In 1963 Mario Bava directed the very first italian Giallo film: "The Girl who Knew too Much". Even though the genre would evolve it's sexual and sadistic themes later the cornerstone of the murder mystery was present from the very start.
Italian murder mysteries (or "Giallo all'italiana") was a popular form of pulp fiction in italy for the earlier part of the 20th century. With "The Girl who knew too much" Mario Bava became the very first director to bring the genre to the big screen.
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Witch!!!
In 1964 Mario Bava revisited the genre and brought with him his flair for colors and sexuality.
The film "Blood and Black "Lace" was a modest success. Both the heightened aesthetic flamboyance and highly sexualized content would become staples of the genre as time moved on. As the 60's moved on the italians kept producing a trickling amount of "sexual thrillers" in the vein of Bava. Today we call these films "Giallo".
Another director, who was to direct maybe more giallos than any other, was Umberto Lenzi. He entered the genre in 1969 with the film "Orgasmo" (also known as: Paranoia).
In the year leading up to 1975, Umberto Lenzi would direct another 7 giallos.
The real breakthrough came in in 1970 when Dario Argento directed "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage". The film was an enormous hit both in italy and abroad. It catapulted Dario Argento to instant stardom as well as ushering in the so called second generation of "Giallo".
These new giallo were much more sadistic in their violence and often features a more urban setting - often being shot on location in Rome. Argento's drew influence from film noir and american detective stories in his reimagening of the giallo.
In the immediate aftermath of "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" more or less every director in italy working in the commercial industry tried their hand at crafting their own giallo.
Sergio Martino was a particulary prolific director who delivered 6 giallo between 1971 and 1976. His first film "The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" featured the actress Edwige Fenech who would become almost synonymous with the giallo genre.
Together with actor screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and actor George Hilto, Martin and Fenech would work together on several films in the future.
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Pleb.
Lucio Fulci, who would later become more famous directing horror films, was also pulled into the enormous success of the giallo genre.
In the early 1970's he directed two giallos. "The Lizard in a Woman's skin" which features elaborate and surrealistic dreams of lesbian sexuality and "Don't Torture a Duckling" which dealt with the clash of cultures between the urbanized italian cities and the remote rural areas where superstition and religion still played a large role.
The giallo genre was also the breeding ground of several other types of craftsmen. Both "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and 1971's "The Fifth Cord" were shot by Vittorio Storaro who would later go on to win several oscars.
In addition many of the giallo were scored by Ennio Morricone, perhaps one of the most prolific and talented film composers of all time.
By 1974 the popularity of the genre was starting to fade. Several later giallo combine elements of the giallo and the emerging polizioteschi genre.
The latter focused on much more realistic narratives and there was little to no mystery. If a killer was involved, there was usually no secret as to who it was. In addition the protagonists were often police, rather than amateur detectives as in the former.
One such latter day giallo is Massimo Dallamano "What have they done to your daughters?"
In 1975, at the tail end of the genre's popularity, Dario Argento released what would be regarded as his giallo masterpiece: Deep Red.
Stylish and epic in proportions and themes, Deep Red retread much of the ground Argento had already explored in his previous three giallo but took the fanciful approach even further - diverging from reality even further.
>In 1975, at the tail end of the genre's popularity, Dario Argento released what would be regarded as his giallo masterpiece: Deep Red
I thought this for the longest time, but revisiting it years later I can see just how wrong I was. It has some excellent elements, but almost all of the worst of a Giallo are there. It's overblown, melodramatic, silly at times.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Suspiria are the two in a different league to the rest of his filmography.
While popaulr Italian cinema of the era did a lot of things well, and made some very entertaining movies, most of them have the same issues. Melodramatic, cheap and often amateurish in a lot of ways.
There are plenty of films in a similar style to either Giallo, by products or successores (both stylistically and films by those prominent directors themselves) which are simply far superior.
Anyway, what is the purpose of this thread?
bumping kino thread
Apart from the polizioteschi, the giallo also laid the groundwork and evolved into a different kind of genre; The american slasher.
In 1971 Mario Bava released "The Bay of Blood", which featured an almost comically high and gory body count set near a lake. The influence on the Friday the 13th films are evident as many of the death scenes are copied in the second Friday the 13th film.
Sergio Martino's penultimate giallo "Torso" from 1973 is likewise a proto-slasher. In it a masked killer stalks and kills a group of young girls who are on vacation in a sleepy northern italian town. The final act of the film plays out almost entirely with the survivor girl being stalked by the masked killer.
Well-written rebuttal, though I politely disagree and still find Deep Red entertaining.
As the second generation giallo came to an end (also known as the "giallo boom" or "classical giallo period") the genre itself almost died out.
However various neo-giallo have been produced from time to time in the tradition of almost exclusively the second generation of giallo. Dario Argento released what is perhaps the best known "Neo-giallo" in 1982 with the film "Tenebre" - which is highly regarded among most genre fans.
With Tenebre it's like Goblin purposely set out to make the funkiest soundtrack ever. It shouldn't work for a dark horror thriller, but it just does.
An ever popular italian genre was the gothic horror film. It preceeded the italian giallo film by a few years and it's popularity remained long into the 80's.
There were several attempts to blend these two genres during the giallo boom. One such example was Emilio P. Miraglia's "The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave" - which took experimenting with conventions to a new level.
Bay of Blood was such a let down, I'd watched Blood and Black Lace a few days before so it's probably my fault.
The more you know...
This is pretty fucking cool. Came here to shitpost and ended up learning about cinema. Thanks OP, do shit like this about other genres too. I'm going to find a copy of the bird with the crystal plumage
I hope you like it.
Most Italian films featured no synced audio and was produced for an international Market. So an english dub is just as valid as an italian dub.
Here is The theme music
The sexualized violence in giallos is always present. One of the more famous examples being Luciano Ercoli's "The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion", featuring Dagmar Lassander and with a score by Ennio Morricone.
Susan Scott, or Nieves Navarre which her real name was, starred in a supporting role. She married Ercoli and together they made two more giallo; "Death Walks on High Heels" and "Death Walks at Midnight".
Another director, who tended to make less bloody giallo and focus more on the mystery and police procedural aspect, was Ducio Tessari.
His first giallo, which is almost a full blown crime film with a mystery element tagged on to it, was the 1970 "Death Occured Last Night". His follow up however is arguably a better example of the giallo genre, "Bloodstained Butterfly".
His final outing "Puzzle" focuses on a man who wakes up with no memory of his past. All three films are interesting takes on the genre, as none of them are the clear cut cases of say the outtings of Sergio Martino, Aldo Lada or Luciano Ercoli.
let's be friends OP
I'd like to point out the Telephone vignette in Black Sabbath is actually the first color giallo.
Underrated Bava
...
Aldo Lada was director who made two, political, giallos. The first "The Short Night of the Glass Dolls" is set in cold war Prague. It deals with corruption and intrigue in the dark corners of power.
The second, arguably a more classical giallo, is "Who saw her die?" in which the protagonist, played by George Lazenby, suffers a personal tragedy when his daughter is murdered and he desperately tries to find out who did it.
Both films feature a score by Ennio Morricone.
The spanish also tried their hand at a few giallo, but these are rarely - if ever - considered to be of the same aesthetic quality as that of the italians.
However there are a few interesting ones out there, including "Night of the Scorpion" and "The Killer is One of Thirteen"
So I've seen plenty of gialli so far, but I was wondering what the best lesser-known ones that I'm missing are?
So far I've seen:
Blood and Black Lace
A Bay of Blood
Bird with the Crystal Plummage
4 Flies on Grey Velvet
The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh
All the Colors of the Dark
Your Vice is a Locked Room
Short Night of the Glass Dolls
Death Walks on High Heels
Lizard in a Woman's Skin
Don't Torture a Duckling
What Have You Done to Solange?
Torso
Tenebre
Deep Red
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids
I also intend to see eventually: New York Ripper, House of Laughing Windows, and Stagefright Aquarius.
Any notable omissions?
House of the laughing windows is one of the best imho
Also Sette note in Nero and al nostro every Argento movie (i recommend Non ho sonno)
Cat O'Nine Tails, one of the best
Who Saw her Die?, maybe has the best score
The Case of the Bloody Iris, really solid giallo
The Case of he Scorpions Tale, Bruno Nicolai's best score
The Bloodstained Butterfly
Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
The Fifth Cord, amazing cinematography
Spasmo
Less essential, but still good:
Death walks on High Heels
Death walks at Midnight
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
Seven deaths in the cat's eye
Short Night of the Glass Dolls
Puzzle
Death Occured Last Night
What Have they done to your daughters?
Knife of Ice
Eyeball
Bird is the best Hitchcock film not directed by Hitchcock
>inb4 DePalma
...maybe...can't argue against one of his films but I like Bird with Crystal plumage a lot
>modern day director tries to make a Retro Giallo movie
>it's pure Cinematic masturbation totally missing the point of what made originals so good
It's weird how Lenzi could do such nice gialli and then go to do some really hokey crap in the 80s. A lot of them are still pretty fun, but it really looked like he didn't give a shit anymore, and wouldn't even bother with second takes of anything.
>Melodramatic
I actually like this about Deep Red and many other of the most "out there" gialli, because they gave them a more dream-like (or nightmare-like if you will) quality to them. They both give them a somewhat surrealist and expressionist vibe to them, that makes it more about inner "reality" rather than exterior.
I know that from an objecitve approach to criticism (or at least as objective as art criticism can be), all those elements can be pointed out as flaws, but in my own watching experience, those are the things that I enjoy about them, and what sets them apart of any other approach to the thriller/suspense genre.
Bay of Blood is great, and the soundtrack certainly does help out a lot.
I wish there were still people as talented as Bava doing cheap genre b-films out there. It was great when they used the bad rap of those genres in their favor, so they didn't have to give a shit about making some relevant statements in their work to appease the critics, nor having to please a general audience.
This is also true of Sergio Martino.
Agreed. The best gialli are the flamboyant and surrealistic ones. Bird is great, but so is Forbidden Photos.
Tenebre is the Argento movie that grew up more on me from watching it on proper tranfers, after the VHS era. It's now probably my third favorite, when before that was just pretty fucking low in the list.
Dat gratuitous tracking shot.
>This is also true of Sergio Martino.
Yes, although I'd say you can see a bit more of an effort put on those cheap 80s movies he made. Martino is more of a solid filmmaker when it comes to deliver entertaiment (if not quality), while you never know with Lenzi. He has done some wonderful trash like Nightmare City and some completely irredeemable garbage like Black Demons.
>black demons
True, but nothing of italian make really preserved its charm post 1987ish.
>post 1987ish.
I think you're forgetting about that little director that could called CLAUDIO FRAGASSO!
Sometimes hard to say exactly what classifies as giallo, but some lesser known ones worth seeing that at least vaguely fall under that umbrella:
2 masks for Alexa (strong Saw elements)
Top Sensation (Fenech + Neri on a boat, sometimes with a goat)
No, The Case Is Happily Resolved
Le Orme
Shadows in an Empty Room
good essay on Sergio Martino and how he was able to make films from all the fad genres and be consistently good
academia.edu
Bumping 'cause I don't want this quality thread to die.
aside from couple of "tribute" films giallo genre is dead. it was a different time and now it's over.
I don't think anybody on this thread would disagree with that. I can't see how that relates with my wish to keep the discussion going.
>still no Batman giallo with Goblin soundtrack