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The
House with
Laughing Windows
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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With
The House with Laughing Windows
(La Casa dalle Finestre che Ridono), director Pupi Avati
concocts a horror thriller almost totally dependent on mood
and atmosphere. If you're looking for visceral shocks and sleazy
sexual situations then you'd best seek them elsewhere.
Lino Capolicchio (The
Bloodstained Shadow) stars as Stefano, a young art expert
who arrives in a backwater Italian village sometime in the late
1950s to restore a fresco at the local church. The town is very
isolated with practically nothing in the way of cultural amenities.
The mayor, a strange dwarf named Solmi (Bob Tonelli), has hired
Stefano for the job as part of an effort to increase tourism.
A university friend of Stefano's, an environmental scientist,
is also residing there while conducting a study of surrounding
waterways. He speaks cryptically of dark secrets kept under
wraps by the villagers. These rumors concern a local artist
named Legnani, dubbed "The Painter of Agony." It seems Legnani
was quite the eccentric, fascinated to the point of obsession
by death and dying. For models he used villagers as they lay
on their death beds. Some rumors suggest that Legnani went even
further in his passion for art —
that people were actually murdered just so that he might capture
their final suffering on canvas. Apparently the painter was
driven mad, as he is said to have committed suicide before the
war by setting himself on fire. The body was never found.
Legnani's
final work was the church fresco Stefano has been commissioned
to restore. The painting depicts the martyrdom of St. Sebastian
in grisly detail, the central figure writhing in torment as
he's being stabbed. The parish priest doesn't like the fresco,
calling it "crap", but apparently what Mr. Solmi wants, he gets.
Stefano begins the process of restoring the painting, and as
he gradually uncovers more and more of it he becomes fascinated
by its creator's legend. He also receives anonymous phone calls
warning him off the project. Then his friend, the scientist,
falls to his death from a hotel window. The local police seem
eager to write it off as a suicide but Stefano isn't convinced.
Before his untimely death Stefano's friend had mentioned a "house
with laughing windows" which was somehow connected to the bizarre
rumors swirling around Legnani. Stefano tries to find out everything
he can about the long-dead artist but the villagers are reluctant
to discuss him. The discovery of a bizarre tape recording of
Legnani's voice — in which the artist rambles on about his "colors"
and the "purification" of death — only deepens the mystery.
Even a blossoming romance with sexy Francesca (Francesca Marciano),
the village's newly-arrived schoolteacher, can't divert Stefano
from his search for answers. Apparently he forgot that old saying
about curiosity and the cat...
Viewers keen for giallo-style thrills will likely be disappointed
by The House with Laughing Windows.
There are no murder set-pieces at all; the real shocks are saved
for the final 10 minutes. After a disturbing opening credits
sequence the film settles down to a rather languid pace, taking
its slow, sweet time in building a palpable atmosphere of dread.
This gradual crescendo is well-orchestrated by director Avati
(Zeder), who utilizes his rustic,
rural locations —
both the beautiful and decayed —
to good effect. Though I feel the film could easily be shorn
of at least 5 to 10 minutes' running time I never grew bored.
Capolicchio is much more appealing a protagonist here than in
The Bloodstained Shadow, and I
was willing to follow along with him as he gradually discovers
the awful truth. My biggest complaint with the film is the music
score, which basically relies on two minimalist themes: one
creepy, the other romantic and rather sappy. (Where's Ennio
Morriconi or Bruno Nicolai when you need 'em? I thought that
between the two they scored just about every Italian movie ever
made!) Horndogs will doubtless feel let down that Marciano,
who somewhat resembles a young Debra Winger, never gets naked.
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Never
before seen in North America in any format, The
House with Laughing Windows makes its Region 1 DVD debut
via Image Entertainment's EuroShock Collection. A/V quality
is first rate given the film's obscurity. Taken from the original
negative, the anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer is marred by only a bit
of grain in a few scenes; nothing consequential. Three separate
audio tracks are provided: Digital
Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1, and a DTS track. (Italian language only,
with subtitles.) All are well-rendered, with the dialog sounding
somewhat 'canned' —
a symptom typical of low budget European films.
Extras include the
theatrical trailer, talent bios/filmographies, a small lobby card
image gallery, and a 15-minute featurette. The latter is built
around interviews with director Pupi Avati, star Lino Capolicchio,
composer Amedeo Tommasi and others involved with the film. Shot
and edited in a more artistic vein that your standard interview
piece, Avati and Company provide a concise, interesting account
of their approach to the material and the rigors of super-low
budget filmmaking. (Many crewmembers juggled diverse production
jobs throughout the shoot.) 4/14/03 |
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