Giallo is not gothic

Nothing thrills like a good old story of mysterious castles, baroque decorum, ambiguous ancestors, ghostly silhouettes and centuries-old curses on noble families. So much so that worldwide litterature as well as cinema have seen a proliferation of these stories. That we could categorize, even if it is a little of a shortcut, as embodying the Gothic genre.

In Italian genre cinema, if gothic all'italiana had its highlights - La Maschera del Demonio (Black Sunday), shot by Mario Bava in 1960 is definitely one of them -, there are also a number of counter-examples. Actually, the same Bava would return years later, in 1972, with a much less impressive take on gothic with a contemporary flavour: Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga (Baron Blood).

Because Italian genres, or should we say filone, tend to feed one another, most of the time in extremely interesting ways, it could only happen that Giallo would be at some point mixed with Gothic.
Antonio Margheriti's La Morte Negli Occhi del Gatto (Seven deaths in the cat's eye, 1973) and Emilio Miraglia's two gothic gialli La Notte Che Evelyn Uscì Dalla Tomba (The Night Evelyne Came Out of the Grave, 1971) and La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, 1972) are just a few examples of this attempt at mixing two lucrative filone.
And probably amongst the less interesting gialli ever made.

Like oil and water, gothic and giallo seem to be utterly unable to mix.
Of course these three films can be noticeable by their photography (but in this particular cinema where aesthetics was more important than anything else, great photography was a given). Yet they consistently fail in maintaining any integrity throughout the storytelling. Even visually, they struggle to reconcile two opposites: the contemporary style of giallo and the baroque of gothic.
As a result, they are unconvincing and quite boring to watch.

Unlike other filone, there seems to be a fundamental contradiction between both genres. Whereas Gothic appeals to centuries-old tales and supernatural to trigger fear, Giallo is extremely contemporary by essence. It is born out of vast concrete cities, of their anonymity, of psychologic disorders, of human perversions. Giallo is all but supernatural. At the contrary, it is rooted in real, daily life.

Giallo is Evil next door. Please get rid of the castle.


If you're still curious to watch them, these films can be found at Blue Underground and NoShame films. Also read Michael Mackenzie's reviews here and there.

Duel of genres

"The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh", a giallo which finds its resolution in a western.

This is another example of the great ideas Sergio Martino came up with for his very first giallo. As we're about to unveil the key to the story, the film brutally switches from typical giallo codes (black gloves, blades, darkness, mystery, light eroticism) to overt western elements (desert, guns, bright daylight, dust, close-ups on the eyes and... a duel).
Daring is the least I can say.

And we buy into it, as the photography remains consistent.
Martino has a fashion designer's eye. Every little detail or accessory seems to be thought of as if it was crucial to the beauty of the overall picture, just like in a fashion shoot. "Killing in style" has never been more appropriate: the flat's interior design, Julie and Carol's clothes and shopping session, Jean's threatening beauty, George's playboy apparel....

Even Nora Orlandi's great music never forgets to be elegant, whatever happens in the film. The score works like the final touch in many scenes - and capriciously disappears when you expect it to come back: like in this final western-like duel scene, for example.

Aesthetically mixing different styles together is the specificity of what the Italians call "filone": contrary to the genres - a very anglo-saxon concept which requires a clear and definitive definition of its components -, filone ignore boundaries, evolve over time and can borrow from each other without losing any of their strength. Just like rivers.

Read the very insightful analysis about genre vs filone by Gary Needham here.
More about this great giallo from this blog there.