Edwige Fenech and Giallo Films
Although I’m a long-time film buff, there are still pockets of film history that are like new countries to me. And — given how much I love ending the day by watching a movie with Polly — thank heavens for that.
Lately, I’ve been enjoying catching up with “giallos” — low-budget Italian horror and slasher films from the ’60s and ’70s. Some of them are quite amazing — tacky and cheesy, you bet, but deliriously talented and stylish too. Great lighting, fashion, colors, compositions, murders, and camera moves, all achieved with minimal budgets and resources.
Big revelation: Brian De Palma was clearly bouncing off of giallos every bit as much as he was bouncing off of Hitchcock. That hand gripping a knife and wearing a black leather glove that shows up so often in De Palma’s suspense movies?? That’s out of giallo.
The legendary names in giallo are Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, and Mario Bava. I suppose I’m showing my lack of true giallo connoisseurship, but I’ve loved Andrea Biachi’s “Strip Nude for Your Killer,” and Sergio Martino’s “All the Colors of the Dark” better than any of the Argentos or Fulcis or Bavas that I’ve seen.
Inspired by “Rosemary’s Baby,” “All the Colors of the Dark” is a 1972 picture set in London. It’s clearly a take-off on Polanski, as an is-she-crazy-or-not, who-can-she-trust psychodrama/horror story. It’s schlocky and has its longueurs. But it’s also dazzling — high-pitched and quite beautiful. Bliss for film nerds. The giallos are films that may be to the official Geats of Film History what the Gold Medal novels of the American ’50s were to official Lit History.
A big part of the pleasure of watching these two films was the amazing Edwige Fenech. Edwige always seems to be chic and poised, and although she’s very much an objet she isn’t a dead one. She’s an objet that reacts, and looks good when in peril, and that has a good spirit.
Edwige may have been acting in low-budget, unrespectable movies, but she never just checks out, and she never appears to feel depressed by the work. (Or protective about her body, for that matter — she contributes a lot of gorgeous nudity.) She also has to be one of the most beautiful women in film history, with an icy-hot look that’s like half Monica Bellucci and half Diana Rigg.
- Cult Sirens is informative on Edwige.
- Here’s a list of some of Edwige’s movies that are available on Amazon.
- Wikipedia can tell you a lot about giallos.
Filed under: movies, performers, sex | Tagged: edwige fenech, giallo films, sex
