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| Images courtesy of Radiance Films |
After leaving behind studies in architecture and
engineering, Italian screenwriter-director Luigi Zampa’s filmmaking career
began initially in the romantic comedy subgenre before becoming involved in the
military making training films during WWII.
With some of his most notable works influenced by his wartime
experiences, eventually Zampa’s work began moving towards the neorealist film
with increasing instances of sardonic sociopolitical commentary infused into his
pictures. Often lampooning or criticizing
the bourgeoisie, the media machine, the police system and/or the government,
his style and approach to the satirical dark comedy made him a perfect director
for recurring Sergio Leone collaborator and screenwriter Sergio Donati. With what became Luigi Zampa’s second-to-last
feature film in 1977 with The Monster restored in 2K for Radiance Films
in a new limited-edition US Blu-ray premiere, Donati and Zampa cooked up the
snarkiest and wisest fusion of the giallo thriller and mass media machine
satire since Sergio Martino’s The Suspicious Death of a Minor.
Valerio Barigozzi (Johnny Dorelli from Bread and
Chocolate) is a humdrum down-on-his-luck reporter bored with his withering
marriage and socially awkward son who gets an unlikely string of luck when he exclusively
begins receiving letters from a serial killer warning him of pending crimes
which he then bloodily carries out later.
Rather than cooperate with authorities, Barigozzi’s a shark following
the blood feasting on the exploits of having an inside track on the crimes, using
his coverage of them to advance himself amongst his colleagues and particularly
with his family. Soon characters who
have come into contact with Barigozzi begin dying off with authorities growing
suspicious of the reporter being on the premises of nearly every crime
scene. Even work with a model and
mistress on the side don’t seem to deter the murders being invariably linked
somehow to himself.
From its sizzling electrifying score by Ennio Morricone to La Grande Bouffe cinematographer Mario Vulpiani’s ornate and understated cinematography
including some elegantly constructed giallo murder crime scenes including one
of a man surrounded by television screens, The Monster is a sneaky
snarky little masterwork from the great and accomplished writer-director team
of Zampa and Donati. Featuring arresting
production design by the great Dante Ferretti, this genre and tone jumping
mixture of giallo and comedy is anchored largely by Johnny Dorelli’s
deliciously hateful and heinous reporter who goes steadily from bad to worse
over the course of the movie.
Selling
whatever little remnants of soul he has left to succeed, we know full well the
film’s title refers fully to him and not to the serial killer leaving red
lipstick Vs on the victims’ faces. Take
for instance one of the first crime scenes he happens upon. Rather than call for help as passerby happen
on the scene, he whips out his camera and busily begins snapping photographs
including but not limited to demanding a bystander props the dead’s head
forward for the camera. Then there’s
another scene where he returns home with a framed picture of his breakthrough
headlining newspaper taking the place of a family photo on the wall. For all the vicious murders scattered
throughout the film, Dorelli’s go-getting reporter is somehow more evil.
Released in 1977, this difficult-to-categorize mixture of
giallo thrills and genre tropes interlaced with the sociopolitical satire comes
to Radiance Films on Blu-ray disc in the United States for the first time in a
new 2K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative presented in 1.85:1
widescreen with uncompressed monoaural sound.
In the time honored tradition of the beloved boutique label, Radiance
Films have included reversible sleeve art adorned by the OBI spine and a
collectible booklet featuring new essay writings as well as archival interviews
with Luigi Zampa and actor Johnny Dorelli.
There’s also a forty-four minute retrospective making-of documentary
made in 2022 included entitled Head Bent Forward. As a newcomer to the work of Luigi Zampa,
this was a splendid offering led by a powerhouse performance from Johnny
Dorelli in a role he was born to play.
Radiance Films continues to remain at the very top of the boutique
releasing labels war and have yet to be disappointed with one release of
theirs.
--Andrew Kotwicki
