depression, and also that she was "involved" in drugs...

Years later she has a "come-back" in Tinto's SALON KITTY where he commented that this time it was "a different Tina- less stunning".
He might be right, but this rather small and conventional side-role hardly asked her to do something "special".
"Un mondo cattivo non tolera l'amore" (an ugly/bad world which doesn’t tolerate love) is to hear during a song in the movie, which can be interpreted in various ways (including political),
Well this might "still" today be true-but if "love" even exists (except for 17 year olds... ) is another question... Sooner or later the "mondo cattivo" will show its’ thorns.
The film is an experiment, a joking around with the conventions of cinema.
The "chaos" of the movie represents the anti-authoritarian attitude. Ultimately a passionate scream that wants to gain freedom...

Its the sort of a cinematic experience that cannot be reproduced by the "film industry"
(unlike Tinto Brass’ later erotic films… and in contrary to idejas and imagination the flesh will never die... well at least not soon…)
A uniqueness that finds its relatives possibly somewhere between Jodorowsky and Dusan Makavejev.

L'urlo(Italy, 1970)

Directed by Tinto Brass

Written by:Tinto Brass, Gigi Proietti, Franco Longo, Gian Carlo Fusco

Starring: Tina Aumont, Gigi Proietti, Carla Cassola

House of lost souls: ANIMA PERSA (1977)

2010-03-26T12:36:00.013Z

Guest Review by Mario.
A young Man Tino (Danilo Matei) arrives in Venice to study arts locally while he is staying at the mansion of his Uncle and Aunt. Not very long after his arrival he hears strange sounds coming from a room upstairs. Wondering what is the source of this, his Aunts first tells him that it’s "nothing" and that he shouldn’t bother to investigate further. The old housemaid soon reveals the truth that here is indeed somebody living upstairs in the room. It is the mad brother of his uncle who is sort of locked in the room since some time, and is never leaving it. Through a peephole it is possible to take a look at the lunatic brother, which is all shown through a fish lens.

The housemaid tells him that only his brother is allowed to enter the room and is taking care of him. Meanwhile it is also revealed that Tino´s Aunt is suffering from the strong-minded and tyrannical remarks of his uncle.

Although the novel on which "Anima Persa" is based on is set in Trieste, if I am not mistaken it was a good decision to relocate the setting to Venice as it’s on a cinematographic level a far more interesting place. Additionally it underlines the subtle morbid and mysterious tone of the dramatic story perfectly. Like the beautiful facade of Venice, both main protagonists (Vittorio Gassman and Catherine Deneuve) appear to be "normal" people, but there is something hidden behind the facade of the heal world that crumbles. Something that is morbid... a tragedy that happened in their past that first is only revealed step by step till the final and surprising conclusion.

Somebody shouldn’t mistake this movie for a "giallo" as it is mentioned so in a reference book, I would rather say that this is more of a mysterious and peculiar drama instead. But this "liberal" mentioning of the movie might surely be forgiven as possibly I wouldn’t have stumbled across this movie otherwise...

Vittorio Gassman gives a splendid performance, he portrays here a sort of "strong" egocentric character, totally convinced of his ideals and beliefs who makes quite an impression on Tino. Catherine Deneuve is also quite good in her role. For some reason I couldn’t stand her before but in this case she has convinced me.

The Atmosphere of this movie is great, the house where they live, is an "old school antiquarian" villa (it can be said that the protagonists belong to a "bourgeois" upper class) which is impressive. As Venice, it is a sort of hermetic world from "yesterday" where the time has seemingly stood still, and which is entered by the juvenile and naive Tino who could be considered to be from the "present". Somebody who will be introduced to a somehow different world...

Venice was the ideal stage and background for various movies as "Who saw her die?", "Bloodstained Shadow", "Damned in Venice", "Don’t look now". These movies that deal with murder, mystery (and partially supernatural elements as "Damned in Venice") are in good company with "Anima Persa".

Altough there is a clear difference that "Anima Persa" is focused much more on a character development, surely on a psychological level
as one of the themes of the movie is "madness"..
It is another example of an alternative Venice that clearly goes beyond the clichees of the idyllic tourist-postcards..

Baroque, poetic, melancholic are some of the keywords who would fit to this magical and beautifull film, that stays with you after the end credits are over.

Anima persa(Italy/France, 1977)

Directed by Dino Risi
Written by Dino Risi, Bernardino Zapponi
Based on a novel by Giovanni Arpino
Starring: Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Deneuve, Danilo Mattei

a haunting cinematic poem: LA MORTE HA SORRISO ALL'ASSASSINO

2010-03-22T12:29:00.015Z

"Elegant" is not the word often used to describe any of Joe D'Amato's 200-odd films. It is however, most appropriate in regards to his early directing effort, LA MORTE HA SORRISO ALL'ASSASSINO D'Amato's films aren't exactly known for their well-rounded characters.
Here, too heroes are sketchy but the ensemble cast does a good job with them. Kinski is as energetic as ever, despite being underused as the suspicious Dr. Sturges. Ewa Aulin is shamelessly pretty and does a great job playing an innocent-looking slut. Giacomo Rossi0Stuart is annoyingly stiff, but that somehow fits his outwardly prim character who's in fact rotten to the core. A special mention has to go to Luciano Rossi. His part is small but he manages to give his best in the few surreal episodes scattered throughout the patchy narrative and make a lasting impression.

Kier-La Janisse (pronounced K-La) gathered whatever scarce information available on Rossi in her great book "A violent professional: the films of Luciano Rossi".
Fernando Cerulli has a walk-on part as Professor Kempte. He's perhaps best-remembered as the bathtub murder victim from Antonio Bido's excellent IL GATTO DAGLI OCCHI DI GIADA.

Berto Pisano's lyrical and menacing score helps carry the film enormously through the many wordless passages.

D'Amato tells his story with minimal dialogue, expertly handling the camerawork and relying on composition for impact.

The walled-up cat sequence from Fulci's THE BLACK CAT is very similar to the one in LA MORTE HA SORRISO ALL'ASSASSINO, but one cannot claim a conscious tribute with any degree of certainty.

As with most Italian films, locations in LA MORTE HA SORRISO ALL'ASSASSINO are splendid. The whole film looks and feels grand and is one of the more carefully executed works of D'Amato.

One does not need to be a D'Amato enthusiast to enjoy this atmospheric and original piece of perverse and bloody Gothic cinema.

The haunting feeling lingers on long after the final freeze-frame.

La morte ha sorriso all'assassino(Italy, 1973)

Directed by Aristide Massacessi
Written by Claudio Bernabei, A. Massaccessi, Romano Scandariato
Starring: Ewa Aulin, Klaus Kinski, Luciano Rossi, Angela Bo, Giacomo Rossi - Stuart

Cozzi Arthouse: IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO(1969)

2010-03-17T17:07:00.016Z

In THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN George Hilton and Michel Antoine arrange to meet at the cinema house to discuss their nefarious plans. The film they go to see is Cozzi's feature debut, IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO. Based on a short story "The Tunnel Under the World" by famed US sci-fi writer Frederick Pohl ("Annals of the Heechee"), it is a self-funded affair shot in a totally unrestrained style.
IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO was not intended as a commercial film and stylistically came out a lot bolder than Cozzi's later and better-known studio productions. A clip from the film is also featured in IL VICINO DI CASA, Cozzi's entry into Dario Argento's TV series LA PORTA SUL BUIO.

Things that really stay with you after watching IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO are the imagery and incredible editing. Montage has got to be the most violent in any Cozzi film, rendering some scenes striking and dynamic, others - incomprehensible. The excellent score from IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO can be heard in the documentary piece on Cozzi's early career entitled ROAD TO THE KILLER.

IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO is worth watching for many reasons.
It's a rare early glimpse into the mind of Cozzi, then a budding filmmaker enamoured with Godard's ALPHAVILLE. Seeing godardian iconography filtered through the mind of a man who was to become one of the more notable activists of Italian sci-fi cinema is fascinating.
IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO will also be of interest to Frederick Pohl enthusiasts, who can spot the initial similarities between the screenplay and the source story. But Pohl's story was a mere springboard for Cozzi, who went all-out and mixed political commentary, sci-fi fable and adventure into a bizarre head trip of a film.

And Cozzi fans will no doubt be glad to see the future CONTAMINATION director put in a rare acting appearance. Looking very young and skinny, Luigi plays a visitor from the future guiding the main hero towards some sort of "groundbreaking" discovery.
The beautiful Ivana Monti of Fulci's CONTRABAND is perhaps the most familiar face in the cast.

Until recently IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO was damn hard to get hold of, and any info on it was scarce. Things improved a little with the French SE 2-disc DVD release of CONTAMINATION which featured IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO in it's entirety as an extra.

OVERALL: Definitely Cozzi's bravest and most original but sadly little-seen.

Special thanks to my colleague at OCCHIO SULLE ESPRESSIONI for kindly providing a screener of the film.

Il tunnel sotto il mondo(Italy, 1969)

Directed and Edited by LUIGI COZZI
Written by ALFREDO CASTELLI, TITO MONEGO
Based on a strory by FREDERICK POHL
Starring: ALBERTO MORO, BRUNO SALVIERO, IVANA MONTI, LUIGI COZZI

echoes of PSYCHO: HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON(1970)

2010-03-14T09:02:00.019Z

MEMORABLE QUOTE:

My name is John Harrington. I'm 30 years old. I'm a paranoiac. Paranoiac. An enchanting word, so civilized, full of possibilities. The truth is, I am completely mad. The realization which annoys me at first, but is now amusing to me. Quite amusing. Nobody suspects I am a madman. A dangerous murderer. Not Mildred, my wife. Nor the employees of my fashion center. Nor of course my customers.

[scoops a fly out of his drink]

HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON grabs viewer's attention right from the artful opening credits followed by an intriguing train murder.

Stephen Forsyth's chiseled features and intense blue eyes are framed extraordinarily lovingly by Maestro Bava in many shadowy compositions. Forsyth was apparently a Canadian actor of Italian films who quit the profession following this film.

HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON is not as polished technically as some of Bava's most acclaimed work. There one or two pretty violent zooms here and in general the director doesn't overload the film with visual candy. It's very poetic but with an edge, suitably for the story which balances between the clinical and the supernatural.

Bava considered screenplays to be the weakest link in his films. Usually maestro's films are a feast for the eyes but populated with mere cyphers. With HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON he had a better than usual material to work with. Co-written with Santiago Moncada, it's a rare instance of a horror script that's character-driven. John Harrington has got to be the most interesting protagonist in a Bava film.The ubiquitous police inspector haunting Harrington, played by Jesús Puente looks like a 70's Spanish version of Tom Sizemore.

The story is set in France while the picture was filmed in Rome and Barcelona. So a few exterior shots of the Eiffel Tower are edited in here and there. Bava already had experience of shooting Paris in Italy with Riccardo Freda's I VAMPIRI (1956).

The incredible 70's vibe of the picture cannot go unmentioned. Harrington walks around wearing silk shirts and bright cravats and there's also one of those incredible disco dancing sequences one so often encounters in Eurofilms of the period.

Une hache pour la lune de miel "trailer"
Загружено gregwallace.

Il rosso segno della follia(Italy/Spain, 1970)

Directed by Mario Bava
Written by Mario Bava, Santiago Moncada
Starring: Stephen Forsyth, Laura Betti, Dagmar Lassander,Jesús Puente

Mysoginistic farce: Fulci's TOUCH OF DEATH (1988)

2010-03-12T09:26:00.010Z

As Stephen Thrower points out in his informative "Beyond Terror", TOUCH OF DEATH is the only Fulci film written entirely by the man himself, without the aid of other screenwriters. The result is far from perfect but certainly more character-focused than usual for "Godfather of Gore",notorious for his listless main heroes.

Budget limitations have forced Fulci to adopt minimalist style here, which suits the material rather well.

TOUCH OF DEATH was produced by Lugi Nannerini and Antonino Lucidi, responsible for the string of extremely cheap and dismal "Lucio Fulci presents" cash-in films. It's only logical to draw the comparison between TOUCH OF DEATH and those productions. Despite similarly tight budget which only allows for a handful of locations, Fulci manages to pull off some rather complex shots, showing himself to be in a class above the likes of Andrea Bianchi or Giovanni Simonelli as a director. One or two scenes are genuinely effective, like when Brett Halsey breaks into the house at the stables, accompanied by hysterical horse racing commentary on the radio.

Now to the minus sides: Brett Halsey.
This man obviously doesn't take the material all that seriously.
His performance is just a tired pantomime at times.
Halsey went on to appear in Fulci's troubled would-be comeback DEMONIA (1990)
Al Cliver gives the best performance in the film as the cynical crook Randy.
His last screen credit today is also in DEMONIA. Hopefully we'll see more of Cliver in the near future.
Overall, I've grown to enjoy TOUCH OF DEATH on repeat viewings. It's really not a first-rate Fulci, but in some ways it is quite original.

Lots of reviewers claim that this film's original ratio was fullscreen, since it was a made-for-TV film. The existing DVD's from Shriek Show and EC would seem to prove that.
Both were made from a BETA master(same one?). However, TOUCH OF DEATH was released letterboxed on VHS in France under the title Soupçons de mort. That was not a cropped fullscreen release and had a lot more information on the sides . So somewhere in the world there has to be original widescreen elements that need unearthing.

Quando Alice ruppe lo specchio(Italy, 1988)

Written and directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Brett Halsey, Zora Kerova, Sacha Maria Darwin.

arty giallo: SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS (1972)

2010-03-10T15:11:00.010Z

Plot in one sentence: It's a bloody giallo, so plot won't fit in!

What works: Naturally, cinematography and music. Everything else is debatable.

Just two days after watching it, I'm already considering revisiting SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS.
I saw the spoiler-ridden trailer so I knew who the killer was and was just enjoying the 70's style and mood, much helped by Riz Ortolani's minimalist music. It took me some time to warm up to the leads, who were both unnaturally pretty and not too gifted in terms of charisma. But towards the end the beautiful Marisa Mell showed up and saved the day for me.

Despite some excitingly kitschy set designs and lovely ladies, SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS is still missing something.
Perhaps some personal investment from the director.
Lenzi does a great professional job, but he's just the executioner, not a creator here.
It's a very good example of a typical giallo with all the genre's strengths and weaknesses. Lenzi's contribution to the giallo genre should not be overlooked.

TRIVIA:

-The shot from a drill murder scene from SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS somehow ended up on the artwork for Jess Franco's slow moving and depressing REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER.

-When Anotnio Sabato is at the cemetery, a black-gloved man comes up to him and says something in a foreign language. Sabato doesn't understand him and the man leaves. What the man actually says is "Excuse me, could you direct me to the Christian Orthodox cemetery please?" in Russian.

Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso(1972)

Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Written by Roberto Gianviti
Starring: Antonio Sabato, Uschi Glas, Renato Romano.