During the ’60s, Italy had already produced several formidable gialli classics such as Mario Bava’s BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1965) and Romolo Guerrieri’s THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH (1969), but the Italians didn’t fully take an interest in the genre until after the worldwide success of Dario Argento’s THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970), whereupon every producer and commercial director in the ’70s began churning out their version of a fashionable Argento-style film. Although gialli proved to be less commercially viable at the turn of the decade, this genre cycle stubbornly refused to die, which not only saw the release of Argento’s extraordinary TENEBRAE (1982) and OPERA (1987), but Lucio Fulci’s down-and-dirty THE NEW YORK RIPPER as well, easily one of the most violent examples the genre ever produced. With Argento’s films being the most visible efforts, gialli remained well-established, even if most of the films remained unashamedly imitative, but with Vinegar Syndrome’s FORGOTTEN GIALLI – VOLUME 7, their latest collection in this long-running series (Volume 1 was released in 2020) includes a trio of distinctive and equally ambitious films from the ’80s, which effectively demonstrate how some of this material can be spun in new and exciting ways.
Although primarily known for directing a number of successful comedies, Carlo Vanzina’s MYSTERE (1983) is completely unlike any of the director’s previous work: a giallo whodunit with strong overtones of an espionage actioner. When a prominent Italian politico is assassinated in his motorcade in Rome’s bustling Piazza di Spagna, Reinhardt (Peter Berling), a professional shutterbug, inadvertently snaps several incriminating photos of the shooting and the shooter (John Steiner), but soon after, he finds himself the target of a mysterious man (who we only see from the waist down) wearing spiffy two-tone Oxford shoes, pinstripe suit pants, and grasping a cane. In his attempt to conceal the evidence, Reinhardt hides the negatives in a gold-plated lighter, but after a late-night tryst with Mystère (Carole Bouquet) and Pamela (Janet Agren), two high-class call-girls (“He’s quick! Just our type of guy!”), his lighter is, unbeknownst to Mystère, lifted by Pamela, which sets the entire mystery plotline in motion as Mystère also falls afoul of that prowling assassin…
Like many contemporary gialli, MYSTERE also has its fair share of stylistic flourishes including lots of eye-popping post-modern set design and slick photography courtesy of Giuseppe “Beppe” Maccari, which is in stark contrast to the film’s darker, well-oiled conspiracy scenario. Adapted from a story by Carlo’s brother Enrico, MYSTERE is surprisingly quite absorbing, even if the supposed highlights are limited to only a handful of bloodless murders and an exciting car chase along the banks of the Tiber. In keeping with the film’s double-edged title, the film’s characters are shrouded in anonymity, including Mystère herself, coldly aloof under her false eyelashes and onion layers of make-up, people and things aren’t always what they appear right down to the dapper killer’s choice of weapon. While endeavoring along with Colt (Philip Coccioletti) to try and solve the murders, this supposedly honest Inspector also has his fair share of ulterior motives, which Mystère soon discovers in no uncertain terms. Even though the film is labeled a giallo, it’s ping-pong transferal of loyalties is also well in line with numerous espionage thrillers, which also includes mistaken suspicions and a constantly menacing Russian operative in what amounts to one of John Steiner’s better latter-day roles. As name value star, Carole Bouquet carries the film well on her slender shoulders, who is also helped along by several veteran Italian actors including Dullio Del Prete and Gabriele Tinti as Mink, a slimy upscale pimp.
Released as DAGGER EYES on U.S. VHS videocassette in 1986 by Vista Home Video, this tape flew under the radar for many viewers at the time of its release. As usual with VS, their new 4K transfer taken from the original camera negative looks superb and very film-like with excellent colour reproduction, which really gets the most out of Paola Comencini’s almost futuristic production design; it’s literally picture-perfect. The DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio tracks in both English and Italian (the latter with English subtitles), both sound clean and issue free, but given that the film was shot in inglese, the English audio track is definitely preferable. English SDH subtitles are also included.
As per their usual high standard, VS have included a number of interesting special features beginning with another excellent audio commentary from film historians and authors Eugenio (Darkening the Italian Screen) Ercolani, Nathaniel (Frightfest Guide to Vampire Movies and Mondo Digital boss man) Thompson, and Troy (So Deadly So Perverse)Howarth. Once again, the three men find plenty to discuss beginning with the film’s “playful attitude” which has more in common with a “noir espionage thriller” than a traditional giallo, the collaborative relationship of the Vanzina brothers, the many obvious nods to James Bond films, the Vanzinas’ interest in American culture, and how Carole Bouquet “exploded” on the Italian scene with the incredibly successful Adriano Celantano comedy BINGO BONGO (1982). They also chat chat the heavy influence that Jean-Jacques Beineix’s DIVA (1981) had on the film, most of the actors and their respective careers, and how the Vanzina brothers were “synonymous with successful trash in Italy” and “hated by the critics but applauded by the audiences.” As always, it’s a first-rate listen.
In Two Brothers for a Mystère (24m51s), Enrico Vanzina talks about how the film came together and how it was modeled after “the cartoonish hyper-real style of DIVA, the film’s numerous homages to spy films, veteran stunt director Sergio Mioni (he devised the film’s car chase), the ridiculous “tacked-on ending”, the “expressive tone of the film’s setting”, and despite the film’s overall lack of success, it “served them well” in getting to make NOTHING UNDERNEATH (1985), a couple of years later. American Greg Snegoff is interviewed next in the superb An American in Rome (19m58s), wherein the actor and prominent voice dubber talks about his “family of filmmakers”, how he arrived in Rome in 1978 when Italian cinema was “bottoming out”, his memories of working on said film, his role in Avi Nesher’s SHE (1983), and his good friend Nick Alexander who he regards as the “mainstay of dubbing in Rome.” Lastly, production designer Paola Comencini sits down for an interview in The House of Mystère (19m23s) where she talks about her early career, her lifelong relationship to Carlo Vanzina, how she wanted to “create something visually rich and modern” for said film, her general dislike of the ’80s, and plenty more besides. The film’s Italian opening and end credit sequences (6m22s) are also included.
While MYSTERE experimented with a very modern Americanized look, Piccio Raffanini’s OBSESSION – A TASTE FOR FEAR (1987) goes one step further, capturing not only the zeitgeist of the times, but an aesthetic which is akin to an extended music video on steroids. Headstrong fashion photographer Diana (Virginia Hey) gets the opportunity to shoot an erotic photospread of Teagan (Teagan Clive), her favourite model and sometimes lover. But when Teagan is found viciously bound and murdered (which is graphically captured on video), the local cop (Carlo Mucari), who has a knack for appearing at just the right moment, is soon on the case and suspects both Diana and her ex-husband George (Gérard Darmon), whose predilection for BDSM videos makes him the natural suspect…
Although the film’s rudimentary plot has enough twists and turns to keep things mildly interesting, the film’s visual approach takes precedence with its flawlessly crafted camerawork and experimentation with lights and music. Bathed in lush and beautifully textured images, Romano Albani’s striking scope photography plays a huge role herein with its dazzling colour schemes, which also masks a coldly sterile futuristic vision, full of shallow people whose obsessions dictate their entire world; in Raffanini’s adroit vision, the future is bleak and lonely. While Raffanini and his scriptwriters don’t offer a whole lot depth in their storyline, the film’s fantastical environment and unique visual sense ensure this is a giallo that truly exists outside the genre.
Despite being released on U.S. VHS videocassette in 1989 through Imperial Entertainment Corporation, OBSESSION - A TASTE FOR FEAR pretty much vanished from the home video scene for over three decades. Featuring a new 4K scan taken from the OCN, Vinegar Syndrome’s transfer is impeccable with a richness afforded to the film’s flashy and colourful look that is unparalleled; it’s a stunning transfer through and through. Strengthened by Federico Savina’s (brother of famed composer Carlo Savina) full-bodied Dolby Stereo mix, the DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio tracks in both English and Italian (the latter with English subtitles) also sound superb. English SDH subtitles are also included.
Once more, VS have included several illuminating special features beginning with another audio commentary from Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani who go over the history of the film on VHS, it’s disappearance from the home video market, Piccio Raffanini’s unhappy experience making the film, and his time creating TV commercials and music videos, which initially got him the gig. They also discuss how the film “feels like a love project” for the director and how it was “different to anything made in 1987.” Other topics discussed include the cast and crew members, and the film’s “lack of a big name”, the changing attitudes of Italian cinema and the “dying out of the grubby, icky, sticky exploitation that kind of ruled the late 1970s and early 1980s”, the film’s “fashion magazine type nudity” and the lack of a target audience, which may have been the reason for the film’s poor box office showing. It’s a fascinating film, and both Nathaniel and Eugenio are up to the task of re-evaluating this long forgotten film. Excellent stuff.
In This Used to Be the Future (29m13s), Eugenio managed to secure an interview with the film’s elusive director where he divulges his passion for music, some of his favourite films, his time working as a set photographer with such directors as Ottavio Fabbri and Salvatore Samperi, his music videos, his time on Italy’s Mister Fantasy TV program on Rai, and his difficulties making OBSESSION – A TASTE OF FEAR, which was the “brainchild of producer Jacques Goyard” who had “different ideas about everything.” Production supervisor Luciano Lucchi is interviewed next in Supervising the Production (15m48s) who not only discusses the present film (“It was a movie that wanted to be different from everything that came at that time.”), his years working in television, his collaborations with director Antonio Bido, and plenty more besides. In A Taste for Synths (14m01s) film composer Gabriele Ducros talks about his numerous stints within the advertising world, trying to develop “new kinds of sonorities”, his work on the aforementioned Mister Fantasy, and his opportunity to work alongside Raffanini on OBSESSION. Lastly, film historian Rachael Nisbet delivers a wonderful visual essay in Cinema Killed the Video Star (19m22s) wherein she explores the “visual ingenuity” of music videos in the ’80s and their influence on the film itself, Raffanini’s “hyper-stylized world” and its “technologically focused nature” heightened by video monitors scattered throughout the film (a common visual motif used in most of Raffanini’s music videos), other music-related thrillers, and Raffanini’s “experiment with avant-garde concepts.” Rachael is very knowledgeable when it comes to Italian gialli, and she reveals plenty of interesting facets and insights about the film in this excellent and well-prepared essay. The film’s Italian opening and end credits (4m06s) are also included.
Franco Ferrini’s SWEETS FROM A STRANGER (1987) opens as if it’s going to be another standard giallo, which in some respects it is, but it also turns out to be something completely different in its approach to the material. After sleeping with one of her clients, a young prostitute (Antonella Ponziani) is walking her dog late at night, but is swiftly followed by a mysterious car. When she retreats into a park, she is viciously slashed with a straight razor and then shot with a bolt gun for added measure. When another woman (Lidia Broccolino) is killed under the same circumstances, the local prostitutes of this Roman suburb band together (“One for all and all for one!”) in the hopes of luring the sadistic killer out in the open.
Considering this is a giallo which takes place within the infinite – and usually vicious – circle of the world’s oldest profession, Ferrini’s debut film lacks much of the onscreen deviant criminality, pathological perversions, and excessive nudity usually associated with subgenres such as this. As played by the talented and beautiful Barbara De Rossi, Lena is one of the key witnesses in the case, a fellow prostitute who perhaps begins to see the emptiness in her life and whose own wistful yearning for something more is well-reflected in a mother/daughter relationship she chances upon with Valentina (Ilaria Cecchi), the daughter of fellow streetwalker Isa (Anna Galiena). There is a real humanity in De Rossi’s performance, filled with a trace of melancholy, which comes around full-circle by film’s end. While never condemning or even offering any solutions to this complex sociosexual problem, much of the narrative takes great pains to humanize its cast of ‘working girls’ who, despite their profession, not only have highly moral characters but a sense of endurance and resilience in the face of adversity. Further highlighted by the performance of Athina Cenci as Nadine, a sort of den mother to all of these women, her character exudes a tough, but earthy quality, which offers further complexity to what is usually a thankless role in most films. Needless to say, it’s also great to see a wonderful extended cameo from veteran actress Laura Betti as an aging, feisty puttana. Although it includes a few bloody murders and a battalion of shapely Italo starlets (which also includes Mara Venier), Ferrini’s picture is obviously a genre piece, but it also has all the ingredients of an engaging melodrama and is far-removed from other similar-themed films such as Rino Di Silvestro’s gutter-level LOVE ANGELS (a.k.a. THE RED LIGHT GIRLS, 1975) or Carlo Lizzani’s THE TEENAGE PROSTITUTION RACKET (1975), a sordid docudrama-like story of prostitutes and procurers laid amid the gutter fauna of Milan.
Never released on North American home video, SWEETS FROM A STRANGER occasionally played on Toronto’s multilingual TV channel CFMT 47 in the early ’90s, but aside from sporadic TV showings, most viewers caught up with the film via fan-subbed bootlegs. Working from the film’s OCN, VS have prepared another excellent 2K scan of this once hard-to-see film, which adds plenty of luster to Giuseppe Berardini’s photography; it looks wonderful. The Italian DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio track (with newly translated English subtitles) also sounds very pleasing with some nice effects work during the rather intense murder sequences, but much of the film’s quieter passages are also given an extra layer of depth thanks to Umberto Smalia’s memorable score. Vinegar Syndrome have assigned another audio commentary to Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth, both of whom have lots to say about this “rather unusual giallo” or as they later describe it, “a sociological piece with giallo trimmings.” Ercolani begins by pinpointing this film as “a very Italian product” with television ties embedded in the narrative, it’s long production schedule which lasted the better part of six months and how the film “played around with the socio and cultural differences between the northern and southern parts of Rome.” Of course, they also discuss the film’s “sympathic portrayal of sex workers”, how it’s very much “a female driven film”, its “element of good humour and stylization”, and if it were made the decade previous, how the film would have “gone a great deal further” with its salacious content. Given the film’s less-talked about Italian actors within the film, both Eugenio and Troy provide loads of information on the film’s cast and crew including bits on Athina Cenci (she also sang the film’s beautiful song, Donne Così), Mara Venier, Sabrina Ferilli, Marina Suma, and of course Laura Betti. They also champion much of Berardini’s long – and highly-respected – career as a top-notch camera operator for the likes of Luchino Visconti, Tonino Valerii and Pasquale Squitieri as well as his eventual transition to a prolific DP who would lend his talents to such “lower-end fare” as Giuseppe Rosati’s STREET WAR (a.k.a. FEAR IN THE CITY, 1976) and Bruno Mattei’s nunsploitation horror THE OTHER HELL (1980). In view of the film’s relative obscurity (at least for English-speaking viewers), both men provide a ton of great insight and information, which should keep both adventurous and seasoned cinephiles suitably engaged. As usual, both men deliver the goods.
As with the other films in this box set, Eugenio Ercolani provides another series of on-camera interviews beginning with Franco Ferrini in Cruising for Sweets (35m21s), a career-spanning interview where the writer / director talks about how he forged a relationship with director Sergio Leone and ended up contributing to the ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984) screenplay, his other less-talked about work such as Michele Massimo Tarantini’s CRIMEBUSTERS (1976), and his lengthy collaborations with director Dario Argento (“Writing a Dario Argento movie is not easy.”) beginning with PHENOMENA (a.k.a. CREEPERS, 1984). He also discusses the genesis of his directorial debut, which he believes has the “same principles” as Fritz Lang’s M (1931), his “mixed feelings” about the final product, and his thoughts on directing which was “not his cup of tea.” In Sweets Maker (18m26s) producer Claudio Bonivento enthusiastically talks about his career as a producer and how producers today are nothing more than “pencil-pushers.” He also goes into a lot of detail about said film, which had “great harmony” and that the women “didn’t hate each other, they were just rivals” and his only tool during such occasions is simply “diplomacy” on-set. He also talks a little about Ferrini who, despite making a solid film, didn’t have that “directorial instinct.” In the last featurette, musician and composer Umberto Smalia is interviewed in Kill Me with Your Smalia (29m57s) where he talks at length about his start in the music industry with a focus on classical music, his subsequent work composing scores for comedies, his numerous onscreen appearances in films such as Steno’s (a.k.a. Stefano vanzina) LA POLIZIOTTA (1975) with Mariangela Melato, his working relationship with Bonivento (“A man of few words and many actions.”), his working methods, and composing the score for SWEETS FROM A STRANGER.
In conclusion, it goes without saying that Vinegar Syndrome’s FORGOTTEN GIALLI – VOLUME 7 is another outstanding collection, which not only includes first-rate transfers of each film, but a wealth of illuminating special features, all of which come very highly recommended!
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