Otherwise known as 'Solamente Nero' in its native
Italy, The Bloodstained Shadow is a twisted and highly atmospheric
giallo directed and co-written by Antonio Bido (Watch Me When I Kill)
set in a 'hypothetical Venice' where murder, Catholicism, and
alternative spiritualism clash in a semi-blasphemous mystery wreathed in mist
and deadly shadows.
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“Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials – nothing else.”
Stefano (Lino Capolicchio, The House With The Laughing Windows),
is a stressed university professor who retreats to Venice to visit his Priest
brother Paolo (Craig Hill, Dracula vs Frankenstein), but he
arrives just as a spate of murders begin to thin-out the population. Naturally
for a giallo film, these murders are of limited concern to the local police,
who are more interested in their lunch – secrets, lies, sex, and murder will
play out of their own accord.
“There's something frightening about her.”
Catholic Priest Paolo reveals to his brother that he is at odds with a
collection of residents who practice blasphemous seances (one of whom is
rumoured to conduct surreptitious abortions), but on Stefano's first night
in town, the Medium (Alina De Simone) is strangled in a storm as Paolo watches on
in horror. As it turns out, these clandestine meetings were also a way to
extract secrets via hypnotism for blackmail, and so begins a forever-escalating
murder mystery with Paolo singled out to receive portentous death threats.
“You found a hell instead of the peace you seek.”
Plagued by haunting visions, Stefano finds solace in Sandra (Stefania
Casini, Suspiria), an interior decorator who is in town to visit her
sickly mother. However, peace is unlikely as bodies continue to be discovered –
but who could be the murderer? The film is populated by a series of possible
killers – could it be the grieving father (Luigi Casellato), the insane son of séance member
Signora Nardi (Juliette Mayniel), the severe-looking Doctor Aloisi (Sergio Mioni), Paulo's
shifty-looking sacristan Gasparre (Attilio Duse), the child molesting man of
wealth Count Pedrazzi (Massimo Serato), or even Stefano himself?
“The past and your fate are linked with death.”
Catholic-raised Bido's film is doused in religious iconography while
simultaneously criticising the corruption, and mindless
chanting-for-forgiveness, that it engenders. Indeed, for Bido, religion is a
frequent theme that is open to examination and – in 1970s Italy at least – he
was deliberately being somewhat blasphemous to challenge the institution that
was, and generally still is, such a big part of Italian society. There is a
seam of spiritual and cultural friction throughout; numerous conflicts between
moral and immoral, old and new, the traditional and the unconventional. The
Bloodstained Shadow boasts a richly textured narrative constructed by Bido,
with Marisa Andaló (who later married the director) and Domenico Malan.
Here, intricate misdirection is most certainly the name of the game.
“I'd prefer to go to hell first before seeing you.”
Beautifully filmed by Mario Vulpiani, Bido's 'hypothetical Venice' was
in fact shot on the nearby island of Murano (except for one sequence that
was captured on the Venetian canals), and yet the viewer remains
simultaneously convinced and disorientated by this atmosphere-over-actuality
location. Initially overcast, expansive, and somewhat flat, this version of
Venice gradually becomes ever-more claustrophobic, and visually divided by
limited shafts of piercing light and stark voids of sinister shadows. Even some of the interiors are as indulgent of the eye as the exteriors.
“A man who wants to live in peace in this place
suspects no-one.” Compared to other gialli of the time, Bido's film is
surprisingly light on gore, but in-place of blood-soaked vivisection there is
an impressive sense of visual artistry on display. Amedeo Giomini's editing
will at times spiral into flourishes of quick-slicing juxtaposition, working
fluidly with Vulpiani's gorgeous compositions, thus bringing a unique
perspective to Venice. These fast-paced images inspire a sense of delirium that
compliments the morally ambiguous world that these characters inhabit.
“I've been sent in God's place.” Even on the
sound-scape, the film offers up sumptuous delights. Stelvio Cipriani (What Have They Done To Your Daughters?) wrote the music, while Goblin (technically
not working under that name here) arranged the pieces to their
idiosyncratic style. Heavy, plucked basses, discordant chimes, and stabbing
keyboards all fuse together for that wonderfully ethereal – and at times
fast-tempo – sound that Dario Argento's favourite composers have so famously
brought to other productions.
“He's a mortal sinner, he's worse than people know.”
While a little overlong at 109 minutes – the pace does tend to slacken on
occasion, between the effectively tense stalking scenes – The Bloodstained
Shadow is nevertheless a masterfully eerie addition to the giallo world.
Laced with surprises, and enough damning glances to make nearly everyone a
suspect, Bido brilliantly guides us through misty waterways, dark alleys, and
overpopulated cemeteries to provide an intriguing and thrilling giallo
experience.
Blue Underground's 2008 DVD features a clear visual and
aural presentation, and includes a filmography, a trailer, and a 2002 interview
with the affable director.
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