I love Lenzi's gialli offerings, or at least the one's I have experiences! I still need to see KNIFE OF ICE and A QUIET PLACE TO KILL. SPASMO and EYEBALL are some of my more favorite gialli viewings. Two very stylish yet, odd in nature but still very effective in the payoff!
It's been a long time since I first seen his SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969), was that not just recently issued on DVD again??
I absolutely loved Freda's brilliant I VAMPRI! Now, what was the deal with Bava being uncredited for with this again? I know he had something to do with the overall direction, but what's the full story on that again?
Any opinions about this more recent giallo? I've heard some bad things but when I found it dirt cheap on eBay, I couldn't resist the temptation of picking it up. Figured I need to give some of the more recent horrer/thriller stuff a chance too. Still waiting for it to arrive and I'm not quite sure what to expect of it but at least it has a pretty good cast that includes famous transsexual Eva Robins from TENEBRAE (1982) and the good-looking Elisabetta Rocchietti, who has been cropping up in a lot of horror stuff like THE THREE FACES OF TERROR (2004), DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? (2005) and THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WOODS (2006). Not to mention supporting roles by Florinda Bolkan and Franco Nero! Anyone here seen it?
Interesting looking film out of Italy with Irish/Spanish co-financiers. Directed by Italian SFX man Stefano Bessoni.
In the 1600s, long before the invention of photography, a scientist named Girolamo Fumagalli was obsessed with the idea of reproducing images. He discovered that by killing a victim and removing the victim's eyeballs, it was possible to reproduce on paper the last image imprinted on that person's retinas. He named this technique 'thanatography'. Today, the same kind of gruesome ritual and abominable crime recurs within the walls of an international school of cinema. -imdb.com
Also stars the daughter of Charlie Chapman, Geraldine Chaplin as well as her daughter Oona.
Well, it seems this is yet another Argento flick that is taking a beating in the review department. Even die hard fans are not too pleased with this outing. Anyhow, the PAL R2 DVD is now out via a Polish company that found it important to force the Polish subs!
Looks like this will be getting a UK release first via Arrow Films! I still haven't seen this, it was on my radar during last year's Midnight Madness during the Toronto Film Fest. The disc will be released March 15th..
I'd love to grab this, but for now I'm holding off on the Blu-Ray player for now, too unstable industry right now. Plus, the multi-region player are way too expensive!
(Italy, 1969) Beatrice Cenci [a.k.a. Liens d’amour et de sang / Conspiracy of Torture] Review by: Kit Nygaard-Gavin Written by: Roberto Gianviti, Lucio Fulci Directed by: Lucio Fulci Cast: Tomas Milian, Adrienne La Russa, Georges Wilson, Mavi, A
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(Italy, 1969) Beatrice Cenci [a.k.a. Liens d’amour et de sang / Conspiracy of Torture] Review by: Kit Nygaard-Gavin Written by: Roberto Gianviti, Lucio Fulci Directed by: Lucio Fulci Cast: Tomas Milian, Adrienne La Russa, Georges Wilson, Mavi, Antonio Casagrande, Pedro Sanchez [Ignazio Spalla], Max Steffan Zacharias, Raymond Pellegrin, John Janos Bartha, Giancarlo Badessi, Ernesto Colli and Stefano Oppidisano. Source: Néo Publishing (France, PAL Region 2, 99 min 29 sec)
Set in the 16th century, the youthful and beautiful Beatrice Cenci (La Russa) plots to murder her cruel sadistic father (Wilson) with the aid of her manservant (Milian), whom she seduces, together with her mother (Mavie), her brother and a Catalan bandit. The family plot to stab him with spikes and then to throw him from a balcony to make it look like an accident. However, following his murder, the motives are shown and events are recounted leading to the murder of Francesco Cenci, together with the capture and punishment of those responsible for the crime.
The two leads, played by Tomas Milian and Adrienne La Russa, both deliver solid, excellent performances. Cuban born Tomas Milian went on to appear in Fulci’s giallo DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING, and the Western THE FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE in which he played an evil sadistic role at complete loggerheads to the sympathetic pitiable portrayal of Olimpio he plays here. Milian was and is one of the enduring stars of Italian cinema, in particular for fans of the 1970’s and 1980’s cop thrillers he appeared in. He later started to appear in American films (such as AMISTAD, and Oliver Stone’s JFK amongst others) and on network TV such as in the cult TV series OZ. In addition to the genre movies he made, during his career, Milian has also worked with high brow directors such as the late Antonioni and Visconti. Milian delivers a sincere, heartfelt performance showing his true versatility as an actor. In addition, he looks the part. He does not look nor seem out of place here. The suffering which Olimpio goes through to demonstrate his foolish love for Beatrice endeavoring to exonerate her of the crime with which she was involved in truly credible. The scenes of torture and suffering he is forced to endure will make anyone wince, not just for their realism alone but for the desperation of his plight, keeping to his promise to his beautiful young mistress.
Adrienne La Russa, a native New Yorker of Sicilian heritage, also delivers a fine performance as the eponymous heroine. Initially La Russa had come to Rome to screen test for CANDY, but was eventually turned down in favor of Swedish starlet Ewa Aulin. Ultimately, even though CANDY starred a cast of numerous name actors, Beatrice Cenci is considerably more intelligent, and more demanding. Throughout the film, the 25 year old actress looks wistful, scheming, beautiful, seductive and vulnerable and at times emotions can be conveyed just through the slightest expression in her eyes. It is her gently featured face which helps her vulnerability to be met with sympathy from the audience. There are moments when, there is heightened sense of realism, a slight smirk of satisfaction just discernable when she believes she may have evaded punishment for her crime, or her trembling lower lip in fear. It is this combination of her restrained performance and Fulci’s direction that make her character tangible and real. In addition, the wide eyed actress is without doubt one of Fulci’s most beautiful and tragic heroines. In addition, despite her scheming nature, sympathy and empathy can only be felt for Beatrice, her mother and her brother for the plotting and murder of the despotic patriarch, despite their guilt in the committing a blatant act of cold blooded murder. After this title role, La Russa’s star was in the ascendant, yet it seems she did not pursue a career in Italy and went back to America. La Russa went on to appear in a “blink and you’ll almost miss it” role in Nicolas Roeg’s THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH and various TV shows such as THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Nowadays, the still beautiful La Russa lives and works in California as a realtor, and although she doesn’t remember a great deal about her role in the film, a copy of the Italian locandina hangs in her office.
The third lead is the French theater actor Georges Wilson (later to turn up in a small role in Fulci’s other favorite film DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING), delivers a sinister, horrifying role as the head of the Cenci household. His behavior towards the subjects of his fiefdom is as abhorrent as that towards his own family members. The only tears that are shed when he is murdered are those of his long suffering wife (played with credibility by Mavi) though it is unclear whether her tears are for the death of her husband or the possible consequences to follow. In fact, there isn’t a single bad performance in the film, even the supporting players provide strong solid support to the lead players, such as the quirky supporting role by Ignazio Spalla, and the three decadent Excellencies who end up leading the family to their final fate.
The artwork for the cover of the DVD is simple and understated, with reproductions of the French poster and the Italian locandina on the inside sleeve housing the DVD. There is a brief synopsis on the back which doesn’t give away the storyline. The menus vary between being static and showing brief excerpts from the film, and are nicely presented. The DVD is broken down into chapters, and the chapters are named together with scenes from the film, rather than just shots from the film which sadly seems commonplace for releases nowadays.
Actor Georges Wilson is still resident in Paris, and is still very active on French television and in theater, despite being nearly 90 years of age. It is with regret that he doesn’t appear in the extras (if indeed he remembers anything about the film), and there are no interviews with La Russa (who remembers very little) or with Milian. Nonetheless the extras provide two interviews which are interesting and lively and it is good to see and hear the late Fulci talking about his career. The first, an audio interview plays over scenes from the film and other titles in the Néo catalog of his releases, and is taken from Fulci’s interview made for the book Spaghetti Nightmares. The other interview has Fulci on camera, shot in the United States, with him speaking at length about his film career and aspects of his life. Both of the interviews are an interesting insight into the director, both interviews are in Italian, but French subtitles are provided, translating the interviews accurately.
In addition to the two interviews with Fulci, filmographies are provided (taken from the IMDb) for Tomas Milian, Adrienne La Russa, Georges Wilson and Lucio Fulci. As usual they are only as accurate as the IMDb is, but for completion, it is interesting to have them there, even if their presence is largely redundant to anyone who has access to the Internet.
The film seems to change in appearance after the opening titles, with a change in appearance and a slight change in quality and the film is framed at 1:85:1 according to the box. The print is clean and clear and seems to be uncut, and taken from the original elements and from an Italian source print (the credits are in Italian). There is no discernable, if any damage, and the picture quality is impressive, and the film looks fantastic, given that it is nearly 40 years old. Colors are bold and vivid without being garish and there doesn’t seem to be any artifacting or pixilation. I was very pleased with the presentation of the film, on a par with the earlier release of Fulci’s SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, released by Néo Publishing a few years ago.
Sound options are limited to French language (being a French release) and Italian with (removable) French subtitles. I only noticed one mistranslation of the Italian into French whilst watching the film. Though I am more fluent in French these days, I watched the film in its original Italian and found that the sound was clean and clear, without any obvious audio hiss. Voices are defined and the music, when there is music as the film has less than most of Fulci’s subsequent films, especially the gialli and the horror films, is rounded. Some will be disappointed by the lack of an English audio track, it should be born in mind that this is a French release, but for those who understand Italian and / or French, it will not matter so much.
For many years this film has been almost impossible to find and to see since it’s initial theatrical runs, with copies of the UK video cassette (censored and over 25 years old ), exchanging hands on Ebay for large sums of money. The only other releases have been in Italy (again a rare video cassette) and a practically impossible to find release in Greece. In recent times, there has been a release in Germany on a budget DVD label (under the lurid (theatrical) title of <> [trans. The Naked and the Cardinal] ) in a heavily cut, slightly green tinted, German language only print. Whilst researching this film, I discovered that it has recently been re-released again in Germany, by New Entertainment in three languages, including an English language version (!) and apparently fully uncut (and released with three different covers!). However German “uncut” prints are known to vary in quality and at times they cull their uncut materials from various sources such as very old video cassettes for completeness, so until I see a copy it will not be possible to report on this (more recent) release. From reviews I have read online, the picture quality is somewhat inferior to that offered by the French disc.
Since the DVD format appeared, more and more people have come to appreciate Lucio Fulci as a director, be it for his gore films from the early 1980’s, or his gialli and westerns from the 70’s; however there were several films which eluded collectors. THE PSYCHIC and THE EROTICIST (Fulci’s foray into the sex comedy field in 1971) have just been released on DVD by Severin Films in the United States, there have been two releases of his superb giallo A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN (again in the United States) and now BEATRICE CENCI can be seen on the shiny format. Admittedly, I am not a fan of Fulci’s quadrology of zombie movies which many of his fans hold in high regard, my preferences tend to be for his gialli. However having seen BEATRICE CENCI at last, I would say that this film definitely falls within my three favorite Fulci films. According to Fabrizio Jovine, who collaborated with Fulci on a couple of films and was friends with him for a number of years, he kept a print of this film, and DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING, which apparently he used to show friends. He considered these two films to be finest moves and that everything else could be disregarded as trite and rubbish. Certainly both films are fine examples of Fulci’s work as a director. Fans tend to praise his movies from 1979 to 1982 as being his best period, when he was working with one of the best horror screenplay writers in Italy, Dardano Sacchetti, and he had the backing of a good solid crew (such as an excellent camera man, Sergio Salvati) and music scores full of atmosphere by composers such as Fabio Frizzi. However, for me, I believe his best films came in the period ten years previous and Fulci’s best co-writer was Roberto Gianviti. Indeed, I think his films from this time are more entertaining, with quality performances and interesting direction without the need to rely on specifically gory setpieces to elicit shock or excitement from audiences.
In 1969, there were a number of films that included the theme of torture as part of their storyline, the two most infamous being WITCHFINDER GENERAL, and the German/British MARK OF THE DEVIL (directed by Michael Armstrong and Adrian Hoven), which took scenes of gratuitous torture to new heights – or depth, depending on the sensibility of the viewer. BEATRICE CENCI is not without scenes of nastiness, the most obvious being the torture of the hapless Olimpio who is first stretched on a rack, then when the torturers dislocate his shoulders he is branded and burnt to make him confess, all to no avail, so deep is his love for his mistress. However the scene doesn’t in any way play for titillation, in fact none of the torture scenes do and there is a strong sense of condemnation being made by the director against the Catholic Church. The film was also made at a very difficult time in Fulci’s life, as his wife had recently committed suicide. Indeed the films most tragic and horrific scene, the execution of Beatrice, takes place off screen, yet the three last images of the film are so deeply moving, that of Beatrice praying before being led to her death, the cardinal praying for her soul and giving her divine absolution despite having (essentially) brought about her death in the (purported) name of justice, and her grave, lit by candlelight covered in flowers from those who believed her innocent.
This film has for too long sat in the shadows, unseen and unappreciated, and is a stunning film, extremely proficiently and well directed, with fine performances by all concerned and is worthy of a wider audience. Characters are realistic and strong and have feelings, and emotions which so often tend to be lacking in Fulci’s movies. The film, however, is extremely sad, tragic and bleak and should not be watched on a depressing rainy afternoon. Characters will be either reviled or pitied by the viewer; there is no lightheartedness and the film plays as a moral, powerful and somber period drama, shot in an unusual yet interesting way, with flashbacks, flash forwards, and an pervading sense of tragedy making it all the more moving. The film is stylish but understated. The performances throughout are solid but restrained. The screenplay is very well written without any lines being thrown up or derisive to the plot. Some might criticize the film for being very talky (for it is) and at times can seem quite stagy, but without doubt this is probably the finest film that Fulci ever made. There are early signs of some of the motifs which Fulci became known for, such as close ups on eyes, in addition to moments of cruelty and violence. There are some striking images as well, one of the most horrifying being towards the end of the film when the executioners axe is being cleaned of its fresh, very red blood in preparation for the execution of Beatrice. Exteriors are shot as well as interiors, some scenes only lit by candle light and the costume design and sense of authenticity is praiseworthy indeed. The film opens and closes with the scaffold for the family’s execution.
This film will surprise people who have followed Fulci’s films, or even just fans of his better known horror films and thrillers from the 1970s onwards. From a director who had made musicals and silly comedies with Franco and Ciccio to orchestrate a such a sober, somber film is quite a step, and to have achieved it in such an accomplished, stylized intelligent way is praiseworthy indeed. His talent shines through in a film such as this, and it is a tragedy that as Fulci’s career progressed, especially by the late 80s, budgets were so minimal, that his career deteriorated into bad films and shambolic messes such as THE GHOSTS OF SODOM and DOOR TO SILENCE. The theme had been covered before, by directors such as Riccardo Freda, and even as far back as 1910 in the early days of Italian film making, yet the film has not been remade since Fulci’s piece de resistance. In short, this film and this DVD comes highly recommended, a must see of a long, largely undiscovered film, and a must have for anyone into Fulci or Italian (genre) cinema.
BEATRICE CENCI (Édition Collector)
Set in the 16th century, the youthful and beautiful Beatrice Cenci (La Russa) plots to murder her cruel sadistic father (Wilson) with the aid of her manservant (Milian), whom she seduces, together with her mother (Mavie), her brother and a Catalan bandit. The family plot to stab him with spikes and then to throw him from a balcony to make it look like an accident. However, following his murder, the motives are shown and events are recounted leading to the murder of Francesco Cenci, together with the capture and punishment of those responsible for the crime. 
to have them there, even if their presence is largely redundant to anyone who has access to the Internet. 
Since the DVD format appeared, more and more people have come to appreciate Lucio Fulci as a director, be it for his gore films from the early 1980’s, or his gialli and westerns from the 70’s; however there were several films which eluded collectors. THE PSYCHIC and THE EROTICIST (Fulci’s foray into the sex comedy field in 1971) have just been released on DVD by Severin Films in the United States, there have been two releases of his superb giallo A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN (again in the United States) and now BEATRICE CENCI can be seen on the shiny format. Admittedly, I am not a fan of Fulci’s quadrology of zombie movies which many of his fans hold in high regard, my preferences tend to be for his gialli. However having seen BEATRICE CENCI at last, I would say that this film definitely falls within my three favorite Fulci films. According to Fabrizio Jovine, who collaborated with Fulci on a couple of films and was friends with him for a number of years, he kept a print of this film, and DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING, which apparently he used to show friends. He considered these two films to be finest moves and that everything else could be disregarded as trite and rubbish. Certainly both films are fine examples of Fulci’s work as a director. Fans tend to praise his movies from 1979 to 1982 as being his best period, when he was working with one of the best horror screenplay writers in Italy, Dardano Sacchetti, and he had the backing of a good solid crew (such as an excellent camera man, Sergio Salvati) and music scores full of atmosphere by composers such as Fabio Frizzi. However, for me, I believe his best films came in the period ten years previous and Fulci’s best co-writer was Roberto Gianviti. Indeed, I think his films from this time are more entertaining, with quality performances and interesting direction without the need to rely on specifically gory setpieces to elicit shock or excitement from audiences. 
and should not be watched on a depressing rainy afternoon. Characters will be either reviled or pitied by the viewer; there is no lightheartedness and the film plays as a moral, powerful and somber period drama, shot in an unusual yet interesting way, with flashbacks, flash forwards, and an pervading sense of tragedy making it all the more moving. The film is stylish but understated. The performances throughout are solid but restrained. The screenplay is very well written without any lines being thrown up or derisive to the plot. Some might criticize the film for being very talky (for it is) and at times can seem quite stagy, but without doubt this is probably the finest film that Fulci ever made. There are early signs of some of the motifs which Fulci became known for, such as close ups on eyes, in addition to moments of cruelty and violence. There are some striking images as well, one of the most horrifying being towards the end of the film when the executioners axe is being cleaned of its fresh, very red blood in preparation for the execution of Beatrice. Exteriors are shot as well as interiors, some scenes only lit by candle light and the costume design and sense of authenticity is praiseworthy indeed. The film opens and closes with the scaffold for the family’s execution. 
