Locarno Diary #5: Italian Horror Stories

by Elisa Giudici

I was really curious to see Italian movies selected this year in Locarno, after the change of the artistic director. Italy and this part of Switzerland have strong ties: everyone here speaks Italian. You can drive from Milan to Locarno in a couple of hours, so it is not that surprising that the Swiss Festival has strong connections with Italian movie industry. So why are the Italian movies shown in Locarno almost always a disappointment? (The two worst Italian films I saw in the past decade were both showcased here. ) I have my own little conspiracy theories on this topic but that's for another time.

This year there are three prominent Italian movies in Locarno: one in competition, one in Piazza Grande and one in the Cineasti del presente section (which is reserved for young, promising directors). After seeing Il legionario, I was quite optimistic about the fact the something has changed and the "Italian curse" in Locarno has lifted. Perhaps I was too optimistic...

Il mostro della cripta by Daniele Misischia

I really hoped this one could be a little, fun Italian horror movie to entertain Piazza Grande audience, but for me it was a disappointment. Il mostra della cripata, which is based on an idea by Manetti Bros (Paura, Ammore e malavita, and the upcoming Diabolik), is an homage to italian horror B movies. The protagonistl Gio (Tobia de is a 20 something cinephile who lives in a picturesque village on Veneto mountain named Bobbio. He's wary of the calm, sleepy atmosphere of the village: he dreams of monsters and serial killers as seen in Hollywood movies and pulp comics drawn by Diego Busirivici (Pasquale Petrolo). To fight off his boredom, he is trying to make a slasher movie with his friends and Vanessa (Amanda Campana), his beautiful scream queen. Suddenly a serie of terrible murders colors Bobbio blood red. Unfortunately the main suspect of the killings is Giò himself. The first murder is a perfect copy of a murder from his own comic book "Squad 666".  

I was fooled by the lovely trailer of this movie, which combines comedy, horror and '80 nostalgia. I thought I would enjoy it but the Italian horror genre is not exactly famous for having coherent screenplays or great performances. When I think of the genius of Mario Bava or Dario Argento, I can still perceive the tangible limits of screenplays evolved from an idea written on a napkin or a cast that is not exactly up to the task. And yet Italian horror films from the '60, the '70 and the '80 are really something. Why? Because of the creativity of the filmmaking, the innovative visual solutions you can still seen "being borrowed" in contemporary horror movies.

No one is asking Misischia for Manetti Bros Bava's level of genius here, mind you, but only the bare minimum to make the movie work. Unfortunately the plot is so full of holes and incoherent passages you can't dismiss all of them as "B movie licence to be irrealistic". The cast is disappointing, too. Pasquale Petrolo, known as Lillo, is an Italian comedian and actor. Here he is trying to be a sort of local Jack Black in a Goosebumps. That suggests something for children but the movie is too violent for that. Lillo knows how to act but he is the only one in Il mostro della cripta. I am happy to cut some slack for young actors in first roles, but I was shocked that some of these line deliveries made the final cut. 

I giganti (The Giants) by Bonifacio Angius

Ahhh, finally an old school Locarno Italian movie. While Il mostro della cripta has a funny enough light concept, Angius's I giganti is a perfect example of the dull, old fashioned auteur title I expect to see and dislike here! I giganti is about five guys meeting in an old house in Sardegna. They spend the weekend taking various kinds of drugs and indulging in self-pity. The end. There is an attempt to do something Fellini-like here (the funeral procession scene), as well as monologues about existential pain and some hot takes on - wait for it - how hard it is to be a man who loves a cruel woman nowadays! 

The discourse around women is especially appaling. There are only four actresses in the whole movie: two  prostitutes, a daughter, and an ex wife. We see the latter only in a single scene, a very short one in which she takes the young daughter of the protagonist away from him (literally), while protected by her new lover and two large men who procede to hit the ex husband for no particular reason. We will never discover why he lost his daughter, why he can not see her, or why his ex wife is so vicious.

The younger brother of this character almost never speak after discovering that "people say one thing while doing another". He was shocked and deeply hurt years before by seeing his girlfriend kissing another man. I don't want to sound dismissive about being broken-hearts or pain but it was really difficult to connect with major existential crisis provoked by hurtful experiences regular people face every day. The real point should not be the pain but how you try to recover from it, maybe ask for help from a good therapist. I understand the pain, but I don't support a movie that tries to justify this level ofself pity, violence and obsession under the old label of "sensitive protagonists who sees the Truth and suffers for it". You can have your heart broken without developing hate for an entire gender. I saw no giants here, only adult men closing themselves off in their self-made worlds of misery... and glorifying it in the process.

Zeros and Ones by Abel Ferrara

Okay, technically Abel Ferrara is not an Italian director, but he arrived in Locarno promising us a movie about saint Padre Pio with Shia LeBeouf (what!?) and saying "people I work with tell me Piazza Vittorio in Rome is my New York". In short, I think of him as an honorary Italian director for the sake of this Locarno Diary.

His latest film which stars Ethan Hawke was shot in Rome just six days after the red level lockdown started in the Eternal City. Ferrara, who admits he was afraid for his life being 70 years old, filmed Zeros and Ones in just a couple of weeks in "a city under the siege of an invisible enemy". The troupe was made up of only 20 people, wearing masks and using lots of hygienic protocols both behind and in front of the camera.  Zeros and Ones was shot almost exclusively at nighttime (sometimes the camera lights were on the actors' bodies!) and is an apocalyptic story set in a Rome which is full of contrasting religious sects, intelligence services and a man who seems to know the ultimate secret everyone wants unveiled.

To be honest, the plot is quite a mess and the production here has very clear limits (the fake explosions were almost funny). Still, I really liked listening to Ferrara describing this incredibile journey during the press conference and sometimes during the film itself. I'll share one example we learned at the conference. There is a short scene in with Justin (Hawke) walks by Tevere river. The production had guys ready to stop every passerby or vehicle coming, because the scene requires Justin to be completely alone. Usually that is quite impossible: even in the middle of the night there is always a Jep Gambardella type walking by the river thinking about his life; somehow they shot for over an hour without seeing another human being! 

previously from Elisa
Locarno Diary 1 - Beckett
Locarno Diary 2 - Heavens Above, Hinterland 
Locarno Diary 3 - Phil Tippett and Mad God
Locarno Diary 4 - Il Legionario, Cop Secret
Cannes Diaries