Obscure Cinema

DVD debacle

I got my hands on a few DVDs over the last couple of days. First of all, I received check discs of Spooks Season 5 for my upcoming review of the soon-to-be-released set for DVD Times. The only problem was that the public relations company responsible for supplying review samples neglected to send me a copy of Disc 1, instead providing an apology note to the tune that they didn't have any left. All well and good, but unfortunately it's rather difficult to review only part of the package and still feel that you're providing readers with something approaching an authoritative perspective. Luckily, though, Disc 1 did turn up on Thursday, putting me somewhat behind schedule but thankfully now in a position to get the review done.

I also inherited a copy of Red Road, the Glasgow-based feature directing debut from Oscar-winning short director Andrea Arnold. I know next to nothing about the film, other than that the plot makes heavy use of CCTV, and that, when I saw a preview for it last year on Film 2006 (or a similar cinema television series), I thought it looked quite interesting. So, I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching it.

Oh, and, yesterday, while I was on my lunch break (I work Saturdays, remember), I decided to kill some time by wandering around Borders and looking at their overpriced books and DVDs. In addition to the discovery that they have a Blu-ray section (£24.99 per disc - as if!) but no HD DVDs, I came across the rather more reasonably-priced DVD release of Angel-A, which, when released in 2005, was the first film Luc Besson had directed in over seven years (after the debacle of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc in 1999 he, somewhat wisely, some people might say, decided to concentrate on writing and producing). I'd been meaning to pick it up for some time but never got round to it.

Anyway, I'm exceedingly glad I did, because I watched it last night and enjoyed it immensely. I originally only popped it in to get some idea of how the transfer measured up (reasonably good, as it happens, although I'm increasingly finding it difficult to say anything positive about standard definition transfers unless I lower my expectations tremendously), but after watching the first five minutes, I found myself completely hooked. The plot, which involves a leggy angel (Ria Rasmussen) descending on high to help a hapless immigrant living in Paris (Jamel Debbouze of Amelie) overcome his debts and insecurities, is a bit hokey, but the whole thing is beautifully shot in breathtaking black and white (stylistically, this is a major departure for Besson), and it manages to be both funny and touching in its portrayal of this decidedly unconventional "odd couple". It may be a little too obviously influenced by Patrice Leconte's excellent La Fille sur le Pont (another French-language love story shot in black and white with an attempted suicide on a Parisian bridge as its inciting incident), but originality is overrated these days, and in any event the execution is hard to criticise. Highly recommended.

Can a leopard change its spots?

Following Paramount's shock decision to back HD DVD exclusively, the web is abuzz with speculation as to what will be the next major development in high definition land. Undoubtedly, the entire landscape has been reshaped in the last few days, but I very much doubt that this is the end of the story. The biggest rumblings surround the news that Warner Home Video's Steve Nickerson is to exit his position as senior vice president of the division. Nickerson was the key architect for Warner's high definition programme, including the decision to back both formats instead of just HD DVD, as well as the development of the now-delayed TotalHD dual format. His departure has prompted a whole lot of theorising, and what this news means depends on who you ask.

Many desperate Blu-ray owners, still reeling from the kick in the balls that was the loss of Paramount, hope that the departure of this "pro-HD DVD" executive means that Warner could be going exclusive to Blu-ray... which I personally think is highly unlikely, given Warner's stake in the HD DVD format, not to mention the fact that they already seem to favour it over Blu-ray, with many exclusive titles such as Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

By the same token, many HD DVD owners, gloating over the Paramount scoop and with morale higher than it has been at any other point in 2007 so far, will tell you that the departure of one of the main individuals responsible for Warner becoming involved with Blu-ray in the first place could be a good omen for them pulling a Paramount.

I personally think the second is the more likely of these two scenarios, and, if you were to ask me to make a prediction, I'd say that Warner will eventually go HD DVD-only. Not necessarily within the next few days as some have suggested, but at some point in the not too distant future. If this happens, then HD DVD, by my reckoning, will have the upper hand in terms of content. No other studio has made as much money from HD sales as Warner, and their back catalogue is by far the most impressive in terms of sheer number of titles. If it comes to an all-out battle with Universal, Warner and Paramount on one side and Sony, Disney and Fox on the other (as would have been the case had Warner and Paramount not decided to back both formats at the last minute), then my gut reaction is that the Universal/Warner/Paramount triumvirate (which, let's not forget, also includes subsidiaries New Line and Dreamworks) would wipe the floor with the boys in Blu.

But that's all rather academic at the moment. The other possibility is simply that nothing will change at all. Universal and Paramount will continue to shack up with HD DVD; Sony, Disney and Fox will stay wed to Blu-ray; and Warner will continue to play the bigamy game. In my view, that already makes the situation considerably more positive for HD DVD than it was as recently as last Sunday, and has ensured the format's survival for the foreseeable future.

What's needed now is for the HD DVD Promotion Group to make Lions Gate and Anchor Bay an offer they can't refuse. Lions Gate is already bleeding money due to their decision to back Blu-ray, and a nice deal with the HD DVD gang could soften that blow (as well as allow them to hawk their wares to more customers).

The Giallo Project #4: Blowup

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni; Starring: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles; Music: Herbie Hancock; US theatrical release date: December 18th, 1966

"Slowly, slowly... against the beat." - The unnamed photographer of Blowup

"What's the meaning of this?" you ask. "I thought this was the Giallo Project?" It's a valid enough question, and I thought long and hard about whether or not to include Blowup in this rogue's gallery, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I couldn't afford to ignore it. You see, while I don't believe it possible to describe this as a giallo in the truest sense (although both Blood and Black Lace and The Giallo Scrapbook 2 do so), I suspect that it had a profound impact on virtually every giallo beyond a certain point in history. It undoubtedly had a huge influence on Dario Argento, who adapted several of its themes into The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and indeed all of his 1970s gialli, and, in turn, the various directors who set out to imitate Argento's work ended up adopting these same themes and stylistic traits second-hand - imitations of an imitation, as it were. Besides, I thought it only right that I do something to acknowledge Antonioni's recent death.

Beyond the plot, which, if you break it down, is basically the same as virtually every Argento giallo - an artist living as an outsider in a contemporary urban space, flitting around unable to settle, witnesses (or believes he has witnessed) a crime taking place, the solution to which lies in a single image or memory that he can't quite understand - it's the very atmosphere that so closely mirrors everything from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage to The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh: a sort of decadence, a society of bourgeois excess, where people are obsessed with useless commodities and avant-garde art, and seem to have to real purpose in life. I wasn't around to experience the 60s first-hand (far from it!), but I can easily see this as a defining statement of the atmosphere and mood of the period. In some respects, it makes the same point as Blood and Black Lace, and yet the bleak urban landscapes are a world away from the gothic opulence of Bava's film.

David Hemmings' unnamed photographer is clearly the forerunner to Sam Dalmas and Marc Daly - and indeed, Argento even cast Hemmings as Marc in the seminal Deep Red, itself a clever inversion of Blowup which actually manages to outclass its predecessor. In many respects, though, he's a far nastier piece of work than the two of them put together. Daly had some rather antiquated ideas about the place of women in society, while Dalmas seemed to treat his girlfriend as a commodity, but they pale in significance to the character in Blowup (referred to as "Thomas" in many sources but never actually named in the film itself - actually, names are almost completely absent, a reference, perhaps, to the characters' lack of identity and failure to find a place for themselves in the world), who manhandles several models, forcibly "posing" them and berating them for being useless, not to mention toying with blackmailing a woman (Vanessa Redgrave) who objects to having her picture taken on the sly. That's effectively Antonioni's (and Argento's) point, though: he is a vain, self-absorbed prick, continually searching for a perfect image that doesn't exist, and searching for meaning where there is none. Of course, it's therefore entirely appropriate that the central mystery is a single image whose very meaning continues to elude him (and the more he focuses on the image, the more he loses perspective).

In many regards, Blowup is about as anti-giallo as you can get - there are no on-screen murders, and the film is famous for its deliberate refusal to provide a solution to its central mystery - and yet in orders, you can see the roots of so many 70s gialli in it that it's impossible to ignore it completely. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the giallo of the golden age is effectively a marriage between Bava's early efforts and Blowup, filtered through Argento's sensibility and adopted by a slew of imitators - a reinterpretation of the form in the context of the post-1968 cultural revolution. It's a brilliant, baffling, mesmerising film in its own right, but when you consider the knock-on effect that it had on the giallo movement, its importance becomes all the more clear.

Next time, I'll be dipping into the bizarre world of Giulio Questi's baffling Death Laid an Egg.

The Giallo Project #3: Blood and Black Lace

Alternative titles: Sei donne per l'assassino; Director: Mario Bava; Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner; Music: Carlo Rustichelli; Italian theatrical release date: March 14th, 1964

Whenever the topic of Blood and Black Lace comes up, I always seem to find myself apologising for not liking it more. I've seen it four or five times now, and on each occasion I find myself feeling strangely distanced from it and unable to see it in quite the same light as its many, many admirers. Maybe it's the fact that it lacks a single clear-cut protagonist to whom I can relate, or perhaps it's because, to date, there has not been a satisfactory presentation of the film on DVD (it's fickle, I know, but there have been occasions when a better transfer has improved my appreciation of a film, particularly those that are visually-oriented). In any event, for whatever reason, Blood and Black Lace is an entry that I see as important on account of its influence, but considerably less interesting when taken on its own merits.

Dubbed "the first authentic body count movie" by VCI on the cover of their (frankly pretty poor) DVD release, Blood and Black Lace builds on the thematics that Bava developed in his previous two gialli, The Girl Who Knew Too Much and The Telephone segment of Black Sabbath, and injects a vital new component that would come to characterise so many other films in the genre: the protracted, deliriously violent murder sequence. While Girl's death scenes, such as there were, were pretty perfunctory, they are Blood and Black Lace's raison d'être, and are quite shocking in their intensity. The very first, occurring in a windswept park at night within the first five minutes, is brutal and frenzied, unveiling the fedora-clad, black-gloved killer (his face concealed with a mask), who, thanks to his sheer viciousness and lack of identifying features, feels more like a force of nature than an actual person.

Actually, it's difficult to fault the murders at all - they are all incredibly well-executed and almost always incredibly sadistic. One unfortunate victim is slapped about before having her hand and then face scalded, while another receives a blow to the face with a spiked glove, prefiguring the killer's modus operandi in Death Walks at Midnight by several years. A further death, occurring late in the film, also sets the template for many a giallo bathtub drowning. However, the scenes designed to connect them together (and I believe that this is all they really are) are considerably more mundane, with the plot never sustaining my interest in that way that Girl's does. Thomas Reiner's wooden Inspector Silvester plods from scene to scene without doing anything particularly interesting, and the various women of the fashion house around which the events revolved are given only enough characterisation for us to know what dirty deeds they have been getting up to in between shows.

Admittedly, some of this really is quite clever. In typical giallo form, everyone is hiding something, whether it's drug addiction, thievery or blackmail, and to an extent you can almost imagine the killer representing a force of brutal retribution. Bava also indulges in one of his favourite pass-times in opening up an outwardly respectable society and revealing it to be corrupt to the core. Furthermore, I don't need to tell you that it's impeccably shot, with Bava's trademark gel lighting giving the various locations an otherworldliness while still anchoring them firmly in reality. However, Blood and Black Lace remains, for me, a stepping stone in the giallo's journey rather than the landmark that many consider it to be. I like it, but I would never afford it masterpiece status.

Sorry again...

Next time, I'll be looking at Michelangelo Antonioni's seminal Blowup (don't worry - all will be explained).

The Giallo Project #2: The Telephone (segment of Black Sabbath)

Alternative titles: Il Telefono; Director: Mario Bava; Starring: Michèle Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi, Milo Quesada (uncredited); Music: Roberto Nicolosi; Italian theatrical release date: August 17th, 1963

I hadn't originally considered including The Telephone in this project, as I was originally planning on only covering feature-length gialli, but Marcus over at Dark Discussion suggested I give it a look. In the end, I'm still not completely sure that it should be included here, since I would only consider it to be a giallo in the broadest possible sense, but it has an important place in history nonetheless, since not only was it the first film of this sort to be shot in colour, not to mention having a profound influence on everything from Black Christmas to Scream in its use of the telephone as a device of dread, it also potentially marks the first instance of the iconic black gloves later to be donned by many a giallo killer!

The plot takes place entirely within a single location, focusing on the protracted terrorising of Rosy (Michèle Mercier) by phone by a voice claiming to be that of Frank Rainer (Milo Quesada), a man who, having been put away as a result of Rosy's testimony, has now escaped from prison... only there's more to this than meets the eye, as it turns out that the calls in fact originate from Mary (Lidia Alfonsi), Rosy's former friend and (as is strongly implied) lover, as part of a bid to rekindle their friendship (and relationship). There is, however, a twist in the affair. Can you guess what it is?

Black Sabbath is introduced by host Boris Karloff as "three brief tales of the supernatural", but, at least in the Italian version (the US edition, like The Girl Who Knew Too Much, features a radically different edit), there is nothing supernatural whatsoever about The Telephone. Rather, it's a very straightforward thriller mixing that perennial giallo cocktail of sex and violence: the voice on the phone discusses killing Rosy in decidedly erotic terms, while a strangling by stocking only serves to underscore the manner in which the two are conflated. As the protagonist, Michèle Mercier is certainly easy on the eyes, and Bava seems to delight in tantalising the audience with the briefest flashes of bare shoulders and legs (of which the voice on the phone approves so much). However, despite looking the part, she lacks the pluckiness and spontaneity that made Letícia Román so appealing in The Girl Who Knew Too Much; she seems more like a forerunner for what would eventually end up becoming the Edwige Fenech role in later gialli of the harangued, attractive victim. Lidia Alfonsi, meanwhile, is rather more effective as the ice-cold femme fatale.

More psychological than most gialli, the horror of the situation comes not from sadistic violence (there isn't any till the final few minutes) but from the fact that the speaker on the phone knows Rosy so intimately, while the room in which the entire segment takes place, despite being quite spacious, takes on an incredibly claustrophobic quality. The transition from black and white to colour, meanwhile, has not harmed Bava's ability to make the most of light and shadow to create tension, while the richly saturated hues, especially on the excellent transfer provided on Anchor Bay's recent DVD, at the same time provides a drastically different aesthetic (one can only dream of Blood and Black Lace looking this good on DVD). Roberto Nicolosi's score, meanwhile, starts out with some of the jazzy lounge aesthetic of Bruno Nicolai's contributions to later gialli, but quickly gives way to a more menacing, sinister tone.

In many ways, this is a minor entry in both Bava's filmography and the history of the giallo - a sub-heading rather than a full chapter, if you like - but it shows many of the tropes that would be established in Blood and Black Lace in a smaller-scale, more rudimentary, form, and works rather well as a short, sharp exploration of mounting dread.

Next time, I'll be looking at Mario Bava's second feature-length giallo, Blood and Black Lace.

The Giallo Project #1: The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Alternative titles: La ragazza che sapeva troppo; The Evil Eye (alternate US edit); Director: Mario Bava; Starring: Letícia Román, John Saxon, Valentina Cortese, Dante DiPaolo; Music: Roberto Nicolosi; Italian theatrical release date: February 10th, 1963

We all have to start somewhere, and I can think of no better film with which to begin this lengthy and probably foolhardy project than this 1963 offering from Mario Bava. While I doubt that you'd ever be able to find two people who completely agree on the definition of the word "giallo" and every single title that it encompasses, it's more or less unanimously agreed that The Girl Who Knew Too Much was the film that launched its cinematic form (unless you count Luchino Visconti's 1943 Obsession - Gary Needham, I'm looking at you!). It's ironic, then, that the first true giallo film is one of the most tongue-in-cheek of the cycle. Almost a parody of thriller conventions, it sends up heroine Nora Davis' (Letícia Román) obsession with paperback gialli and her less than accomplished attempts at amateur sleuthing.

Bava and his five co-writers use the "foreign tourist in Rome" framework that would become so popular with other filmmakers as the giallo gained popularity, placing the wide-eyed Nora against the backdrop of a series of killings known as the Alphabet Murders (actually the title of a Poirot novel and a very self-conscious reference to the giallo's roots in Agatha Christie, Edgar Wallace and Mickey Spillane novels - all of whom are referred to by name in this film) and forcing her to team up with the charming Dr. Marcello Bassi (John Saxon) to solve the mystery herself when she is met with the same disdain and disbelief that The Establishment would dole out to so many other giallo leading ladies. A rather likeable heroine, Nora is a bit silly and possesses an over-active imagination, not to mention a tendency to faint when things get a bit too much, but a lot more independently-minded than many an Edwige Fenech or Suzy Kendall. It also helps that Román has a decent sense of comic timing, playing the slapstick romance scenes between her and Saxon well and not afraid to make a fool of herself when the script calls for it. Indeed, the banter of the pair in many ways prefigures that of David Hemmings and Daria Nicolodi in Deep Red, while the running gag of one or the other continually causing injuries to Marcello is a good one and helps lighten the tension.

Indeed, this is a decidedly light-hearted giallo, with its tongue firmly in its cheek at all times. The Italian version (the American version, released under the title of The Evil Eye, is substantially different, featuring a number of alternative scenes and a different music score) features a male narrator continually commenting on Nora's plight which, in addition to providing a lot of humorous moments also serves to highlight the genre's literary origins. On the other hand, the manner in which it is shot is anything but frivolous: one of the few gialli to be shot in black and white, Bava, who was also the cinematographer, makes superb use of his monochromatic palette to create a world of great foreboding, foregrounding extremes in light and shadow and turning many of the familiar Roman tourist traps, including, most famously, the Spanish Steps (which provides the film with its key set-piece), into places of mystery and dread. Bava takes the Rome of picture postcards and rips open its seedy underbelly, and Marcello's insistence that the Rome of bright sunshine and milling tourists is the "real" one never quite ring true.

This is clearly a very prototypical giallo, and while some elements are already in place, others are either not yet fully formed or else absent entirely. There is no hidden, black-gloved villain - all the potential suspects are unmasked - and the outlandish murder set-pieces that would later become the format's hallmark are nowhere to be found. "One moment and it's all over," the killer promises Nora when finally unmasked, a far cry from the protracted stalk-and-slash scenes that would later delight audiences. There are only a handful of murders, and they are largely committed off-screen, with the body count aesthetic that would emerge in Bava's next giallo, Blood and Black Lace, not yet established.

Of all the Bava films I've seen so far, this is actually the one that I enjoy the most, and in fact I would put it ahead of Blood and Black Lace, for reasons that I'll explain when I get round to discussing that film. It lacks both the depth of a Deep Red and the camp sleaze of a Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, but it got the giallo movement off to an impressive start, and it holds up today as a thoroughly enjoyable stand-alone film.

Next time, I'll be looking at Mario Bava's second giallo, Blood and Black Lace.

Update, August 17th, 2007 03:35 PM: At the recommendation of Marcus, the next title to be covered will now be The Telephone segment of Black Sabbath rather than Blood and Black Lace.

The gates of Hell open on Halloween

This Halloween looks set to be something very special. Not only does Dario Argento's Mother of Tears launch in cinemas in Italy on that day, it has now been confirmed that Flagship Studios' launch title, Hellgate: London, will also be seeing the light of day on October 31st. Online games retailer Gamestop have put both the regular and Collector's Edition versions up for pre-order, including a sneak preview of what we can expect to find inside the latter:

- Special Packaging and Art Design
- Hellgate: London Game 2 DVDs
- Hellgate: London Map Poster
- 106 page Dark Horse Graphic Novel
- Unique in-game pet – Mantawraith
- Bonus Disc containing:
-- "Making of Hellgate: London"
-- Official Game Soundtrack

Now, as pointed out at the hellgate.incgamers.com fansite, this information has not been confirmed by anyone at Flagship, so these details should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, they are specific enough to give me hope that this is indeed the final list of extras rather than something dreamed up by a Gamestop employee in order to shift copies. In any event, it's only $10 more expensive than the regular edition, so I've plumped for it... although, given past experiences with Gamestop on the Diablo II and Warcraft III Collector's Editions, I'll no doubt incur a heavy customs charge on it.

Super mega DVD extravagant announcement extravaganza

There were quite a few exciting announcements on the DVD front during my period in the wilderness, so, to make things simple, I've decided to summarise them all in one post. The first of these is Season 5 of Spooks, due for release on September 10th 2007 in the UK from Contender Home Entertainment, presumably to roughly coincide with the launch of Season 6 on BBC1. Personally, I felt that Season 5 was a bit of a step down from Season 4, sacrificing some of its realism in favour of increasingly large-scale and preposterous situations (the opening two-parter featuring a hostile takeover of the British government and an attempt to kidnap the Prime Minister's son), but it was still hugely enjoyable and remains, for me, one of the best things on TV. As with previous DVD releases, the ten episodes will be spread across five discs, although extras seem to be fairly limited this time round, with only two commentaries, interviews, trailers and a video diary preview for Season 6.

On the Italian front, we now have confirmation of the release date and contents of Starz Home Entertainment's next Mario Bava box set. Due out on October 23rd, The Mario Bava Collection: Volume 2 will feature new versions of Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack, Four Times That Night, Bay of Blood and 5 Dolls for an August Moon. This is a definite must-have for me, and includes three titles that I've never seen. Speaking of which, I really need to get round to watching Kill, Baby... Kill! and Black Sabbath in Volume 1...

Keeping things Roman, Severin Films have also announced that they intend to bring Lucio Fulci's little-seen Seven Notes in Black to DVD on October 30th, under the considerably less classy American title of The Psychic. Bonus materials will include "a never-before-published interview with Fulci as well as interviews with cast and crew". I already own two copies of this title - the (ahem) unauthorised Alfa Digital release, which is in fact a pirate copy of the initial French DVD with an English track attached to it, and the more recent French 2-disc special edition from Neo Publishing. I always felt rather guilty about paying for a bootleg copy that allowed Alfa Digital to take money for other people's hard work, but I desperately needed a copy in English. Now it looks as if I can finally bin it and pick up this authorised version.

Finally, it looks as if Alex Infascelli's most recent film, H2Odio (a.k.a. Hate2O), will be coming out on DVD in the US on November 20th. It's from Tartan Video, so a UK release is also a strong possibility. This is another disc that I'll definitely be picking up, given how much I enjoyed Infascelli's 2000 giallo, Almost Blue (his 2004 offering, The Vanity Serum, was less impressive but still interesting).

Oh, and it seems that Dario Argento's Inferno is finally being released on DVD in Italy, making this only the second DVD release of this film in the world (unless you count that bootleg German DVD with the weird cover art). The artwork chosen for it couldn't be worse, and no English audio or subtitle options appear to be forthcoming, but I'm somewhat tempted to pick it up, (a) to see what it plays like in Italian and (b) on the off-chance that it has a superior transfer to the Anchor Bay release.

Trafficking in illicit gialli

Massimo Dallamano's What Have You Done to Solange? is one of my favourite gialli - in fact, it's probably my all-time favourite non-Argento entry in the genre. His loose follow-up, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, is also enjoyable, although not on the same level (and it's more of a cop thriller than a dyed-in-the-wool giallo anyway). Dallamano died in 1976 while he was still prepping the third instalment in this so-called "Schoolgirls in Peril" trilogy, and, although it finally did see the light of day, under the title of Enigma Rosso (or [Red] Rings of Fear for English speakers), this Alberto Negrin-helmed conclusion is generally considered to be a pale shadow of its predecessors. I've never seen it, but have wanted to for some time, and not long ago, to my considerable surprise, Spanish DVD distributor Filmax put out a fully letterboxed (2.35:1) release, which I immediately snapped up. The image quality isn't really up to snuff (it's non-anamorphic, soft, and exhibits the tell-tale signs of a bad attempt to noise reduce the artefacts of an analogue master), but it's streets ahead of, say, New Entertainment World's The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire. The problem? The only included audio track is a Spanish dub.

That's actually not as much of a problem as you might think, the reason being that I've managed to get my hands on an English-language version sourced from an old 80s VHS tape. The sound quality, unsurprisingly, is pretty ropey, but they both seem to feature the same cut of the film (it was a co-production between Italy, Spain and West Germany, with several different edits prepared for the various markets), so splicing my own version together shouldn't require too much work.

From various sources, I've also managed to get my hands on a variety of other gialli that I haven't seen yet. Many of these were never released on DVD, and as a result the copies I have look pretty shocking, but it'll be nice to actually sit down and watch some completely new (to me) gialli:

Naked You Die (Antonio Margheriti, 1968)
The Sweet Body of Deborah (Romolo Guerrieri, 1968)
The Frightened Woman (Piero Schivazappa, 1969)
In the Folds of the Flesh (Sergio Bergonzelli, 1970)
Hatchet for the Honeymoon (Mario Bava, 1970)
Cross Current (Tonino Ricci, 1971)
My Dear Killer (Tonino Valerii, 1972)
Eye in the Labyrinth (Mario Caiano, 1972)
Naked Girl Killed in Park (Alfonso Brescia, 1972)
French Sex Murders (Ferdinando Merighi, 1972)
The Killer Must Kill Again (Luigi Cozzi, 1975)
Eyeball (Umberto Lenzi, 1975)
Giallo a Venezia (Mario Landi, 1979)
A Blade in the Dark (Lamberto Bava, 1983)
Midnight Ripper (Lamberto Bava, 1986)
The Devil's Honey (Lucio Fulci, 1986)

Seems like enough to be getting on with, at any rate, although I won't be sitting down to watch them yet. My plan is to go through every giallo I own in as near to possible as chronological order - a rather daunting task, but one that I hope will get me thinking about appropriate topics for my PhD. I'll be going by the original Italian theatrical release dates (as per IMDB), if available, but in certain cases I'll only have the year of release to go by. I've done a brief recky and have made some interesting discoveries - did you know that The Black Belly of the Tarantula, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, Cross Current, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire and The Fifth Cord were all released one after the other, with no more than four days between each? There truly does seem to have been a time when a new giallo was coming out every week. In any event, a conservative estimate tells me that I have more than 80 titles to get through. Wish me luck!

Remember me?

No updates in over a week! You thought I'd forgotten about you, didn't you? Nothing could be further from the truth, as it happens. I did forewarn you that updates might be scarce until I'd got past my unusually busy work period, but I never for a moment thought that I wouldn't post anything at all. As it happens, though, this ended up being the best solution, because it meant that I wasn't forcing myself to make half-hearted posts in my state of perpetual weariness. I now have Thursday and Friday waiting ahead of my completely free, so you can expect a variety of posts on all sorts of exciting subjects, including the latest information on Starcraft II and Hellgate: London, a review of Episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's eighth season, news on some exciting upcoming DVD and HD releases, an overview of Casualty's recently-finished twenty-first series, some of the rare gialli I've managed to get my hands on, and much more.

First things first, though, the employment front. I started my new job at the Gallery of Modern Art library on Wednesday August 1st, but I didn't actually finish working with the NHS until yesterday. I thankfully managed to wrangle a few days of paid holiday, covering the days during which the two jobs would overlap (and Thursday and Friday this week, as it happens - yay!), but that doesn't mean I haven't had my plate full recently. I really am absolutely shattered, with the past three weeks having felt like a blur of early starts and late finishes, thanks to my parents leaving me and Lyris in charge of the dogs for a week when they went on holiday, seguing immediately into my moonlighting fiasco. Even last Sunday wasn't much of a reprieve, as we went on a family outing to watch my cousin's first child being forcibly inducted into a weird cult called Christianity, when I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. I got there in the end, though, and I got a nice send-off from the NHS, with two lunches out an impromptu party complete with carrot cake!

Anyway, I think I'm going to like working at the library. It's surprisingly tiring work, since I'm basically on my feet all day, but time passes much more quickly at the NHS, the work is more varies, and, hey, it's only two days a week! The breaks are also extremely generous, with 20 minutes in the morning, an hour for lunch, and a further 20 minutes in the afternoon. I suspect my "weekend" will end up being Sunday and Monday once I get started on my PhD, since I'm working Wednesdays and Saturdays, and intend to make myself adhere fairly strictly to a five-day week.

Anyway, it's good to be back.

There's no need to adjust your television set

You can expect posts on this site to be extremely scarce until the middle of next week. Why? Because I'll be working two jobs simultaneously, and am going to have much less time (and energy) for posting than usual. Worry not, however, for, by the end of August 8th, I'll only be working two days a week, and will be able to dedicate some more time to news, reviews and so on. Of course, at some point in September, I'll be embarking on my PhD, so it's not as if I'll just be putting my feet up for the other five days of the week, but hopefully I'll be able to share some of the process with you via this site. In particular, I intend to undertake a mammoth giallo-watching project, for the purposes of which I've been acquiring some rare titles to add to my collection. Stay tuned for a full list of titles and details as to the format and schedule of the project.

Oh, and, mindful of the fact that my lack of posting will quite possibly cause the front page to be virtually devoid of content, given that Movable Type is set to display news posts for the last seven days only, I've changed the configuration to show a set number of posts instead (25).

Random HD update

There have been several big announcements in HD-land over the last couple of days, and, for your viewing pleasure, I've summarised them all in one post.

First up, Warner have unveiled special editions of several Stanley Kubrick films, due to debut on both HD DVD and Blu-ray on October 23rd. Released separately rather than as a box set, the titles on offer are 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, and a new deluxe edition (presumably with a non-bobbed transfer) of Full Metal Jacket.

All titles have been restored and remastered and will offer both archive and new bonus features. Exact specs are to be confirmed, but initial details suggest all titles will use dual-layer BD50 and HD30 discs (potentially 2xHD30s on A Clockwork Orange if the early details are correct) and boast 1080P Widescreen transfers, English Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround audio on both formats (though the Blu-ray Disc listing for 2001 suggests Blu-ray owners will get a PCM 5.1 offering instead) and of course regular Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks in English, French and Spanish languages.

Unfortunately, it would seem that the version of Eyes Wide Shut being released is the American R-rated cut, complete with superimposed CGI figures to obscure some of the more intimate details of the orgy scene. As such, you can probably guess that I won't be buying it. Instead, I'll be holding out for a non-American, uncut release.

Warner have also announced Blade Runner: The Final Cut for release on both formats on December 18th. With specs suggesting that this release will topple The Ultimate Matrix Collection from its "most feature-packed HD release" throne, this deluxe set will feature a whopping five discs, and will feature four different cuts of the film, including the all-new "final cut" and the fabled work-print version. For the true obsessive, an Ultimate Collector's Edition will also be available:

The Ultimate Collector's Edition will be presented in a unique 5-disc digi-package with handle which is a stylish version of Rick Deckard's own briefcase, in addition each briefcase will be individually numbered and in limited supply. Included is a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, collector's photographs as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.

See a picture of the goodies here.

Finally, Highlight will be releasing the director's cut of Zhang Yimou's Hero on HD DVD in Germany on October 11th. No word yet on the specs (I'm a little worried that English subtitles won't be in the offing), but I'll definitely be keeping track of this one, especially as there currently isn't anything approaching a half-decent release of the director's cut on DVD.

Update, July 27st, 2007 07:10 PM: A Warner representative has just confirmed that the Eyes Wide Shut HD DVD and Blu-ray releases will include both the censored R-rated and uncut unrated versions. Thank god for that!

The ten highest-rated gialli

According to IMDB...

1. Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)
2. Eye in the Labyrinth (Mario Caiano, 1972)
3. Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964)
4. What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (Massimo Dallamano, 1974)
5. The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (Sergio Martino, 1971)
6. Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982)
7. The Perfume of the Lady in Black (Francesco Barilli, 1974)
8. Don't Torture a Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972)
9. Opera (Dario Argento, 1987)
10. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)

Ignoring the presence of The Perfume of the Lady in Black, which I don't consider to be a giallo in the first place, this is a pretty interesting list. Deep Red's Number 1 status is hardly unexpected, as is the general favouring of Argento's output - 40% of the titles are his (although this probably has a lot to do with the fact that his gialli are likely to be the most widely known). Naturally, I disagree with most of the list, but I suppose that's what you get when you turn to the IMDB for guidance!

So, what do other people's Top 10 lists look like?

Life after Mother of Tears

Mother of Tears may not have been released yet, but, according to the Profondo Rosso shop web site, Dario Argento is already giving thought to his next project. Desertrain at Dark Discussion has kindly offered an English-language summary of what the post conveys:

At profondorossostore.com they say that Dario is already thinking about his next project that should be a horror diptych...they say he still doesnt have the right idea but that's what he wants to do: 2 films strictly connected and dedicated to the same facts...

A diptych, according to Wikipedia, is "any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge", and "the term is also used figuratively for a thematically-linked sequence of two books". This sounds like a very interesting prospect, although I had half-expected his next film to be a giallo rather than more horror.

HD DVD debacle

The HD DVD release of Being John Malkovich arrived yesterday from Amazon. Knowing that the most recent Universal catalogue titles generally haven't looked all that hot, and having read some rather critical reports from individuals known to be - let's say - less than discerning, my expectations weren't exactly all that high. In fact, I was partly fearing a 480i upconvert à la Traffic, so I was actually somewhat relieved to discover that it doesn't look all that bad. No, I wouldn't call it good as such - there is some fairly obvious DVNR and also quite a bit of edge enhancement - but it's far from the worst HD transfer I've ever seen. I'd put it on about the same level as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which, coincidentally, shares the same writer, Charlie Kaufman, and the same studio, Universal) - a low to mid 6/10.

This morning, Blood Diamond, which I must confess I'd actually forgotten I'd ordered, arrived from DVD Pacific. It came out on Blu-ray more than a month ago, but, given that, thanks to the incomplete status of the BD-Java spec, that release lacked the picture-in-picture In-Movie Experience feature, so I decided to just wait and get the more complete package. I haven't had a chance to watch it from beginning to end yet, but I've taken a look at the transfer and it seems to be pretty decent. I was initially concerned that it looked a little diffuse, but a quick look at its technical specifications on IMDB reveals it to have been shot using an anamorphic process called Hawk Scope. I've been tending to notice that anamorphic films tend to look a little soft at 1920x1080, presumably as a result of the short focal range of the lenses, and, looked at in that light, my guess is that Blood Diamond's slight softness is inherent in the source material rather than as a result of digital tampering. Certainly, there is no ringing or clumpy grain to suggest filtering.

By the way, I'm aware that I haven't posted an updated HD Image Quality Rankings list for some time. I've got a handful of titles that I haven't looked at closely enough to rate with any certainty yet (La Haine, Layer Cake and Syriana), so I'll leave it till I've had a chance to watch them from beginning to end. My current (35 and a half hours per week) job ends in just over a fortnight, so my lighter load come mid-August should afford me ample opportunity to engage in some much-missed movie-watching.

Mother of teasers

A higher quality version of the Italian teaser trailer for Dario Argento's Mother of Tears has surfaced at Yahoo. It's still fairly low resolution, but all the same it's a massive step up from the camcorded version that showed up on YouTube recently. In particular, the colours are much purer, and a couple of brief shots even show that some of the old Suspiria and Inferno primary colour magic is on offer.

Credit for discovering this goes to Guillaume (Mannfan) at Dark Discussion.

Update, July 21st, 2007 11:20 AM: A downloadable version is now available here.

Lost in translation

This morning, I forced myself to sit down and watch Paprika... with an emphasis on forced, because I really did find it a chore to sit through. I have nothing against nonsensical films that operate in the world of dream logic - Mulholland Drive and Inferno being two of my absolute all-time favourites - but, if the director doesn't know what he or she is doing, or loses his or her sense of perspective, it's easy to lose track of what counts. With Paprika, I can only assume that, as with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (another dream logic film I saw recently and hated), everything made sense to writer/director Satoshi Kon in his head, but he was unable to translate this on to the screen in a way that resonated... with me at any rate. I never felt as if I was actually experiencing a dream, just viewing one nonsensical scene after another.

"I'm not bland, I'm just not good at expressing my emotions."

It doesn't help that, unlike the other Satoshi Kon film I've seen, the excellent Tokyo Godfathers, the visual style is that bland, stilted, lifeless look that I (rightly or wrongly) associate with anime. Rather than moving their whole faces when they speak, characters' mouths just open and close, and the voices (in the original Japanese - the English dub is unsurprisingly cringe-worthy) certainly don't add any more life to these wooden personalities. There is some nice colour work, and a couple of interesting visual images, but most of the latter are to be found in the opening credits - really not a good sign. The designs are mostly bland and generic, and I find myself wondering how the same director could produce such inventive visuals in Tokyo Godfathers, working with a much more reality-based storyline, and yet give this high fantasy such an uninspired look.

I do intend to seek out Satoshi Kon's other work - Perfect Blue and Millenium Actress - but I sincerely hope my enjoyment of Tokyo Godfathers wasn't just a fluke.

4/10.

Asterix and the HD Vikings

A while back, I reported that the most recent Asterix film, Asterix and the Vikings was due to be released on HD DVD at some point in the first quarter of 2007 by DeAPlaneta in Spain. As you can probably gather, it has yet to materialise, but the good news is that, according to FilmTalk, it will be coming out in France on October 3rd. Of course, I'll definitely be picking up a copy, and the fact that the French standard definition DVD included English audio and subtitles also bodes well for the HD DVD. I just hope it has a better transfer than Paprika, the only full-length 2D animated feature I currently own in HD.

Finally, some Blu-ray titles worth owning

So far, a few decent titles have been released as Blu-ray exclusives, but hardly any of them have been must-haves. For me, Casino Royale, The Descent, The Devil's Rejects and Kingdom of Heaven are the only titles that would fall into that category, with only The Descent standing out as a near-classic. All that will change in October, however, when Starz Home Entertainment/Anchor Bay will release their first slate of titles. DavisDVD has the scoop on the cover art, rough specs and release dates of their initial line-up:

October 2nd, 2007: Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Evil Dead II and Day of the Dead
October 16th, 2007: Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 1 (Cigarette Burns, Dreams in the Witch-house, The Fair Haired Child), Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 2 (Jenifer, Sick Girl, Deer Woman)
November 6th, 2007: Beowulf & Grendel
November 13th, 2007: Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 3 (Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, Dance of the Dead, Pick Me Up)
December 11th, 2007: Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 4 (Imprint, Homecoming, Haeckel's Tale, Chocolate)

I'll definitely be picking up all of the October 2nd releases, and am currently undecided on Masters of Horror. I'll probably get Volume 2 for Jenifer, so I can own some HD Argento, even if it's bottom drawer HD Argento, but I'm not convinced I can see myself splurging on the other volumes. I'll probably wait to see what my finances are like at the time, or perhaps look into the prospect of a review copy or two. Beowulf & Grendel is the odd one out in this otherwise horror-themed line-up, and I can't see myself rushing out to pick it up... although it does star Sarah Polley, who can make just about anything watchable (why else d'you think I'm buying the Dawn of the Dead remake on HD DVD?). One thing's for sure, Anchor Bay are to be commended for having the guts to step into the murky waters of high definition, and I sincerely hope the sales of these releases persuade them to continue releasing titles on Blu-ray. (How 'bout those Tenebre and Phenomena special editions - pleeeeease?)

Specs for the first four releases are as follows, by the way: 1080p transfers (duh), PCM 5.1 audio, and all of the extras from the standard definition releases. Each disc will carry an RRP of $29.97. No word on the video codec - I'm just hoping it's not MPEG2, which their HD distributor, MGM, favours. Oh, and I'm assuming Dawn of the Dead is just the standard theatrical cut.

Tartan slaps on the woad

Source: DVD Times

In a move that certainly surprised me and, I suspect, will have surprised a lot of others as well, UK independent DVD studio Tartan Video has announced support for Blu-ray, and will be debuting high definition editions of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book (also due out in the US from Sony a month later) and Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal on August 27th, with Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy to follow on September 24th. Expect AVC encodes, DTS-HD Master Audio and, it would seem, some but not all of the extras from the standard definition variants. The RRP for each, by the way, is a rather bloated £29.99, seemingly because Tartan intends to package the standard definition version on a separate disc in the same case.

I hate to say it, but the pessimist in me suspects that this may be the beginning of the end for HD DVD. This time last year, I never in a million years dreamed that any of the independents would back Sony's format, but with this, and the announcement of Starz/Anchor Bay's decision to launch a Blu-ray line via MGM, suggests that one of HD DVD's key advantages - cheaper manufacturing and licensing costs - really isn't enough to entice the little guys. All I can say is that Sony must be offering some major incentives to these smaller studios (one commenter suggests that they may be supplying free authoring services) to get them on the bandwagon. I'd still like to think that HD DVD can get its act together and reclaim some of the momentum that it lost in its disastrous decision to basically sit back and do nothing at the beginning of the year, but I'm beginning to have serious doubts... especially as, for me, the news of support by Tartan and Anchor Bay is worth a thousand 20th Century Foxes.