It's just you and me here kid. So if you don't mind, Mr. A...I'm just going to let loose and let 'er RIP!!!
GIALLO is:
* SEX / VIOLENCE
* UNAFRAID & UNAPOLOGETIC
* OPERA...GRAND OPERA
The leitmotifs I notice are abandoned mansions, soft-focused p.o.v. serial killer shots from the right side of the screen, beautiful undressed women, demonized children, breaking and entering, slow methodical investigation or -----> the hero’s journey. I don’t think I’ll be able to speak of these films in terms of themes. I’m not smart like that, and it’d probably take me several viewings to pick up on all the themes you obviously know so well. But I’ll try to speak to whatever you want, about these movies. For now mostly, this’ll just be my own general observations.
“DEEP RED”
“YOU HAVE KILLED...
...AND YOU WILL KILL AGAIN!”
WHAT does she see? She can't even swallow a drink of water after the vision. I can’t explain why I can
NOT get that shot and line reading out of my head. Maybe because of the resolute definity with which she makes the claim. Poor girl. Poor little psychic. She has
no idea how true her claim will be.
Her death shocked me because it was reminiscent of
“PSYCHO” in that she was the lead, she had lines, importance. And then she is brutally dispatched early on; stabbed and hatcheted and then headfirst through the window. Oooghf!! Nobody sees or hears anything in these towns? Crikey!
[u]MR.[/u] [u]ARKADIN[/u] wrote:Incidentally, did you notice the Sunset Blvd. homage when Marc meets Carlo's mother at her apartment for the first time? That's Clara Calamai from Visconti's Ossessione (1943) and the photos are from her acting career! So is Deep Red an expanded chapter from the Wilder and Aldrich ( Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? [1962] ) book of deranged stardom?
MAMA, UNTIL THAT DAY WHEN WE’RE TOGETHER ONCE MORE...
Whoa!! Ya got me thar, Bub! I've never seen
“Ossessione” but what’s interesting, what I like about me...my cinematic thought process, is that I
did have a feeling...the
“inkling” that that actress was
“somebody” but I didn't know who. Hmmm, is Mama cut from the same mold as Norma Desmond and Baby Jane? No doubt. But that’s not what I picked up on initially. She did seem not a wax figure like Norma, but decayed like Baby Jane; dazed and confused
( “You’re an engineer.” “No, a pianist.” ) You know, not unlike suburban moms who suffer from that empty nest syndrome.
( DEEP ) RED HERRINGS:
The journalist unnerved me with her busy, fluttery hands. She seemed quirky. Doesn’t quirky make you a suspect in Giallo? All that arm wrestling, Women’s Lib stuff seemed quaintly dated and I liked that. I remember that. ( Why am I thinking of
"Ms. 45"? ) I suspected she was the killer grown up.
Seeing the knife at this little girl’s feet furthered my theory that the journalist was the killer grown up. She could get access as a reporter to keep one step ahead of the cops. When she dragged Marc ( David Hemmings ) out of the burning mansion, I thought she was saving him for some more dastardly ending. I was wrong, dead wrong, but this is what I was thinking.
Perhaps you can help me here ‘cuz I got a little confused. Why was the lady in the house murdered by being drowned in a bathtub filled with scalding hot water? A fantastic scene by the way. Yes gruesome, but well done. I believed her struggle, and every time she came up out of the water her face was more and more disfigured. I didn’t notice any edits. Ghast-fully done. And the clue in the steamed mirror...brilliant!! A bit of Hitchcock when the whirly burly guy finally figures it out and starts to turn up the steam in the bathroom. Didn’t care for the jazzy score. But the scene played out brilliantly!!
I actually recoiled in my seat when this monstrous doll came out of the closet. This is a precursor to the psychic’s teddy bear colleague coming to his end. You’ve got to get the jump on a Giallo killer; he'll use anything to disarm you. This film made all manner of children's toys sooooo sinister. ACK!! It wasn't bad enough I was scared of my younger sister's dolls that lined her bed when we were kids; seeing those shadows at night was sometime no picnic.
NOT ONLY DO DEVIL DOLLS COME OUT COME OUT OF THE CLOSET:
Why did the plot make Carlo gay? B'cuz of what he's seen? The Norman Bates School of Psychology on Oedipal Desire states: "A boy's best friend is his mother." I like that it's not an issue nor made fun of or used as comic relief ( the curator in
"The Bird With The Crystal Plumage" ) I didn't feel that being gay made him Other. ( That 'fro he had did. ) I like when Carlo says:
“I always challenge myself. I always lose. I'm not you.” ( That made me think of "Written on the Wind." ) When I saw the knife at the feet of those socks & shoes, I thought it was a little girl. Who knew he'd be dressed up as Buster Brown. Giallo was not afraid to introduce folks of all lifestyles. The movie thought out loud as I did as we get near the climax. I suspected crazy Carlo. But out loud ( uhmm...in my notes ) I write: “Wait, how can it be Carlo, when we saw the raincoated killer run pass him? What the heck!!!” )
GIALLO LOVES DEMON SEEDS
Moira made note of children in Film Noir in one of her questions to the recent guest visitor, Shannon Clute. There's something off-kilter about this little girl pictured above. Of course, there
must be;
she’s in a Giallo. I love how they reveal how sick she is. Her father gives her such a smack...for no good reason. ( Beast! ) And then the camera pans down to see the lizard she’s impaled. Gross. But it says it all, doesn’t it. Dad, your little girl needs help.
CLUES IN PLAIN SIGHT:
There are none so blind as those who do not see. Giallo helped me learn HOW to look at Giallo. And yet they still tricked me!!! I need a second viewing!
GOING DOWN...LADIES LINGERIE: THE PAY-OFF
I've been loving
THE BIG PAYOFF I've seen at the end of these films I explored!!! I must say this for Giallo..for all the blood and guts and sex and blood and violence
...and blood and havoc a serial killer wreak in this landscape, when it comes time for the serial killers to get their comeuppance they really go down
hard. There is a harsh measure of justice for them; a descent off a cliff in a fiery car or scraping alongside jagged rocks or carted off to the looney bin.
Or sometimes they don't get caught at all.
This is my favorite shot of the whole movie and a review of the film lies underneath this shot:
A cool way of not actually seeing the killer in the audience and giving it all away. Beautifully composed shot. The back of the opera house, the back of their heads. It spoke to me of Giallo as a metaphor for opera. Opera of the Grand Guignol kind.