What Have You Done to Solange?

Caution: this review contains major spoilers throughout. If you have not yet seen the film, I advise you to skip down to the technical section.

While many people have a special place in their hearts for the sillier, more camp variants of the giallo formula, my personal preference is for the more serious affairs - gialli that can stand on their own two feet as solid stories even when the veneer of stylish sets, brutal killings and gratuitous nudity is stripped away. The majority of these so-called 'serious gialli' were directed by Dario Argento, but a number of gems were also helmed by other filmmakers: for example, Aldo Lado's Who Saw Her Die? and Short Night of the Glass Dolls, Paolo Cavara's The Black Belly of the Tarantula, Giulio Questi's Death Laid an Egg... and Massimo Dallamano's What Have You Done to Solange? (Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange?). This 1972 effort bears the distinction of being one of the few films of this type that manages to be both serious and sordid in equal measure, and is also my favourite giallo not directed by Argento. With its core themes of silence and secrecy, it remains as potent a film today as it would have been when it was initially released over 30 years ago.

The setting is that of classic exploitation: an all-girl Catholic school in Swinging London. The students are being dispatched one by one by a killer dressed as a priest, and one such murder is witnessed by Elizabeth (Cristina Galbó) while busy canoodling with her teacher, the Italian Enrico Rossini (Fabio Testi). Rossini orders her to keep quiet about what she has seen for fear of his sordid secret being revealed not only to his employers but also to his icy wife, fellow teacher Herta (Karin Baal). As the corpses begin to pile up, however, Elizabeth and Rossini's secret becomes more and more difficult to conceal, with the trail of bodies eventually leading back to a secret society and two very important questions: who is Solange, and what was done to her?


The plot is undeniably utterly sordid, but, as I mentioned before, this film is remarkable in that it turns out not to simply be another sleaze-fest like Strip Nude For Your Killer or The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh. Certainly, in terms of the titillation factor it ticks all the required boxes, with ample nudity on display and a couple of jaw-droppingly gratuitous shower scenes, as well as the plot of a secret society of schoolgirls indulging in group sex and experimentation with various drugs. Furthermore, Enrico Rossini is a fascinating example of a character that, logically at any rate, should not be sympathetic at all. Not only is the man embroiled in an affair with one of his own students, he is also quite content to treat her rottenly when it suits him and, when faced with news of her death, barely seems to react at all.

At the same time, however, despite the proceedings being more sordid than an all-night porn marathon on the Fantasy Channel, Dallamano does seem to have a serious point to make. Like many horror directors, he seems ultimately to be a very reactionary man, deeply concerned about the supposed corruption of the young (it always strikes me as ironic that these films are often ideologically very close to the conservative critics and politicians that are so quick to condemn them). The notion of innocence of being destroyed is at the film's very heart. Several characters make remarks about the fact that the girls of the film have grown up incredibly quickly, entering into the world of adults when they are, in reality, still children. Dallamano makes the ultimate point about this tragedy with the character of Solange (Camille Keaton), who, so traumatised by what has happened to her, has regressed into a state of permanent childhood. Dallamano is here saying, I believe, that the world of adulthood can be so horrific that sometimes our only defence against it is to reject it entirely.


Although her name is not even mentioned until near the end of the second Act, and she appears on screen for less than ten minutes, the entire film revolves around the character of Solange and what was done to her. The victim of an illegal operation forced upon her by her fellow students, the killer, her father, sets out to systematically punish the girls that he considers responsible for her mental illness, killing them by stabbing them through the vagina. This modus operandi is, of course, highly symbolic, and as such this, and the identity of the killer, stand as some of the most logical in a genre so often populated by seemingly motiveless crimes. Therefore, it is interesting that, of all the killer's victims, Elizabeth, the virgin, is the only one not dispatched in this manner, instead being drowned in her own bathwater (and, perhaps not coincidentally, coming to resemble a foetus).

Furthermore, the theme of abortion must undoubtedly have been a deeply pertinent one when the film was originally released. Abortion, while legal in the UK at the time, was still forbidden in the film's native Italy, and as such the story of a back-door operation must have resonated a great deal with certain members of the film's audience. (I owe a great deal to Sylvain L. and his coverage of the film for this point.) Solange is an outcast, forced to remain silent about her shameful secret by a disapproving society. As such, her muteness can be interpreted as being metaphorical as well as literal.


Secrecy is another key theme in the film and, like Solange, most of its characters are hiding something. Rossini, for instance, must hide first his relationship with Elizabeth and then that he was in the vicinity of one of the murders. The girls, meanwhile, keep quiet about their secret society and what happened to Solange, even when it is clear that they are being specifically targeted by the killer and disposed of one by one. Finally, the killer himself must conceal not only his identity but also, in his everyday operations as a teacher at the school, the fact that he has a daughter (ashamed that she is mentally disabled and wracked by the guilt of his own failure to protect her). The moral of the story, it seems, is that silence is dangerous: they grow and grow until it is impossible to maintain them.

All of this is held together by impeccable direction from Dallamano. Originally a cinematographer (he was responsible for the camerawork in numerous Spaghetti Westerns, including A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More), he clearly possessed a strong visual eye and, in conjunction with cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi (better known to exploitation fans as the infamous Joe D'Amato), gives the film a rich look that often belies the sordid affairs taking place beneath its tranquil surface. Borrowing a few tricks from the book of Argento, they construct a world of roving POV shots, with the camera often standing in for the killer's eyes, as well as the use of slow motion flashbacks to highlight previously unseen details (elements of this seem almost like Antonioni's work in Blowup). The location of London, while not entirely unknown in the giallo world, also makes a change from the more common Italian cities, and gives Dallamano an opportunity to shoot some famous locations in slightly unusual ways. Additionally, the lush musical score - from the master himself, Ennio Morricone - is among the composer's best work.


If the film has a flaw, it is in the casting of Fabio Testi as the lead. That's not to say that the Spaghetti Western star is devoid of talent, but in this film at least he comes across as incredibly inexpressive, barely reacting at all to the horrors he encounters and never once seeming to genuinely worry about the situation he finds himself in. Then again, that might be more the fault of the script, which contains some truly bizarre twists, the strangest being the way that Herta suddenly softens towards Rossini upon the discovery that, no matter what else he and Elizabeth might have got up to, he never penetrated her vaginally. The rest of the performers are, largely, merely competent, but special mention must go to Camille Keaton who, in her first movie role, steals every scene in which she appears. Despite her relatively short screen time, and lack of spoken dialogue (except in a flashback), she completely convinces as the traumatised Solange, with her wide-eyed, open-mouthed stare. This, along with her performance in I Spit on Your Grave, show that she is a truly talented actor whose relatively low number of screen performances is a true shame.

The film's final frames are open-ended, showing that there are no easy answers. The best films ask us to do more than just sit as passive spectators, and therefore What Have You Done to Solange? is about as good as it gets as far as gialli are concerned. This is a highly engaging and powerful film that rivals much of the work of Dario Argento himself. With its winning combination of mystery, sleaze and horror, as well as an excellent denouement and a genuinely disturbing motive for the killer, this is one giallo with which fans of the genre should acquaint themselves immediately.


DVD Presentation

Previous DVD releases of What Have You Done to Solange? have not been great. The best version, until now, has been a watchable but interlaced and overly soft OAR transfer from Media Blasters' horror subsidiary Shriek Show, with British, Dutch and Japanese non-anamorphic cropped releases not being worth discussing. A German OAR release was also released as part of an Edgar Wallace film collection; however, it was censored and dubbed into German.

For their release, 01 Distribution have created brand new HD-sourced and digitally remastered transfer, which blows every other release clean away. Consistently sharp, detailed and virtually spotless, the film scarcely looks a day old, while improved brightness and contrast brings out little details that were hidden in the shadows in previous versions. Because this is a relatively extras-free release, ample room is afforded to the transfer, and the bit rate is insanely high throughout, resulting in no visible compression artefacts. Furthermore, with no edge enhancement to speak of, the transfer looks incredibly film-like. It's incredibly close to being perfect - I don't normally rave about DVD image quality, but in this case I am willing to make an exception. The wait for someone to give this film a worthy transfer has definitely been worth it.

I have provided an in-depth comparison of the US, Japanese and Italian releases here.


My only real criticism, not directly related to the image quality, is that for some reason the DVD cuts out in the middle of the closing credits. While it doesn't harm the film itself, it is distracting and seems a bit unprofessional.

This release includes both English and Italian audio tracks, both in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, as well as optional subtitles in both languages. In comparison with the track found on the Media Blasters DVD, the English option has a noticeable echo to it, which is a bit distracting but is far from unbearable. The Italian track is in better shape, although because the film is set in England, listening to it in Italian makes little sense.

The English subtitles, which correspond to the Italian dialogue, are for the most part accurate, although on a couple of occasions stray symbols appear where they shouldn't be.


Extras

Here is where the DVD is a bit of a let-down. There is very little of note here beyond the theatrical trailer and a small gallery of images. The rest of the material on offer is comprised of the requisite biographies, filmographies and DVD credits, as well as bonus trailers for other releases from the DVD label.

Given the care 01 Distribution have taken with the transfer, it's a shame they didn't extend their efforts towards producing more in the way of meaningful bonus content. Although Dallamano is long gone, a retrospective documentary interviewing the surviving cast and crew members would have been a nice touch (and Camille Keaton would probably have been willing to participate).


Overall

This new Italian release of What Have You Done to Solange? renders all prior versions obsolete. While the English audio is slightly poorer than that of the Media Blasters release, the improvement in image quality far and away outweighs this. Finally, this excellent giallo has been given a transfer that does it justice.