AKA-ASCOLTA LA CANZONE DE VENTO
(2003/ITALY)
REVIEWED BY-STEVE GENIER DIRECTED BY-MATTEO PETRUCCI CAST-ALESSANDRO TIBERI, MONICA COMEGNA, EMILIANO COLTORTI, ANGELO MAGGI, and VALENTINA MARI. SOURCE-MANGPONG ENTERTAINMENT DVD (THAI/PAL REGION ALL)
Matteo and Valentina seem to have the normal relationship. They love each other as a regular couple should. The argue much like a regular couple would. There just seems to be one thing that doesn’t seem to fit, that being there are in fact brother and sister. After the death of their mother, the impact has taken it’s toll on their sense of normality. Then, their world of living in sin comes to a crashing crossroads when Stefano comes into their lives. After meeting them briefly after a mutual friend’s party, Stefano take a liking to Valentina. Matteo instantly lets Valentina know his dislike of Stefano, or it just jealousy? One thing is for sure, they are both totally oblivious to his deep dark secret, that of being a serial killer. Recently killing a girl and mutilating her in the process of deposing of her body. He is fresh on the scent of another victim during his and Valentina’s short dating period. Then as they set up a date to meet at a local café, Stefano witnesses Valentina and Matteo expressing an affection that only two lovers would display. This enrages him and he let’s Valentina how he feels and accuses her of living in sin. The serial killer’s instincts are set off as his fiery becomes directed at ending Valentina and Matteo’s incestuous relationship.
It isn’t too often these days that you get a young director in Italy who has brought us a movie of this nature. Treading on grounds laid out by legendary directors like Mario Bava and Dario Argento. There are only a handful of films out of Italy in the last little while that have been deeply dark in this manner. Films like Alex Infascelli’s 2000 film ALMOST BLUE where a relative newcomer tried to give life to a genre or series of sub-genres in Italian cinema that hasn’t been successful in quite sometime. Yet they all seems to follow in the same footsteps as the masters in trying to bring something new and fresh style wise to the screen. Though, there are less effective as the films of Bava and Argento first layed out years ago, they do add pieces to the puzzle. They also are outside the usual entity of film makers that are usually associated with this genre, people like the Argento's, the Bava's and all their relatives and group of friends. Still, even though these film makers have yet giving that much needed boost to the scene, they have still given us a piece of cinema that actually works and is half deceit. TWISTED is quite different, it’s approach for one, the storyline is broken into sets much like that of a stage play with each new set having it’s own title. Sadly, my Italian isn’t the best and those titles weren’t subtitled so I couldn’t give you their exact meaning. This could be a major factor too, given that their meaning could be much deeper then just a subject heading. Still, even though that escaped me, it didn’t hinder the film’s overall meaning and direction, both we quite loud and clear.
Director Matteo Petrucci has certainly started off on the right path and quite daring, in this his first feature film, he has displayed an incredible ability to showcase his talents. Both his vision and his ability to convey it are quite exceptional. From his strength in guiding his actors to give genuine performances to his ability to be quite creative with the transitions. Though most of the transitions are fade to blacks, there are several edits that warrant showcase. Especially in one particular seen where Stefano is about to mutilate a female’s body by chainsawing her to pieces in his bath tub. Now, at first this sounds like this is going to be a bloody affair, it’s not as Petrucci decides to take it in a more artful manner. Using the camera, getting it to pan back and forth from him at the bath tub to the washroom’s doorway. When the camera makes it’s way back to Stefano, passage of time has taken place as different stages of him deposing of the body. Giving us the illusion that there hasn’t been an edit. It was also pretty evident that Petrucci aimed this film at the younger viewers with his choice of music for the film. Pretty much a very catchy set of songs all by the same group, though the core of the film’s score is provided by the legendary Ennio Morricone and his son Andrea.
TWISTED simply came out of left field, I had not heard one thing about it even during it’s brief theatrical run in Italy back in 2004. There hasn’t been much discussed about this film at all, though there is plenty of discussion in Italian circles, nothing on this side of the Atlantic or in English for that fact. Which is certainly quite sad given the fact that yet another worthy genre film sees little or no exposure and dies in obscurity. In fact so obscure that the only DVD source I was able to find was the Thai release. I’m sure there is an official Italian release some where, but even then there probably wouldn’t be an English options attached. With this Thai release, there was. Though it is pretty much bare bones only holding the feature, that’s good enough for me, seeing it was the feature I really wanted to see. The DVD’s print is quite nice presented in 16x9 anamorphic wide screen picture with original Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. Of course there is also the option of Thai 5.1 as well, both have removable English or Thai subtitles. I must add in conclusion that though Matteo Petrucci has chosen to use certain subject matters that would offend some at first will find that he has used up most professionalism in it's display. For instance his use of incest between a sister and her brother, though of course it is wring in many eyes, it does happen. Thus warrant it being touched upon, though Petrucci never exploits this subject without giving it an artful direction. His stance is simply showing the effects of death of a close family member might have on others. Displaying their normality as our surrealism.
STORY/FILM-3.5 BITCH SLAPS PICTURE-4 BITCH SLAPS AUDIO-4 BITCH SLAPS EXTRAS-0 BITCH SLAPS OVERALL DVD-3 BITCH SLAPS
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