Thursday, June 10, 2010

Day 26: One on Top of the Other




Hmm...

Decided to watch today's entry early.  I'm performing at Cozzy's tonight.  If any local followers aren't doing anything, come check it out.

One on Top of the Other (aka Una Sull'atra aka Perversion Story aka many other titles) is an early Fulci giallo.  It may have been his first, but I don't have my reference material on me at the moment.  While it isn't the world's greatest giallo, the pitfalls of this film come more from the style of the proto-gialli of the mid-to-late 60's than from Fulci himself.

Jean Sorel plays a doctor whose wife dies while he's out with his mistress.  See, ladies and gents, men can be whores in gialli, too.

Anyhow, the doctor stands to inherit $2,000,000 now that his wife is gone.  Meanwhile, he goes to the strip club.  What better way to mourn?  While there, he finds a stripper who looks exactly like his wife...but blonde...



The strongest parts of the film lie in the beginning and the end.  The scenes in the strip club, as well as the copious amounts of nudity, spice up the first half hour or so. But the second act really drags on.  When the third act starts, things pick up, but the resolution is a clunker.  Yes, everything is explained, but instead of showing us the action, we have some reporter on a news program telling us what happened at the end.  Dude, SHOW US WHAT HAPPENED!  Show, don't tell!  It's a movie.  Not a radio program.

Too bad the final moments brought the film to a screeching halt.  If Fulci had actually shot the ending, rather than have some long monologue, the film would have had a satisfying conclusion.  Now I understand what my screenwriting books meant by "Show, don't tell."

Four days left.

Later.
-Justin


2 comments:

  1. "show, don't tell..."
    remember in "wet hot american summer" when ken marino goes off to save the endangered raft of campers, and the camera just stays on joe lutruglio watching him?
    "ga...oh no...watch out...but...ah...you're doing it!"

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  2. Never saw it...but after seeing this I think I have a good idea.

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