As per usual, I've spent far more time watching movies than writing about them recently, hence the highly sporadic output during this sorry excuse for a theme month. All that aside, I figured I'd try and get one more post in before the month comes to a close.... and seeing as I had something of an impromptu giallo double bill last night, I figured I'd share some brief thoughts I gleaned from re-watching the films...
First up, an atypical example of the genre and one that was pretty much pre-convention (it being contemporary to Argento's Bird with the Crystal Plumage, which itself cemented most of the tropes that would later become cliches)... Hatchet for the Honeymoon...
I watched this (and the next film) the day after a Euro-slasher 'thon (more details to come on that soon) to basically bring myself back round full circle, A Bay of Blood (from '71) being the first movie I'd watched during said marathon... and despite their similar vintage, they're radically different beasts...
A Bay of Blood is essentially the template for the modern bodycount movie, as typified by the American slasher, where as Hatchet for the Honeymoon harkens back to earlier psychological thrillers (and proto-slashers) such as Psycho and Peeping Tom. Other later movies one might compare it to include American Psycho and (getting back to giallo territory) Ruggero Deodato's Phantom of Death. It also calls back to some of Bava's own earlier work, most notably The Whip and the Body.
The tale of a homicidal wedding dress designer who slays brides to be, the film is more complex than such a setup might suggest and for me it took a few viewings to unravel... but even on a first watch it still very much impressed me... in fact that was a surreal experience itself seeing as I was hammered and had just got back from a wedding!
As anyone even passingly familiar with Bava will guess, the film is a feast for the eyes, something aided by the sheer fact that the director was also his own cinematographer. There's lovely music by Santa Maria Romitelli (this was a Spanish co-production it seems), who I'm not familiar with but I'll certainly be on the look out for after this... and uniformly excellent performances from everyone involved and especially leads Stephen Forsyth, Dagmar Lassander and Laura Betti. The latter actress would work again with Bava on A Bay of Blood and frankly steals the movie for me... and apparently Bava wrote the role specifically for her into the screenplay after the story was set, implying he had plenty of respect for her obvious talents.
I'm not sure if I'd recommend this one to newcomers to Bava or the giallo (this being, as I said, very much atypical) but it's as good a place to start as any... and especially if you like psychological thrillers.
Next up, what's generally regarded as Dario Argento's last great movie and is also perhaps, the last great, well-known giallo (discuss!)... Opera!
I was in the mood to re-watch this one seeing as Stagefright was the last movie I watched during the aforementioned Euro-slasher 'thon (and that's all I'm giving away r.e. the contents of that for now!) and it's always a good one to watch in close proximity. And aside from sharing a similar setting/setup, they're also contemporaries, both being from '87...
Compared to Bava's movie, Argento's is a much more conventional giallo, featuring a gloved, masked killer, a murder mystery and the accompanying savage, stylish set-pieces one generally expects. Both films (and a few dozen other gialli at least I imagine) have a backstory concerning childhood trauma influencing present crimes but in Opera it seems both peripheral and more of a plot device than anything particularly integral to the characterisation and story... not that I'm complaining.... and I'm not necessarily saying Argento's film is without depth on that level... though to be honest, I'm still figuring a lot of that out...
This had never been one of my favourite Argento films but I've found it's grown on me quite a bit in the last couple of years... and especially since I started watching the Italian cut of it, which seems to fit much better than the American dub. This audio track is also interesting as Betty's internal monologue is done by a man here, where as it was a woman in the English version... not sure if that's meant to mean anything or not but it's mighty curious...
One major issue many have with this movie (and one I sort of shared in the past) is the ending... and while I'll still admit it does feel somewhat separate to the rest of the film, it's also growing on me a lot with repeat viewings... but mainly because it reminds me of another Argento film of a similar vintage, which is Phenomena.
There's loads more we could get into here folks but frankly it's been a long day and brain cells are in short supply! But we'll no doubt return to both of these wonderful films in the future... i.e. when I get my hands on them in high-def!
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