Screen Obsessions

Sunday, August 23, 2020

The Fifth Cord, 1971, dir. Luigi Bazzoni

1971 Italian giallo from Luigi Bazzoni, with a score by Ennio Morricone, and starring Franco Nero, Ira von Fürstenberg, and Silvia Monti. The cinematography is by Vittorio Storaro, known for Apocalypse Now, The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, and the legendary flop Ishtar. Replete with black-gloved killers, bottles of J&B Scotch, red herrings, all in gorgeous 1971 Italian style, with plenty of Franco Nero's piercing blue eyes. It's one of my favorites in the genre.

Click the shots to enlarge. All captures from the Arrow BD.

****WARNING!! SPOILERS AND MAYBE OTHER THINGS YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE BELOW!!*****

note: I published this with Elio Petri's name in the URL, and I haven't been able to correct it.

A close-up of a vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder.

I'm a sucker for vintage audio gear in movies.

A fisheye lens shot of a party at a nightclub, with several people in formal wear dancing.

Credits in Italian reading "Giornata nera per l'ariete. Tratto da "The Fifth Cord" di D.M. Devine." In an art nouveau font in yellow against a dark background shot of the nightclub party seen in the previous shot.

font porn

Franco Nero against a magenta backlight, holding up an alcoholic beverage.

A shot looking down a dark curved pedestrian tunnel. A figure is approaching in silhouette against the bluish light from the other end of the tunnel.

Two men in trench coats and a nun in white on the large spiral staircase of a parking garage in medium shot.

Silvia Monti in a shot of a her character's very stylish home. 1970s modern Scandinavian style, with glass panels and a teak stairway.She's wearing a close-fitting black turtleneck top, flared denim trousers, with her red hair worn up.

A dark shadowy shot of a spiral wooden staircase with a woman in sleepwear laying on the stairs after a fall.

That staple of Italian giallo, a black leather glove found at a murder scene. It's laying on a sheet of kraft paper on a table at police headquarters. Close-up with the glove taking up most of the frame.

It's not a giallo without a black glove. I don't make the rules.

Franco Nero in a trench coat against a 1970s "state-of-the-art" security surveillance panel at police headquarters. There's lots of buttons and small red lights, with four small security camera monitors.

A starkly lit shot of a woman laying over the edge of a bed with her head and hair hanging down, and blood covering her neck and upper chest area.

A young man in a 1970s style white racing jacket with a red stripe down the sleeve. He's speaking on a bulky metallic green pay phone.

A close-up of Silvia Monti in a subdued moody golden light.

An evening shot: the silhouette of a man in scarf and hat walking between trees, with a blue-green body of water filling the background

A man and women in silhouette, facing each other, very close together. There is an ornate decorative screen behind in silhouette behind them.

Man with a small movie camera surreptitiously filming from behind a screen.

Exterior shot of an entrance to a modern looking building, with a small Italian car in the foreground. It is evening, with bluish light outside, and warm light coming from the entranceway.

Dark bluish shot of a woman looking through a partially open car window.

A tray of empty drink glasses and silverware, and a newspaper with oversized tortoise shell sunglasses sitting on top.

A small lamp table with a green glass ashtray and smoke rising from a cigarette. There is pale green rotary style phone and a pack of cigarettes on the table.

I also can't resist 1970s Italian phones…

In the bluish light of a darkened room, a rectangular 1960s style clock radio gives off a reddish light.

…or radios…

Pamela Tiffin in close-up wearing very large round green-rimmed sunglasses.

…or most of all, sunglasses.

Two men in silhouette stand on opposite sides of a shiny car, with large barred windows behind them reflected on the car roof.

Body of a woman on lays in partial shadow on a wooden spiral staircase.

In the blueish light of a dimly lit room, a rotary phone, a seated doll, and a reel-to-reel tape recorder sit on a table, with a floral pattern curtain behind them lit softly from behind.

Silvia Monti holding a phone handset in a payphone at night.

Almost entirely black shot, with the silhouette of a young boy standing in a partly opened doorway, casting a long shadow in the sliver of light from inside the house..

Ominous and threatening hands reach out from the gloom of a dark room.

A close-up of a rubber-gloved hand covered in blood that looks more like red paint.

Maurizio Bonuglia's disfigured face in close-up, lit by bright camera flash.

Close-up of Edmund Purdom's face, half in shadow, a cigarette in his mouth.

Closing shot of the film, the silhouette from below of two overpasses against the sky, converging in perspective to create a V-shape.

Friday, May 15, 2020

Lips of Blood (1975) Dir. Jean Rollin

Lips of Blood (Levres de Sang) is one of Jean Rollin's ostensible vampire films, but as with many of them, while it does contain vampires, it's really not a Vampire movie in any conventional sense. Rollin was hobbled by budget and production issues, but manages to make an evocative and atmospheric film within these constraints.

I've also featured Rollin's Grapes of Death (Les Raisins de la Mort) here, and The Iron Rose (La Rose de Fer) here

All captures from the Redemption Blu-Ray, part of their Jean Rollin series.

CLICK THE SHOTS TO EMBIGGEN!

****WARNING!! SPOILERS AND MAYBE OTHER THINGS YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE BELOW!!*****

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Scarlet Empress (1934) dir. Josef von Sternberg

Described by the director as "a relentless excursion into style", The Scarlet Empress contrasts Marlene Dietrich's beauty and glamour against an almost nightmarish grotesque visual aesthetic. It's one of the most visually striking films of the 1930s.

All captures from the Criterion Blu-Ray set Dietrich & Von Sternberg in Hollywood.

CLICK THE SHOTS TO EMBIGGEN!

****WARNING!! SPOILERS AND MAYBE OTHER THINGS YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE BELOW!!*****