"Tenebre" *** (out of ****) I know it has been a while since I have written anything on here but there were a lot of personal factors at play which prevented me from writing on here. But, I won't get into that because I realize full well, no one cares. This blog is about movies not my personal life. So, lets get down to it.
To make up for lost time I'm going to review a group of films together. Two of them share a common thread the other is a Serbian classic.
Lately I have been watching a lot of films directed by the Italian filmmaker Dario Argento. Few seem to raise the interesting questions "Tenebre" (1982) does. It seems to be the most self-reflective film the director has made, which I have seen.
A crime novelist, Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) has come out with a new book. He travels to Rome, on a publicity tour, where the book has been on the best-seller's list for 12 weeks. But when he arrives there the police bring it to his attention that a woman has been murdered. The murderer stuffed pages of Peter's book, "Tenebre", into the victim's mouth, forcing the police to suspect the killing may have been motivated by the novel. The killing was done with the same type of weapon described in the book, an old-fashion shaving razor.
Argento makes the viewer suspect everyone as a suspect. First we have his agent, Buller (John Saxon), his secretary Anne (Daria Nicolodi, Argento's one time lover), with whom he has been having an affair with. His wife, Jane McKerrow (Veronica Lario), whom has flown to Rome unexpectedly, for unknown purposes. Perhaps it is a lesbian journalist, Tilde (Mirella D' Angelo) who finds Peter's work sexist. Or even head detective Germani (Giuliano Gemma) who says he is a big fan of Peter's and has read all of his books.
The film, which was supposedly inspired by true events, where Mr. Argento was stalked by a fan, who eventually threatened his life. "Tenebre" hits at the nature of art and its influence on society. Much of the criticism thrown at Peter for his violent novels is what some have said about Mr. Argento's films. Especially the sexist nature, since most of the victims in Argento's films are usually women.
Some people have often wondered what makes someone come up with such violent stories. For years people thought Alfred Hitchcock must have been evil. But, those you knew him well, say he actually had a good sense of humor and a sharp wit. What about Argento though? What does it say about his mind when you see the death scenes in his movies?
Readers unaware should known Dario Argento has a reputation of being one of the most gruesome filmmakers not only in his native Italy but in the world. He has an almost fetish with blood. His camera lingers on it like a wild animal going after its prey.
"Tenebre" was made after Argento released two of his best known films "Suspiria" (1977) and "Inferno" (1980), both have been reviewed on here already. And is a return to his well known giallo genre. The other two films were more supernatural horror films. Giallo, for those unfamiliar with the term is actually Italian for yellow. It is used to described cheap paperbacks which centered on crime fiction mixed with horror and mystery.
The film has some of the most bloody death scenes I have seen in an Argento film. Except maybe for one death scene at the end of his masterpiece "Deep Red" (1975). But that is what you have to expect walking into an Argento film.
"Tenebre" comes to some interesting conclusions about the artist and what inspires them. The answers are not what you may expect and lead one to wonder what is Argento saying about himself? The film is often considered among Argento's best and I would agree, coming after "Deep Red", "Suspiria" and "Inferno". I feel this is Argento's "Vertigo" in the sense that, that particular Hitchcock film is often thought to be the most telling about his personality. "Tenebre" is the most telling about Argento. Among Argento's films however it seems the most closely related to one of his later works "The Stendhal Syndrome" (1996), which I have also already reviewed on here.
The film managed to get released throughout much of Europe without any problems but in America was heavily edited as it was seen as too violent. The film was chopped down and released two years later as "The Unsane". It opened to horrible reviews and was immediately dismissed. Now that the film has been put on DVD in its original form it has caused some critics to re-evaluate the film and give it higher praise.
I also like to mention the actor in the film, Anthony Franciosa, may be the best actor Argento worked with. He is perhaps the most accomplished person to perform in an Argento film. Oddly enough Argento said he was also the most difficult. I don't know how many of today's movie fans will recognize him but he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in "A Hatful of Rain" (1957). Also in 1957 he appeared in "A Face in the Crowd" and "Wild is the Wind". He takes his performance very serious here. Maybe a little too serious or maybe he had the right approach. Perhaps otherwise it would have turned into camp.
"SCARLET DIVA" * 1\2 (out of ****)
And so we go from one Argento to another. "Scarlet Diva" (2000) was the feature film debut of Asia Argento. She is of course Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi's daughter. Back in 2000 Ms. Argento was emerging as one of the big names in underground film circles. She has a perceived reputation as a wild party girl headed down the wrong path.
By the time "Scarlet Diva" was released Ms. Argento had already appeared in several of her father's work. And according to Ms. Argento much of what we see in this film was auto-biographical. She claims the film saved her life. And that is a big theme in the film; redemption.
But "Scarlet Diva" just comes off as too pretentious. I had no interest in the story or in Asia Argento's character, Anna Battista, a wild actress who hooks up with a rock musician, Kirk Vaines (Jean Shepard) and ends up becoming pregnant, but he is on tour and is unaware of these events.
Much of what is in "Scarlet Diva" reminds me of Tony Gatlif's "Transylvania" (2006) which also stars Asia Argento. The story lines are almost identical except Gatlif's film involved gypsies. But both stories are about a pregnant woman searching for their lover, who may or may not love her back. "Transylvania", while not a great film (I did review it on here) does offer some insight into human relations. "Scarlet Diva" lacks the passion and life of that movie or any good movie.
If "Scarlet Diva" is known for anything it is probably because it is rumored that some of the film's sex scenes are real. But that is not the best reason to watch a movie. Ms. Argento may be considered a talented actress but she is not a born writer/director.
SKUPLJACI PERJA *** (out of ****)
"Skupljaci Perja" (1967) is considered to be one of the all time great films to come out of Serbia. Back in 1996 a Serbian film board declared it the second best film made between 1946-1996. It was even nominated for an Oscar in the foreign language category and was nominated for a palme d' or at the Cannes Film Festival. And put the director, Aleksandar Petrovic, on the map as a new international talent. He would eventually have four films nominated for the palme d' or.
The film was released in American under the title "I Even Met Happy Gypsies" which is not a direct translation. I know for a fact the word "gypsy" is nowhere in the original title. Serbians and Hungarians have the same word for "gypsy" we say "cigany". A Croatian friend of mine told me the title means "expensive sand". That doesn't make sense to me unless my friend was mistaken and meant "expensive feathers".
The film follows Bora (Bekim Fehmiu) a gypsy who is some sort of feather merchant. His profession is not made very clear. Regardless, he has grown tired of his wife, (Etelka Filipovski) and has fallen in love with a younger woman, Tisa (Gordana Jovanovic) another gypsy. Tisa is still a teenager however.
I have seen a few films which deal with gypsies; "Black Cat, White Cat" (1998) and "Crazy Stranger" (1998) among them. "I Even Met Happy Gypsies" doesn't help bring us into the gypsy community. We have no real understanding of who these people are. Or to narrow my criticism, we have no real sense of who these particular characters are. The film had possibilities given its story line. It sounds close to what some consider a classic comedy, "Divorce Italian Style" (1961). But doesn't take all of the dramatic and comedic possibilities.
Still there are things to admire about Mr. Petrovic's film. It does have some humor and sentimentality. The ending is quite moving and I enjoyed the music. The songs are song by the Lence (Olivera Katarina) character. Why Bora doesn't go after her is a mystery to me. I don't know if she is Serbian or a gypsy or both but it doesn't matter. As Woody Allen once said at the sight of a pretty woman, "I'd sell my mother to the Arabs for her".
The film takes place in the town of Vojvodina. It is an interesting community. Serbs, Romanians, Slovaks and Hungarians all live there. I don't know if this is still true or not but at one time the mayor of the town was actually a Hungarian, Jozsef Kasza. Sadly, because of the bad blood between Serbs and Hungarians, many death threats were made against him. As some of the Serbians in the community demanded all the Hungarians leave.
A film which would show this community in a realistic light would be quite interesting. If only to see how all these different ethnic groups interact. Historically, blending different groups together hasn't quite worked out. Just ask people of the former Yugoslavia or the old Czechoslovakia. And speaking of Czechoslovakia, Jiri Menzel's "Closely Watched Trains" (1967) is what beat this film for the Oscar that year.
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