Saturday, August 11, 2012

Last Caress (2010)


I've wished to see a good, talented tribute to the Italian horrors of the 70's, for a long time now. Matthew Saliba's short movie Amy's in the Attic failed miserably and I kinda gave up hope after that - until I, earlier this year, saw the trailer for Last Caress and Blackaria and my pulse started to beat a little bit faster. 

Now Njuta Films has released an excellent package - Last Caress, Blackaria, two short movies ( Die Die My Darling and Under the Blade) plus the splendid soundtrack! And it also have English subs for those who's not familiar with the ancient language for Swedish! Today I've watched Last Caress and what's it all about? Not much really, but who the frakk cares!

In a scene similar to the opening sequence in Mario Bava's Bay of Blood (and Blood and Black Lace) one character is killed after murdering another character and the story is on. A man wearing sunglasses and a spiked metal glove breaks into a country villa, on the hunt for a mysterious painting. Shortly after four victims... eh, characters, arrives for a weekend of booze, sex and occultism. The man with the sunglasses starts killing everyone off in his hunt for the painting and a chance to meet someone from the past...

Last Caress is more or less a series of extremely cool murder set-pieces. Yeah, that's it. And I love it. It's probably the most relaxing movie I've seen in a long time, with gorgeous (and sometimes sloppy) photo, a bit uneven editing and actors that's very natural in one scene and extremely stiff in one. But that's how it is with very small, cheap, indie-movies. Directors François Gaillard and Christophe Robin knows what the giallo-fans want and packs the story with references and stylish sets. The blood is flowing, the gore is graphic and there's enough nudity for everyone who might appreciate it.

Honestly, this is neither a technical or artistic masterpiece, but it works surprisingly and the strong passion and love for the genre is there. Compared to Swedish indie-movies here we have actors or actually works with their characters and understands it's a movie and not reality, but the French has always had a different approach to art and understand it to the fullest. To create a giallo-mode isn't only about light the wall in the background with red and green, it's about flow and editing, the choice of actors and themes like art and culture.

I wish someone could give these awesome filmmakers a bigger budget and give them time to construct a more complex, but not less bloody, story. They are worth it, we in the audience are worth it. So go on, invest in them!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I've wished to see a good, talented tribute to the Italian horrors of the 70's, for a long time now."

Do you know if Amer (2009) is any good ninja?



"The blood is flowing, the gore is graphic and there's enough nudity for everyone who might appreciate it."

Three key elements that I appreciate a lot.


"I wish someone could give these awesome filmmakers a bigger budget and give them time to construct a more complex, but not less bloody, story."

Maybe Luc Besson could do it.....he did produce Haute tension (2003).

Good review ninja, thanks for the tip.

Megatron

Ninja Dixon said...

Yes! Amer! I forgot about it!
It's good, very strong visual - but I like this more, mostly because it has more gore and exploitation moments! Amer is more - very - arty :)

Anonymous said...

Ninja: I see.....well....I´m going to try to see Amer one day.

Thanks ninja.

Megatron

Sam B said...

Hallo there, many thanx for the info. I'd got hold of a stunning copy of Blackaria but didn't know last Caress existed until I found this blog whilst doing a web search on the former title. Thats a bang on review mate. It's great to see a meaty tribute to the grand genre of giallo. I loved Amer but as you say, it is very arty. Do you know of any more recent made movies of this calibre? Thanx once again, Sam B.

Ninja Dixon said...

Thank you Sam! Well, these are the only ones I found so far - but I really hope these fellas will do something similar - and even better - sooner or later!