“Sounds like you enjoy
playing the victim.” The 1970s saw an explosion of 'giallo' films
produced by Italian filmmakers after the success of Dario Argento's début film The
Bird With The Crystal Plumage, a murder mystery that twisted sex and
violence together in a bravura package of style and warped psychology. As the
decade wore on the flood turned into a trickle, but the American slasher movie
craze that came in the wake of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978)
and Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980) saw
somewhat of a revival of blood-soaked mysteries in Italy with the likes of Tenebrae
(1982) and A Blade In The Dark (1983). However, once
again, the craze waned, but spurts of brilliance still emerged with Argento's Terror
at the Opera (1987) – in which a bullet penetrates a peep hole to
brain-splattering effect – or, in this case, Lamberto Bava's psycho-sexual
mystery slasher Delirium (aka La Foto Di Gioia) – in which a woman
with a big, veiny eyeball for a face gets skewered with a pitchfork … now that
got you intrigued, didn't it?
Click “READ MORE” below to
continue the review and see more screenshots…
“It's like you're feeling
pleasure you've never felt before.” Immediately thrusting the viewer
into a steamy photo shoot, Bava wastes no time in establishing a scintillating
tone that runs throughout the film where the female form is framed in
fascination. Gloria (Serena Grandi, Anthropophagous) watches from
the sidelines as her photographer Roberto and director/brother Tony (Vanni
Corbellini) recreate an infamous photo set in which she originally starred
before ascending to the position of editor-in-chief at the glamorous Pussycat
fashion magazine. Also watching – through a roaming telescope, no less – is her
creepy neighbour Mark (Karl Zinny), whose pervy phone call comes as no
surprise to Gloria, who dismisses him with a wearisome familiarity. Suspect
number one (of several) firmly established, then.
“Only a wild and crazed
animal could kill someone like that.” Amidst the glossy dinner parties
and padded pastel shoulders of 80s excess, however, Gloria's magazine is
fighting for survival – but when their latest cover model Kim (Katrine
Michelson) ends up dead, slain in Gloria's pool only to be spirited away
before she can see anything, their sales go through the roof. But things go
from bad to worse when a new photo set – featuring Kim's bedraggled body draped
in front of the original incarnation of the photo shoot that starred Gloria –
is delivered to Pussycat's offices. Then, as if matters couldn't get any worse,
the same deadly fate comes for the magazine's next cover model. What does the
killer want, why is that photo of Gloria so important, and when will they come
for her?
“I'd say suffering has
enhanced your beauty.” Towards the end of the 1980s the Italian film
industry was beginning to enter some tough times that lead to minuscule budgets
and tacky-looking productions, such as those that befell Lucio Fulci in his
declining years with rough (but sporadically grisly) productions such as
Touch of Death and A Cat In The Brain. However, Lamberto Bava's
giallo/slasher hybrid shows no signs of such impending constraints as every
frame utilises the sets and locations to
their fullest, dousing them in bold splashes of red, white, and blue light
courtesy of Gianlorenzo Battaglia's glamorous photography. Indeed, the world of
fashion vigorously penetrates the film's sense of style, from the parade of
beautiful models to the fetishistic operation of photographic equipment. Hell,
in typically Italian style, Serena Grandi's wardrobe, make-up, and hairstyling
receive prominent credits at both ends of the film.
“You'll never change,
you'll be a villain until the day you die.” While Lamberto Bava can't
quite conjure up the grandeur of Dario Argento's most elegant scenes of murder
and mayhem (the stunning sequences of Suspiria, the painterly framing
of Deep Red), he nonetheless achieves a high gloss sheen to
proceedings, employing Mauro Bonanni's considered editing and Simon Boswell's
bursts of killer rock 'n' roll riffs. Similarly, the plot doesn't attain the
complex thrills of Ernesto Gastaldi's best work with Sergio Martino (e.g. All The Colours Of The Dark, or Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key). The film does offer up some delicious avenues for the story
to move into, but the film often ditches intriguing possibilities – such as
Flora watching a rare copy of an adult movie starring Gloria that few people
know of. Likewise, the bizarre visions – Kim's eyeball face, Sabrina's bee head
– charge in like a bull in a WTF shop only to evaporate completely. Still, even
with such scatterbrained storytelling Delirium manages to maintain a
decent sense of tension and mystery, and laces the plot with sordid ideas.
“I don't mind men, they
never meant any more than a Kleenex, something to use and throw away.”
Despite the frequent baring of the female form in lurid and leering detail (see
Gloria's rain-soaked silk dressing gown, or monstrous Mummies pawing at supple
models), Lamberto Bava (Blastfighter) makes a few intriguing
– if jumbled – points on the balance of power between the genders. Gloria has
risen to the very top seat of power at Pussycat magazine, for which she was formerly
a glamour model – her controlling stake inherited after her husband sought to
break a speedboat record in a needless pursuit of adrenaline. Her main rival,
meanwhile, is another female editor-in-chief – Flora – who, much like Gloria,
lives not with a man, but another woman. Evelyn (Daria Nicolodi, Deep Red)
is Gloria's assistant, but Flora's apparent room-mate is also suggested to be
her lover. Conversely, Mark – Gloria's neighbour – is confined to a wheelchair,
although his condition seems to be entirely mental, while Tony – Gloria's
brother – is impotent and, naturally for a giallo flick, Inspector Corsi (Lino
Salemme) is entirely ineffective as a homicide detective. Even Latin
lover/actor Alex (George Eastman, 2019: After The Fall Of New York),
first seen between takes dressed up as some kind of roving barbarian, has his
weaknesses despite his sexual prowess. Alex is a former flame of Gloria's, but
the prospect of marriage and commitment scared him off, and he retreated to
familiar philandering territory for an eternal cycle of man-child promiscuity
and arrested development.
“I know everything and what
I don't know I imagine.” The film (written by Gianfranco Clerici and
Daniele Stroppa) also presents some very topsy-turvy ideas that are only
half-explored. A rich theme of perversion runs throughout the film, from an
undercurrent of incest to voyeurism to the inevitable clash of sex and
violence, which plays out in potent detail via the phallic use of a gleaming
knife and a 'money shot' of blood regurgitated upon exposed flesh after a
bullet obliterates a male organ. However, the most confusing element of the
film is Gloria's relationship with the misanthropic Mark. Despite his impotent
rage and self-hatred leading to some rather troubling phone calls to Gloria,
she merely swats him away as a pitiable figure. He may be cast as a fairly
pathetic figure lurking amidst dozens of taxidermied hunting trophies (and
wrought with guilt over a car crash that killed his girlfriend), but
further developments between them raise some eyebrows. It seems as if Clerici
and Stroppa are, among other things, exploring the idea that Gloria may be
flirting with a more base and squalid sense of sexuality. However, this is just
one of several plot threads that is never quite fully resolved, leaving the
viewer somewhat lost as to what exactly the film trying to say. The message is
all a bit muddled, but it does add a form of complexity to the shifting layers
of the narrative. The script is not without ambition, at least, but it is
lacking in clarity and focus.
“How does it feel to be
surrounded by death?” 88 Films' 29th edition of The Italian
Collection (a Blu-Ray & DVD combo pack) breathes new life into a
hidden and modestly successful gem of giallo cinema, but the release itself
leaves something to be desired. The picture quality is solid, managing to
strike a decent balance between restoration and preservation of the original
film grain, but the audio quality is lacking. This may be down to the source
elements, but hissing “S” sounds and occasionally murky dialogue disappoint.
Extras wise it's absolutely bare bones (not even a trailer), although
there is a booklet on the career of Daria Nicolodi (shame about the teensy
font size) and optional English subtitles.
“To commit crimes like that
he must be paranoid – one can't guess what he's thinking.” Despite its
loose handling of myriad themes and potent ideas, Delirium nonetheless
keeps up appearances with strong performances, endless glamour (even a
cemetery looks stunning), and Lamberto Bava's eye for detail within the
frame. For instance, during a sequence set in a clothing store, Bava utilises
lurking mannequins lurking, slashes of blood red light, and wall art that
mirrors that picture of Gloria to satisfying effect that illustrates a
command of the presentation despite an unfocused script. High on style, medium
on violence, and raunchy from start-to-finish, Delirium may not be a
classic giallo, but it's a solid effort of psycho-sexual mystery that sits
comfortably in the mid-field of the genre where it provides a surprising amount
of entertainment.
N.B. Screenshots are taken
from the DVD copy of the film because I do not have a Blu-Ray drive from which
to capture images.
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