"Wow, that was really a mess!", accuratley proclamed my friend Kristen when we finished watching The Grim Reaper, the first film from the famed Italian Bertolucci. It kind of says something when the movie's title has almost nothing to do with the rest film, and ends with quote apparently selected at random.
The plot is pretty pedestrian, despite the fact it was written Pier Paolo Passolini. A Roman prostitute was murdered and we a set of four flashbacks, each recounting what a suspect was doing at the time of the crime. Some are much more interestign than the others (The Goddard-segement involving a group of teenagers attempting to impress some young females was my favorite). But even the best segment is only passable, there is nothing really out of the ordinary in any of them. When the real killer is revelaed, nobody cared.
Where the movie really shines is in some really magnificent photography. This is one of the best photographed movies of the 60's. Apparently influenced by the French New Wave, the cinematography is absolutley gorgeous. The music is very strong as well, although Bertolucci uses the same guitar piece over and over again.
As a narrative film, The Grim Reaper is total failure, but as a cinematic experince, it's pretty decent. It is impressive that Bertolucci had such a strong visual style at such a young age (Bertolucci was only 21 when he directed it), but he clearly hadn't yet learned to integrate the visuals with the narrative into a holistic experince. As such, the film is all style and no substance. Sometimes that can be great and become trancendant (Coppola's The Cotton Club) but not here. Hey, at least Bertolucci had plenty of time to improve.