tenebrae (cinema history class)

Session: Giallo-Rama, week 4
Movie: Tenebrae  (1982)
Directed by Dario Argento
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
An American author visits Rome on a book tour. His visit is met with a murder spree that seems to be tied to his latest novel. Hilarity ensues.

Teeing Up:
Keith started things off by talking about Dario Argento's place in the world of giallos. Argento wasn't the best writer, or the best at handling actors. But "he made murder beautiful" and raised it to an art form. Tenebrae was inspired by harassing phone calls that Argento got from a deranged fan, and was the second-to last good film that Argento made. Sorry, I don;t remember what the last one was. Opera?

Before showing the film, Keith showed us trailers for three other giallos:

• Short Night of Glass Dolls
• Asylum Erotica
• The Black Belly of the Tarantula

My Reaction:
It's rare that a movie leaves me breathless. But this did. Part murder mystery, part slasher schlock, this kept me guessing at the end. "Maybe he's the killer," I thought -- before realizing "he" couldn't possibly be (for one reason or another). And at the end, when it was all wrapped up, I knew there would be one more shock left. With two characters left, I didn;t know which one would turn around and kill the other. I was right that one more shock was left, but I was wrong in that it wasn't either of the possibilities I contemplated. Until that ending, I was debating with myself as to whether it was  better or worse than Don't Torture a Duckling, but that ending put it over the top, and I gave it a ten out of ten.

Class Reaction:
There was a lot of great energy in the room as we watched this. The volume of blood -- this movie encouraged us to act out as little boys. Someone (I think it was Dave) and I both made a connection to Jackson Pollack as one character lost an arm and spurted blood all over a white wall. The soundtrack, a set of pulsing synthetic rhythms by Goblin, had everyone going. That being the case, I was surprised that it didn't get tens all around. I really thought Ethan loved it, but he was quite critical, finding the plot uninteresting, and no one to like. But Joe, who gave it a standing ovation, agreed with me that it was the best of the giallos that Keith showed us.

The ratings:

• Joe: 12 / 10
• Dave:9.8 to 9.9 / 10
• Sean 7 to 8 / 10
• Scott: 10 / 10
• Ethan: 7 /10

Tenebrae passes the Bechdel Test. Barely.