Berberian at the Gates
Keywords like “giallo”, “audio recording” and “birdwatcher” may call to mind BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, but they also fit neatly with today’s entry (the penultimate?) in my series Forgotten Gialli over at The Daily Notebook. Thanks to ExperimentoFilm for suggesting this obscure, low-budget but novel and striking movie.
Also: another MURDER, MY SWEET limerick.
September 20, 2012 at 2:02 pm
That clip also reminds me of –
September 20, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Yes! Interesting how Italian genre films did aspire to rival the arthouse with delirious aestheticism. Not really true so much in British or American exploiters, with rare exceptions. In Italy and Japan, everything MUST be beautiful and a little abstract.
September 20, 2012 at 3:42 pm
September 20, 2012 at 11:03 pm
Oshima, perhaps, imports the vigor of trash into art cinema. Most Japanese trash cinema imports the aesthetics of arthouse. “Why shouldn’t it be beautiful?”
September 21, 2012 at 12:51 am
So, how do I go about obtaining a copy of this film? I love gialli, especially the weirder ones. ‘Death Laid an Egg,’ ‘Footprints on the Moon,’ etc. Have you seen ‘In the Folds of the Flesh?’ The climax of that film is so ridiculous I went dizzy & nearly fell off my chair. Fantastic.
September 21, 2012 at 12:55 am
September 21, 2012 at 12:56 am
September 21, 2012 at 10:36 am
Oh, those guys like things pretty too! But each seems kind of unique in his own land. I mean, obviously they’re utterly unique, but hardly anybody else seems remotely related to them.
September 21, 2012 at 10:43 am
Jeffrey, I don’t know… Perhaps ExperimentoFilm or I could find you one. I don’t know if the film has had a commercial release anywhere. It exists with subtitles but they’re fan-made. Let me know if you’d like an email to discuss it.
In the Folds of the Flesh does look wonky. I’ll have to try and dig out my unwatched copy.
September 21, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Totally longing to see Love and Death. Why had I never heard of it when I taught my Alice and Lewis Carroll courses?!
In the Folds of the Flesh is an unmissable camp treat and as for Succubus…’masterpiece’ is NOT too big a word!
September 21, 2012 at 6:16 pm
I have so much to look forward to! Maybe Forgotten Gialli needs to be an annual event?
September 23, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Annual? Why not monthly?
September 23, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Might not leave enough room for everything else…