dipdatta If you thought good giallos were made only in 70s & 80s, watch this. Very stylish & well made movie.

Modern Monsters Everything has been said and written about the giallo sub-genre, initiated by Mario Bava at the end of the 60s, polished to near perfection by Dario Argento in the 70s while generating countless attempts at this specific kind of thriller, most of them Italian. It is generally admitted that the last great giallo was Argento's 1987 Opera, with purists discarding it in favour of 1982 Tenebre, as it is bitterly regretted that the Italian master's production since then was a sad slide into the morass of self copycatting, resulting in movies varying from disappointing (Nonhasonno, Il Sindrome di Stendhal) to terrible (Trauma, Giallo), deprived of any of the visual brilliance his earlier work displayed.Various attempts have been made at revamping the giallo form for contemporary film-goers, most of them ludicrous (German Masks, French Amer, to name but two). To this day, none can even remotely pass for a good giallo, the formula having been preempted by serial killers in the 90s and enshrined in amber ever since. It is therefore a very pleasant surprise to discover Eros Puglieli's movie, who achieves a lot by virtue of a rather good screenplay, solid actors, an interesting choice of music and a visual parti-pris which mostly works in spite of a few weaknesses.Inspector Amaldi (Luigi Lo Cascio, a little know but intense actor) is a conflicted man and a talented police officer with a background in criminal psychology. He was victim of a gruesome experience in his youth and finds himself confronted to a twisted killer with a keen interest in taxidermy, a niche discipline that he pushes a bit too far for the well-being of a sizable portion of the cast. Meeting a good looking student complaining about a stalker, he has to dig deep into his abilities and emotions to find the killer before he finds her.All the codes of giallo are respected in an otherwise contemporary feature: a vicious killer with a traumatic past killing his victims with sharp weapons and collecting trophies; coded enigmas announcing the next murder; obvious red herrings; a scary antique doll loaded with sexual implications; an oppressive soundtrack; "improbable when you eliminate the impossible" killer identity. Even the mandatory killer-falling-to his- death is delivered, in a rather satisfying scene. It could be said in fact that the only non-giallo component is a tight screenplay, as the genre is known to be prone to plot holes the size of a wound by ax.Don't pay too much attention to the shaky initial chase: the rest of the movie is much better filmed, with some inspired moments like a conversation between two characters cleverly filmed through a variety of visual obstacles. Evidently, the murder set pieces are what draws one to a giallo in the first place; without being overly gory they nevertheless reach a decent level of nastiness. Yellow is definitely an Italian colour. Lol

morrison-dylan-fan Despite having heard about the film a few years ago,I have somehow never got round to see the major 2004 Giallo that was not directed by Dario Argento.With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best titles of 2004,I decided that it was time to look into the eyes of crystals.The plot:Called out to a murder scene in a woodland area,Ispettore Amaldi finds that a young couple and a peeping tom have been brutally killed.Taking a look at the women's corpse,Amaldi is horrified to find that the murderer has amputated the victim.Searching for clues,Amaldi spots an area of the woods used by the killer to capture animals,which leads to Amaldi suspecting that the murderer has an interest in dissecting humans & animals.Whilst waiting for the autopsy results,Amaldi decides to visit Agente Ajaccio,who is a former police officer that has recently been put in hospital,after he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.Given medication that leads to him having flashbacks,Ajaccio begins to tell Amaldi about the burning down of the orphanage he grew up in.Although he is able to clearly remember the fire,Ajaccio finds himself struggle to remember the name of a peculiar,fellow student at the orphanage.Trying to nudge Ajaccio's memory,Amaldi receives a call which reveals that the murderer has struck again,which leads to Amaldi deciding that he must dissect the killer,before he finishes his "operations."View on the film:Backed by a chilling score from Francesc Gener,co-writer/(along with Gabriella Blasi and Franco Ferrini) director Eros Puglielli & cinematographer Luca Coassin unleash a blunt Giallo with a jet-black Neo-Noir heart,which creates an extremely grim atmosphere,as Puglielli displays the murder scenes in a stark manner,and drains the movie of almost any bright colours,with Amaldi's world sinking into burnt-out blacks & roaring flames.Along with the strong Neo- Noir atmosphere,Puglielli also gives the title a tantalisingly stylised appearance,as Puglielli expertly uses swift camera moves to show the killer waiting in the shadows for the next victim,which really push the nerve-wrecking tension to the edge,as Puglielli subtly shows Amaldi's desperation in catching the killer,with a change in editing speed.Whilst their adaptation of Luca Di Fulvio's novel L'impagliatore does feature one or two noticeable flaws, (why would a hospital not have any CCTV?)the writers make them ones easy to overlook,thanks to building an intense Giallo,with each murder scene being made central to the case.Initially starting with 3 separate threads,the writers show an amazing precession in coiling them around each other,as Amaldi begins to fear that the identity of the killer may be linked to Ajaccio's fragile memory,as the killer makes things very personal,by setting his sights on reawakening Amaldi's tragic past.Desperate to track down the killer, Luigi Lo Cascio gives a fantastic performance as Ispettore Amaldi,thanks to Cascio showing the murders to cut straight to Amaldi's bones,with each dead body found allowing the demons of the past to grind Cascio down.Wrapping in nightmarish special effects, Simón Andreu gives a tense performance as Agente Ajaccio,with Andreu giving Ajaccio a real sense of desperation,as Ajaccio frantically tries to grip his fading memory,before he looks into the deadly eyes of crystal.

Armand slow, profound, unusual. a "policier" in a different manner, full of nuances, shadows of past and with a central character far from policeman definition.the vulnerability of inspector Amaldi, the delicate love story, the images - bricks of victims, the precise - delicate performance of Luigi Lo Cascio, each are good ingredient for a poetic movie , mixture of roots of past," film noir" and taxidermy. a horror in crime skin. with a good result. sure, it may be a version of Se7ven but in a specific mode. it may be version of a kind of horror , refined, scene for sophisticate mysteries. but it is only a n Italian part of an ambiguous genre , case in which director hopes to create a different product with usual rules. nothing else.