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Friday, December 10, 2010

In the folds of third-rate gialli

12:51 PM / Cinema / 5 Comments

One of the downsides of writing a thesis on the giallo is that it's hard to watch any of the films themselves without ending up in full-on analytical mode, picking the films apart instead of enjoying them in their own right. I'm currently at a stage in my PhD where I'm setting the actual research and writing aside for a couple of weeks to partake in something of a giallo refresher course: I've spent so long concentrating on a small subset of films that I've decided it's time I remind myself of the broader context by indulging in a giallo-viewing binge, watching as diverse an array of films as possible.

One that I've owned on DVD for a couple of years now but for various reasons only got round to watching the other day is Sergio Bergonzelli's IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH (1970). I'd like to tell you it was unexpected, overlooked giallo gems you come across every now and then - I can remember not having high hopes for THE FIFTH CORD (Bazzoni 1971) but being blown away by the stunning cinematography once I finally saw it - but alas, it's very much scraping the bottom of the giallo barrel... if indeed it's a giallo at all. The blurb on the cover for Severin's DVD certainly markets it as such, but those expecting BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (Argento 1970)-style shenanigans with groovy urban landscapes, a sumptuous Ennio Morricone score and a list of bodies as long as your arm will be sorely disappointed. This one is more along the lines of the earlier "female gothic"-inspired melodramas like THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH (Guerrieri 1968) and THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION (Ercoli 1970), situating the action in a secluded country villa (in what purports to be Switzerland but is clearly central Spain) and lacking the typical black-gloved killer (though there are certainly plenty of literal and figurative unmaskings).

An escaped convict (Fernando Sancho) witnesses governess Lucille (Eleonora Rossi Drago) burying the body of her murdered employer in the grounds of his stately home. Several years later, after being released from jail, the convict, who has kept his mouth shut about what he saw all this time, shows up and decides to indulge in a little blackmail with Lucille, her foppish son Colin (Alfredo Mayo) and the flaky Falesse (Pier Angeli), daughter of the murdered man...

It's a slow burner, taking a while to get going and never really coming to much, dragging out every one of its 93 minutes and offering little beyond the worst excesses for which the giallo is often derided: flat characterisation, attrocious dubbing, blatantly nonsensical plot developments, dodgy gore effects, etc. In an otherwise decent giallo like WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (Dallamano 1972) or even a second-tier effort like DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (Ercoli 1972), these elements are less prevalent or even tolerable on account of the other pleasures on offer, but here they draw attention to themselves because there's so little of consequence going on. It sounds unbelievable, but a film that features decapitations, pet buzzards, nudity galore, Nazi death camps, incest and death by the old "cyanide in the bathwater by way of a cuckoo clock" ruse (don't ask) somehow actually manages to feel uneventful.

It also features more twists and revelations than any other giallo I can think of. Characters turn out not to be who they say they are or even THINK they are, a character returns seemingly from the dead with a new face, and the blame for the murder that opens the film is shifted multiple times, even after one character has confessed to it. Even the relationships between the three main characters are unclear. It took me at least half the film to work out who was whose son and who wasn't whose daughter... and then the rug was ultimately pulled out from under my feet. If all that sounds exciting, believe me when I say it isn't. The film plods along with no real sense of direction, and I get the impression Bergonzelli was largely making it up as he went along, desperately throwing twist after unbelievable twist at the viewers in a desperate attempt to keep them awake.

In terms' of the psychosis of its central character,* Lucille makes an interesting counterpoint to Carol (Florinda Bolkan) in the later (and far superior) LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (Fulci 1971). Fear of spoilers prevents me from saying too much about this, but let's just say that I'd previously assumed Carol to be somewhat unique among central female characters in gialli. The film opens with a quote attributed to Sigmund Freud, from which the film takes its title ("What has been remains embedded in the brain, nestled in the folds of the flesh. Distorted, it conditions and subconsciously impels."). Now, I must admit Freud is not my area of expertise, but I Googled that quote and the only results it turned up were references to the film itself. I therefore have to conclude that it's either a clumsy translation or else the filmmakers themselves made it up and stuck Freud's name on it for added credibility. The gialli have an odd relationship with psychoanalysis, acknowledging and playing with it without (I suspect) really understanding it except in the broadest sense. As such, quotations like the one that opens this film - and others like THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (Martino 1971) - promise a more nuanced look at the psyches of the film's characters than we ultimately end up getting.

IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH is, at the end of the day, really only worth it for giallo die-hards. The truth is that most of the decent gialli were already released on DVD years ago, which means that more recent releases such as this and Camera Obscura's SO SWEET, SO DEAD (Bianchi Montero, 1972) are often a case of newer companies picking up the scraps left by the likes of Anchor Bay and Blue Underground. It's a shame, because Severin's transfer is pretty serviceable, provided you can overlook some noticeable print damage and splice marks. The soundtrack (English only) is more adversely affected by the effects of age but does its job, while the sole extra is a trailer.

* A minor point, but in my thesis I use the term "central character" to refer to the female leads in gialli rather than the more typical "protagonist". This was at the suggestion of my supervisor, who felt that the role of the characters played by Edwige Fenech et al wasn't active enough to justify the use of the word "protagonist". Jim Hull wrote an interesting pair of articles (here and here) about the roles of protagonist and main character and the fact that they are not necessarily interchangeable.

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