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Black Belly of the Tarantula AKA La Tarantola dal ventre nero (1971)
R0 - Italy - Ripley's Home Video Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (1st January 2006). |
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The Film
 Italian director Paolo Cavara is not exactly a name that right away connects him to certain films or genres for me, but I guess he’s best known for his collaborations with Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, when these three did a few “Mondo”-films together like “Mondo cane (1962)” and “Women of the World AKA La Donna nel mondo (1963)”. He has done a few “giallos” also, and two of these were released in Italy last year on DVD (both are English friendly); “Plot of Fear AKA ...e tanta paura (1976)” from “Raro Video”, and “Black Belly of the Tarantula AKA La Tarantola dal ventre nero (1971)” from “Ripley's Home Video”. “Black Belly of the Tarantula” is a stylistic giallo, which starts with a very beautiful and sensual montage, when Maria Zani (Barbara Bouchet) (she played “Moneypenny” in “Casino Royale (1967)”) is having a nude body massage in a beauty parlor. After this, her day is getting only worse, when her husband finds out that she is having affair, and they have a heated argument. This is only the beginning, since Maria is brutally killed by a ruthless individual, who first paralyzes her with a needle, and then stabs her to death with a knife (while Maria still being conscious). Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) starts working on the case, and to his horror the murder of Maria won´t be the last similar case from the same killer. Tellini digs deeper, and finds clues of sex, drugs and blackmailing, when at the same time new bodies start to pile up. Maria´s jealous and bitter husband stirs the case, when he´s going on a manhunt by himself, trying to get even with the killer. Both the storytelling and visual imagery makes this film a kind of “intelligent giallo”, which really keeps the viewer in the palm of its hand. Sure, you have a killer with gloves, hat and long overcoat - moving in the shadows and stalking victims with the knife; you have victims that are mostly beautiful women; and you have an Inspector in the heels of the killer – all pretty ordinary elements of Italian giallos, but director Cavara´s style is quite subtle, creating the suspense and revealing the story whilst taking his time. Cavara makes his audience think and puzzle, he don´t rush with cheaper tricks and violence that would go overboard. At the same time it´s true that the murder scenes are gruesome, but they also let the imagination of the viewer do the final push to make them truly effective. Actor Giancarlo Giannini (who´s a film veteran, and among his CV are American films like “Man on Fire (2004)”, “Hannibal (2001)”, and Anzio (1968)”) does a fine job with his role, when he plays in some ways a tired detective, who tries to understand his wife Anna (Stefania Sandrelli), when she´s planning all kinds of trivial things at home. This contrast of warm home and the cruel world outside makes Inspector Tellini to question his work; Does he really want to do it? Charismatic Giannini has the look and all the qualities to make his character believable and basically he´s the only real lead character of the film. The director and actors also receive good support by the cinematographer and art director, who sometimes create even a bit psychedelic settings and images. Colours are vivid, paintings on the walls are eye-catching, and one of my favourite scenes in the film is the chase sequence, which happens in the stairs and roofs in a great looking location in the heart of the city - which were just ordinary architecture back then, but now looks almost like taken from Godard´s “Alphaville (1965)” or similar, since the camera angles and editing are so lively. Score by Ennio Morricone is strong, but it´s sometimes too “restless” for my taste, even when I can´t deny its quality (I also listened to the score in my car before I saw the actual film). Of course I have to point out, that the film includes several beautiful actresses (or “Eurobabes” as a few people have put it), and I know that Euro cult-fans out there will definitely appreciate this side from the film also. An interesting fact is that there are two other “Bond-girl” in the film besides Barbara Bouchet; Barbara Bach (who plays Jenny in the film early in her career) and Claudine Auger, who plays Laura).
Video
This DVD is another winner by Italian “Ripley's Home Video” (RHV). Transfer is Anamorphic 1.85:1, and although the IMDB list the OAR as 2.35:1, the Italian DVD has the correct aspect ratio (there are some notes also about this in the booklet). The image is very slightly windowboxed, and looks great in most parts. Black levels are solid, colours are quite strong, and there are basically no film artifacts (only in e.g. the opening credits). This release is also using a dual-layer disc in almost the maximum way, which keeps the bitrate high throughout the film (all companies: take note). If you really start digging, there are some very minor line shimmering and edge enhancement, and some scenes looked somewhat soft (this probably was the case in the original source also), but this is so far clearly the best option to see the film (forget the Spanish DVD and bootleg sourced from that outright). The film runs 93:52 minutes (PAL), and it has 20 chapters. Disc is “R0”.
Audio
The disc has two Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono -tracks and no subtitles at all. This forced at least me to watch the film in English, and the track is a pretty good effort. There is no major “hiss” and the audio is in most parts clear, but there are a few “crackles” here and there in the track (nothing major). The Italian track is inferior, having more hiss in the background, more muffled dialogue and sometimes the overall sound goes crack and is distorted (just listen e.g. the end music and compare the tracks). Both tracks have some instances where the music is in a louder level than the dialogue, but this is something that happens actually quite often with these older Mono-tracks.
Extras
First there´s a US theatrical trailer, which runs 1:50 minutes and is Anamorphic. The biggest extra on the disc is an interview -featurette with Lorenzo Danon, who´s the son of the producer/co-writer Marcello Danon, which runs 15:19 minutes. Unfortunately the interview is in Italian only (and no subtitles), which is too bad, since Lorenzo seems to have plenty to say about his father and his films (with a few photos here and there). Photo gallery runs 2:27 minutes, and includes stills, lobby cards, press books, and great looking posters. Keep case has also a 16-page booklet, which includes film credits, liner notes by Silvia Moras, biography by Pietro Cavara, as well as some other notes and also photos. All looks very professional, but is in Italian only.
Overall
Another quality giallo, which can be placed among those several other “quality giallos”, that originated from Italy. To many people this is actually one of their favourite giallos, so make sure not to miss it, since now you can see it like it should be from the quality Italian DVD. This DVD is available at Xploited Cinema.
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