The Silver Screen Oasis

A cool resource for Giallo fans. This writer is not me although we share the same name. I happened upon it by accident. Tons of info and reviews.

http://tinyurl.com/mmmn4jc

One of the best articles I've read on gialli film. Gary Needham does a good job giving critical analysis of a genre that has been dismissed and derided by many:

http://tinyurl.com/ljsuky5

Nice review of Romano Scavolini's Spirits of Death AKA A White Dress for Marialé (1972):

http://atthemansionofmadness.blogspot.c ... s-for.html

Mr. A., I came across this site and thought of you. Click my collage to hear some of The Music of Giallo:

Sounds great! I will look into this. So many of these movies have limited dialogue because the actors were different nationalities & the voices were dubbed later, just like Spaghetti westerns, so the music & score plays a much greater role than a movie made at the same time in the U.S.. Unfortunately, many of the soundtracks are OOP or were never in print to begin with, so this is a great resource. Thanks!

Pre-code, film noir, rom-com, musicals, etc. I want to highlight a genre NOT for the faint of heart. Here are the Princes of Darkness, led by Mario Bava, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. These are some of the directors of GIALLO. If you can get past your queasiness and squeamishness, you will find a wealth of imagination in these cult classics; lessons twisted, good production values, moral codes abound. It’s also a genre some American actors found a home in later in their career. Movies are all about telling a good story, and Giallo does. And for me who knows “everything” about movies ( ) I can never predict the ending of these films. I like that.

Cool. All the greats are there (as well as some OK guys, who made a couple of great films!). Tessari & Crispino have really started to shine in my estimations. Tessari's Bloodstained Butterfly (1971) & Death Occurred Last Night (1970) are great films, but when I discovered that he made Pistol for Ringo & Return of Ringo (both 1965), I realized where it was all coming from. Crispino's work influenced Argento's Deep Red, which borrowed quite a bit from his The Etruscan Kills Again (1971) & Autopsy (1974).

With Halloween coming up, lists of what to watch are making the rounds and Giallo is growing into its own these days:

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/15-es ... lo-movies/

'Tis the season. What do YOU think of that list, Mr. A?

It's about half & half for me:

Top Tier:

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971)
Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971)
Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972)
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I have the Key (1972)
The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974)
Deep Red (1975)
The House with Laughing Windows (1976)

Second Tier--Not top rung, but enjoyable viewing:

Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)
The Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971)
Blood and Black Lace (1964)

Avoid--These films stink:

The Bloodstained Shadow (1978)
Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970)
A Bay of Blood (1971)
The Case of The Scorpion’s Tail (1971)

The great thing is that most of the best of that list are currently in print & have been restored to original uncut versions as well as cleaned up.

[youtube][/youtube]

Revisited this one the other day & realized I'd never talked about it in this thread except for a listing mention on the initial post. A great 60's pop-art film, groovy soundtrack, & amazing cinematography that is a nice intro to the giallo genre.

[youtube][/youtube]


More info:

http://tinyurl.com/pnq5qnq

RIP Giulio Questi--what you lacked in output, you made up for in individuality. Though best known for the ultra-violent spaghetti western Django Kill (1967), Questi's single entry into this genre--Death Laid an Egg (1968), tops many lists and preceded Argento and Fulci's debuts by a full year.

TCM Morlock review:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2008/01/05/are ... is-giallo/

The film:

[youtube][/youtube]

A handy listing of films with links to imdb.

http://www.listal.com/list/giallo-films ... I.facebook

I love film posters. I found a bunch of these over the last year & whether you're a giallo fan or not, I think you'll find them stunning: