Marlowe Blog

aka Perversion Story aka One On Top of the Other

Marlowe — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:13:01 GMT

This one is an enjoyable giallo from future gore legend Lucio Fulci. It is very light on the violence and surprisingly heavy on the sexy business. The version now available on DVD under the title Perversion Story is apparently the French edit which (surprise surprise) played up the sex angle.

It makes great use of its San Francisco locations (foreigners shoot America better than Americans IMHO) and is very much a time capsule of the late 60s (psychedelic tinged jazz pop soundtrack, Blow Up inspired photo shoots, swinging night clubs, etc.).

The plot is typical, convulted giallo Maguffin and seems to be Fulci's take on Vertigo's doppleganger angle (fitting considering the SF locale). The DVD presentation looks fantastic especially considering the films obscurity although there are a couple of instances where the original distributors imposed edits seem quite obvious and jarring. It hits all the sweet spots for the Euro Cult fan; it has beautiful lithe Euro starlets in various states of undress, a pop-art sensibility, the hypocritical indictment of the bourgeoisie while still reveling in their decadence, and a groovy score. It also features a clunky, talky denouement but what are you gonna do?

It is not a great film by any means but fans of Euro Cult, giallo and Fulci in particular should get a kick out of it.

A Terrific Tale Needlessly Twisted

Marlowe — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:45:00 GMT

SPOILERS

This film had two strikes against it for me as a viewer. 1) I am officially bored to tears with "shocking" "Shalamanesque" endings where the narrative we have been following for a good 90 minutes turns out to be a fabrication from an 'unreliable' narrarator/filmmaker. 2) I had just watched the 1972 film The Other the day prior which has essentially the same plot twist.

The switcheroo of an ending... SPOILER

The one sister, Su-yeon, is dead and the surviving sister, Su-mi, was not only imagining 1)that her sister was still alive but 2)she, Su-mi, was also acting as the "wicked stepmother" in these staged (and often violent) dramas as some form of catharsis.

...did not elicit the appropriate response from me and did not seem as logical as say the switcheroo ending to Shalaman's Sixth Sense or Fincher's Fight Club. It seemed to me this tact was taken mainly to shoehorn in some shocking scenes of violence and eerie supernatural moments.

Now, having said that, I really liked this film whcih is unusual for me because a shoddy twist like that is usually a deal breaker. However, what saves this film is that the film doesn't end with the twist. The actual ending to this movie, the final scene, is legitimately haunting and I don't mean that in the "spooky" sense. It turns out it is a heartbreaking story being told in this film, one of deep regret and loss, and the trio of women who head the cast are superb. They really sell it, especially the two sisters Su-mi (Im Su-Jeong) and Su-yeon (Mun Geun-yeong). The humanity that they bring to their performances along with some rich, atmospheric cinematography and memorable music truly elevate what could have been another staid genre excerise into something much more.

Death Laid an Egg

Marlowe — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:29:00 GMT

Super strange 60's pseudo giallo. Did you read the plot description? It is actually more of a Godardian black comedy on the bourgeoisie than it is a thriller. It has got a neat experimental, late 60's Euro pop-art flavor with its epilepitcal editing, absurd dialogue and characters, and a jarring score. The film is constructed like a puzzle and you go from one seemingly surreal scene to the next. You are never truly allowed to get your footing, even at the end when all becomes clear, you may be left scratching your head and chuckling at the audacity of writer/director Questi for concocting such a bizarre little story. Or you might just be ticked off.

Not for everyone, not even for all giallo/Euro-cult fans but if you are in the mood for something dark and unique from the world of 60s Euro cinema you should try to track it down.

So-so

Marlowe — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:15:00 GMT

This one was kind of a let down. Much of the film is appropriately grim and vile. The murder and rape scene is disturbing and horrific. And while Craven does a commendable job of racheting up the tension, the shifts in tone(wacky, bumbling cops?!) do not work at all and undermine the movie as whole. It really takes you out of the film, making it all too easy to remind yourself that "it's only a movie."

Still, David Hess turns in a career making performance as one of the screen's most heinous psychopaths and the creepy folk music that he contributed to help score the film is pretty brilliant.

The film which is a variation on Bergman's Virgin Spring, has been ripped off a dozen times. In fact, this story was told much more successfully, IMO, in the Italian film Night Train Murders.