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The Film
![]() ![]() In many ways, the Italian thriller highlights the tension between the local and the global � both in terms of the content of the films (which often featured American actors alongside a predominantly European cast) and the ways in which, over time, they have been received. Where for Italian audiences the label �giallo� denotes any kind of thriller, regardless of its content or context of production (and thus can be applied to films as diverse as Hitchcock�s Stage Fright, 1950, and John Huston�s The Maltese Falcon, 1941), for English-language fans the term has become indelibly associated with a very specific subgroup of Italian-produced thrillers made during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Italian audiences tend to refer to these films as examples of the thrilling or thrilling all�italiana (Italian-style thrillers). As Philippe Met suggests, approaches to understanding the giallo/thrilling all�italiana are complicated by �existing discrepancies of a semantic or taxonomic nature� (2006: 196). Met suggests that there is irony within the fact that within Italy, �in the very country in which it [the giallo/thrilling all�italiana] originated, the all�italiana [Italian-style] specificity of the genre� is largely �subsumed by [�] a much broader understanding of the giallo designation as coextensive with crime cinema� more generally, �cutting across national boundaries and the typological spectrum�; whilst in Britain and America, on the other hand, the giallo is seen as an exclusively Italian product, to the extent that debates exist as to whether �one can viably and legitimately stretch it to create an �American giallo��, for example (ibid.). ![]() The film�s narrative is deceptively simple but presented with a bravura flourish by Bava. The film opens in the Christian Haute Couture fashion house where, during a thunderstorm, the denizens are bustling about. Outside, one of the models, Isabella (Francesca Ungaro), meets with her lover Franco (Dante DiPaolo), the owner of an antiques shop. Franco is a drug addict who is jonesing for his next fix. Shortly after Franco leaves her, Isabella is attacked and murdered � throttled to death � by a killer clad in black. The police are called and Inspector Silvestri (Thomas Reiner) begins his investigation. ![]() The killer searches Nicole�s body in search of the diary, but Nicole hasn�t brought it with her: the diary is in the possession of Peggy, who after reading several passages which suggest that Isabella was blackmailing Peggy with the knowledge that Peggy has had an abortion (a fact which would ruin Peggy�s career), decides to burn the diary on an open fire. However, shortly afterwards Peggy is attacked by the killer, who demands to know where the diary is. Peggy tells the killer that she burnt it, but the killer appears not to believe her: �Why won�t you believe me?�, Peggy implores, �I burnt that diary. It contained things about me I don�t want people to know�. The killer murders Peggy, pressing her face into a red hot stove. ![]() Blood and Black Lace wasn�t the first example of the thrilling all�italiana (elements of the thrilling all�italiana have been traced back to Francesco Mastriani�s 1852 novel Il mio cadavere, the first Italian detective novel, and Luchino Visconti�s Ossessione, 1941, is often cited as the first cinematic Italian-style thriller), but it is one of the most famous early examples of the form. Met suggests that Bava�s film was �arguably the first giallo worthy of the name� (op cit.: 197). In the documentary included on this Blu-ray release of the film, Dario Argento argues that whilst Blood and Black Lace clearly wasn�t the first Italian-style thriller, Bava�s film arguably �codified how Italian gialli should be told�. The film�s Italian title, Sei donne per l�assassino (�Six Women for the Killer�) offers an effective summary of its �body count� approach to narrative (the schematic focus on a series of murders), the framing of women as victims, and its emphasis on set-pieces. Wheeler Winston Dixon has suggested that Blood and Black Lace marked the point within Bava�s career at which it became clear (at least to Bava�s critics) that �his interest in plot was easily superseded by his increasing emphasis on brutal violence, atmospheric sets, and lighting design� (Dixon, 2010: 111). Whether justified or not, one of the criticisms often leveled at Bava�s films, and the thrilling all�italiana more generally, is their focus on style at the expense of plotting and their exquisitely choreographed moments of mayhem and violence; but the sometimes illogical, dreamlike plotting and the focus on setpieces which punctuate the narrative are precisely the elements that appeal to Bava�s fans. ![]() Mikel J Koven has suggested that with The Girl Who Knew Too Much and Blood and Black Lace, Bava established many of the tropes of subsequent thrilling all�italiana pictures (Koven, 2006: 3-4). Both films display a very different approach to narrative, but Blood and Black Lace in particular �introduced to the genre specific visual tropes that would become cliched� in subsequent films (ibid.: 4). Chief among these was the level of cruelty and diversity of method within the murders, all committed �against beautiful women� (ibid.). One of the other elements of the more baroque thrilling films that finds its first defining expression in Blood and Black Lace is the depiction of the film�s killer, a mysterious figure clad in black fedora, trenchcoat and leather gloves. (Mikel Koven suggests that the killer�s disguise in Blood and Black Lace may have drawn upon the depiction of the murderer in George Pollock�s Murder She Said, 1961, who also wears a black overcoat and black gloves.) This get-up would come to be associated with the more extravagant examples of the thrilling all�italliana via its appearance in a number of Argento�s films, beginning with L�uccello dalle piume di cristallo/The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, 1970), and numerous other Italian thrilling films of the 1970s, such as Giuliano Carnimeo�s Perch� quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer? (The Case of the Bloody Iris, 1972) and Paolo Cavara�s La tarantola dal ventre nero (The Black Belly of the Tarantula, 1971), to cite but two examples. ![]() Danny Shipka notes that the characters in Bava�s films �were often representations of a flawed society�: Bava, Shipka claims, �frequently did little to encourage audience sympathy for his character�s actions�, with Bava�s films often featuring characters who �are unaffected by matters of conscience� (Shipka, 2011: 46). Here, all of the characters have something to hide, a fact underscored by the panic that follows the discovery of Isabella�s diary. Nobody is to be trusted: everyone is looking after their own interests, and blackmail appears to be the order of the day. The plot is set in motion by Isabella�s attempts to blackmail a number of her acquaintances; and following the discovery of Nicole�s body in his antique shop, Franco tries to blackmail Riccardo into providing him with an alibi. Even the killer and their accomplice are involved in a game of cross and double-cross with one another; the escalation of the murders requires an increasing number of victims to be sacrificed in the search for Isabella�s diary which, of course, is destroyed by Peggy quite early on � though the killer doesn�t seem to believe Peggy�s assertion that she has burnt the diary. Bava�s cynical approach towards human relationships is also underscored by the film�s depiction of romantic relationships as driven by convenience, manipulation or futile desire. At one point, Franco, Isabella�s lover, asserts that �I don�t believe in permanent everlasting relationships�; and Marco insists on pursuing a disinterested Peggy, telling her, �I�ve fallen in love with you, and you don�t care�. ![]() Set against the coldness of the characters, Bava�s setpieces are incredibly visceral. When Nicole enters Franco�s shop, for example, the interior of the building is bathed in the intermittent, unnatural glow of the neon signs situated outside it. The killer�s pursuit of Nicole through the shop causes disarray, with objects scattered hither and thither, until finally the killer dispatches Nicole with the aid of a medieval spiked glove that has been taken from a suit of armour. Mikel Koven suggests that by featuring this bizarre weapon, Bava may be offering �a veiled critique of the bourgeois attitude toward museum collections of suits of armor or other �beautiful� implements of war, which were originally intended to kill. Bava is really returning this objet d�art to its original usage� (op cit.: 62). ![]() The film is uncut, running for 88:39 mins.
Video
Taking up approximately 28Gb of space on a dual-layered Blu-ray disc, Blood and Black Lace is presented in its intended aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The basis for the presentation is a new 2k scan of the negative. The German DVD from Anolis presented the film in a wider aspect ratio of 1.78:1 but, in doing so, exposed the whole negative area in a manner that, apparently, Bava never intended. That release thus contains a sliver of information on both the left and right-hand extremes of the frame that was never intended to be seen in cinema presentations of the film (which, in Europe at least, were intended to be in the marginally narrower 1.66:1 ratio) and throw off some of the elements of composition; this can be seen in the presence of frame lines at the edges of the frame here and there within the presentation of the film contained on the German disc. ![]() Close-ups show an incredible level of detail in the actor�s faces, and there is a natural level of grain: the presentation contains an organic, film-like image. NB. Some larger screen grabs can be found at the bottom of this review.
Audio
Audio options include two lossless tracks: the film�s English dub and the film�s Italian dub, both in LPCM 1.0 mono. The English dub comes with optional English subtitles, and the Italian dub also comes with optional English subtitles (a transcription of the Italian dialogue rather than �dubtitles�). It seems that the subtitles for the Italian version can only be selected when you access the main menu and select the Italian track; following this, a new submenu allows you to select the English subtitles for the Italian track. However, without going through this process the Italian subtitles don�t seem to be selectable from within the main �subtitles� submenu. This is admittedly a minor gripe but is worth mentioning. The film�s script was written in English, and the non-English speaking cast were required to learn their lines by rote. However, as per most Italian productions of the era, the dialogue was entirely post-synched � so neither the English nor the Italian version is �definitive�. Interestingly, another English dub was apparently recorded which featured Cameron Mitchell dubbing his own lines. Sadly, this track is apparently �lost�. The English and Italian versions differ in some interesting ways: most obviously, the names of the characters are different in each version (in the English dub, �Marlocchi� becomes �Max Marian� and �Riccardo� becomes �Richard�, for example). However, there are other differences: for example, the English track features a musical �sting� (absent in the Italian version) when Silvestri reveals the packet of cocaine to Franco. Both tracks fare well and demonstrate strong range which showcases Carlo Rustichelli�s wonderfully jazzy score. The English track is much more bassy though, and because of this the Italian track arguably offers a more rounded experience.
Extras
![]() A new documentary, �Psycho Analysis: Blood and Black Lace, Mario Bava and the Giallo� (55:08). This is a fascinating documentary about the film, consisting of interviews with a number of participants recorded at the premiere of the films new 2k restoration during the 2014 Courmayer Noir in Film Festival. Interviewees include film historian Roberto Curti (who suggests that gialli all�italiana rely �on madness, on the irrational, on the subconscious�), Dario Argento, screenwriter and director Ernesto Gastaldi (who discusses his own picture Libido, a film which would be nice to see on English-friendly DVD/BD), writer Carlo Lucarelli and critic Steve Della Casa. Some of the comments made by the individual interviewees are contradictory, which highlights the nebulous nature of the Italian thriller. Gastaldi suggests that �A giallo has to be perfect and logical enough for the audience, at the end of it, to be able to say, �Damn it, if I�d paid more attention, I would have understood it, because no-one has cheated me��. Lucarelli, on the other hand, seems to favour the more baroque mode, suggesting that �Classic gialli always present a safe harbour� owing to their extreme rationality, but the later Italian thrillers introduced an element of irrationality and even the supernatural; they were, Lucarelli argues, more unsettling because of the addition of these elements as �reality is made up of irrationality. Reality is made of madness, especially criminal madness�. An interview with H�l�ne Cattet & Bruno Forzani (10:35). Cattet and Forzani are responsible for the films Amer (2009) and The Strange Colour of Your Body�s Tears (2013), both of which are pastiches of the gialli all�italiana of the early-1970s. Here, they reflect on the impact of Blood and Black Lace. A short film, �Yellow� (Ryan Hansom, 2011) (26:02). Presented in 2.35:1, this short film is a pastiche of the giallo all�italiana and is described as a �neo-giallo� on the box. (I suppose one could debate whether or not there is such a thing, much as the label �neo-noir� is often debated.) �Yellow� is quite an atmospheric film, very well shot (with an interesting use of a Snorricam-type device) and some interesting narrative ambiguities from the get-go: the opening sequence cuts between the murder of a woman and a man driving at night, raising questions as to whether we�re seeing an example of cross-cutting or an example of parallel editing. In other words, are the two events occurring at the same time but in different environments, or is the man in the car reflecting on something from his past? The use of music is atmospheric but the sound design is hollow and some of the dialogue (especially a radio broadcast that is heard twice in the film) is clunkily clich�d. There�s some brutal violence (an eyeball slashed with a razor in homage to Un Chien Andalou) and the whole thing ends with a very crude visual metaphor (a character framed between two hams). The film�s trailer (3:24). A video essay, �Gender and Giallo� (38:01). This snazzily-edited piece by Michael Mackenzie gives some context to the thrilling all�italiana. There�s heavy emphasis on the more baroque gialli all�italiana released between 1970 and 1975 (Argento�s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Luciano Ercoli�s Death Walks at Midnight, Sergio Martino�s �woman-in-peril� films), which is appropriate given the focus of the piece on the representation of gender in Italian thrillers; but whilst the analysis of the films is strong and carried by the narrator�s enthusiasm for these more extravagant thrillers from within the world of the thrilling, the less baroque examples of the thrilling all�italiana are sidelined and the discussion is arguably a little reductive because of this. (However, producing a catch-all discussion of such a nebulous group of films within a 38 minute time limit would admittedly be an impossibility.) Mackenzie engages with attempts to define the giallo all�italiana, suggesting that the films are best considered as a �movement or cycle� rather than genre, and dividing the films into essentially male and female forms. (I�m not sure about Mackenzie�s somewhat bold claim towards the end that gialli all�italiana were produced chiefly for a male audience; the filmmakers were certainly predominantly male, but that doesn�t preclude attempts to capture a female audience, and the melodramatic qualities of mysteries and thrillers generally, regardless of the context of their production, have sometimes been claimed to have a stronger appeal for female audiences.) As an aside, it�s interesting how Martino�s reputation has been elevated in the DVD age, prior to which Martino was often dismissed as a �hack�. This is possibly thanks to the availability of reasonably good quality home video versions of his films in their intended aspect ratios. At the same time, and conversely, the once acclaimed thrilling films of Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda, for example, whose films have fared far less well in terms of English-friendly DVD versions, have gradually fallen by the wayside. Time is a fickle mistress, it would seem. �Blood and Bava� (11:21), a recording of a panel discussion from the 2014 Courmayer Noir in Film Festival that features comments from Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Steve Della Casa. Two episodes of Sinister Image, the television show by David Del Valle. The first part runs for 27:31 mins; the second part runs for 28:54 mins. These shows focus on Cameron Mitchell�s work. Mitchell and Del Valle interact in an engaging manner, and the whole shebang is filled with wonderful anecdotes and illustrated with great clips. Finally, the alternate US opening titles sequence (1:56) is included. Also included in the package is a very nicely-presented booklet, as we have come to expect from Arrow�s releases. This booklet includes writing about the film by Howard Hughes and Alan Jones, together with some reflections on Ryan Hansom�s thrilling all�italiana pastiche �Yellow�.
Overall
![]() Bibliography: Dixon, Wheeler Winston, 2010: A History of Horror. Rutgers University Press Koven, Mikel J, 2006: La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film. Maryland: Scarecrow Press Marlow-Mann, Alex, 2011: �Black Sabbath�. In: Bayman, Louis, 2011: Directory of World Cinema: Italy. Bristol: Intellect Books Met, Philippe, 2006: ��Knowing Too Much� About Hitchcock: The Genesis of the Italian Giallo�. In: Boyd, David & Palmer, R Barton (eds), 2006: After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality. University of Texas Press: 195-214 Moliterno, Gino, 2009: The A to Z of Italian Cinema. Maryland: Scarecrow Press Shipka, Danny, 2011: Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960-1980. London: McFarland ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
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