Mannaja (1977)

I was sold by the first few minutes of the spaghetti western, Mannaja (1977) aka A Man Called Blade, when a fugitive runs through a foggy, misty forrest and is attacked by a silhouetted bounty hunter – Blade (Maurizio Merli) – whose whole thing is that he uses hatchets as a weapon. However, I think […]

The Basilisks (1963)

I’ve only seen one Lina Wertmuller movie and that was Love And Anarchy, which was great. Wertmuller’s debut film The Basilisks (1963; I basilischi aka The Lizards) was featured in the Mubi library in a remastered new edition. One sleepy Saturday morning, I decided to take a gamble on it and after the five minutes, […]

The Psychic (1977)

Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci’s giallo thriller, The Psychic (1977; aka Seven Notes In Black, Sette Note In Nero, Murder To The Tune Of Seven Black Notes), received attention awhile back due to its great soundtrack by Franco Bixo, Fabio Frizzi, and Vince Tempera (listed as Bixo-Frizzi-Tempera); it was another score cannibalised by Quentin Tarantino […]

Conquest (1983)

After listening to the recent Pure Cinema Podcast episode on Fantasy movies, I was keen to submerge myself into some 1980s era sword-and-sorcery flicks. One title they talked highly of, and that I’d heard good word for some time, was Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci’s entry into the post-Conan genre, Conquest (1983), an Italian-Spanish-Mexican co-production, […]

La Notte (1961)

La Notte (1961; aka The Night) is the middle of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy including L’Aventura and L’Eclisse, and the one I’d always wanted to see. Antonioni’s slow, dispassionate style is intentionally alienating and difficult to wrestle with; I completely understand those who get bored by his work. Yet I do find something of […]