One image says it all

Gialli's plots explanation or resolution often hides within one key image.

In "The bird with the crystal plumage", it's a painting - bought in an antique shop - which reflects the initial trauma experienced by the murderer.
"The bloodstained shadow" also revolves around a painting which depicts the terrible truth behind a scene the main character was a witness of when he was a child, and that he could not remember in details.

It's a photograph that reveals, when blown up several times, a murder was committed in Antonioni's "Blow-up". A similar treatment applied to a newspaper photograph (by the way, how unrealistic given the usual quality of pictures in papers!) unveils the secret behind the scorpion cuff links in "The case of the scorpion's tail".
We could also mention it's the re-cropping of a photograph which shows that what initially looked like an accident - a man falling under a train in a railway station - was indeed a murder in Argento's "The cat o'nine tails"...

Paintings or photographs, Giallo marks the victory of the visual and symbolic approach over the narrative, litterary explanations which used to prevail in "classic" thrillers up until the late 60s.
In this instance, it illustrates this genre's modernity, reflecting the movement towards the image-based society we all know now.

The picture

"The photographer in Blow Up, who is not a philosopher, wants to see things closer up. But it so happens that, by enlarging too far, the object itself decomposes and disappears. Hence there's a moment in which we grasp reality, but then the moment passes. This was in part of the meaning of Blow Up." - Michelangelo Antonioni.


At the core of Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni - 1966), there is this picture of a couple taken by a fashion photographer in a park.

Successively blowing it up, we find out that there's something going on which was invisible at first sight: a crime was perpetrated before our very eyes. Evidence is the shape of a body lying behind a tree, which we can see with the photographer when blowing up the picture even more...
Well at least it looks like the shape of a body. Because we zoomed in the picture so much it now looks like a collection of dots, blurring our vision.

In fact it's not a photograph any more, it's become an abstract painting and, as such, subject to multiple interpretations.
The same question over and over again: can you trust your eyes?

More on Blow-Up here. And an interesting in-depth analysis there.
Plus some more reflections from this blog about the eye-witness subject here.

The prey

That scene.
That famous scene from Antonioni's "Blow-Up". Even if you haven't seen the film, you know about it: Thomas (David Hemmings), a fashion photographer, has a shooting session with Verushka, one of the 60's most famous models.

Watch it again. Listen to Herbie Hancock's laidback jazz. It sounds really cool. It looks very glamourous. Yes it almost feels like Thomas is making love to Verushka as they dance a sensual ballet together while he's taking pictures of her.

But look closer: isn't Verushka surrendering? Isn't Thomas taking over her in a very eager way? Hasn't she become his prey?
In this scene, Thomas shows his true colors. He is a predator. He is annihilating Verushka as he's forcing her onto the floor and stealing her very image.

It is not a love scene, it is a highly aesthetical crime scene.


More on Blow-Up, one of Giallo's greatest sources of influence, here.
If you have not seen this chef-d'oeuvre, then rush there. And find the soundtrack here.

The camera is the weapon.

Forget one minute about the classic Giallo formula: black gloves, shining blades and blood-dripping.
Keep in mind the giallo's underlying themes: the eye-witness, violent seduction relationships between men and women, the pre-eminence of an aesthetical point of view...

When you look at it through this angle, then Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966) can be considered a giallo masterpiece. One which would have been completely re-shaped by Antonioni's minimalist eye, but featuring the very same ingredients.

Not to mention Herbie Hancock's score, which is an American musical view on Swingin' London, filmed by an Italian - Distanciation also is part of the Giallo.

In 1966, Antonioni probably laid out in Blow Up the key ideas that would become the genetic code of Giallo in the late 60s and early 70s.