Blue Movie (1978)
Directed by Alberto Cavallone
Runtime: 90 min
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Color: Color (Technicolor)
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077252/
Reviews: http://www.so-sweet.cwc.net/Films/blue_movie.htm
While not as internationally notorious as other European avant guarde directors, Italian Alberto Cavallone has produced some unforgettable celluloid mindfucks. His SPELL (DOLCE MATTATOIO; SWEET ABBATOIR; MAN, WOMAN AND BEAST) 1977 is an obsession on themes of birth, death, Catholicism, communism, sex, repression and perversion.
This strange and rare piece of art-house sleaze starts exactly as it intends to continue. A prolonged and strangely edited rape scene, where a woman is attacked in some woods by a man with a stocking over his head, sets the tone for the rest of the film. She manages to escape the attack and flags down a passing car, driven by a man who takes her back to his house. He turns out to be a photographer who enjoys intensely dominant relationships with his models...
Cue ninety minutes of sexual degradation and humiliation, shot in a bizarrely minimalist manner that makes one think of early Abel Ferrara films. There are numerous strange sex scenes that vary from softcore, to near hardcore, to actual hardcore (only ever shown in brief edits). The film creates a very strange ambience and it's hard not to feel uneasy whilst watching the movie. The plot, although simple, is extremely difficult to follow as characters drift in and out of the story with little or no fanfare. There are also numerous oddly edited flashback sequences to add to the confusion.
What is apparent is that Cavallone is going all out for the sexual sleaze and attempting to package it in an art-house bundle. The film becomes more extreme, and scatological, until the "climax" where a model is forced to defecate in a litter tray, and then stuff her excrement into cigarette packets. Later on she is shown smearing faeces all over her body. Like all of the female characters in this film, it is hard to tell whether they are victims or consenting of the curious acts they are forced to perform. Certainly there is an overwhelming atmosphere of intimidation and misogyny, and Cavallone seems to take pleasure in presenting his subjects as submissive in the max.
Adding to the weirdness is real mondo footage that has been edited into the film at certain points. Scenes of executions and killings suddenly flash up almost at random. The footage in question is also extremely poor quality, grainy, and at times indistinguishable.
This is certainly a very strange film. Gritty pretension aside, it seems intended to be some kind of artistic piece, but this is thrown into question by some of the prolonged scenes of sexual dubiousness. I really don't know enough about this sort of film, or the director, to be able to completely assess the motives behind it- however take it as read that in places this movie makes you feel very uncomfortable. Fans of the work of people like Ferrara or Paul Morrissey, or generally of low-budget Italian sleaze, should take a look.
Bizarre, obscure film from Italian director Cavallone about sexual politics with ideas borrowed from Dusan Makavejev, who was a pioneer in the field of the pastiche-film. There is no real plot to speak of, and the basic setup (that of a photographer and his slave-assistants) exists to string together all the surreal moments (the eye ball under the key, the 'person' in the closet), paraphilias (coprophagia, voyeurism, mysophilia, etc), symbolism (the nude dolls and toys, the 'menstruating' bathtub) and incorporated stock footage of war atrocities (all of these elements were key features in 1974's Sweet Movie). The home-movie atmosphere and the use of Bach on the soundtrack are definite pluses (the amateurish acting and 70's-style zooming in and out enhance the mood rather than detract from it), but it's still on a level below Sweet Movie, since Cavallone doesn't have the cinematic sense, intelligence or all-important humor of Makavejev. Experimental transgressions like this are all but missing in cinema, which is most unfortunate; fans of low-budget 'euro-trash' will want to seek this notorious picture out.
[ITA).Blue.Movie.(uncut.Alberto.Cavallone.-.1978).(VHS.rip).avi 
