Week 5 [16.05-22.05.2016] - Giallo means yellow

Giallo is an Italian movie genre which reached its peak in the 60s and 70s. But lately it's been gaining more fans around the world, and more people are inspired by its spectacular nature.

The name giallo means yellow and comes from the yellow book covers of the Italian pulp series, which included cheap thrillers, crime stories or bloody science fiction. One of its founders was an Italian experienced cinematographer and a novice director Mario Bava.

In 1960 he directed one of his first movies “Black Sunday”, which became a very big title in the US, because of the scenes of violence which were rarely seen in the local film market.  Then it was a class B movie, now it’s an iconic piece of Italian cinema. As a director he was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's movies, gothic horror, and fantasy. Once interviewed he said that a man and his fear interests him the most , and that’s what he tried to capture in his works.

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Besides Mario Bava most and best known is Dario Argento, the director of Suspiria, Profondo Rosso and many more iconic movies.

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The characteristic elements of giallo cinema are paranormal happenings, brutal and violent crimes, lots of gore and fear. Nevertheless,  this ugly reality is always wrapped in beautiful cinematography, full of eroticism and tension, stunning sophisticated set design and a mysterious plot. The directors were fascinated by serial killers, satanic organizations, witchcraft and paganism, which stimulated the viewer's curiosity and lured the spectator deeper into the story.

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Once Dario Argento said : “ Films are dreams. Many, many critics say to me that my films are not good because they are too unbelievable, but this is my style. I tell stories like they are dreams. This is my imagination.”

And because of that violence is only background in giallo cinema; those movies are not just horrors, they show a lot of emotions and real passion for art. The characters are often confronted with their dark side, so it’s not as simple as it seems to be in so called horror movies. As I mentioned earlier, the creators of the genre had different interests, and it lead to the extraction of three main giallo subgenres: an Occult horror film, a psychological thriller and an erotic crime story.

http://horrorfanzine.com/movie-review-black-belly-of-the-tarantula-1971/

So if Dario Argento with his pagan, witchcraft inclinations is the occult horror representative, Lucio Fulci, the director of a very rare motion picture called “One on top of the other”, would be the master of the erotic crime giallo. This unusual film  was edited in three versions : French, Italian and American, and each of those is slightly different.

Of course there are a lot of giallo movies which are not so easily categorized . I encourage you to explore the topic by yourself, because those movies can be really addictive and fun if you agree with the director's concept.

One of the fun facts is that a majority of giallo movies were recorded in the native language of the actors but later they were dubbed for the local versions. It’s one of the characteristic features of giallo. As we are speaking of sound in Italian giallo, one of the most recognizable things are fabulous movie soundtracks, which have become iconic in some way. For example,  in Dario Argento’s works  music was composed by a progressive rock band Goblin, and in the “Black belly of the tarantula” the person responsible for the soundtrack was the famous Ennio Morricone.

 This genre is often an inspiration for the contemporary horror creators like Tim Burton, whose personal idol is Dario Argento (You can see that in “Edward Scissorhands” or “The nightmare before Christmas”). And it also has inspired and evolved into a new genre - slasher, which developed particularly in the United States--“Friday the 13th”, “ The Texas chainsaw massacre” or “Halloween”. Mixing  genres Quentin Tarantino uses giallo in his creations. You can experience his giallo mashups in “Reservoir Dogs” and in “Kill Bill”.

There’s now a new wave of this genre, maybe you heard  of a movie called “Amer”-- it’s basically a contemporary giallo.

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My presentation is only a brief description of all the aspects of the Italian giallo cinema, but I hope you enjoyed it, and you’ll watch any of the mentioned movies.

Questions:

1: Have you seen any of giallo films? How did you like them?

2. Do you enjoy watching scary or gore movies?

3. Who is your favorite director?  Why?