[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]
One of my favorite professors in college would start and end every class session with the same sage words of wisdom, “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” This quote, resonating loudly in the absence of video stores, in the disposal of physical media by major retailers, with the undeniable influence of social media on creative output and in the shadow of a global pandemic, paints an entirely new perspective on the future of film and the paths that will be taken based on the past already paved.
The narrative theme we will describe as “looking back” is not a new concept for storytelling. Whether searching history for stories about famous figures, critical moments, or rare circumstances, returning to the past is grounds for interesting stories.
Looking back at the footprints set by genre film; from Méliès to Wiene, from Murnau to Browning,...
One of my favorite professors in college would start and end every class session with the same sage words of wisdom, “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” This quote, resonating loudly in the absence of video stores, in the disposal of physical media by major retailers, with the undeniable influence of social media on creative output and in the shadow of a global pandemic, paints an entirely new perspective on the future of film and the paths that will be taken based on the past already paved.
The narrative theme we will describe as “looking back” is not a new concept for storytelling. Whether searching history for stories about famous figures, critical moments, or rare circumstances, returning to the past is grounds for interesting stories.
Looking back at the footprints set by genre film; from Méliès to Wiene, from Murnau to Browning,...
- 10/29/2020
- by Monte Yazzie
- DailyDead
We all, on some level, regret aging because we fear dying, but there’s something especially poignant about watching artists who celebrated vitality grapple with their mortality. It’s one thing to watch Bergman or Woody Allen settle into their later years, having seen them grapple with those subjects their entire careers. It’s quite another when an artist who once seemed to defy death’s grip can no longer avoid it.
Conversation Piece was Luchino Visconti’s penultimate film, released a little more than a year before his death. He was only 67, and had already suffered a stroke. Remarkable in its formal construction, you can nevertheless feel his regrets, his fears, his very life coming to the fore through his protagonist, a retired professor played by Burt Lancaster. So solitary is his existence that he isn’t even given a name. He’s content in his Italian apartment, taking...
Conversation Piece was Luchino Visconti’s penultimate film, released a little more than a year before his death. He was only 67, and had already suffered a stroke. Remarkable in its formal construction, you can nevertheless feel his regrets, his fears, his very life coming to the fore through his protagonist, a retired professor played by Burt Lancaster. So solitary is his existence that he isn’t even given a name. He’s content in his Italian apartment, taking...
- 7/30/2017
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
While the future of home entertainment may be rapidly moving towards a digital streaming-led future, we can't be the only movie nerds who still love owning a physical copy of something. Sure, BluRay and DVD might be scratchable, easily lost and adorned by terrible box art, but there's something about the feeling of finding an undiscovered gem in the depths of a store, or getting a rarity in the post, that doesn't quite compare to clicking and watching something on Netflix.
As such, starting with this column, every month we're going to pick out five BluRays or DVDs new to the market that no self-respecting cinephile's shelves could do without. Some are shiny new versions of stone-cold classics, some are obscurities, some might even be brand new releases (although less often: those are covered pretty well elsewhere). Read on for more.
"Chinatown" (1974)
Why You Should Care: Simply put, it's one...
As such, starting with this column, every month we're going to pick out five BluRays or DVDs new to the market that no self-respecting cinephile's shelves could do without. Some are shiny new versions of stone-cold classics, some are obscurities, some might even be brand new releases (although less often: those are covered pretty well elsewhere). Read on for more.
"Chinatown" (1974)
Why You Should Care: Simply put, it's one...
- 4/4/2012
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
Blu-ray Release Date: April 10, 2011
Price: Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Raro Video
Burt Lancaster stars in Luchino Visconti's 1974 drama Conversation Piece.
Italian DVD label Raro Video releases the 1974 drama Conversation Piece, Luchino Visconti’s (Senso) penultimate film, one month after issuing the film on DVD in early March, 2012.
Entitled Gruppo di famiglia in un interno in its native Italian, the movie examines the solitary life of a retired American professor (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success) who lives alone in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa Silvana Mangano, Dune) and her companions – her lover (Helmut Berger, The Romantic Englishwoman), her daughter (Claudia Marsani, The Hired Gun), and jer daughter’s boyfriend (Stefano Patrizi, Lion of the Desert) – he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his home. Before long, the introverted professor’s routine is turned upside down and...
Price: Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Raro Video
Burt Lancaster stars in Luchino Visconti's 1974 drama Conversation Piece.
Italian DVD label Raro Video releases the 1974 drama Conversation Piece, Luchino Visconti’s (Senso) penultimate film, one month after issuing the film on DVD in early March, 2012.
Entitled Gruppo di famiglia in un interno in its native Italian, the movie examines the solitary life of a retired American professor (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success) who lives alone in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa Silvana Mangano, Dune) and her companions – her lover (Helmut Berger, The Romantic Englishwoman), her daughter (Claudia Marsani, The Hired Gun), and jer daughter’s boyfriend (Stefano Patrizi, Lion of the Desert) – he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his home. Before long, the introverted professor’s routine is turned upside down and...
- 3/23/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Titles don't get much more to the point than Young Violent Dangerous, and it's about two thirds accurate to boot. The protagonists are relatively young, and the things that they do are violent, but anything at all dangerous is buried underneath a sludge of hyper-real dramatics and hopelessly dated soundtrack cues. Any modern entertainment value that the film has will probably derive from that, but it never sharpens its teeth enough to get any real bite.
Mario (Stefano Patrizi), Giovanni (Benjamin Lev), and Luigi (Max Delys) wave guns around and rob gas stations for the only reason they could really understand: it's fun, they look good enough doing it, and it might get them girls, even if one of their girls, Lea (Eleonora Giorgi), is ready to hand them over to the cops for their own good. They are a perfect embodiment of everything the elderly always feared about the youthful,...
Mario (Stefano Patrizi), Giovanni (Benjamin Lev), and Luigi (Max Delys) wave guns around and rob gas stations for the only reason they could really understand: it's fun, they look good enough doing it, and it might get them girls, even if one of their girls, Lea (Eleonora Giorgi), is ready to hand them over to the cops for their own good. They are a perfect embodiment of everything the elderly always feared about the youthful,...
- 3/15/2012
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
Directed by: Riccardo Freda
Written by: Antonio Cesare Corti, Riccardo Freda, Simon Mizrahi, Fabio Piccioni
Cast: Stefano Patrizi, Martine Brochard, Henri Garcin, Laura Gemser, Anita Strindberg, John Richardson, Silvia Dionisio
While shooting a violent murder scene on a horror movie set, actor Michael (Stefano Patrizi) nearly chokes his co-star Beryl (Black Emanuelle Laura Gemser) to death in an uncontrollable rage.
Fortunately for Michael, it's his last scene before taking a break to visit his estranged mother, Glenda (genre vet Anita Strindberg), for a long weekend. The troubled thespian brings along his girlfriend, Deborah (Silvia Dionisio), to the old family mansion, a place he hasn't seen in years. They are greeted by creepy butler Oliver (John Richardson), who divulges to Michael that his mother is very ill but doesn't want him to know.
Once the pair have been shown to their separate rooms, Michael is reunited with sickly Glenda, who seems...
Written by: Antonio Cesare Corti, Riccardo Freda, Simon Mizrahi, Fabio Piccioni
Cast: Stefano Patrizi, Martine Brochard, Henri Garcin, Laura Gemser, Anita Strindberg, John Richardson, Silvia Dionisio
While shooting a violent murder scene on a horror movie set, actor Michael (Stefano Patrizi) nearly chokes his co-star Beryl (Black Emanuelle Laura Gemser) to death in an uncontrollable rage.
Fortunately for Michael, it's his last scene before taking a break to visit his estranged mother, Glenda (genre vet Anita Strindberg), for a long weekend. The troubled thespian brings along his girlfriend, Deborah (Silvia Dionisio), to the old family mansion, a place he hasn't seen in years. They are greeted by creepy butler Oliver (John Richardson), who divulges to Michael that his mother is very ill but doesn't want him to know.
Once the pair have been shown to their separate rooms, Michael is reunited with sickly Glenda, who seems...
- 2/4/2012
- by Bradley Harding
- Planet Fury
Hailed by cinephiles for expertly restoring rare films by influential filmmakers and publishing them with compelling extras, Italian DVD label RaroVideo announces two rare horror titles slated for release on December 6th: Lamberto Bava's Body Puzzle and Riccardo Freda's Murder Obsession.
Lamberto Bava’s Body Puzzle tells the tragic and increasingly morbid story of the lovely widow Tracy (Gorky Park’s Joanna Pacula). Not only has her famous pianist husband Abe died in an auto accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house and leaving severed body parts lying around. A candy store owner is gutted, a poor woman has her hand lopped off in a public bathroom, a young swimmer is castrated, and so on. The investigating police officer, Michael (The Church’s Tomas Arana), strikes up a hot and heavy romance with her to keep Tracy’s mind off the rapidly accumulating trophies. Michael’s supervising...
Lamberto Bava’s Body Puzzle tells the tragic and increasingly morbid story of the lovely widow Tracy (Gorky Park’s Joanna Pacula). Not only has her famous pianist husband Abe died in an auto accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house and leaving severed body parts lying around. A candy store owner is gutted, a poor woman has her hand lopped off in a public bathroom, a young swimmer is castrated, and so on. The investigating police officer, Michael (The Church’s Tomas Arana), strikes up a hot and heavy romance with her to keep Tracy’s mind off the rapidly accumulating trophies. Michael’s supervising...
- 11/30/2011
- by The Woman In Black
- DreadCentral.com
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