 I recently purchased the uncut copy of this film on R2 in England. Alas, it has been withdrawn, apparently this version was not passed by the censor, so I have something of a collectors item! Lucky me. This is a strange film!!! Not for the faint of heart-and certainly a departure from the usual giallo for Dario Argento. As with Argento's recent movies this stars his daughter Asia in the lead role. Which considering the violence directed towards her character in the film caused some discomfort-how could he do this to his daughter? -But that's probably the idea! and makes the film even more unsettling. Asia plays a police detective called Anna who is tracking down a savage serial killer/rapist in Rome. Anna visits an art gallery and has an mental attack in which she seems to enter a painting and meet a wierd fish that kisses her. Recovering, but unable to remember her name, she is helped into a taxi and back to a hotel by a handsome young man. It transpires that the young man, Marco, is the psycho rapist who Anna is tracking and a game of cat and mouse follows where Anna is repeatedly attacked. Anna eventually turns the tables and apparently kills him; or does she? She no longer suffers from the Stendhal Syndrome but the murders continue ..... I must confess that I was very disappointed when I saw this film. But after the second viewing the puzzle began to fall into place and I began to see the story in mythic terms- think echo and narcissus and you will get it. The film is not a murder mystery. It's never in doubt who is committing the crimes and as a result it stands up to repeated viewings very well. As expected the photography, and Argento's eye for detail are evident. The splendid opening shots as the gliding camera tracks Anna through the busy streets of Rome and the art gallery are marvellous. Argento possesses the amazing ability to breathe life into statues and paintings on camera and gives them a supernatual quality that is breathtaking. The most triumphant aspect of the film is the music score, one of the best Morricone has ever done, and shows his obvious pleasure at working with Argento again. You'll be pleased to hear that there is no heavy metal music in this film! All in all the most disturbing film argento has ever made. On it's initial release it generated a lot of criticism from the fan publications, but I feel they are wrong. Argento has often talked of his love and spiritual affinity to his idol Poe, and this film truly captures that Poe spirit of morbidity that was missing from the official Poe movie, the disappointing "Two Evil Eyes". Why then you may ask to I include it on a Bad Movie review page-well because most people will see it a bad, and anyway I like Eurotrash horror thriller's so I'm a poor judge. You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
