Super Hands: Giallo
As the weather begins to turn colder and leaves fall to the ground, there's only one thing on everyone's mind: death. Well, maybe not consciously, but fall is horror's time to shine. Anthology Film Archives is currently holding a giallo retrospective that runs through September 30th. Whether you're in the New York area or not, revisiting Italy's gruesome fantasias is certainly in order.
Hands
Close-ups of hands are quintessential giallo: they preserve the anonymity of the (usually gloved) killer while providing an opportunity for more expressionist, formal embellishment. (Aside from their ubiquity, the importance of hands is also underscored by the fact Dario Argento has “played” the hands in all of his films.) Of course, some of the greatest manual moments are when the hands do not even belong to the killer, and instead occur as part of intentional misdirection, flashbacks, or just inexplicable artistic flourishes.
Torso
A Quiet Place in the Country
The House with the Laughing Windows
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
Deep Red
Don't Torture a Duckling
Perversion Story
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
Blood and Black Lace
A dark or abstracted figure that appears to be the killer (but isn't)
Despite their low budgets, sensational subject matter, and fixation on style, giallos are more often than not tightly constructed mysteries. Playing with your expectations, the cheap route you think the story is taking can suddenly veer off in an unexpected but plausible direction. This is achieved several ways visually—lingering a little too long on the smile of a creepy security guard or lecherous old man, for example, or, frequently, through visual abstraction or doubling.
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
Don't Torture a Duckling
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
A Quiet Place in the Country
Deep Red
Don't Torture a Duckling
Art
If nothing else, giallos suggest that killers can be artists in their own right, expertly disguising themselves and positioning their victims' bodies elegantly for discovery. The comparision is underlined by having art or artists (most frequently photographers, due to the proximity of Rome's fashion industry) play a role in the narrative. It's also yet another excuse for fantastically stylized sets and nudity.
Torso — Photography
Blood and Black Lace — Fashion
A Quiet Place in the Country — Abstract Expressionism and conceptual art
The House with the Laughing Windows — Biblical art
Churches, priests, and religion
Though they don't always serve as moral booster shoots or provide refuge from the insanity that abounds in giallos, the priests who surface in the stories carry positive and negative connotations that can be inverted multiple times. Besides, with all these bodies stacking up, the funeral business must be booming.
Don't Torture a Duckling
The House with the Laughing Windows
Torso
Inept police
Undoubtedly to the chagrin of taxpayers in these giallo worlds, there's sex murder everywhere and the police are the least likely to identify, let alone catch, the culprit. Instead it's usually a perceptive journalist, a witness to the first murder, a relative or significant other of a victim, someone mistakenly accused of the murders, or, in the worst-case scenario, someone who has gone insane and is actually committing the murders themselves.
Don't Torture a Duckling
Perversion Story
Deep Red
Gratuitous nudity
As a friend remarked after recently viewing What Happened to Solange? with me, “I felt like if the camera pulled out a little bit more during any scene there would've been another pair of boobs.”
A Quiet Place in the Country
Don't Torture a Duckling
Torso
Old women
To counterbalance the presence of all those sexy young things—or just mourn their grisly deaths—there are mothers, grandmothers, ailing aunts, and hags wandering about.
The House with the Laughing Windows
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
Deep Red
Don't Torture a Duckling
