Ohhhhh "Black Belly of the Tarantula"--you are yet another giallo that has left me with conflicted feelings and a vague sense of disappointment. Why must this happen over and over again as I search for kinky gold in a barrel of things that are not kinky gold? This Italo-thriller offering, directed by "Mondo Cane" creator Paolo Cavara, is a vexing bit of cinema for me. Let's get this out of the way right up front: there is no denying that it is a thoughtfully-structured, elegantly-lensed, and competently-acted thriller. The murderer's modus operandi is sufficiently blood-chilling, and there's some very fine female anatomy on display. Additional genre points are earned through the casting of three Bond Girls (to wit: Barbara Bouchet, Claudine Auger, and Barbara Bach), and the male lead is played by the actually-very-talented genre vet Giancarlo Giannini.
Police Inspector Tellini (Giannini) is investigating the savage murder of Maria Zani (Bouchet), an adulterous socialite whose fiery relationship with her husband pegs him as a prime suspect. When a second woman turns up killed in an identical fashion to Mrs. Zani, Tellini realizes that something larger and more sinister is afoot. A story of intrigue, blackmail and madness begins to develop that ultimately leads to the unmasking of the killer. The manner of the killings is truly creepy--the murderer (rubber-gloved here instead of black-leather-gloved; genre ingenuity at its finest, folks!) stabs his victim with a poisoned dart and once she is paralyzed, he disembowels and mutilates the still-living woman. In a word: YIKES. Probably for the best, this movie holds back on the graphic grue, emphasizing instead the psychological terror of the murderer's stalking spree. The murder scenes are among the better-crafted giallo killings I've seen, and one setpiece in which a woman working in a dressmaker's shop, surrounded by mannequins, is particularly spooky. There are some clever shots framed by windows, frosted glass, and in one case the glassed-in side of a building that add a great visual texture to the movie.
All this sounds pretty interesting. Sooo... what's my problem?
One of the things I enjoy the most about the giallo form is the emphasis on dark, damaged characters. Something that distinguishes this type of thriller is its relentlessly downbeat view of humanity. In the world of the giallo, all cops can be bought, all husbands will betray their wives, and all women are subject to severe sexual hangups. It's more than the film noir griminess that's familiar to American audiences--there's something twisted about each character in a giallo, and these folks seem to be motivated entirely by their ids. Where a film noir plot might involve an avaricious wife caught staging the elaborate murder of her husband, a giallo murderess would be compelled to kill as a result of the trauma inflicted on her by her wicked mother--and this murderess might possibly turn out to be a man. THAT'S the kind of universe we're dealing with here, people.
Since a significant portion of "Black Belly of the Tarantula" is spent with Tellini and his girlfriend Laura (Auger), who seem to be pretty nice people with a pretty nice relationship, it means the distinguishing aspect of the form is missing. SURE, the killer is a perverse madman, and YES, the victims each harbor a socially deviant secret, but relatively little screen time is dedicated to developing those folks. It's testament to the success of the pervy stuff in this film that whenever scenes are focused on the plot's antagonists, the movie comes alive. I'd have liked to see the blackmailer characters further developed, and the scenes inside a spa catering to wealthy women just brim with weirdness--it's a shame that more time wasn't devoted to these elements. There's simply too much screen time devoted to Tellini's police procedures and domestic life and during these scenes, the movie simply drags.
For Italo-thriller completists, there are certainly worse movies out there than "The Black Belly of the Tarantula," and I wouldn't warn against seeing the film. If nothing else, it's an interesting example of how diminishing a giallo's perversity diminishes its effectiveness.
9 comments:
It's my opinion that diminishing the perversity in ANYTHING likewise diminishes its effectiveness--giallo, mad science flicks, grocery shopping, bake sales...
I'm not the giallo fan that you are, Kate, though I do always enjoy the grooviness and normally stunning female flesh they offer, not to mention the ubiquitous bottles of J&B. Now that I think of it in light of your noir/giallo comparison, though, I realize that the pervier the flick is, the better it works for me. Thanks for giving me an intellectual framework on which to hang that gut (?) reaction!
And my comment verification word, I shit you not: "login." The guys at Blogger are just getting lazy, now.
Kate, may I suggest that you check out the giallos of Sergio Martino - The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Case of the Scorpion's Tail, All the Colors of Dark, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, and Torso. All of them positively revel in sleaze and perversity (and, in Torso's case, a fair amount of just-plain mean-spiritedness), and are as well-made and stylish as any in the genre. Three of them star Edwige Fenech, to boot!
Also highly recommended on these terms is Giuliano Carnimeo's The Case of the Bloody Iris (featuring the splattery demises of groovy-era fashion models) and Lucio Fulchi's Don't Torture a Duckling (female-on-male pedophillia, among its pervy transgressions), though if your track record has been so spotty maybe you just don't care for the genre as much as you would like to in theory?
I hear ya, baby, Giannini's Inspector Tellini is so slow, he needs about an hour just to walk through an empty hallway, he must be on lots of valium, if he's homicide in Italy, no wonder all the killers want to go there to do their stuff.
If not for the Morricone score and Bond girls, this would be unbearable! (read my own review on acidemic, if you're heart can stand itzzzzzz)
PS - would the Joey Heatherton-Richard Burton BLUEBEARD count as a giallo?
Vicar, I'm GREAT at justifying my transgressions--lemme know if you need me to intellectualize any of your other guilty pleasures! I'm giggling at the "perverse bake sale"--I think I might've seen one of those during Pride in Philly one year (it involved the "Salon Kitty" bread penis, methinks).
Good recommendations, all, Matt! There are some titles on my to-watch there, for certain. I think you're probably on to something regarding the *potential* of the giallo as opposed to the *reality* of the majority of the films. There are JUST ENOUGH of them that I've REALLY dug that I keep on going back! I've already reviewed a few of the titles you've listed (the "giallo" tag link will take you to a full listing of films in that subgenre that I've spoken about). I love Martino's "Torso," and have warmed significantly towards "Mrs. Wardh" since watching it some time ago, even though it still saddens me that Edwige and Ivan's characters don't wind up living kinkily ever after. "Duckling" is quite good too (LOVE that final scene), though "Lizard in a Woman's Skin" is my fave Fulci thriller--I used to think of him as a rather schlocky director, but boy was *I* wrong. The man had a great deal of filmmaking skill!
Erich, after reading some true-life accounts of Italian policework, I'd PRAY that Tellini, with all his hooded-eyed lack of affect, was working on any case I was involved in. At very least, he didn't jump to THE most ludicrous conclusion right out of the gate--a point in his favor fer sher! I'll check out your review ASAP--I had to watch this movie twice for it to make an impact. Some truly fine potential, but alas it just fell flat, like bread that fails to rise. Or some sort of more poetic metaphor...
And now I need to track down this new-to-me BLUEBEARD movie. The to-watch pile is ever-expanding, sir.
Sorry to hear about your disappointment with this one, duder. I love Black Belly of the Tarantula. While not in my top ten gialli, it is still pretty close to my heart. This one is a little too low key in places and there are some underdeveloped characters but Black Belly definitely improves with multiple viewings. I think this one is all that (with Rosella Falk being the bag of chips).
Hope you're not giving up on the genre just yet. Farkas has some good recommendations there. Check out The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, The House With The Laughing Windows, or Death Walks At Midnight if you haven't seen them already.
I think, for me, the big draw to giallos is I know that unless the director is *really* awful I only have to sit through "Detective Explains Who The Killer Couldn't Be Which Means That's Who The Killer Probably Is...OR IS IT?" and "Boring Couple Talk About Their Boring Relationship" scenes for so long before it's back to the action, and they're often well shot enough that I can at least drift on the boring scenes, unlike other movies where that kinda stuff stops me dead cold. The Black Belly of the Tarantula (which, if nothing else, *great* title) is definitely a tease of a film, and the boring parts are particularly boring, but there's enough going on that I can hang in there. I'm pretty easily satisfied, tho -- I don't care if a movie makes sense, and I don't even care if it doesn't really deliver on the thriller aspect, so long as there's plenty of eye candy, elaborate setpieces and an echoplexed-to-heaven score. I mean, I'm a Renato Polselli fan, which pretty much says it all.
Not that you need any more dvd suggestions, and not really a giallo, but I gotta say I just saw the Mondo Macabro release of Alain Robbe-Grillet's Gradiva and it totally delivers. I definitely need to hunt up a copy of L'eden et apres now...
I'm a little late to this party, but I must admit I liked Black Belly a whole lot more than the rest of you. I've always been a big Giancarlo fan (maybe it has something to do with seeing Swept Away..., Seven Beauties and the rest of his collaborations with Wertmuller back in my formative early teen years). In addition, I really love seeing Bouchet (who still looks beautiful -- met her at a convention a few years back and was wowed), Bach and Auger in practically anything (heck, I even sat through Caveman with Barbara and her husband, some guy named Ringo). Finally, the late sixties/early seventies Italy just does it for me, so maybe I'm just not as critical as the rest of you. Give me an offbeat title, cool Morricone or Niccolai score, nudity, weird murders/setpieces and Edwige/Barbara/Christine, and I'm there.
I've Netflixed a lot of giallos the last 2-3 years, but can't really recommend many--too many gorgeous Eurobabes, mysterious killers and bloody killings to try to keep straight in my head. Seven Women for Satan, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times and Don't Torture a Duckling stick out (even though "Duckling"'s rural setting takes it a bit out of usual giallo territory--I see "urban paranoia as a big part of the giallo experience. Ditto The House With The Laughing Windows).
There was one that had so many reveals and reversals at the end, it really did surprise me. Wish I could remember which it was.
Richard, indeed I am not surrendering yet! Several of the movies I've seen have brought me no small measure of joy, and I'm sure there are more out there that I'll dig. "Red Queen" is near the top of my list--I recall the box set with figurine that came out a few years back. That's an attention-grabber right there! Now why couldn't they have given a similar treatment to "Flesh Gordon...?"
DB, you're spot on about the visual delights of these movies. The interesting cinematography, the groovy fashions, and the settings can hold enough of my interest to redeem the 90 minutes or so I invest in watching the movie. It's not all bad, to be sure! That "Gradiva" release caught my eye--glad to know it lives up to its potential! VERY much looking forward to checking it out.
Fred, I'll be there as well--I just wish I *loved* more of these movies. I feel like I'm not adequately expressing my admiration for the *style* of the form. I do suspect that I like the CONCEPT of the form better than the giallo-actual, but there's been enough treasure amidst the so-so stuff to keep me coming back.
MDG--"House with the Laughing Windows" has one of the more WTF-ery filled endings of the gialli I've seen. Add in a whole heap of bonus points for the gorgeous and fairly unique-to-the-genre Tuscan setting and you've got my hearty approval! I'll need to re-watch that again. It's come up enough in these comments to make me think I need to do that SOONER rather than later.
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