Tag: Italian Cinema

  • The Great Silence (1968)

    The Great Silence (1968)

    Spaghetti westerns were a genre that would be programmed on SBS Saturday Cult Movie Night and I remember seeing the end of The Great Silence (1968; Il Grande Silenzio) when I was younger. Recently, the film is referenced as an influence on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, name dropped as one of the filmmaker’s favourite… Read.

  • Red Desert (1964)

    Michelangelo Antonioni is a divisive auteur and I can understand why some people don’t like him – wealthy people being bored in slow narratives where nothing much happens. But I really like L’Eclisse and The Passenger as absorbing portraits of alienation. Red Desert (1964; Il deserto rosso) was advertised as Antonioni’s first film in colour,… Read.

  • The Wages Of Fear (1953)

    The Wages Of Fear (1953)

    Tangerine Dream’s score for William Friedkin’s Sorcerer stuck in my head during. The original, The Wages Of Fear (1953; Le salaire de la peur), from my memory, generally keeps the music to the beginning and end, letting silence add a lot to the infamously gripping sequences of two trucks and four drivers transporting dangerous nitroglycerine… Read.

  • Escape From The Bronx (1983)

    Escape From The Bronx (1983)

    Escape From The Bronx (1983; aka Bronx Warriors 2 aka Escape 2000) is the sequel to 1990: The Bronx Warriors, which was an entertaining Italian B-movie and (shameless) rip off of Escape From New York and The Warrriors. Here, the punk criminal hero of the first movie returns – Trash (Mark Gregory) who is as… Read.

  • The Strange Vice Of Mrs Wardh (1971)

    The Strange Vice Of Mrs Wardh (1971)

    One can also giallo for Halloween! The Strange Vice Of Mrs Wardh (1971; also titled Blade Of The Ripper) has all the prototypical elements of the Italian giallo genre: a leather gloved killer, bloody violence, writhing sex, a convoluted plot, chic 70s style in the outfits and interior design, a gorgeous score and an iconic,… Read.