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Posted on 06.15.09 by David @ 1:06 pm
AKA: Gli amanti d’oltretomba; The Faceless Monster; Night of the Doomed Review By: David Austin  Nightmare Castle epitomizes the Italian gothic of the 1960s and, as such enjoys the advantages and suffers the disadvantages of its kind. Specifically, Nightmare Castle has gorgeous cinematography and rich, eerie atmosphere. The plot, on the other hand , is a mostly forgettable mish-mash of horror tropes and meandering plot points. Nevertheless, director Mario Caiano, cinematographer Enzo Barboni and set decorator Bruno Cesari (who later worked on Once Upon a Time in America and won an Oscar for The Last Emperor) do first class work. Beautiful period costumes and furnishings are all shot for maximum effect (with an emphasis on stylish, ground-level tracking shots). Viewers familiar with Italian cinema will look past the flaws and appreciate the lovely sights on display. In contrast to the finery on display, Nightmare Castle, like other Italian gothics of the early sixties, pushes the envelope in terms of graphic violence, adding grotesquerie to the otherwise dignified surroundings. Caiano does not shy away from the grue, setting his scenes of torture and depravity in the stately halls of a classical manor or in a pleasure garden. These two elements of Nightmare Castle’s appeal combine in an impressive finale that brings the somewhat drawn-out proceedings to a suitably pyrotechnic close. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: Severin and People: Barbara Steel and People: Ennio Morricone Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 01.15.09 by David @ 12:22 am
Gomorrah
Similarly, while the film is set during the bloody 2004 Secondigliano clan war between the Di Lauros and a secessionist wing of their organization, director Garrone never provides any detailed explanation for the violence. Rather, he casts viewers (at least viewers unfamiliar with the underlying events) into the maelstrom without any guidance, perhaps reflecting a judgment that the high-level politics of the event were truly irrelevant next to their consequences. Rarely since Kinji Fukasaku blew minds in Japan with his squalid Battles Without Honor or Humanity series has a movie so thoroughly deglamorized the mob life. The clan affiliates are fat, ugly, tacky men; their deaths are sudden and squalid. The civilians and clan soldiers alike live in soulless, depressing, concrete apartment blocks swarming with drug-dealers, carabinieri, and the unemployed. Garrone does a tremendous job of creating the milieu of the Neapolitan suburbs (I found the city center depressing enough on a visit, the suburbs look like the 8th circle of hell) and placing the stories within that context. Similarly, the cast of mostly non-professional actors acquit themselves well. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Italy and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
The film Gomorrah is based on a number of vignettes from Roberto Saviano’s new journalism account of the intertwined criminal and economic enterprises of the Camorra – the interconnected mob families that dominate Naples and its environs. While the book concerns itself as much with the high-level maneuvering and the bosses as with the grime and the flunkies, the screen adaptation is relentless in its focus on bottom-feeders and marginal characters. The imposing figures of the book - bosses Paolo Di Lauro, Sandokan Schiavone and Augusto La Torre - have been entirely eliminated in favor of the unnamed or barely mentioned like clan payoff man Don Ciro, whose job it is to deliver envelopes of cash to imprisoned affiliates’ wives, aspiring juvenile clan member Toto, and Scarface-worshipping knuckleheads Marco and Ciro. |
Posted on 09.18.08 by David @ 11:03 am
Last House on the Beach
The plot involves three bank robbers – a psycho (Flavio Andreini), a runt (Stefano Cedrati) and a pretty boy (Ray Lovelock) – who hole up at a beachside villa, taking a nun and her five young charges hostage. While there, they entertain themselves with a little rape and murder, and generally torment their captives. There That about sums it up. The girls are pretty but vacuous (and lack the common sense to avoid lounging around in revealing nighties). Florinda Bolkan only gets to show off two emotions as the nun – fear and anger. Similarly, Stefano Cedrati does little but leer and groan. Flavio Andreini is more effective as the most overtly psychotic thug. With his blocky features (Andreini resembles a younger, thinner Oliver Reed) covered with pancake makeup and lipstick, he at least is memorable. Of course, nothing says creepy like a man in lipstick and facepaint, as Heath Ledger and Dean Stockwell proved in The Dark Knight and Blue Velvet respectively. Maybe it is some kind of instinctive fear of transvestite clowns? Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and Movie Reviews: Spain and DVD Reviews: Spain and Movie Reviews: France and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and DVD Companies: Severin Comments: None |
Last House on the Beach is one in a long line of Last House on the Left knockoffs (which in turn derived from Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring) depicting the mistreatment of young women at the hands of vicious criminal kidnappers followed by violent revenge. On the positive side, Last House on the Beach is a competent piece of work and less of a grueling endurance test than its immediate inspiration – on the negative side, a couple of slow-motion sexual assaults still make it pretty hard to sit through. This is not what I would consider a “fun” exploitation film.|
Posted on 02.01.08 by David @ 11:25 am
The Last Hunter
Antonio Margheriti made an entire career out of creating entertaining genre films that aped their betters, but he bit off way more than he could chew when he decided to take on Apocalypse Now. Last Hunter is undoubtedly a knockoff (an alternate European title is Hunter of the Apocalypse), and not a very bright one. That said, Last Hunter is certainly an amusingly cracked take on the Vietnam war film. In much the same manner as John Woo’s A Bullet in the Head integrated full-on balletic HK gunfights into the Vietnam war, Margheriti relies on some of the specialties of Italian cinema - dislikable characters, gratuitous nudity, extreme behavior and tons of lovingly-detailed gore. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: USA and Movie Reviews: Italy and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and DVD Companies: Dark Sky Comments: None |
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Posted on 03.26.07 by David @ 9:43 am
Country and Year: Italy/Germany (1966) Review By: David Austin  Ah, Eurospy flicks. Cheap, cheerful, colorful, silly – cinematic Froot Loops for the soul. And they don’t come much goofier than the Kommissar X films. Fortunately for fans of the genre, Retromedia has collected the first three films in the series - Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill; Death Be Nimble, Death Be Quick; and So Darling, So Deadly – into a DVD set, the Kommissar X Collection. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and Movie Reviews: Germany and DVD Companies: Image and People: Kommissar X Comments: 8 Comments |
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Posted on 10.06.06 by David @ 10:39 pm
AKA: La Moglie Più Bella Review By: David Austin  Damiano Damiani’s gripping drama The Most Beautiful Wife is based on the true story of Franca Viola, a Sicilian peasant girl raped by a local Mafioso. Local custom demanded that she marry the man in order to uphold her honor, but she refused, and eventually saw him successfully prosecuted. Viola became a feminist icon, and helped to change the societal norms that led to such an appalling tradition. Damiani (A Bullet for the General) stages this drama as part thriller and part social drama, with Ornella Muti (Flash Gordon) in the role of Francesca, the young girl, and Alessio Orano (Lisa and the Devil) as Vito, the young Mafioso who abducts her. The obvious course would be to turn the film into a tale of social justice, focusing on the horror of the violation, the appalling cultural pressures, the emotions of the girl, and the moral righteousness of her pursuit of justice. All these elements are present on the surface of the story, but Damiani instead chooses an interesting and unorthodox approach to the material. Instead of a middlebrow drama constructed of tired clichés, Damiani creates two very distinct, but in crucial respects similar, personalities in Francesca and Vito, and turns the clash of their powerful wills into the driving force of the story. As a result, The Most Beautiful Wife is engaging from start to finish, and never falls into the trap of the dull “message picture.” Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: NoShame Films Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 08.21.06 by David @ 8:45 pm
AKA: Storia di Una Monaca di Clausura Review By: David Austin  Story of a Cloistered Nun is a classic Italian entry in the grand tradition of nunsploitation films, a close relative of hysterical horror films like Mexico’s Satanico Pandemonium and Japan’s School of the Holy Beast. Of course, nunsploitation itself is sort of a sub-genre, or companion genre, to WIP (women-in-prison) films, sharing many of the same traits – trapped women, a Sapphic focus, abusive authority figures – but with the added spice you only get from sacrilege. Story is neither one of the better nor one of the worse entries, either in terms of production values or sleaze, but the presence of the lovely Eleonora Giorgi elevates beyond its pedestrian plot. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: NoShame Films Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 06.10.06 by David @ 1:12 pm
AKA: Un Poliziotto Scomodo; The Inconvenient Cop Review By: David Austin  Convoy Busters is the heart-warming tale of a psychopathic violent cop and his brief detour into sanity and normalcy before his inevitable return to his one true love – killing people with his beloved gun. There are many scenes of the cop, Inspector Olmi (played by the inimitable Maurizio Merli) and his gun. Looking longingly at it. Clutching it in his hand. When Olmi rides around in a helicopter, he doesn’t just ride around. He rides around with his gun in his hand. Probably with the safety off. When there isn’t even anyone to shoot at yet. You’d think the pilot might say something. At least his friends understand. During his brief quasi-retirement, Olmi takes out his gun to relive old times. Watching him with the gun, his second-in-command suggests “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Maybe you could clean it.” I leave it to you, dear readers, to contemplate what that might be a euphemism for. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: NoShame Films Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 04.10.06 by David @ 2:28 pm
AKA: La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte; Blood Feast; Feast of Flesh; The Corpse Which Didn’t Want to Die Review By: David Austin  In honor of what is (shockingly) our inaugural giallo review, I decided to give some thought to what it might be like to live in the world of a giallo. I think an average day might go something like this: 11 am - wake up, put on my turtleneck and natty, checked sport jacket; 1 pm – tool around the scenic streets of Milan in my Fiat; 3 pm – make love to Edwige Fenech, or possibly Barbara Bouchet; 7 pm – early cocktails; cheat on Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet with Erika Blanc, or possibly Marina Malfatti; 10 pm – late cocktails; 11:30 pm – receive anonymous letter containing a clue to the mysterious murders which have been plaguing the fashion magazine where I work; 11:40 pm – investigate strange noise in the hallway; 11:45 – get stabbed in the neck by a black-gloved killer hiding in the art deco elevator of my swank apartment complex. All in all, a pretty good day (except for that last bit).  If that gives you the idea that gialli are pretty formulaic, well, you’d be right. The funny thing about the formula, though, is that it grows on you. After you watch enough gialli, the little things that were so annoying in the beginning – the predictable storylines, the ludicrously unpredictable killers, the vapid characters, the bodycounts, the seemingly arbitrary double-crosses – become oddly charming through familiarity (much like avenge-your-master plotlines in kung fu films, or long-lost siblings in Bollywood films), and you can start to focus on the incidentals. The incidentals in a giallo being, of course, the ‘70s atmosphere, the clothes, the girls, the set-piece slayings, and the music. For all of these, you’d be hard pressed to find better than what’s on display in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Genre: Giallo and Rating: Good ★★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: NoShame Films Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 03.25.06 by David @ 12:23 am
AKA: The White Fiat Review By: David Austin  Fans of Michele Soavi may have been wondering where this talented filmmaker has been hiding the past decade or so. The answer is that, after a long hiatus, Soavi, like so many refugees from Italy’s crumbling film industry, moved into television. Soavi stepped out of his apprenticeship with Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava with a hard-hitting group of stylish, phantasmagorical horror films, the solid creep-outs Stagefright, The Church and The Sect, and the brilliant existential zombie film Dellamore Dellamorte (aka Cemetery Man). Fortunately, as Uno Bianca proves, he lost none of his talent or cinematic instinct in the transition to the small screen. Uno Bianca has all the style we’ve come to expect from an Italian crime thriller. However, Uno Bianca should not be confused with its poliziotteschi predecessors like Violent Naples or Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man. Rather than following the Dirty Harry model of rebelliousness and violence, Uno Bianca is a textbook example of the police procedural, more Jules Dassin’s The Naked City or Law & Order than Almost Human. What it gives up in sheer, over-the-top violent spectacle it gains in cool intelligence. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 01.26.06 by David @ 9:08 am
Country and Year: Italy (1971) Review By: David Austin
Black Killer is a typically nasty little spaghetti western. Wondering why it’s called Black Killer? Who knows. The title has a cool ring to it, and many of the killers do, in fact, wear black, so that was probably reason enough for the filmmakers. One gets the distinct impression that not much more thought went into the movie than went into the title. Even by the standards of non-Leone spaghetti westerns, Black Killer does not particularly impress. Only the presence of reliably entertaining Klaus Kinski as the toughest lawyer in the West makes this worth a watch. I suppose that if I can buy Kinski as a psychologist in Slaughter Hotel, I can buy him as a lawyer here (though the Kinski I prefer is the one dressed like a Conquistador and ranting about how he is going to marry his own daughter to an audience of monkeys, as in Aguirre: The Wrath of God. It somehow seems more … natural). (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 11.07.05 by David @ 5:06 pm
AKA: Gamma I Quadrilogy Vol. 2; Polizia dello Spazio contro Ufo - I Diafanoidi vengono da Marte; Diaphanoids, Bringers of Death Review By: David Austin
War of the Planets, the second entry in the so-called Gamma I Quadrilogy of Italian space actioners, starts off with a sonorous voice intoning that “the universe is endless and timeless.” So too are Antonio Margheriti movies. WoP, a lengthy space opera with painted innertubes passing for a space stations, is a perfect example of the species. In addition to the customary slow pace, all the usual accoutrements of the series are present: the space-ship styled cars, ugly uniforms, scary women, children’s toy chest props, and blowtorch guns. WoP does have one thing going for it though, one jaw-dropping, mind-boggling ace up its sleeve – the Super Space Spectacular. Sights like this leave even your hardened reviewer stunned and twitching. Imagine, if you will, an entire platoon of suited spacemen cavorting about on badly-strung wires in front of a cheap “space” backdrop. Now set that to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, while other astronauts use the magic of reverse photography to form human pyramids. Just when the jaded audience might think that they’ve seen everything, the spacemen form a human sign, spelling out Happy New Year. It’s just as amazing as it sounds. Not since the Star Wars Holiday Special has an acrobatics routine left me with such a warm, fuzzy feeling. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Italy and People: Antonio Margheriti Comments: None |
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Posted on 10.31.05 by David @ 1:27 pm
Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Italy Comments: None |
I added a short review of The Snow Devils, one of director Antonio Margheriti’s several follow-ups to his Wild Wild Planet, to my earlier review of WWP. Ever worry about space yetis conquering the planet? Apparently you weren’t the only one.
Posted on 10.10.05 by Brian @ 12:00 am
 In an effort to replicate the hazy sense of zombification that seeing 20 movies in 4 days on scant few hours of sleep a night brings, my write-up for the last day of Fantastic Fest 2005 will be vague and blurry. Actually, I hope it won’t be, but if it is you know why. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: General and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: USA and DVD News and DVD News: USA and Movie Reviews: Europe and Movies: Hostel (2005) and Movie Reviews: Italy and People: Takashi Miike and People: Eli Roth and People: Robert Rodriguez and Venues: Alamo Drafthouse and Movie Reviews: Australia and Film Festivals: Fantastic Fest 2005 and Contributors: Brian Comments: None |
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Posted on 09.29.05 by David @ 7:46 pm
AKA: Amore e Rabbia, Vangelo ‘70 Review By: David Austin
Love and Anger is an example of a genre rarely seen these days – the arthouse anthology film. The arthouse anthology once roamed far and wide, like its similarly shaggy cousin, the buffalo, but is now largely extinct. The idea was to gather interesting directors and have them shoot short films, paying lip-service to some unifying theme. Many prominent arthouse directors were involved, including Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Louis Malle, contributing to films like Boccaccio ’70, Spirits of the Dead, Love in the City, Aria, and New York Stories. Almost inevitably, avant-garde directors took the short-film format as an opportunity to indulge their desire to create increasingly experimental cinema. The resulting anthologies were curiosities – usually interesting but rarely very good, inconsistent but with patches of brilliance (for example, Fellini’s “Toby Dammit” in Spirits of the Dead).
L&A is very much in that tradition. Unfortunately, the segments that make up L&A rarely capture the imagination or take full advantage of the film medium, and no one piece really stands out as excellent. Watching the individual segments, I came to the inescapable conclusion that only Carlo Lizzani, the progenitor of the project, put his entire effort and talent into his segment, which is at least engaging. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD News and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Europe and Rating: Average ★★ and DVD News: Italy and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: NoShame Films Comments: 1 Comment |
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