This site has an excellent look at some alternative posters for Berberian Sound Studio. I much prefer these posters to the current 'alternate' used in some U.S. advertising, in fact, I'd buy a copy of the teal eye based one in a heart beat (third form the top.).
That particular poster by U.K. graphic designer Julian House has my inner design geek drooling like nothing else lately. I do quite like the original US Poster (with the Fulci-like incomplete head overwhelmed by analog tape), but House's poster evokes the importance of the sound elements, what Berberian specializes in (bloody horror film) and the quintessential giallo symbol, the eye.
If the film only followed House's sense of design in a slightly more linear style with a much better ending, I would be singing it's praises even more.
House's teal design reminds me what great graphic design can do: completely evoke the specific material, but in a way that pleases mind and eye. It's quite clever. I can understand why this awesome poster was not used (outside of the opening credits there's no blood in the film and even the "blood" in the opening credits is more paint-like.) Still, it is cool as hell.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Berberian Sound Studio spoiler theory
SPOILERS
As far as if Gilderoy was actually at BSS or not, I am beginning to think...
He never was.
1) His timid and eventually angry relationship with both sexes, especially when both sexes are horny or violent. He is very repressed and controlled by his nature-loving mum whom we only know through her letters.
2) The increasingly whacked letters from his mother, culminating in the replacement voice actress for the female lead reading his mums' disturbing last letter in which the film he thinks he is supervising sound for overwhelms his emotions.
3) The giallo-like stalking at his bedroom door...
4) the very end...fade into the light, Gilderoy's subconscious awakening and his exiting his garden studio shed where he records all of the sound for nature shows and children's programs.
As far as if Gilderoy was actually at BSS or not, I am beginning to think...
He never was.
1) His timid and eventually angry relationship with both sexes, especially when both sexes are horny or violent. He is very repressed and controlled by his nature-loving mum whom we only know through her letters.
2) The increasingly whacked letters from his mother, culminating in the replacement voice actress for the female lead reading his mums' disturbing last letter in which the film he thinks he is supervising sound for overwhelms his emotions.
3) The giallo-like stalking at his bedroom door...
4) the very end...fade into the light, Gilderoy's subconscious awakening and his exiting his garden studio shed where he records all of the sound for nature shows and children's programs.
Berberian Sound Studio - Liked it
I just rented Berberian Sound Studio. I liked it, particularly when scenes of the supernatural Argentoesque giallo manifest. I could appreciate it from the culture shock angle too; as I misunderstood communications and such when in contact with a wonderful Italian film family.
Toby Jones plays the nebbishy Gilderoy quite nicely, but it is the of Italian filmmakers around him that get my applause as well as watching the foley folks do their thing. An interesting arty moment comes into the third act when the primary color based charts of matching sounds to their scenes are flashed in almost a hallucinatory fashion. All of the colored arrows eventually point downward mirroring Gilderoy's uncertain experience. Also, the giallo-like sequences of his unravelling are fun.
Is he at Berberian Sound Studio supervising the sound production or not?
I can see where giallo and horror fans would find issue with this movie, but as someone who appreciates sound and color, I think Peter Strickland did a fine job there. If you can roll with a strange bit of uncertainty and culture clash and NOT seeing any of the horrors described, you might enjoy BSS too.
And looking in the credits, the wonderful actress performing the older resurrected witch is NOT Suzy Kendall, but Hungarian actress/poet Katalin Ladik. I THOUGHT I heard Kendall screaming ( which would line up with the supposed 'special guest screamer' credit.)
I am happy to see the giallo becoming a profound influence on young filmmakers. I'm looking forward to seeing The Editor and The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears.
Toby Jones plays the nebbishy Gilderoy quite nicely, but it is the of Italian filmmakers around him that get my applause as well as watching the foley folks do their thing. An interesting arty moment comes into the third act when the primary color based charts of matching sounds to their scenes are flashed in almost a hallucinatory fashion. All of the colored arrows eventually point downward mirroring Gilderoy's uncertain experience. Also, the giallo-like sequences of his unravelling are fun.
Is he at Berberian Sound Studio supervising the sound production or not?
I can see where giallo and horror fans would find issue with this movie, but as someone who appreciates sound and color, I think Peter Strickland did a fine job there. If you can roll with a strange bit of uncertainty and culture clash and NOT seeing any of the horrors described, you might enjoy BSS too.
And looking in the credits, the wonderful actress performing the older resurrected witch is NOT Suzy Kendall, but Hungarian actress/poet Katalin Ladik. I THOUGHT I heard Kendall screaming ( which would line up with the supposed 'special guest screamer' credit.)
I am happy to see the giallo becoming a profound influence on young filmmakers. I'm looking forward to seeing The Editor and The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Excellent reason why A Quiet Place in the Country is a gothic giallo
From Paracinema: written during their giallo marathon, a wonderful bit of writing on why A Quiet Place in the Country could be considered a giallo...
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Goblin!!!
Not a day goes by that I don't listen to some Goblin. Before I became well versed in Eurocult beyond Fulci, Leone and Cannibals, I had no idea who they were. I remember loving Romero's Dawn of the Dead's really awesome score and not having a clue who was behind it.
One track stuck in my head, as Peter, Fran, Scott and Flyboy land their helicopter on the Monroeville Mall roof, this crazy, discordant synth cue was forever stuck in my gray matter. When I realized Goblin were behind the soundtrack, I became a fan.
To me a great piece of a film music instantly flashes whatever scene it played behind. When I hear that cue, I see the quartet of survivors stunned and scared at the scene below and then I get their madness as they decide to hole up in the mall.
For years and years, this was my favorite Goblin track. A decade ago, thanks to dvd I got into Eurocult seriously and bought myself a multi-region player. High on my Castellari kick, I bought dvds from Europe and Japan including King Records La Via Della Droga.
It was there I discovered my all time favorite Goblin track, sequence 2 (starting at 2:12 here), the Hong Kong credits music from La Via Della Droga. I kid you not, I must have repeated that sequence at least 10x before I let the film continue (and hey, Fabio Testi topless is an equally nice incentive :D). The music evoked Oriental thoughts so clearly and conflicted with Testi's Narc so perfectly...
It was years before I could just watch La Via Della Droga without repeating that scene before moving forward. It kills me that the otherwise awesome Blue Underground release of La Via, has a serious sync lapse/skip in the soundtrack as the previously unseen earlier moments in Amsterdam flow into the Hong Kong moments.
More recently, I've begun to appreciate the short version of Deep Red and with it, a good deal of Goblin's score. While Suspiria seems to be a lot of people's favorite Goblin soundtrack (it is one of the best things about that film), it's not mine. Yep, La Via Della Droga is my favorite Goblin score. You get all kinds of neat things (the weird synthy stuff, a sense of place (like my beloved sequence 2), some great bass work, awesome rockin' tunes etc.
So grazie Goblin for making some of the most memorable, fun and insane soundtracks.
One track stuck in my head, as Peter, Fran, Scott and Flyboy land their helicopter on the Monroeville Mall roof, this crazy, discordant synth cue was forever stuck in my gray matter. When I realized Goblin were behind the soundtrack, I became a fan.
To me a great piece of a film music instantly flashes whatever scene it played behind. When I hear that cue, I see the quartet of survivors stunned and scared at the scene below and then I get their madness as they decide to hole up in the mall.
For years and years, this was my favorite Goblin track. A decade ago, thanks to dvd I got into Eurocult seriously and bought myself a multi-region player. High on my Castellari kick, I bought dvds from Europe and Japan including King Records La Via Della Droga.
It was there I discovered my all time favorite Goblin track, sequence 2 (starting at 2:12 here), the Hong Kong credits music from La Via Della Droga. I kid you not, I must have repeated that sequence at least 10x before I let the film continue (and hey, Fabio Testi topless is an equally nice incentive :D). The music evoked Oriental thoughts so clearly and conflicted with Testi's Narc so perfectly...
It was years before I could just watch La Via Della Droga without repeating that scene before moving forward. It kills me that the otherwise awesome Blue Underground release of La Via, has a serious sync lapse/skip in the soundtrack as the previously unseen earlier moments in Amsterdam flow into the Hong Kong moments.
More recently, I've begun to appreciate the short version of Deep Red and with it, a good deal of Goblin's score. While Suspiria seems to be a lot of people's favorite Goblin soundtrack (it is one of the best things about that film), it's not mine. Yep, La Via Della Droga is my favorite Goblin score. You get all kinds of neat things (the weird synthy stuff, a sense of place (like my beloved sequence 2), some great bass work, awesome rockin' tunes etc.
So grazie Goblin for making some of the most memorable, fun and insane soundtracks.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Superbitch Review
Superbitch (a.k.a. Si può essere più bastardi dell'ispettore Cliff?) is a lot of fun.
NNN = Stephanie Beacham is nude a lot
G = Typical Italian crime gore - lots of people getting shot
FFF3/4s = the most fun I've had with an Italian Crime film since Castellari
Massimo Dallamano will always be pretty ace in my book for the amazing giallo, What Have You Done to Solange? He's racked up another notch for his very entertaining corrupt cop film Superbitch.
Here Dallamano plays up the Dirty Harry/undercover narcotics cop Yojimbo storyline to the max. I never realized how much Ivan Rassimov made me think of Clint Eastwood until watching this film. Sure, the voice actor who gave his Inspector Cliff a proper American accent sounds almost identical to Eastwood, but the addition of the attractive Rassimov as a no-holes barred go-it-alone undercover Narc gives Dallamano's entertaining drug bust flick a playful tone.
Cliff inserts himself into Morell's London escort service as a "specialist" (read hired killer.) Morell has his team film wealthy clients doing some pretty wonky things in order to have them smuggle drugs out of Europe. Morell's top gal is Stephanie Beachum's almost constantly naked Joanne. Joanne and Cliff become something of an item as Cliff wrenches himself inside Morell, Marco and Mama The Turk's drug rings.
A bit about Mama the Turk - ridiculous mustache twirling is just the tip of the iceberg with this old drug smugglin' marm who keeps a band of counterculteresque rogues as her inner circle. These younger folks can be quite amusing if not as laughably bad as Mama The Turk. Only Cliff's counterpart, Gambol, can be taken seriously in the dubbing/acting and menacing departments.
At any rate, the pace is fast, fun and there's a lot of humor and charm to break up an otherwise serious film about undercover cops pitting one drug family against another. Everyone calls Cliff a Bastard (hence the original title: Who's a Bigger Bastard than Inspector Cliff?) The ending has a neat twist too.
Besides Rassimov's spot on performance, Riz Ortolani's catchy jazz score hits all the right notes. And Morrell's office complete with the wonky curved chair and quasi-psychedelic slides on the projection screen are pretty damn cool too. If I ever go back to a multi-region player, the Arrow version has a lot of juicy extras I wouldn't mind seeing (particularly the interview about the late, great Rassimov.)
If you can take your Yojimbo storylines with tongue-hanging-out-cheek baddies and a lot of early 70s style and humor, Superbitch deserves a look. It is one of the more entertaining and all around fun eurocult films I've seen in the last two years.
I definitely smell a double feature with Castellari's The Heroin Busters.
NNN = Stephanie Beacham is nude a lot
G = Typical Italian crime gore - lots of people getting shot
FFF3/4s = the most fun I've had with an Italian Crime film since Castellari
Massimo Dallamano will always be pretty ace in my book for the amazing giallo, What Have You Done to Solange? He's racked up another notch for his very entertaining corrupt cop film Superbitch.
Here Dallamano plays up the Dirty Harry/undercover narcotics cop Yojimbo storyline to the max. I never realized how much Ivan Rassimov made me think of Clint Eastwood until watching this film. Sure, the voice actor who gave his Inspector Cliff a proper American accent sounds almost identical to Eastwood, but the addition of the attractive Rassimov as a no-holes barred go-it-alone undercover Narc gives Dallamano's entertaining drug bust flick a playful tone.
Cliff inserts himself into Morell's London escort service as a "specialist" (read hired killer.) Morell has his team film wealthy clients doing some pretty wonky things in order to have them smuggle drugs out of Europe. Morell's top gal is Stephanie Beachum's almost constantly naked Joanne. Joanne and Cliff become something of an item as Cliff wrenches himself inside Morell, Marco and Mama The Turk's drug rings.
A bit about Mama the Turk - ridiculous mustache twirling is just the tip of the iceberg with this old drug smugglin' marm who keeps a band of counterculteresque rogues as her inner circle. These younger folks can be quite amusing if not as laughably bad as Mama The Turk. Only Cliff's counterpart, Gambol, can be taken seriously in the dubbing/acting and menacing departments.
At any rate, the pace is fast, fun and there's a lot of humor and charm to break up an otherwise serious film about undercover cops pitting one drug family against another. Everyone calls Cliff a Bastard (hence the original title: Who's a Bigger Bastard than Inspector Cliff?) The ending has a neat twist too. Besides Rassimov's spot on performance, Riz Ortolani's catchy jazz score hits all the right notes. And Morrell's office complete with the wonky curved chair and quasi-psychedelic slides on the projection screen are pretty damn cool too. If I ever go back to a multi-region player, the Arrow version has a lot of juicy extras I wouldn't mind seeing (particularly the interview about the late, great Rassimov.)
If you can take your Yojimbo storylines with tongue-hanging-out-cheek baddies and a lot of early 70s style and humor, Superbitch deserves a look. It is one of the more entertaining and all around fun eurocult films I've seen in the last two years.
I definitely smell a double feature with Castellari's The Heroin Busters.
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