Wonderful movie. Yes, his best after Otto e Mezzo
And this not so funny comedian Ingrassia has never been better: he’s simply hilarious as uncle Teo.
“Voglio una donna!”
And taking a leak gets an entirely new meaning thanks to this movie
Maestro Fellini! Unforgettable
LA DAMA ROSSA UCCIDE SETTE VOLTE (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times - 1972)
Most Gialli offer a mix of horror and whodunit (who is the black-gloved killer?), seasoned with a strong dose of eroticism. In that aspect, The Red Queen follows the rules - the story-line is a real puzzle, the women are blond and beautiful and show their boobs - but it’s nevertheless a rather unconventional genre entry, often closer in spirit to a Hammer movie than to the average Giallo.
The movie is set in central Europe, where - as we all know - evil dwells and the dead rise from their tombs. Kitty and Evelyn are twin sisters, but not the best of friends. One day, when having a fight, Kitty accidently kills Evelyn. With the help of her elder sister Franziska she covers up the incident (the body is hidden in the caves of the family castle) but years later a woman dressed in red starts killing Kitty’s relatives and friends. Kitty remembers that her late grandfather used to tell a story before the twins went to sleep, a story about a Red Queen who was killed by her sister, the Black Queen, but came back from the other side to take revenge …
We’re in Central Europe, but we’re also in a Giallo so there must be a natural explanation for the seemingly supernatural proceedings. The over-complicated plot is occasionally a bit hard to follow and the conclusion rather far-fetched, but the movie is shot on beautiful locations, in bright colors, and is certainly among the most stylish of its kind. The brief (and very sudden) flashbacks are very effective and halfway through there’s a protracted dream sequence - shot with right-angled mirrors - that is superb. And yes, there’s also enough blood & gore to please those who watch these movies for their sleaziness.
3+ out of 5
I still haven’t gotten around to dipping a toe into the murky waters of the giallo genre. I might try to gather half a dozen fairly prominent titles together, make a double-bill for a Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night.
Couple of nights ago: Life (Espinosa, 2017). Shameless Alien-a-like (well, a sort of Alien vs. Gravity, really), but a decent one. I’ve seen far worse Alien rip-offs, anyway.
I haven’t seen any examples of peplum or giallo. May I ask for a few recommendations from these filoni? So far I am looking at “The Colossus of Rhodes” for obvious reasons.
There’s an absolutely fantastic thread right here at the SWDB on the subject of giallos. It’s pretty long but it’s a terrific resource:
A decent mixture of Alien & Gravity. There’s not much depth in character development and some of the characters’ actions seem either stupid or don’t make much sense, but I found the creature scary enough and the transition from one seemingly harmless micro-organism to an ultimate super-aggressive survivor was quite smooth. Nice twist at the end, too.
Saw Life last night. A fine movie. Well put-together and I thought it mostly made sense. The ending I found was weak as it usually is in these kind of movies. A twist it may be, but one that was pretty much expected from miles away hence boring in my book.
re: Red queen: I’m glad you’ve liked it, it is one of the most amusing Gs in my opinion.
The way they filmed the ending I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go… was worried it would have been something like Gravity.
Surprised how good the film was though… much much better than Alien Covenant
Definitely! Just saw Alien Covenant some two weeks ago. It started well and then degenerated into cgi action hell. Actually my wife fell asleep in the cinema to that one 
Finally had a moment to watch Fellini’s (eight and a half).
Essentially this is a film about filmmaking.
A director ( Guido) struggles to complete a science fiction film. All the meanwhile his “mistress”, wife, and production/ film crew seem to get a on his very last nerves.
To combat such stress and turmoil, Guido daydreams into his past. I personally enjoyed a number of the flashback scenes (especially one where he confronts/ dances with the prostitute). After first viewing, I’d say the films about twenty minutes too long ( for my taste that is) other then that it’s quite entertaining, and I will be rewatching soon.
20th Century Women (2017, Mike Mills)
Could be described as a coming-of-age movie, but also as an ensemble movie or a nostalgic trip to memory lane. It’s set in the late Seventies, during the days of Punk, Women’s Lib and the Volkswagen Beetle.
A 15 year old boy (apparently the director’s alter ego) is raised by his single mum (Anette Bening), who thinks she can’t handle the job on her own. There’s a man about the house, a tenant who works as a handyman, but the boy and the guy don’t connect; mum therefore asks the help of two others, both women, another tenant, a photographer and a hardcore feminist and the girl next door, who sleeps with the boy, not to have sex with him, but to use him as a sounding board (!).
With a running-time of two hours, this pleasant, intimate movie overstays its welcome a little, but it’s nice to encounter a movie that is totally free of CGI, car chases and other noisy stuff. 20th Century Women is well-directed and flawlessly acted; it also looks great, with a nice recreation of the period, but in spite of all this, there seems to be something missing. Writer-director Mills obviously watched a lot of Mike Nichols and a lot of Woody Allen but he’s a better director than a writer and the drama works much better than the comedy (even though there’s at least one hilarious joke about female orgasms). 7/10
Drive (2011)
Really enjoyed this one. Almost the whole movie seemed to be in slow motion and had a cool dream like quality to it. Great soundtrack and cast too!
Yeah, I really like this one. Cracking synthwave soundtrack too.
Yes and I still have this one in my head too!
Logan (2017) 8/10
The Dictator’s Gun (1965) 7/10
Life (2017) 6.5/10
Wolf Guy (1975) 6/10
Split (2017) 5.5/10
Once Upon a Time in Venice (2017) 4/10
IN TIME (Andrew Niccol, 2011)
A dystopian movie, set in a society in which time is everything: people stop aging at the age of 25 but then the clock starts ticking: they’re programmed to die exactly one year later and a green digital clock on their arms is ticking away the days, minutes, seconds they will still be alive and ticking (sorry: kicking) unless they manage to get some extra time.
Some lucky ones get a lot of extra time and will virtually live forever, most others look death in the eye almost permanently, living from day to day, or even from moment to moment. Day-to-day man Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is lucky: when he saves the life of a suicidal person, the person dons him 116 years of his own time. But instead of relaxing, Will uses his extra time to revolt against the system.
Orwell or Huxley it ain’t, but as far as these second-hand dystopian things go, the movie isn’t too bad. It’s beautifully shot, in blue and gray tints, making those green digits on people’s arms look like luminous insects. Just don’t think about it too long and enjoy the action and the visuals. I’ve never been a fan of Timberlake’s music, but he seems to be a decent actor and Amanda Seyfried running around on high heels and in miniskirts doesn’t hurt the eye.
Been hankering after watching a few Elvis movies and, in that spirit, watched Viva Las Vegas (Sidney, 1964) tonight. Wonderfully light and daft movie (you’d almost certainly need to be a fan of The King and, even then, you mightn’t care too much for his cinematic output) but I think I’m going to hold off on watching any more for another six weeks or so when it’ll be the 40th anniversary of his death, so I’ll then be able to indulge myself in a bit of an Elvis marathon with a plausible excuse for doing so.
Right now, I can’t sleep so I’m watching the director’s commentary for A Scanner Darkly (Linklater, 2006).
One of the great films about filmmaking. When I’m working, ( and bored to death, or slow, I too find myself drifting off into previous memories, and sometimes make up situations I’d rather be in).
