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8
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: March
28, 2006
Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
An
alcoholic reporter (Franco Nero) investigates
a series of grisly murders...
Director
Luigi Bazzoni (Man: His
Pride And His Vengeance) made a rare foray
into the Italian exploitation field with this
stylish giallo. One of many gialli inspired by
the worldwide success of Dario Argento's debut
The
Bird With The Crystal Plumage, it wears its
influences on its sleeve while managing to forge
an identity of its own. As other critics have
noted, the film anticipates Argento's Tenebre
(1982) in its linkage of manipulative sexuality
and violence, but the film stands well on its
own merits (it pays to remember, however, that
Argento wasn't the first to explore this idea;
it is certainly implicit in Mario Bava's Blood
And Black Lace and Lucio Fulci's A
Lizard In A Woman's Skin, among others).
Bazzoni
places less emphasis on blood and gore than he
does on suspense and character interplay. While
the latter aspect is marred by a script that really
isn't up to it, he proves himself more than capable
at staging effectively subdued suspense set-pieces.
The drama is anchored by Franco Nero, in a strong
performance as a disgraced, alcoholic reporter
trying to get a grip on his life. The character
may be a stock one, but Nero and Bazzoni invest
him with elements of humanity. The actor's natural
charisma is helpful in making one believe his
dogged determination, and Bazzoni sensibly emphasizes
the almost unhealthy nature of the character's
obsession. In introducing a number of red herrings
into the mix, however, the script makes it virtually
impossible for Bazzoni to establish much beyond
thumbnail sketches for the characters; more detrimentally,
the script tries too hard to be surprising, going
off into tangents that are never fully resolved
(a subplot involving amateur pornography comes
to mind) while being a little too easy to decipher
in its more important particulars —
this is, quite simply, one of the few gialli where
yours truly has managed to guess the killer's
identity early in the proceedings.
Yet,
despite the plot's overzealous determination to
surprise and confound, there is much to recommend.
The cast includes a number of familiar Euro-Cult
performers, including Ira von Furstenberg (Five
Dolls For An August Moon, here looking eerily
like the '70s precursor to Angelina Jolie (and
yes, that's a good thing... a very good thing,
indeed), Rossella Falk (Black
Belly Of The Tarantula), Wolfgang Preiss (1962's
The
Testament Of Dr. Mabuse), Edmund Purdom (Pieces),
Renato Romano (The Bird
With The Crystal Plumage), Agostina Belli
(Holocaust 2000),
Guido Alberti (8½)
and Silvia Monti (A Lizard
In A Woman's Skin). Perky American actress
Pamela Tiffin (One, Two,
Three) adds some wonderful scenery, as
well. While none of these actors are given the
same opportunity to impress as Nero, the film
benefits from their collective presence, and as
a purely sexist aside, the nude scenes from Tiffin,
Furstenberg and Belli are most welcome.
In addition to the fine cast, it has to be noted
that the film is among the most visually stunning
of all gialli. Vittorio Storaro, who has noted
that he turned down working with Antonioni in
order to do this film out of loyalty to Bazzoni,
creates some absolutely breathtaking images. While
his work in Argento's Bird
was sleek and stylish, it didn't really point
to the extraordinary creativity he would later
display for the likes of Coppola in Apocalypse
Now. His work here, however, is some of
the best of his career. Bazzoni's stylish use
of mobile camerawork, with startling shifts in
point of view, gives the film an off-kilter texture
that compensates for some of the flaws in the
scripting. Coupled with Storaro's insistent use
of stark contrasts between light and shadow, this
use of aggressive camerawork produces an occasionally
hallucinatory effect. Similarly, the use of intense
color and backlighting effects is sufficient to
add interest to even minor sequences.
Ennio Morricone's lovely lounge score is another
plus. The legendary composer was scoring a great
many gialli during this time frame, and while
some of his lesser works sound a bit stale and
rehashed from superior soundtracks, here he contributes
some wonderfully effective pieces. The mixture
of dreamy lounge-style cues with atonal suspense
music is tremendously effective, and a sequence
involving a melody emanating from a child's music
box harkens back to Sante Romitelli's work on
Bava's Hatchet For The Honeymoon
while pointing towards the most celebrated use
of children's music in a giallo, in Goblin's score
for Deep
Red. The stylish art direction by Gastone
Carsetti and capable editing by Eugenio Alabiso
add to the film's effectiveness.
Ultimately,
one doesn't want to make too grand a case for
The Fifth Cord. As
a thriller, it is merely competent in its plotting
— the identity of
the killer is much too transparent, the motivation
not entirely persuasive. Yet, as a piece of filmmaking,
it has much to recommend. Bazzoni keeps the action
moving at a good pace, and he stages individual
sequences with tremendous aplomb. As far as gialli
go, you could do much, much worse; Euro-Cultists,
in particular, should have a blast with it.
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Blue
Underground's release of The
Fifth Cord represents the film's debut
on legitimate U.S. home video. The 1.85/16x9 image
is mostly satisfying. There is a slight softness
in detail evident in long shots, but by and large
the image looks sharp and detailed. Colors are
accurately rendered and print damage is kept to
a bare minimum. The print appears to be fully
uncut. The mono English soundtrack is clean, but
a little soft. The dubbing is respectable and
fortunately Nero supplies his own voice, but you
may find yourself needing to pump up the volume
a notch or two to make out all the dialogue. As
is generally the case, BU has seen fit to not
include the Italian track, but the English track
doesn't do the film any disservice.
Extras
are limited to a theatrical trailer and a 16-minute
featurette that includes reminiscences by Nero
and Storaro. Both men speak of the film and its
director with great fondness, with Nero seeming
to regret that he didn't appear in more gialli.
Considering the acclaim both men have attained
in subsequent years, it would have been easy for
them to slog this small thriller off with a flippant
attitude, so it's nice to see them both recalling
it with such nostalgia.
3/16/06
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