Roma Therapy 7

In the last instalment of my Top 20 essential Italian movies, we have two mid-1970s classics, from two masters of their field.   

Illustrious Corpses (Francesco Rosi, 1975)

In the days before Italian politics was synonymous with media ownership and bunga-bunga parties, Italian political cinema was a global force to be reckoned with. At the forefront of the movement was Francesco Rosi, whose films still stand today as visceral depictions of the Italian political process, which was often riddled with corruption and scandal. Rosi’s key films include Salvatore Giuliano (depicting the famed post-war Sicilian bandit), Hands Over the City (corruption in the building trade which leads to the collapse of an apartment block), The Mattei Affair (the suspicious death of a prominent oil magnet), Lucky Luciano (the later years of the famed gangster) and Christ Stopped at Eboli (with Gian Maria Volonté as novelist Carlo Levi). All are fine films, but Rosi’s finest is Illustrious Corpses, his depiction of a killing spree by an assassin with a judge grudge. Lino Ventura played Inspector Rogas, who is on the trail of a murderer that is targeting the judiciary, apparently avenging a miscarriage of justice. A powerful, engrossing film, based on Leonardo Sciascia’s 1971 novel Il contesto (‘Equal Danger’ in its English language version), it was photographed on location in Sicily, Naples and Rome by Pasquale De Santis, and plays like an overtly politicised police procedural, or a whodunit giallo thriller with a political edge.

DVD distributors take note: this excellent film is not currently available on DVD in the UK or US. It was screened many years ago in the UK on BBC2, as part of a Rosi season in ‘The Film Club’. Leonardo Sciascia’s novel is available however, with Day of the Owl, another crime thriller which was made into a film by Damiano Damiani, with Franco Nero and Claudia Cardinale

Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)

The gialli master was back with a vengeance in 1977, as Argento struck out in a bold new direction with the accent on supernatural witchery. Suspiria starred Jessica Harper as Suzy Banyon, an American student who arrives to study at the Freiberg Tanz (Dance) Academy, a ballet school in Germany, which she later discovers is the cover for a coven of witches (including Joan Bennett and Alida Valli) who worship the Black Queen. The first part of Argento’s ‘Three Mothers’ trilogy (followed by Inferno and Mother of Tears), this suspenseful, bloody masterwork is many Argento fan’s favourite. He certainly hasn’t equalled its visceral power since. The film’s shock tactics are greatly abetted by Goblin’s menacing score.

Suspiria has been released on DVD in the UK and US. It is also available on Blu-ray and Goblin’s score is out on CD.

So that’s my top 20. In my opinion, the essential classics of the golden age of Italian cinema are La dolce vita, The Mask of Satan, Hercules Conquers Atlantis, The Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock, The Leopard, Contempt, The Gospel according to St Matthew, Castle of Blood, Fists in the Pocket, Battle of Algiers, Blowup, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Big Silence, Diabolik, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Conformist, Violent City, The Marseilles Connection, Illustrious Corpses and Suspiria.  

Next week I’ll begin looking at my Top 20 Italian cult movies – the great, the good and the downright odd – in a new thread, RomaDrome.

To read more about Illustrious Corpses, Suspiria and other films by Argento and Rosi, check out my book, Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult

Roma Therapy 6

This week three Italian films from the early 1970s that look at murder in its varied forms – as a political tool, as a living wage and as a way of life.

The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

Despite his considerable achievements – and greater commercial success – with projects after this film, Bertolucci’s political thriller is still, in my opinion, his best. Jean-Louis Trintignant gives a marvellously uptight performance as Marcello Clerici, who just wants to blend in, to become one of the crowd, to give a semblance of ‘normal life’, even if the reality is anything but. His facelessness also facilitates his mission – he works for fascist organisation OVRA and is assigned to assassinate a prominent anti-fascist in exile in Paris. Georges Delerue’s haunting score and Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography make this Bertolucci’s most effective, emotional work. Locations include Rome and Paris and the period setting – the late 1930s – is recreated perfectly. The exemplary cast features Gaston Moschin and Ezio Tarascio, and Dominique Sanda and Stefania Sandrelli perform a sexy tango in Joinville. The Conformist expands on ideas first seen in Bertolucci’s Before the Revolution (1964), but with more coherence and greater resonance, both politically and emotionally. The chopped up, non-linear narrative is a trademark of editor Franco Arcalli, who also worked on Django Kill! and Once Upon a Time in America.

The good news is that The Conformist is being released in the UK on dual format Blu-ray/DVD in January 2012.

It is currently available in the US, on Region 1.

Delerue’s rare score is available on CD and vinyl.

Violent City (Sergio Sollima, 1970)

This sees Charles Bronson at the zenith of his European-based popularity, before he finally broke into the US market in 1974 with the mega-hit Death Wish. ‘Hits’ are also on Bronson’s mind in this movie, as he plays Jeff Heston, a professional hitman who finds himself a pawn in Jill Ireland’s rise to mafia Godmother. This is easily the best of the films Bronson and his wife Ireland made together. The strong Euro-cast includes Michel Constantin and Umberto Orsini, and Telly Savalas shows up as a New Orleans crime kingpin and head of the billion-dollar ‘Organisation’. Violent City was shot on location in the US (including New Orleans) and the Island of St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. In the wake of The Godfather’s success, it was released, abridged, in the US as The Family. The excellent stunt work and car chases were staged by Remy Julienne, who oversaw the Minis in The Italian Job (1969)

Ennio Morricone provided the score, including the pulsating, whining, still-popular theme tune.

The uncut version is now available on DVD in the UK and in the US.

The Marseilles Connection (Enzo G. Castellari, 1973)

Also known as High Crime, Castellari’s cop movie is one of the finest examples of Italian ‘poliziotteschi’ (police films). Franco Nero played Vice-commissioner Belli of the Squadra Volante (Flying Squad) who attempts to sever the Marseilles Connection – a drug smuggling route from France to Genoa. Its obvious inspiration is The French Connection (1971) and Fernando Rey reappears here as gangster Cafiero. James Whitmore played Belli’s by-the-rules boss. Like Violent City and The French Connection, Marseilles Connection features a car chase – here cut to G & M De Angelis funky ‘Gangster Story’ cue which reappeared in many other films, including Violent Rome (1976 – Forced Impact) starring Maurizio Merli. Nero worked with Castellari on several occasions during this period, including the crepuscular western Keoma, a hokey sharksploitation movie The Shark Hunter (Guardians of the Deep) and a Death Wish vigilante flick, Street Law. Marseilles Connection is their best collaboration and one of the top cop movies of the 1970s.  The trailer is a classic.

The Marseilles Connection is currently only available in the UK on videotape, but there are rumours that a DVD release is in the offing

It is also available on tape in the US as High Crime.

The De Angelis brothers’ score to Violent Rome, which includes the ‘Gangster Story’ cue, is available on CD.

If you’d like to read more about The Conformist, Violent City and The Marseilles Connection, and other films discussed here, they (and many more) are included in my book, Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult.

Roma Therapy 5

This week all’Italiana, three great Italian films which feature memorable villains – a loco bounty hunter, a comic book super-thief, a black-clad murderer – and a trio of timeless Ennio Morricone scores.

The Big Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1967)

Corbucci’s snowy western, largely shot near the ski resort at Cortina D’Ampezzo, is perhaps the best non-Sergio Leone Italian western. Jean-Louis Trintignant starred as mute gun-for-hire Silence, who lets his Mauser Broomhandle machine pistol do the talking. But it’s the despicable villain, Loco, a cowled killer stalking in a winter wonderland, that you’ll remember. He’s played by madcap Klaus Kinski in one of his finest performances. The memorable supporting cast includes Vonetta McGee, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli and Mario Brega. Morricone composed the emotive music which is quite unlike his ‘Dollars’ trilogy scores and compliments the chilly setting perfectly.

It’s available on DVD in the UK and in the US.

It is worth seeking out the UK Eureka! release from a few years ago, which also features the Italian language cut of the film, with newly-translated English subtitles.

Morricone’s soundtrack CD also features Un Bellissimo Novembre.

Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968)

This comic book masterpiece is Fellini-meets-Bond, in a wild collision of pop art visuals, groovy outfits and futuristic gadgets. John Phillip Law plays masked thief Diabolik, who with his bombshell lover Eva (Marisa Mell) steals from the rich to keep it for himself. His colourful underground lair, with its fleet of E-type Jags, is a sight to behold. This may be Bava’s best movie – it’s certainly his most consistent and pacy. Michel Piccoli, Adolfo Celi and Terry-Thomas crop up in support.

It is available on DVD in the UK and the US.

Both releases feature highly informative, entertaining commentary tracks, with Bava’s biographer Tim Lucas in conversation with John Phillip Law.

As all fans of the film know, two different English language audio dubs of Diabolik were prepared: one for theUS market, one for international release. The alternative English language dub is still available in the US on VHS tape.

Ennio Morricone’s score is one of his most sought-after with collectors, as it has never had an official release, though there have been bootlegs. The title song, ‘Deep Down’, sung by Christy, is included on the excellent 1960s vocal compilation ‘Canto Morricone’, which also contains ‘Se Telefonando’ by Mina.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)

Argento’s directorial debut is an astonishingly assured murder mystery. From its opening gallery murder scene, with a witness trapped helplessly between automatic glass doors like a fly twixt double-glazing, this one never lets up. Tony Musante played Sam Dalmas, an American writer in Rome, who is the star witness to the gallery attack. Suzy Kendall was his girlfriend Julia and Enrico Maria Salerno played Inspector Morosini, who thinks that Sam isn’t telling him everything. With his passport confiscated, Sam turns amateur sleuth which leads to both his and Julia’s lives being endangered. The visuals, in widescreen Cromoscope, are breathtakingly shot by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, The Last Emperor). Morricone composed a bold, avant-garde score, which echoed his work with experimental group Nuova Consananza.

The definitive version of this film is Anchor Bay’s Region 1 release, available in the UK and US.

Morricone’s score is available on CD with two more Argento movies, Cat O’nine Tails and Four Flies on Grey Velvet

To read more about The Big Silence, Diabolik and The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, check out my book, Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult.

My spaghetti western book Once Upon a Time in the Italian West includes an in-depth discussion of The Big Silence, and Corbucci’s film also features, alongside 33 other important movies, in my Kamera Guide to Spaghetti Westerns

Roma Therapy 4

Continuing my look at essential films of the golden era of Italian filmmaking (roughly the late-1950s to the early-1980s) with three from ’66: a classic of political cinema, a murder mystery without a body and the quintessential spaghetti western.

Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)

A ‘how to’ guide for starting your own insurrection, Battle of Algiers was shot by Pontecorvo and his 9-man Italian crew on location in the city. This visceral docu-drama tells the story of the Algerian peoples’ struggle against French occupation and colonialism. The principle story follows Omar Ali, alias ‘Ali La Pointe’ (Brahim Haggiag), an Algerian street criminal who joins the rebel National Liberation Front (FNL). The film, an Italian-Algerian co-production, was co-written by Franco Solinas, who also worked on many other Italian political films, including Salvatore Giuliano, Hands over the City, The Big Gundown, A Bullet for the General, A Professional Gun, Tepepa and Burn! The anthemic, elegiac score was co-composed by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone. This powerful depiction of revolution and counter-revolution admirably doesn’t take sides and in 2003, during the occupation of Iraq, it was screened in the Pentagon.

It is available on DVD in the UK and as an excellent Criterion Collection release in the US.

Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)

Antonioni’s murder mystery is one of the most iconic ‘London’ films of the 1960s. Like The Ipcress File, it presents the city via the cold paranoid gaze of a fractured lens, a million miles away from ‘Swinging London’ as depicted by the popular media of the era. Photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) snaps a couple embracing in Maryon Park, Charlton, but when he develops the photos he discovers he has witnessed as murder – blow-ups of the images reveal a gunman hidden in the bushes. The interesting cast includes Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Peter Bowles, Jane Birkin and the Jimmy Page-era Yardbirds. How the mystery unravels makes for riveting cinema, in this, Antonioni’s most accessible and commercially successful film.

Blowup is available on DVD in the UK and US.

The excellent soundtrack, featuring cues by Herbie Hancock, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Yardbirds and Tomorrow, is also available.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)

The third of Leone’s ‘Dollars’ trilogy, this would today be called a threequel, though it’s actually a prequel to Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). Three gunmen become entangled in a search for a $200,000  Confederate army payroll buried in a war cemetery, as the Civil War sweeps through New Mexico in 1861-62. Clint Eastwood played bounty hunter Blondy, Lee Van Cleef was hired killer ‘Angel Eyes’ and Eli Wallach was garrulous Mexican bandido Tuco Ramirez. This is the great Italian western and career highpoints for all concerned. The Spanish landscapes look beautiful, the long desert sands filling the screen with their emptiness. The cast features a rogue’s gallery of craggy-faced spaghetti western regulars including Aldo Sambrell, Benito Stefanelli, Lorenzo Robledo, Antonio Molino Rojo, Romano Puppo, Frank Braña, Al Mulock, Luigi Pistilli and Mario Brega. The famous score was by Morricone and includes the towering ‘L’estasi dell’oro’ (The Ecstasy of Gold), with its soaring soprano vocal by Edda Dell’Orso, which Morricone still conducts today in his live concerts – a reprise of the composition is often used as the final encore.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is available in many versions, of varying quality and length, but the classic version is still the 154 minute international release (161 minutes in the US) which is available on DVD in the UK and US.

The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from GDM features 21 tracks, including many that have previously remained unreleased.

Eli Wallach includes several interesting anecdotes about the film’s making in his autobiography, The Good, the Bad and Me.

The film tie-in by Joe Millard is available too.

To read more about Battle of Algiers, Blowup, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and other films discussed here, buy my book Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult.

Also, my Once Upon a Time in the Italian West includes an entire chapter devoted to the making of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Roma Therapy 2

This week, three more essential Italian films: a gothic horror, a period costumer and a tragic story in a fabulous setting. 

The Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock (Freda, 1962)

Freda’s Victorian ‘necromance’ is Barbara Steele’s finest gothic. This Edgar Allan Poe-influenced chiller has a great performance by Robert Flemyng as Dr Bernard Hichcock, who accidentally murders his wife, Margaretha. When he returns 12 years later, with his second wife Cynthia (Steele), Margaretha’s spirit returns also, to seek revenge.

In the UK, the uncut 84 minute version was released by Stablecane Home Video in 1985 and unbelievably this remains the best version of the film available.

Freda’s sequel, The Ghost (1963), is widely available in the US.

The Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock is harder to find. In fact in the US, it’s only out on videotape, cut, under an alternative title

The Leopard (Visconti, 1963)

Billed at the time as Europe’s answer to Gone with the Wind, The Leopard was a costly failure on its international release, but is now highly regarded. Burt Lancaster starred as the Sicilian Prince of Salina, who finds amid changing times of revolution and reform that the ‘new rich’ are rising and displacing the old aristocracy:. The movie fields a fantastic cast of famous and soon-to-be-famous names including Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa, Serge Reggiani, Romolo Valli, Pierre Clémenti, Ida Galli, Giuliano Gemma and Terence Hill (under his real name, Mario Girotti). There’s also a wonderful score by Nino Rota, magnificent Sicilian landscapes and architecture photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno in Super Technirama-70, and a justly-famous lavish ball staged at Palazzo Gangi in Palermo at the film’s climax.

The uncut Italian language version is available in the UK on DVD and on Blu-ray.

However, my favourite version of the film is the abridged English language release (with Lancaster and Cardinale dubbing their own voices) which runs 161 minutes and is available in the US on this excellent Criterion Edition, which includes documentaries, audio commentary and the uncut Italian print of the film in 2.21:1 Super Technirama.

It’s also out on Blu-ray in the US.

Contempt (Godard, 1963)

Based on Alberto Moravia’s novel A Ghost at Noon (Il Disprezzo), Jean-Luc Godard’s tragedy depicts international filmmakers at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, as they attempt to plan and shoot Homer’s The Odyssey. German director Fritz Lang plays himself, while Jack Palance is superbly cast as greedy American producer Jerry Prokosh. Georgia Moll is Prokosh’s translator, Francesca, and Michel Piccoli is playwright Paul Javal, who following the success of his script for Totò against Hercules is hired to adapt Homer. Trapped between Paul and Jerry – in Rome and later at The Odyssey’s shooting location on Capri – is Paul’s beautiful French wife, Camille, played by Brigitte Bardot in the performance of her career. The epically mournful music – a candidate for my favourite film score of all time – is by Georges Delerue.

Contempt is available in the UK under its French title, Le Mepris on DVD and Blu-ray.

And in the US on DVD and Blu-ray.

This CD contains 6 tracks from Georges Delerue’s score.

Read more about The Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock, The Leopard and Contempt in my book, Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult.