"This young Italian guy is starting to worry me".
Dario Argento gained the attention of one of the biggest influences, maybe the biggest, in his career: Alfred Hitchcock. In his homage to the master of suspense, he practically returns to the basic murder-mystery story that itself have always the influence of Hitchcock. The main character of the story is Giulio (Elio Germano), a film student who lives alone in an apartment and spends his time with his girlfriend (Cristina Brondo), watching films, especially of the German Expressionist (Caligari, Nosferatu, Golem, etc), and making studies about them. As a film lover I always like a lot when in a film there are references to Cinema itself and in this case we all must find familiar those images in the DVD store looking out fore some new and interesting titles. The fact that the main character is making his thesis about the German Expressionist is perfect to put some images of "Nosferatu" and "The Golem" and also I like a lot how film posters looks on the screen, some of them in the film are the ones of "Vertigo", "Metropolis" and "Nosferatu", and are only details but I really like them. Returning to the story, we have that Giulio has been always an observer so now in his apartment he begins to spy his sexy neighbor Sasha (Elisabetta Rocchetti) and he see the bad relation between Sasha and her mother (Milvia Marigliano). The giallo begins when Sasha's mother is mysteriously murdered inside her own apartment. Giulio's fear and paranoia makes that he begins to build his own theory about the murdered having the Hitchcock film "Strangers on a Train" in mind (Sasha previously rented the DVD of that film and also talked about it with Federica) believing that Federica was the murderer of Sasha's mother so now he believes that Sasha is going to kill somebody related with Federica, of course like in the Hitchcock movie.
The film runtime is only 90 minutes and definitely is a really good and fast-paced murder mystery film without a lot tension and gore scenes but is amazingly entertaining and really well acted. Being a Hitchcock homage of course there are many references to him part of having the common environment of a suspense film. The most notorious are the ones to "Rear Window", "Marnie", "Psycho" and of course to "Strangers on a Train".
Cast: as I write the film is pretty well acted. Germano is really good for the main role, looking always insecure and sometimes unable to solve the mystery. The support cast is also good, with the sexy Elisabetta Rocchetti, and for me the character of Giulio's girlfriend is a little weak.
Conclusion: A basic murder story but I really enjoyed this Argento film that was made for TV. For me is not one of the finest films of Dario but still is recommendable and really good. Just be careful with the things you see.
Region 4 DVD: I realize about the existence of this film through this site and after reading what was about, I had lots of desires to watch it. It was just a complete surprise to find the Region 4 DVD of this film since I never imagine a release. The DVD is just good with the English language only and the TV spot as the unique extra.
Dario Argento gained the attention of one of the biggest influences, maybe the biggest, in his career: Alfred Hitchcock. In his homage to the master of suspense, he practically returns to the basic murder-mystery story that itself have always the influence of Hitchcock. The main character of the story is Giulio (Elio Germano), a film student who lives alone in an apartment and spends his time with his girlfriend (Cristina Brondo), watching films, especially of the German Expressionist (Caligari, Nosferatu, Golem, etc), and making studies about them. As a film lover I always like a lot when in a film there are references to Cinema itself and in this case we all must find familiar those images in the DVD store looking out fore some new and interesting titles. The fact that the main character is making his thesis about the German Expressionist is perfect to put some images of "Nosferatu" and "The Golem" and also I like a lot how film posters looks on the screen, some of them in the film are the ones of "Vertigo", "Metropolis" and "Nosferatu", and are only details but I really like them. Returning to the story, we have that Giulio has been always an observer so now in his apartment he begins to spy his sexy neighbor Sasha (Elisabetta Rocchetti) and he see the bad relation between Sasha and her mother (Milvia Marigliano). The giallo begins when Sasha's mother is mysteriously murdered inside her own apartment. Giulio's fear and paranoia makes that he begins to build his own theory about the murdered having the Hitchcock film "Strangers on a Train" in mind (Sasha previously rented the DVD of that film and also talked about it with Federica) believing that Federica was the murderer of Sasha's mother so now he believes that Sasha is going to kill somebody related with Federica, of course like in the Hitchcock movie.
The film runtime is only 90 minutes and definitely is a really good and fast-paced murder mystery film without a lot tension and gore scenes but is amazingly entertaining and really well acted. Being a Hitchcock homage of course there are many references to him part of having the common environment of a suspense film. The most notorious are the ones to "Rear Window", "Marnie", "Psycho" and of course to "Strangers on a Train".
Cast: as I write the film is pretty well acted. Germano is really good for the main role, looking always insecure and sometimes unable to solve the mystery. The support cast is also good, with the sexy Elisabetta Rocchetti, and for me the character of Giulio's girlfriend is a little weak.
Conclusion: A basic murder story but I really enjoyed this Argento film that was made for TV. For me is not one of the finest films of Dario but still is recommendable and really good. Just be careful with the things you see.
Region 4 DVD: I realize about the existence of this film through this site and after reading what was about, I had lots of desires to watch it. It was just a complete surprise to find the Region 4 DVD of this film since I never imagine a release. The DVD is just good with the English language only and the TV spot as the unique extra.