News|Movies|BD & DVD|Writings|Other

Original title: Le Foto Proibite di una Signora per Bene
Italy/Spain: Luciano Ercoli, 1970

IMDB reference

Original title: Giornata Nera per l'Ariete
Italy: Luigi Bazzoni, 1971

IMDB reference

France: François Ozon, 2004

IMDB reference

Italy: Dario Argento, 1985

IMDB reference

USA: Walter Salles, 2005

IMDB reference

Original title: La Ragazza dal Pigiama Giallo
Italy/Spain: Flavio Mogherini, 1977

The Pyjama Girl Case is unlike any giallo I've ever seen before. Its director, Flavio Mogherini, was a production designer by trade whose directorial offerings were mostly consigned to the comedy genre - which is interesting, because The Pyjama Girl Case is one of the most downbeat gialli I've ever come across. Set in Australia, it is essentially a tale told in flashback as the police attempt to determine the identity the body of a young woman found on the beach, whose face has been disfigured so much that no-one make positively identify her. The approach is interesting, and the fact that the police seem to do very little actual detecting, coupled with the extremely low body count and a definite focus on the events leading up to the murder rather than the murder itself, mean that I'm not even sure that this can be considered a genuine giallo.

It took me a while to work out that the film was actually taking place in two different time periods - one showing the movements of the girl, Glenda Blythe (Dalila Di Lazzaro), in the year or so before her death, the other focusing on the efforts of the curmudgeonly Detective Inspector Timpson (Ray Milland - yes, Ray Milland) to solve the mystery - and the lack of a satisfying connection between the two elements its the film's biggest failing. Rather than showing the police gradually uncovering more information, Mogherini seems content to switch back and forth between the two, resulting in the audience constantly being several steps ahead of the police (even knowing the identity of the girl from a very early stage).

Aesthetically, this is not a very attractive film, with the sun-bleached Australian cityscapes marking a stark contrast to the elegant Italian decor that usually defines the giallo, while Riz Ortolani's pounding electronic score is about as far from Ennio Morricone as you can get. Still, it works. The film is ultimately a bleak tragedy about isolation and inevitability, and the way Glenda's life spirals into despair before our eyes is harrowing stuff. For a giallo leading lady, she is unusually developed and three-dimensional, and Dalila Di Lazarro handles the part magnificently, in spite of the awful dubbing. This is definitely a film that I would recommend to giallo enthusiasts, in spite of its flaws.

By the way, the Blue Underground DVD includes a half-hour interview with Richard Evans, the author of the book The Pyjama Girl Mystery, which reveals the film to be based, somewhat loosely, on true events that took place in the 1930s. The time gap may help explain why certain aspects of the film, such as the undercurrent of hostility towards Italian immigrant Antonio, and the unrealistic brutality of the police in extracting confessions, feel somewhat out of place in the film's late 70s setting. Evans is grudgingly complimentary of the film's ability to depict isolation, but I don't think he gives it as much credit as it deserves.

IMDB reference

USA/UK/Germany: James McTeigue, 2005

I went to the cinema to see V for Vendetta this afternoon. I hadn't been to the cinema since July 3rd last year, when I saw Sin City. There have been a number of reasons for the decline in my movie-going activities, the two biggest ones being the hassle of having to take the train or bus into town to see a film when I could be watching one in the comfort of my own home, and the fact that the UGC (now known as CineWorld) are not exactly renowned for their quality presentations (which didn't stop them obliterating their competition, the superior Odeon just down the street). I suppose you could also add to that the fact that very few films have been released in the last year that I actually wanted to see.

My long embargo on the world of the picture house was ended today, however, due to the fact that, on April 10th (which is frighteningly soon), I must hand in a 5,000 word case study on the reviews and previews of a film on current release for the Film Journalism module of my course. At something of a loss for what to go and see, I eventually settled on a film that has been the subject of extremely varied reviews and publicity, the Wachowski Brothers' latest pompous blockbuster, V for Vendetta. (Note: I am well aware of the controversy regarding the anger of Alan Moore, the writer of the comic upon which the film is based, towards what the Wachowskis have apparently done to his creation, and while I have not read his original work, rest assured that references to this - or lack thereof - in the reviews I choose to look at will be of major importance in my essay. Today, however, I was simply watching the film in its own right to get something of an idea of what I was writing about, not seeking to form an opinion about whether the Wachowskis did or didn't subject Moore's baby to obscene molestation.)

Given how much I loathed The Matrix Reloaded (one of the biggest pieces of vacuous claptrap I've ever had the misfortune of seeing in the cinema), I was prepared to hate V for Vendetta. And yes, let it be said that there are a lot of things wrong with it, not least that it is loaded with the Wachowskis' own patented brand of cod-philosophical bullshit, as well as the fact that, despite being set in England, many of the problems facing the world of the future they depict (Christian extremism, rampant homophobia and a frothy-mouthed TV personality who is clearly a thinly-veiled allusion to Bill O'Reilly) are highly unlikely to cause any significant problems in that country in the very near future. By making their targets so specific (an attempt, I'm sure, to make the film speak to American audiences, who are in many ways already in the grip of such problems), they dilute their central message regarding the dangers of apathy and of letting the government erode civil liberties. (Other, more universal themes, such as surveillance and state censorship, have more resonance.) Furthermore, Natalie Portman, an actor whom I can usually depend on, gives a distinctly unimpressive performance - hampered, I'm sure, by the fact that we never really get to know anything about her character.

And yet, for all its faults, the film does have a few things going for it. Director James McTeigue, who was first assistant director on the Matrix trilogy, Attack of the Clones and other similarly awful movies, does a decent job of creating a London that feels like a combination of the 1980s (in part due to the comic being written in that decade, and in part as an attack to evoke references to 1984) and the present day. Some might take issue with the fact that, for a movie meant to be set in the near future, there's nothing particularly futuristic about it, but in a way I think that's the point, as it gives the events more immediacy. McTeigue evokes a lot of imagery that will be all too familiar to contemporary viewers, including the orange gowns and hoods worn by prisoners of the totalitarian regime which were unquestionably inspired by the images of torture from Abu Graibh. And hell, the final frames, showing the Houses of Parliament being detonated in a barrage of explosives and fireworks even got an emotional response out of me (although I'm still waiting for a Hollywood studio to release a film dishing out similar treatment to the Statue of Liberty or the White House in this post 9/11 climate).

I'll also give the film its dues for some interesting imagery regarding the use of doppelgangers and interchangeable characters. While the writers and director blow a lot of potential due to to the sometimes extremely heavy-handed execution of these concepts (the attempts to mirror Evey and V throughout, for example, couldn't be less subtle if they tried), in other places the execution is more skilful, to the extent that I'm sure there are plenty of other examples that I didn't pick up on the first time round. So yeah, basically what I'm saying is that I'd watch it again.

This has been a long review for a film I wasn't particularly enthused about seeing - and that's appropriate, for V for Vendetta is a long film. A good half-hour too long, as the case would have it. But it was far from the tedious exercise in bum-numbing I'd expected, and although plenty of elements irritated me beyond belief, there were enough moments that I found enjoyable for me to want to give it a second viewing at some point. Not at the cinema, though. I'll wait for the DVD.

IMDB reference

Original title: La Sindrome di Stendhal
Italy: Dario Argento, 1996

IMDB reference

Original title: La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte
Italy/West Germany: Emilio P. Miraglia, 1972

IMDB reference

Original title: E Tanta Paura
Italy: Paolo Cavara, 1976

IMDB reference

More posts