Disc Specs
- Region:
0 - Released:
Out now - Country:
United States of America - Running Time:
109 minutes - Screen Format:
1.85:1 Anamorphic NTSC - Discs / Sides / Layers:
1 / 1 / Single - Soundtracks:
English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono - Subtitles:
None - Special Features:
Antonio Bido interview
Antonio Bido filmography
Theatrical trailer - Distributor:
Anchor Bay
Film Specs
- Certificate:
Unrated - Released:
1978 - Country:
Italy - Director:
Antonio Bido - Starring:
Lino Capolicchio
Stefania Casini
Craig Hill
Massimo Serato
Juliette Mayneil
Laura Nucci
Attilo Duse
Gianfranco Bullo - Genre(s):
Film
Live Action
Thriller
The Bloodstained Shadow
25-10-2005 06:00 | 4909 views | Michael Mackenzie | Show Backlinks | Other "The Giallo Collection" Content
Warning: This review contains spoilers, including revealing the identity of the killer. If you haven't seen the film already, I advise you to skip down to the technical section of the review.
As quickly as it had taken off, the giallo craze burned out. By the mid-1970s, Italy's obsession with black-gloved killers had all but evaporated, and few if any films were being produced. It genuinely seemed to have been a case of having too much of a good thing, and within a few short years the possibilities of the genre seemed to have been all but exhausted. Since then, Dario Argento has remained virtually the sole torch-bearer for the genre, delivering a handful of knock-outs (including 1975's Profondo Rosso, which many see as the genre's last grand hoorah, and 1987's Opera, which successfully put a decidedly 80s twist on a decidedly 70s format by using the audience's fear of the new spread of sexually transmitted diseases as a metaphor). The Bloodstained Shadow (originally Solamente Nero, a much better title), therefore, is something of an oddity. Released at a time during which virtually no-one was making gialli and almost completely unseen outside of its native Italy, it perhaps owes a little too much to Argento's signature style (don't they all, though?), but is something of a hidden gem and one that shows that the genre still had something to offer.
A young university professor, Stefano D'Archangelo (Lino Capolicchio), returns to his home on the Venetian island of Murano after suffering a nervous breakdown, where he shacks up with his brother, the local priest Don Paolo (Craig Hill). One stormy night, Paolo witnesses a woman being strangled in the street by a masked assailant. The victim is revealed to be Signora Nardi (Juliette Mayniel), a medium who had connections with several undesirable individuals in the town, including the rich child molester Count Pedrazzi (Massimo Serato), a back-door abortionist and an unscrupulous doctor. Shortly afterwards, both Paolo and Stefano are threatened by notes demanding that they keep quiet or suffer the same fate. As the body count rises, the two brothers are haunted by half-forgotten memories from their childhood and a mounting sense of guilt. Who is the killer? Where will he or she strike next? And does Sandra (Stefania Casini), Stefano's new girlfriend, know more than she is letting on?
Antonio Bido only directed one other giallo, 1977's The Cat with the Jade Eyes, a tepid and uninspired rehash of several Argento themes, and even with The Bloodstained Shadow, he seems unable to separate himself from the maestro's influence. Here, Bido doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel, but succeeds in creating a solid, assured giallo that is much closer to the two Aldo Lado films in the Giallo Collection than to The Case of the Bloody Iris. The Bloodstained Shadow is a remarkably subdued affair, possessing none of the crazy stylization that epitomized the giallo in its heyday, instead relying on character and solid setup to sell itself. The film is highly reminiscent of Argento in "restrained mode" - Bido's Venice is a subdued place, a far cry from the grandeur of Aldo Lado's Scope compositions in Who Saw Her Die? - but possesses a level of depth and maturity that recalls his best work.
The notion of "Catholic guilt" frequently appears in gialli, and indeed in Italian cinema in general. As with the dual relationship of the genre to sexuality that I discussed in my review of The Case of the Bloody Iris, religion is often treated in contradictory terms in these films. On the one hand, there is a sense that organized religion is not to be trusted (consider how many gialli feature killer priests as their villains, or how often the religious establishment is found to be covering up some sort of sordid conspiracy), but at the same time it is frequently portrayed as a pillar of reliability in an uncertain world filled with vices. The Bloodstained Shadow is just one such example of this dual standard, although it seemingly acknowledges this and seeks to explore the relationship rather than simply glossing over it. Bido, himself a Catholic, does not imbue his film with the sense of disgust for the church that one might sense when watching, for example, Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling, but he does admit to the establishment's failings and, in casting a clergyman as his villain, not only acknowledges that religious figureheads are capable of committing crimes as serious as murder, but also explores the ways in which religion can act as a catalyst for such tendencies. Father Paolo is himself revealed to be an extremely conflicted man: someone capable of murdering people in some of the most brutal ways imaginable, but all the time wracked with guilt. No attempt is made to justify or explain his actions, but we do get inside his head in a way that is extremely rare for giallo villains. Paolo knows that what he is doing is wrong, but in order to prevent his responsibility for one initial murder from being discovered he must kill again and again, and the realization that he has let down both the people who look up to him (and the deity in whom he believes - a scene in which a crucifix falls on him is a wonderful piece of symbolism, not to mention a highly effective set-piece) is incredibly powerful.
The depth afforded to Paolo's character on the page is backed up by a superb performance from Craig Hill. Performers with as strong a screen presence as his are uncommon in gialli (in my mind, only David Hemmings in Profondo Rosso and Liam Cunningham in The Card Player are of the same calibre), and he remains thoroughly convincing throughout. As good as the writing is for the character, it is Hill's performance that sells it. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Lino Capolicchio, who was ineffective in Pupi Avati's The House With Laughing Windows and is no more successful here. It's not that he is a bad actor, but he is an unengaging one and he is upstaged by Hill in every scene. He is also saddled with a very poor dub, and looks too young and fresh to be convincing as a university professor, let alone one who is supposed to have suffered a nervous breakdown. Stefania Casini, better known for her role in Suspiria, fares a little better, but her character is never sufficiently developed beyond being a bit of tail for Stefano to chase.
For all its strengths, The Bloodstained Shadow fails to make it into the top "tier" of gialli. The script is almost entirely derivative of other offerings in the genre, taking most of its cues from Argento's work (a problem that also marred The Cat with the Jade Eyes). In particular, the idea of repressed memories, while a fairly regular staple of the genre, is handled in almost exactly the same was as in Argento's Profondo Rosso, with the crucial clue even lying in a painting. Furthermore, while Bido paces the film well for the most part, keeping up a slow and deliberate momentum, there are points at which it loses steam and the tension subsides. This is most true of an interlude in the middle of the film featuring Stefano and Sandra going on a romantic boat ride followed by some groping and fumbling - something that Bido, in retrospect, admits hurts the film's rhythm. Additionally, a somewhat dubious moment attempts to paint the aforementioned child molester as being a homosexual, as if seeking to equate the two "tendencies", and even goes so far as to attempt to play this for comedy (or perhaps I'm mistaking Bido's attentions). Still, though, The Bloodstained Shadow deserves to be seen. It may bring nothing new to the table, but for the most part it does what it sets out to do very well.
DVD Presentation
The Bloodstained Shadow is presented anamorphically in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (it was shot when the bulk of the Technoscope cameras used to achieve the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of most golden age gialli had been dismantled), and is pretty watchable throughout, although marred by some caveats. There is a slight greenish tinge to the image throughout, which gives it a rather sickly look, and suffers from some noticeable white specks and nicks, which are most pronounced during the middle stretch of the film.
The audio, on the other hand, sounds quite weak. The only audio option provided is the English dub, in its original mono, and it sounds quite thin and scratchy, and the middle of the film features a fair amount of distortion and interference (which accompanies the aforementioned print damage, which suggests that the audio source was an optical track on the same print).
As with the other films in the Giallo Collection, there are no subtitles.
Extras
Like Short Night of Glass Dolls and Who Saw Her Die?, the DVD features an interview with the film's director. Antonio Bido comes across as enthusiastic but commendably candid, covering the film's history, his personal reasons for tackling the project, and also admitting to its shortcomings. He comes across as a mild-mannered and intelligent man who is able to admit to his own failings, and in that respect it is a shame that he only ever directed two gialli, because his eagerness to acknowledge the film's problems suggests that he could have learned from the experience and avoided making the same mistakes again. (In fact, in this 2001 interview, he mentions that he is trying to get a new giallo off the ground, but laments about the lack of a market for these films in Italy, and the fact that nothing more has been heard of this suggests that he has given up trying.)
The trailer, and a filmography for Bido, are also included.
Overall
The Bloodstained Shadow is one of the more mature and thought-provoking gialli to be produced, and while it has its flaws, it is definitely one that fans should seek out, as it provides a welcome change of pace from the usual flashy excess of the genre. Anchor Bay's DVD is not perfect, but probably represents the best that could be achieved from the available materials.
As quickly as it had taken off, the giallo craze burned out. By the mid-1970s, Italy's obsession with black-gloved killers had all but evaporated, and few if any films were being produced. It genuinely seemed to have been a case of having too much of a good thing, and within a few short years the possibilities of the genre seemed to have been all but exhausted. Since then, Dario Argento has remained virtually the sole torch-bearer for the genre, delivering a handful of knock-outs (including 1975's Profondo Rosso, which many see as the genre's last grand hoorah, and 1987's Opera, which successfully put a decidedly 80s twist on a decidedly 70s format by using the audience's fear of the new spread of sexually transmitted diseases as a metaphor). The Bloodstained Shadow (originally Solamente Nero, a much better title), therefore, is something of an oddity. Released at a time during which virtually no-one was making gialli and almost completely unseen outside of its native Italy, it perhaps owes a little too much to Argento's signature style (don't they all, though?), but is something of a hidden gem and one that shows that the genre still had something to offer.
A young university professor, Stefano D'Archangelo (Lino Capolicchio), returns to his home on the Venetian island of Murano after suffering a nervous breakdown, where he shacks up with his brother, the local priest Don Paolo (Craig Hill). One stormy night, Paolo witnesses a woman being strangled in the street by a masked assailant. The victim is revealed to be Signora Nardi (Juliette Mayniel), a medium who had connections with several undesirable individuals in the town, including the rich child molester Count Pedrazzi (Massimo Serato), a back-door abortionist and an unscrupulous doctor. Shortly afterwards, both Paolo and Stefano are threatened by notes demanding that they keep quiet or suffer the same fate. As the body count rises, the two brothers are haunted by half-forgotten memories from their childhood and a mounting sense of guilt. Who is the killer? Where will he or she strike next? And does Sandra (Stefania Casini), Stefano's new girlfriend, know more than she is letting on?
Antonio Bido only directed one other giallo, 1977's The Cat with the Jade Eyes, a tepid and uninspired rehash of several Argento themes, and even with The Bloodstained Shadow, he seems unable to separate himself from the maestro's influence. Here, Bido doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel, but succeeds in creating a solid, assured giallo that is much closer to the two Aldo Lado films in the Giallo Collection than to The Case of the Bloody Iris. The Bloodstained Shadow is a remarkably subdued affair, possessing none of the crazy stylization that epitomized the giallo in its heyday, instead relying on character and solid setup to sell itself. The film is highly reminiscent of Argento in "restrained mode" - Bido's Venice is a subdued place, a far cry from the grandeur of Aldo Lado's Scope compositions in Who Saw Her Die? - but possesses a level of depth and maturity that recalls his best work.
The notion of "Catholic guilt" frequently appears in gialli, and indeed in Italian cinema in general. As with the dual relationship of the genre to sexuality that I discussed in my review of The Case of the Bloody Iris, religion is often treated in contradictory terms in these films. On the one hand, there is a sense that organized religion is not to be trusted (consider how many gialli feature killer priests as their villains, or how often the religious establishment is found to be covering up some sort of sordid conspiracy), but at the same time it is frequently portrayed as a pillar of reliability in an uncertain world filled with vices. The Bloodstained Shadow is just one such example of this dual standard, although it seemingly acknowledges this and seeks to explore the relationship rather than simply glossing over it. Bido, himself a Catholic, does not imbue his film with the sense of disgust for the church that one might sense when watching, for example, Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling, but he does admit to the establishment's failings and, in casting a clergyman as his villain, not only acknowledges that religious figureheads are capable of committing crimes as serious as murder, but also explores the ways in which religion can act as a catalyst for such tendencies. Father Paolo is himself revealed to be an extremely conflicted man: someone capable of murdering people in some of the most brutal ways imaginable, but all the time wracked with guilt. No attempt is made to justify or explain his actions, but we do get inside his head in a way that is extremely rare for giallo villains. Paolo knows that what he is doing is wrong, but in order to prevent his responsibility for one initial murder from being discovered he must kill again and again, and the realization that he has let down both the people who look up to him (and the deity in whom he believes - a scene in which a crucifix falls on him is a wonderful piece of symbolism, not to mention a highly effective set-piece) is incredibly powerful.
The depth afforded to Paolo's character on the page is backed up by a superb performance from Craig Hill. Performers with as strong a screen presence as his are uncommon in gialli (in my mind, only David Hemmings in Profondo Rosso and Liam Cunningham in The Card Player are of the same calibre), and he remains thoroughly convincing throughout. As good as the writing is for the character, it is Hill's performance that sells it. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Lino Capolicchio, who was ineffective in Pupi Avati's The House With Laughing Windows and is no more successful here. It's not that he is a bad actor, but he is an unengaging one and he is upstaged by Hill in every scene. He is also saddled with a very poor dub, and looks too young and fresh to be convincing as a university professor, let alone one who is supposed to have suffered a nervous breakdown. Stefania Casini, better known for her role in Suspiria, fares a little better, but her character is never sufficiently developed beyond being a bit of tail for Stefano to chase.
For all its strengths, The Bloodstained Shadow fails to make it into the top "tier" of gialli. The script is almost entirely derivative of other offerings in the genre, taking most of its cues from Argento's work (a problem that also marred The Cat with the Jade Eyes). In particular, the idea of repressed memories, while a fairly regular staple of the genre, is handled in almost exactly the same was as in Argento's Profondo Rosso, with the crucial clue even lying in a painting. Furthermore, while Bido paces the film well for the most part, keeping up a slow and deliberate momentum, there are points at which it loses steam and the tension subsides. This is most true of an interlude in the middle of the film featuring Stefano and Sandra going on a romantic boat ride followed by some groping and fumbling - something that Bido, in retrospect, admits hurts the film's rhythm. Additionally, a somewhat dubious moment attempts to paint the aforementioned child molester as being a homosexual, as if seeking to equate the two "tendencies", and even goes so far as to attempt to play this for comedy (or perhaps I'm mistaking Bido's attentions). Still, though, The Bloodstained Shadow deserves to be seen. It may bring nothing new to the table, but for the most part it does what it sets out to do very well.
DVD Presentation
The Bloodstained Shadow is presented anamorphically in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (it was shot when the bulk of the Technoscope cameras used to achieve the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of most golden age gialli had been dismantled), and is pretty watchable throughout, although marred by some caveats. There is a slight greenish tinge to the image throughout, which gives it a rather sickly look, and suffers from some noticeable white specks and nicks, which are most pronounced during the middle stretch of the film.
The audio, on the other hand, sounds quite weak. The only audio option provided is the English dub, in its original mono, and it sounds quite thin and scratchy, and the middle of the film features a fair amount of distortion and interference (which accompanies the aforementioned print damage, which suggests that the audio source was an optical track on the same print).
As with the other films in the Giallo Collection, there are no subtitles.
Extras
Like Short Night of Glass Dolls and Who Saw Her Die?, the DVD features an interview with the film's director. Antonio Bido comes across as enthusiastic but commendably candid, covering the film's history, his personal reasons for tackling the project, and also admitting to its shortcomings. He comes across as a mild-mannered and intelligent man who is able to admit to his own failings, and in that respect it is a shame that he only ever directed two gialli, because his eagerness to acknowledge the film's problems suggests that he could have learned from the experience and avoided making the same mistakes again. (In fact, in this 2001 interview, he mentions that he is trying to get a new giallo off the ground, but laments about the lack of a market for these films in Italy, and the fact that nothing more has been heard of this suggests that he has given up trying.)
The trailer, and a filmography for Bido, are also included.
Overall
The Bloodstained Shadow is one of the more mature and thought-provoking gialli to be produced, and while it has its flaws, it is definitely one that fans should seek out, as it provides a welcome change of pace from the usual flashy excess of the genre. Anchor Bay's DVD is not perfect, but probably represents the best that could be achieved from the available materials.