Gone with the Morning Sun on My Back
The House with Laughing Windows (1976)
directed by Pupi Avati
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
When Argento "Americanized" the giallo genre, he - among other things - made women protagonists instead of victims. A less accomplished Italian director like Pupi Avati swings from torturing his pretty brunette love interest to abusing her with her on-screen lover's childish, misogynistic outbursts. But mother, as always, is the star of the show, and unless that scares or surprises you, The House with Laughing Windows, pretty as its setting is, is a silly, repetitive bore.
The motives of the hero, as opposed to those of the deranged painter he encounters, are never clear. Ditto his impulses and passions, or the absurd lengths the town goes to to keep him in its grasp. There was one moment I loved: an old tape recorder shorts and sets the light socket on fire, then cuts on in the darkness that follows to reveal the crawling, runny voice of a madman.
Otherwise, the movie relies on oddness and novelty more than fear. That Italian girl is beautiful, in spite of her fridge full of snails, but the protagonist never takes his pants off during sex. He's free and easy with the word "bitch," and maybe that's how Italian boys think it's done. They're wrong.
directed by Pupi Avati
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
When Argento "Americanized" the giallo genre, he - among other things - made women protagonists instead of victims. A less accomplished Italian director like Pupi Avati swings from torturing his pretty brunette love interest to abusing her with her on-screen lover's childish, misogynistic outbursts. But mother, as always, is the star of the show, and unless that scares or surprises you, The House with Laughing Windows, pretty as its setting is, is a silly, repetitive bore.
The motives of the hero, as opposed to those of the deranged painter he encounters, are never clear. Ditto his impulses and passions, or the absurd lengths the town goes to to keep him in its grasp. There was one moment I loved: an old tape recorder shorts and sets the light socket on fire, then cuts on in the darkness that follows to reveal the crawling, runny voice of a madman.
Otherwise, the movie relies on oddness and novelty more than fear. That Italian girl is beautiful, in spite of her fridge full of snails, but the protagonist never takes his pants off during sex. He's free and easy with the word "bitch," and maybe that's how Italian boys think it's done. They're wrong.
posted by NPK at 5:58 AM
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