Guest review by MARIO
What is a "Tinto Brass fan" and what is a "Tinto Brass film"?
Long before Tinto Brass has established himself with his erotic T&A movies
he made movies in the late 60's /early 70's that could be tagged under a "arthouse" or "surreal" category. Describing L'URLO entirely is difficult, perhaps impossible, but for sure it would need more space to write about it.
Basically the movie is a slideshow of grotesque surreal and psychedelic scenarios and idejas,
where lead actress Tina Aumont jumps from one "adventurous" event to another.
She is supported here by the very fine performance of Luigi Proietti who plays a not too deadly-serious character...
In the first minutes of the movie, we see the "altar of marriage" : a priest with a weird "shrinkhead" as an amulet, a man with shampoo on his head.
Anna (Tina Aumont) who is covered with white make-up and strong black eyeliner…
Seemingly she isn’t very convinced about this marriage. She sees Coso (Proietti) lurking on the side, and decides to "run away" with him.
After a grotesque "Hitch hike" drive in the car (including dialogues...) they both piss on the front-window of the car.
Both "check in" to a bizarre hotel with some special rooms:
Nude, semi-nude people around, somebody with a gas mask on, a woman with a swan, a goose that gets beheaded.
Behaviour somewhere between "zoo" and "lunatic asylum".
A weird scenario as if a Hieronymus Bosch painting comes to live with an extra dose of "psychedelics".
Another scene: a nude and "great philosopher" as he calls himself, who wears an ancient wig
first welcomes the two strangers into his home... the free nature, just to notice afterwards that he is a cannibal!
In one scene we see Tina Aumont and Luigi Proietti running in a hurry : here a short scene is intercut and edited from Brass previous movie COL CUORE IN GOLA where we see Jean-Louis Trintignant running and screaming (which sort of suits to this moment) Anna asks "who was this?" and Coso replies to this simply : "Trintignant"… this makes almost the impression of a slight tongue-in cheek self-parody.
The film features also various short archive footage from war and executions, speeches from Mussolini and a certain Führer from Germany.
Scenes of people demonstrating...
In one scene a ludicrous "mini-version" midget of the Führer appears, as a sort of parody.
Soldiers appear relatively often in the movie who also in one scene rape the "heroine"
In the end of the movie, after a fatal car crash of Anna (which changes the scene with a big question mark that zooms up!) she marries the man she first escaped from.
In her wedding dress and again with the strong make-up, this ceremony somewhere in the woods… makes a bizarre impression.
Surely, the film is a "work of it's time" which shows a psychedelic culture linked to "revolutionary idejas" which don't exist today.
Speaking of Tina Aumont, it can be said that this is the role of her life.
Besides the great ideajs and music, etc... it’s as if the movie was made "for her"... as if everything is circling around her..
I don’t believe there is "another" L'URLO in her filmography!
(Fellini's CASANOVA can be considered also "grotesque" but she had a small side role in it).
In an old interview Tinto Brass explained the reason why she never became a real "star"… she was a "moody" person that shifted from happiness to depression, and also that she was "involved" in drugs...
Years later she has a "come-back" in Tinto's SALON KITTY where he commented that this time it was "a different Tina- less stunning".
He might be right, but this rather small and conventional side-role hardly asked her to do something "special".
"Un mondo cattivo non tolera l'amore" (an ugly/bad world which doesn’t tolerate love) is to hear during a song in the movie, which can be interpreted in various ways (including political),
Well this might "still" today be true-but if "love" even exists (except for 17 year olds... ) is another question... Sooner or later the "mondo cattivo" will show its’ thorns.
The film is an experiment, a joking around with the conventions of cinema.
The "chaos" of the movie represents the anti-authoritarian attitude. Ultimately a passionate scream that wants to gain freedom...
Its the sort of a cinematic experience that cannot be reproduced by the "film industry"
(unlike Tinto Brass’ later erotic films… and in contrary to idejas and imagination the flesh will never die... well at least not soon…)
A uniqueness that finds its relatives possibly somewhere between Jodorowsky and Dusan Makavejev.
L'urlo(Italy, 1970)
Directed by Tinto BrassWritten by:Tinto Brass, Gigi Proietti, Franco Longo, Gian Carlo Fusco
Starring: Tina Aumont, Gigi Proietti, Carla Cassola
Interesting take. I've not actually been much of a Tinto fan, i watched a bunch of his stuff in the early nineties, and never really felt the urge to revisit his stuff. Sure Salon Kitty and Caligula are gem's but never felt much for his movies. With that said, there's a lot of his other titles started to pop up on DVD over here, so perhaps there might something worth exploring in there. Do you have any tips where to go apart from the obvious ones?
ReplyDeleteLaters.
J
"L'urlo" sure sounds like a different film from Brass.
ReplyDeleteI didn't yet have the opportunity to see this film myself, so I was very glad to post this review written by a friend who is a fellow film enthusiast.
It seems there's a legit DVD of "L'Urlo" available under "the Howl" name on Amazon, but I cannot afford to buy it for now.
"Do you have any tips where to go apart from the obvious ones?" if you like l´urlo i recommend "Nerosubianco" and "Col cuore in gola"...i think before this dvd release l´urlo was only available on italian tape and was never "exported" (not to my knowledge at least)-mario-
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