Synopsis
A man is shot in an underground car-park by a mysterious bearded man. As he dies he recollects the events that led him to this situation, including adulterous liaisons and jealous envy.
1971 ‘La controfigura’ Directed by Romolo Guerrieri
A man is shot in an underground car-park by a mysterious bearded man. As he dies he recollects the events that led him to this situation, including adulterous liaisons and jealous envy.
Love Inferno, La contrafigura, 爱狱
Jean Sorel is annoyed by his wife's (Ewa Aulin) flirtatious nature towards other men, so he starts hooking up with his mother in law (Lucía Bosé). That's it. That's basically the entire gist of The Double. The movie is visually appealing however and the story unfolds in an out of sequence order, making it feel extremely off, almost (fever)dreamlike.
This could definitely be considered giallo adjacent.
The Double relies upon a sexy, moody atmosphere to disguise the fact that not much is going on, and to try to make you not notice that it's wasting its tremendous supporting cast (particularly Silvano Tranquilli and Marilù Tolo) but, when push comes to shove, any movie that portrays Lucia Bosé as life-ruiningly hot and Jean Sorel as a big idiot is ok by me.
Terza Visione 2023: Film #7
In a quality mystery picture you can just switch the last two reels and it still makes the same amount of sense.
Absolute nothing going but style, yet it is very eay to get lost in it maze f images. Its dedication to sensation over character and plot is near experimental.
Even watching the subpar print I saw, I could tell that this is a minor masterpiece that is in desperate need of rediscovery.
Resides at the far WTF/Death Laid an Egg end of the Giallo scale. Narratively unhinged and frequently confusing. but certainly worth a look.
Giallo Friday's back, baby! Double or Nothing month, week one, part one! The Double. Here's Jean Sorel having a flashback for the whole movie again, just like Short Night of Glass Dolls. Another murder-lite, sex-heavy entry in the giallo genre, but at least it's kind of interesting. The surreal elements helped a lot. Stupid funny zoom-ins! Nude beaches and underwater antics! ED as symbolic moral failure and a harpoon through the ass! Commie cars! Unrealistic gun use! Politics! Egg theft! Allen Ginsberg! Threatening to pump your wife full of babies right before you try to SA her... yep, it's that type of movie. They did an excellent job making Lucía Bosè and Ewa Aulin look related.
The only Guerrieri film I had previously seen was the nasty, energetic LIBERI ARMATI PERICOLOSI at Terza 2018. LA CONTROFIGURA is not quite as mean-spirited, but even better. The first part in Morocco plays out like a not quite as openly political version of Liberatore's BORA BORA: Once again narcissistic Italian masculinity away from home but unable to esdape from itself, passing-aggressively encroaching on every woman in reach - with the added twist that the only ones truly within reach are a mother-daughter team. The Maroccan setting, meanwhile, vanishes into the background, and still, the guy must've hoped to find something here, among the dunes overlooking the sea, under the native's tent.
Once the film heads back home, nothing is solved. On the contrary, everything deintegrates, especially the fantasy of two women becoming one.
Eine Dekonstruktion des Patriarchats, welche als heiße Sommerromanze anfängt und in einem Kaleidoskop von Dissonanzen endet. Jean Sorel spielt dabei den toxischen Ehemann gänzlich überzeugend - wie er von Eifersucht zerfressen wird, sich obsessiv in die Mutter seiner Frau verliebt und nur dafür in die Ziegelei seiner ihn versorgenden Familie geht, um die Leiche seines vermeintlichen Nebenbuhlers, der aber eigentlich schwul ist, zu verbrennen. Der absolute Wahnsinn, wie dieser Mann nichts begreift und wie sich das in seinem Gesicht widerspiegelt!
Knew absolutely nothing about this story and was genuinely impressed. A giallo built around a fantastic and shocking framing story with a lead character (Jean Sorel) who is truly detestable in his jealousy and compunction. A twisted glimpse into the psyche of a handsome, delusional douchebag.