Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in Italy and Abroad

Independent film scholar Edwards and Berns, a film professor at the University of Buenos Aires, collect in this abstruse compendium essays on giallo, a “peculiar Italian sub-genre of thriller film” characterized by bloody violence. A few selections cover the filmmakers most associated with the genre (Émilie von Garan explores the implicit critique of colonialism in the films of Dario Argento, giallo’s most well-known director), but most focus on obscure works, with Edwards contributing an interview with Romano Scavolino, director of “one of the most under-rated, and least known” giallo films, A White Dress for Marialé (1972), and Donald L. Anderson explicating the “critique of capitalist exploitation” in the “overlooked masterpiece” Death Laid an Egg (1968). The contributions are rife with academic jargon, such as when Sharon Jane Mee examines the visual impact of blood and argues that the “affective expression of blood that characterizes the spectator’s sensible encounter with the color-image refers to an open diastole-systole... in the relation between images.” Interviews with directors Scavolino and Antonio Bido offer behind-the-scenes insights that will interest film buffs, but the collection’s dense prose and emphasis on lesser-known movies mean there’s not much here for the uninitiated. Only die-hard fans of Italian horror need apply. (Apr.)