The Fifth Cord
1971 ‘Giornata nera per l'ariete’ Directed by Luigi Bazzoni
Synopsis
Luigi Bazzoni (Le Orme) directed this outstanding giallo thriller starring Franco Nero as a hard-drinking newspaperman who gets involved in a string of brutal murders.
Cast
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Admittedly, the plot may not be anything special, but I'm beginning to wonder if this could be the most beautiful giallo ever shot. The likes of DEEP RED certainly do more to create a sense of impressive scale with their Scope photography, but the lighting in this one, the foregrounding of harsh, angular architecture, and the recurring motif of window blinds creating the feeling of every building being a "cage" are absolutely top notch. Fantastic work by Vittorio Storaro that elevates what might have been a run of the mill giallo into something far more impressive.
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Franco Nero could read aloud "Winnie The Pooh"and make it sound bad-ass. Spouting every word with such force and diction, that it would flake off years of cigar smoke and J & B from his mustache like snow falling in New York.
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Stylish and intermittently entertaining giallo which is ultimately let down by a dull and unsatisfying mystery at its center and a lack of interesting kills.
Franco Nero is great as the lead, a constantly hung over cop with the world's most powerful slap. It is not hyperbolic to say he probably slaps every single character in this movie at least once.
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Franco Nero could read aloud "Winnie The Pooh"and make it sound bad-ass. Spouting every word with such force and diction, that it would flake off years of cigar smoke and J & B from his mustache like snow falling in New York.
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Not my favorite giallo but there's no denying its quality, the bevy of world class beauties in the cast (including Nero) or the nice score by Morricone.
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Admittedly, the plot may not be anything special, but I'm beginning to wonder if this could be the most beautiful giallo ever shot. The likes of DEEP RED certainly do more to create a sense of impressive scale with their Scope photography, but the lighting in this one, the foregrounding of harsh, angular architecture, and the recurring motif of window blinds creating the feeling of every building being a "cage" are absolutely top notch. Fantastic work by Vittorio Storaro that elevates what might have been a run of the mill giallo into something far more impressive.
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Beautifully shot, great art direction and some bad acting.
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Elegant But Slow Giallo...
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So many of these second-tier giallos construct mysteries that they don't have the slightest fucking interest in solving or keeping coherent, simply because they saw Argento do it that way that one time and this stuff doesn't have to make sense amiright? That's all well and good if you're, you know, Argento - THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE or DEEP RED may not make sense on the whole, but they're fascinating from scene to scene because of Argento's extraordinary formal command. Luigi Bazzoni, on the other hand, can barely film a shot of a guy holding a knife without acting like he's scared of the image. The big murder setpieces are filmed indifferently and cut together raggedly, like Franco…
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This is one fantastic looking film.
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Very good Giallo and really enjoyed Franco Nero performance as the slap happy journo.
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Stylish and intermittently entertaining giallo which is ultimately let down by a dull and unsatisfying mystery at its center and a lack of interesting kills.
Franco Nero is great as the lead, a constantly hung over cop with the world's most powerful slap. It is not hyperbolic to say he probably slaps every single character in this movie at least once.