For the Italian Viewing Challenge on ICM,I started digging into the piles on unwatched DVD's for films from the country. Having gotten this title so long ago I can't remember how many years it has been (!) it felt like the best moment to at last visit the school.
View on the film:
Opening the school gates to a groovy title track, co-writer/ director Antonio Margheriti & cinematographer Fausto Zuccoli teach in the first, more psychological-driven, wave of Giallo with the glamour of a Musical, as Margeriti takes the audience on a tour of this murder school, (the first Gialli to have this setting?) in long panning shots taking in the ultra-stylised lush colours of the matching pristine school outfits being colour coded with the pristine shaded walls, building a enticing, peculiar atmosphere.
Offering a few teasing side shots of skin, Margheriti keeps everything discreet for the killer Giallo set-pieces, with blood being left off the field in exchange for swift first person tracking shots,and running victims jump-cuts on the school grounds.
Originally planned by producer Lawrence Woolner as a project for Mario Bava after Woolner was submitted a script by Tudor Gates and Brian Degas, until a falling out led to Bava leaving the project, and the new team of Margheriti, Giovanni Simonelli and Franco Bottari getting the job.
Picking up what was called Cry Nightmare in the Bava stages, the writers wisely retain what is likely the original, odd quirky side of the Bava stage in the hushed secretive way all at the school act, which is neatly sown in to Margheriti's showing his early interest Agatha Christie in this Giallo times table sending all down to the school grounds as suspects whilst the naked die.
View on the film:
Opening the school gates to a groovy title track, co-writer/ director Antonio Margheriti & cinematographer Fausto Zuccoli teach in the first, more psychological-driven, wave of Giallo with the glamour of a Musical, as Margeriti takes the audience on a tour of this murder school, (the first Gialli to have this setting?) in long panning shots taking in the ultra-stylised lush colours of the matching pristine school outfits being colour coded with the pristine shaded walls, building a enticing, peculiar atmosphere.
Offering a few teasing side shots of skin, Margheriti keeps everything discreet for the killer Giallo set-pieces, with blood being left off the field in exchange for swift first person tracking shots,and running victims jump-cuts on the school grounds.
Originally planned by producer Lawrence Woolner as a project for Mario Bava after Woolner was submitted a script by Tudor Gates and Brian Degas, until a falling out led to Bava leaving the project, and the new team of Margheriti, Giovanni Simonelli and Franco Bottari getting the job.
Picking up what was called Cry Nightmare in the Bava stages, the writers wisely retain what is likely the original, odd quirky side of the Bava stage in the hushed secretive way all at the school act, which is neatly sown in to Margheriti's showing his early interest Agatha Christie in this Giallo times table sending all down to the school grounds as suspects whilst the naked die.