After posting a blog entry from this site on Facebook, I was challenged with the factual categorisation of a film in the post, the film in question, 'The Perfume of the Lady in Black'. In the post I listed the movie as a giallo, having never seen the film I had to go with the general consensus of others. The validity of listing this film as a giallo raised considerable, contempt from a member of a horror forum I belong too. The person was adamant that the film couldn’t be seen as such. I have witnessed conflict over this title before on other review sites, it seems to be one of those movies, along with 'Suspira', that gets thrown under the giallo banner, simply because it is an Italian horror from the '70s. This got me thinking, how exactly do you define a giallo film?
In the strictest sense, and I don't want to get into a history lesson here, gialli derive their name from the yellow paperback, murder mystery novels that were once popular in Italy around the 1940s. The genesis of the genre came from director Mario Bava, who was inspired by the novels, as well as the films of Alfred Hitchcock. In the '60s Bava released two classics of the genre, 'The Girl Who Knew Too Much', and 'Blood and Black Lace', kick starting the whole sub-genre.
The real explosion of popularity happened later, in the next decade, when Dario Argento released 'Bird with the Crystal Plumage'. Now this is where things get tricky, as with any copycats of popular films, there are going to be original ideas and concepts that will also be labeled as imitators. So with a Euro Crime (Poliziottesco) film like 'What Have They Done To Your Daughters?', it is suddenly seen as a giallo. Or how about Gothic horror titles like Martino's 'Your Vice Is a Locked Room, and Only I Have the Key', Antonio Margheriti 'Seven Deaths In a Cat’s Eye', and Giuseppe Bennati 'The Killer Reserved Nine Seats'. See how things can get confusing, and I think the main reason these get categorised under the giallo banner is that a lot of these productions share the same cast and crew. So we have stars like Edwige Fenech, Jean Sorel, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli, starring in films, and automatically they are gialli.
As for the directors, sure we all know Argento, Bava , and Sergio Martino, but what about Massimo Dallamano, Aldo Lado, Luciano Ercoli. Ercoli’s own 'Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion', is also very questionable when it comes to giallo aesthetic. Then there are composers and writers, that these movies share, like Ennio Morricone and Ernesto Gastaldi. So again anything they work on that has a hint of giallo tropes, could potentially be called a giallo film. Gastaldi is hardly ever mentioned by the way, either in reviews, or by fans, yet he worked on a number of classic Italian horror films, whether you want to call them gialli or not. From ‘Torso’, ‘All The Colours In The Dark’, ‘Case of The Bloody Irs’, to the later, ‘The Killer Is Still Among Us’.
The best description of gialli and its many mutations comes from Krimi in the Pocket Giallo on the Brain. This excellent blog is written by Leonard Jacobs, who is a friend of Michael Mackenzie, who does audio-visual essays on Arrow Video’s giallo releases. Recently Mackenzie done an essay for the ‘Death Walks Twice’ box-set, so the two men know their gialli. In fact only a month ago he did a podcast on a double bill with Mimsy Farmer that happened to feature, ‘The perfume of the Lady in Black’, the offending film.
Jacobs wrote a fantastic piece called, ‘What Makes a Giallo’, in this essay he discusses the many attributes of gialli, and how there are certain people who only consider strict guidelines when it comes to the films. Here are some key points he makes:
I know a lot of people (myself included) debate minutiae when it comes to whether or not a given Italian genre movie is a Giallo. Esp. when it comes to the more obscure, lesser-seen examples out there. Some people limit the genre very strictly, arguing that there are no more than 60 or 70 Giallo films in existence. Or that only films in the “Golden Age” of Gialli (often considered 1970-1975, begun and ended by the Argento bookends of BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and DEEP RED) count as bona fide entries in the genre.
Some people hold that a film *must* be made in Italy (or by Italian hands) to be counted as part of the genre (this argument completely ignores, of course, the fact that most of Argento’s early Gialli were nothing but “Euro-pudding” co-productions, with as much production money and writing and acting talent coming from outside of Italy as in). That is, some people take a very conservative, even anemic, approach to “what makes a Giallo”. I’m not one of those people.
He also makes mention of the genre’s connections to other film movements, such as German Expressionism, Film Noir, and the German Krimi films. Michael Mackenzie also stated on the ‘Movie Matters Podcast’:
The notion that the Giallo includes a very specific, prescribed set of film conventions (represented by the work of Argento, Bava, Fulci, Martino, Lado, Ercoli, Miraglia, etc.) is a very non-Italian one, and has grown from the increasing cult embrace of these films outside of their homeland.
Also in the eassy he mentions Claudio Simonetti from Goblin, who contributed to a number of iconic giallo soundtracks. Simonetti lists his “Top Gialli”, and along with classics like 'Deep Red', he also strangely has Ridley Scott’s 2001 film 'Hannibal' in his top three. How interesting is that? Simonetti continues to say:
“… the production practices of the commercial cinema in Italy led producers to seize upon whatever genre attracted the greatest immediate consumer interest … what sets Italy apart is its filmmakers’ readiness not only to mix together seemingly disparate genres, but also their … invention of ever more outrageous plots designed to fulfill consumer demand.”
So there you have it, so to speak, he is admitting that gialli is a stew with many ingredients. This is exactly why I am writing this essay, and why I feel it demands such a word count. For any genre, be it Western, action, horror, and especially giallo, it needs to grow and expand beyond its limitations. If every giallo had a black gloved killer, with a score by Ennio Morricone and starred Edwige Fenech how boring and tedious would that be? All the classics we hold so dear today would all feel the same. The fact there are so many films that bend and twist the rules, is exactly why I love watching these films.
In summation, I will leave you with one last thought from Mr. Jacobs, who eloquently sums up gialli:
It is a genre, a cinematic tradition, that’s as important, as far-reaching, as intricately networked as any other I’d care to explore.