Looking at some of Umberto Lenzi’s early movies, the pre-gialli specifically - Orgasmo 1969, Cosi Dolce... Cosi Perversa (So Sweet… So Perverse) 1969 and Paranoia (aka A Quite Place to Kill ) 1970), I have come to find a recurrent use of mirrors… seriously mate, it’s not possible to miss them. They are a huge part of early Lenzi cinema, and are an effective way to send signals to the audience. Perhaps this was an influence of Lenzi on set, possibly somewhere jotted down in the scripts, may be a little notes of how to use mirrors in the shot. Maybe it was a set designer who had an ingenious moment… on several occasions, or perhaps it is all the work of cinematographer Guglielmo Mancori who shot at least eight movies for Lenzi. Well for whatever reason there’s a clear mirror fetish going on in the films of Umberto Lenzi.
Watching these movies I’ve noticed how key moments in several of Lenzis’ films have an intriguing use of mirrors. Sometimes they merely deepen the composition, open up the room and show the orientation of other characters. At times it’s to create a shock moment, or similar effect, other times it’s pure symbolic value, but almost every time a mirror figures, it marks an important moment. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
Starting off on an easy foot, the mirrors open up the room. They give a depth to the shots, establish the location, and rather frequently a reflected character will be out of frame. It creates an excitement when we are allowed a peek into the off-screen space and see stuff outside of the frame.
Other times characters are placed with their backs towards the camera. The mirror reflection shows us their face – where we can read their emotions - and brings them into the piece, and at the same time their true feelings can be projected.
Lurking in the background is a clear favorite composition of Umberto Lenzi’s. It’s featured in a majority of his movies, and I can’t help but think of the Medusa, who with her fatal stare, kills her victims as they turn to stone. The only way to avoid death was to look upon her reflection, which disarmed her lethal stare. One could see these mirror compositions as metaphors for the deadly gaze, as the people staring at each others reflections frequently have sinister motifs in their game of deception. Instead of talking directly to each other they talk via the mirror, or in the worst case not at all, it’s the all said through mimicry and body language reflected through the mirror.
Nudity is rarely shot straight on when not in scenes of intimacy. For a voyeuristic – exploitative – approach, the camera merely pulls back, and shows us nudity through reflection instead. It works, and the nudity becomes more tantalizing, as if we the audience where seeing something we weren’t supposed to, sneaking a peak instead of staring at the naked flesh.
Take a look at these two scenes from Paranoia and Orgasmo. Both of them feature Carroll Baker’s character taking a shower, and in both scenes her love interest watches her safely hidden away in the off-screen space. We can only see him through the mirror. With the story plot in mind, it’s fair to say that the mirror in these cases acts as a metaphor for deception. Unlike the lurker who stands in the background, this is more of a threatening use, as this time only we know what’s lurking outside the frame. It’s a perfect metaphor and one Lenzi used on several occasions.
Ironically, there is no reflection in the mirror of the blind Martha Caldwell [Carroll Baker again] in Il cotello di ghiaccio (Knife of Ice) 1972.
After the pre-gilli thrillers, Lenzi worked with D.P. Alfio Contini – know for his work on Lilliana Cavani on Il portiere di note (The Night Porter) 1974, Antonioni’sZabriskie Point 1970, and awarded for his cinematography on the Antonioni/Wim Wenders co-production Beyond the Clouds 1995. Un posto ideale per uccidere (aka Oasis of Fear) 1971, tells the story of two youths, Dick Butler [Ray Lovelock] and Ingrid Sjöman [Ornella Mutti] who scam their was across the country peddling dirty photographs and sordid materials. By chance they come across the seemingly wealthy Barbara Slater [Irene Papas] who lives all alone in her huge mansion… a potential gold mine the two conartist can’t walk away from. With the theme of pornographic images and selling smut as one of the image systems of the movie, Lenzi uses the mirrors as a confirmation of the leading characters vanity. Almost every mirror is used for the lead characters to gaze upon themselves. The Greek myth of Narcissus comes to mind. Blinded by his own beauty he was completely unaware of his own pending doom, and walks right into his own demise. Just like Dick and Ingrid do in Oasis of Fear.
A cherished moment can be found in the 1975 Gialli Gatti rossi in un labirinto di ventro (Eyeball), where Lisa Sanders [Mirta Miller] stands smoking in her bathroom/makeshift darkroom. With the mirrors position declared, one to the left of the screen, and one in front of her, this makes for a haunting insight when she has her throat slashed moments later. Although the camera never takes position so that we see what she sees reflected in the mirror – instead we are treated to Mario Di Salvio and Alfredo Tiberi’s violent neck gash effect – we understand that what Sanders sees is her own death reflected in the mirror. A moment that definitely resonates Michael Powell’s influential Peeping Tom 1960.
Perhaps the finest example of this mirror fetish can be found in the masterpiece Paranoia (aka A Quiet Place to Kill) 1970. This movie bookends the pre-gialli thriller series, which all have strong influences of Boileau-Narcejac’s novel Celle qui n’était plus (The Woman who Was), Henri-George Clouzot’sLes Diabolique 1955 and Hitchcock’sVertigo 1958 – stories that all focus on trickery, deception and foul play between a complex constellation of characters.
Introductions of Characters.
An unnerving moment when reflection and reality don't match up
Unfaithfulness is revealed... and confronted via mirrors.
Almost every lie, or moment of deception is introduced, or revealed through a mirror. The mirrors almost work as portals into an alternative universe where the truth is projected for the audience to see.
Off-screen secrets, nudity, tension builders and shocking reveals, almost every one of the areas discussed above come into play in Paranoia, and at times in several layers.
So there you have it, the mirror fetish of Umberto Lenzi, finally revealed and exposed … now it’s up to you to find the cracks that reflect his mind in the mirrors of his movies. I promise you that you will look and reflect upon Lenzi’s movies in a whole new way from now on.
Ironmaster Original Title: La Guerra del ferro - Ironmaster Directed by: Umberto Lenzi Italy/France, 1983 Action/Adventure, 93min Distributed by: NjutaFilms
After shocking his audiences with gut-munching cannibals, freaky zombies chomping down on disco dancers, hardened cynical criminals blasting their way through coppers and surreal violent Gialli, Umberto Lenzi shifts focus, if only slightly, to cavemen, ape men and the odd mutant, bringing all those traits of his – especially the head bludgeoning that leaves a gaping bleeding scalp visible - to the dawn of time.
A small tribe of cavemen stand on the brink of a change as its time for tribe head Iksay [Benito Stefanelli] to pass on the prestigious position of leader to one of the younger hunters. Vood [George Eastman] and Ela [Sam Pesco] are the two main contenders, but where Vood may be the logic choice, Iksay is thinking of letting Ela take command. The two young and buff warriors antagonise each other until Vood takes matter into his own hands. During an attack of a rival tribe he smashes in the head of tribe leader Iksay, which is witnessed by Ela.
Ela spills the beans and a fight takes place that results in Vood being expelled from the tribe. The tribe declare Ela their new leader, and that outcast Vood be hunted like an animal, but soon the hunted will become the hunter!
After a freakish volcano eruption and heavy thunderstorm, where some really neat special effects and awesome matte paintings are part of the mix, Vood discovers a slab of iron in the shape of a naively drawn sword and after defeating a lion that attacks him, he realises he holds a new weapon of power in his hands. Wearing the Lions carcass as a totemic headpiece and with the lush Lith [Pamela Prati] Vood attacks his former tribe and convinces them to expel Ela who is forced out into the wild. There he faces a trial of endurance that has him fighting vicious ape men, raging herds of Bison and meeting Isa [Elivire Audray – from Mario Gariazzo’s Sciave bianche: violenza Amazzonia (Amazonia – The Catherine Miles Story)1985] who becomes his “matter of affection” and it’s quit obvious that Ela/Isa are opposing counterparts to Vood and Lith.
With the knowledge of crafting iron into swords Vood and his cohorts attack and slay a nearby village which stand defenceless against the hard, cold iron of Vood’s weapons. With his new power, Vood is determined to exterminate all other tribes, rule the land and hopefully kill off Ela along the way. Isa takes Ela to hide out in her village – the Mogo tribe - and start to make a new life. The only problem is that they are a peaceful tribe and consider weapons to be evil hence no weapons in their village, which is an obvious problem when Vood learns that Ela lives amongst the Mogo tribe. The stage has been set for the rapidly approaching climax and I know whom I’m rooting for.
Ironmaster is a goddamned wonderful flick, and even though Lenzi, under the hilarious pseudonym Humphrey Milestone, set’s his tale in prehistoric times there’s still a sequence in the middle of the movie that has Ela fighting off infected scarred beasts in what they hope can be their new home – a cave in the mountains – which is very much reminiscent of previous Lenzi moments, this time it’s almost like a cavemen fighting zombies sequence which is awesome. A slow build, establish the threat and then attack. It’s a great moment, which simply oozes classic Italian cinema.
All in all, The Ironmaster is a pretty straightforward caveman/barbarian action flick, but there’s also a tale of morale in there – especially in dialogue like the one where Mogo [William Berger] points out to Ela that weapons may give him freedom, but one day may take it back again. Mogo wanders out into the woods turning his back on the tribe who want to take to arms, and obviously he falls victim to Vood’s men only moments later.
Following the final battle, Mogo's statement comes back to haunt them as the cavemen experience their first encounter with remorse as the words of Mogo finally make sense to them. They are now slaves to weapons, and will never be free again... You could also look at the movie as a metaphor for how new technology and inventions often are used for warfare and destruction, or you could just look at the movie as ninety minutes of great prehistoric conflict and just go along for the ride!
I love the subplot with Isa who quite possibly is the most evil of all the characters as she manipulates her way through each encounter with Vood or Ela and treats the audience to more than one spontaneous nipslip as she runs around in the skimpiest of all loincloths, and unfortunately is killed off way to easy and fast. I’d have loved to see Lith and Isa wrestle it out as an appetiser to the final battle between Ela and Vood.
Eastman gives a fantastic performance as Vood, there’s no understatement that he was doing his finest work at this time period, and he owns this movie completely. If I had one of those tiger headpieces that he wears here, I’d wear it all the time. There’s an interesting approach to character here. Early on the medicine man states that Vood is the natural first in line to take over, which says something about his characters status – he’s most likely the son of Iksay, tribe leader. During the boar hunt, despite Vood having the boar in his sights and his spear raised for the kill, Iksay “steals” the kill from under his nose. Aggravated Vood rams his spear into the ground. When he learns of the pending threat that Ela may take over, he takes things into his own hands, he off’s his father and tries to force a shift in leadership. But the tribe cast him out and Ela takes charge, although after discovering power in arms the tribe chose to follow Vood instead, but his reign isn’t going to be long as his quest for Ela drives him into his untimely death. In more than one way there’s a Shakespearean quality to the story of the neglected, disgruntled Vood and how power turns against him bringing with it his own downfall. Vood - a fascinating character and undoubtedly one of Eastman’s finest hours.
Eugenio Alabiso sticks with Lenzi on yet another movie but this time the pacing is slower and the cut’s more meditative. There’s no fast transitions and rapid cuts, and in some ways’ it’s a fitting end to a collaboration that lasted on more than twenty movies movies, from Attentato ait re grandi (Desert Commandos) 1967 to I cinque del Condor (Thunder Squad) 1985, curiously both war movies dealing with mercenaries!
Dardano Sacchetti’s participation on the team of writers is noteworthy but never the less hard to spot any of his traits as there where at least six other writers on the team, Lenzi and Luciano Martino amongst them.
The movie really looks great, apart from the location shots in Custer State Park, Usa, where the buffalo roam and give sense of authenticity to the flick; there are the splendid Special effects by Paolo Ricci and visual effects by Emilio Ruiz del Rio. Ricci, nowhere near as known as counterparts like Gino De Rossi, Gianetto De Rossi or Carlo Rambaldi did work on a lot of gore laden and freaky movies, Deodato’sUltimo mondo cannibale (Last Cannibal World) 1977 Lenzi’sMangiati vivi! (Eaten Alive) 1980, Lucio Fulci’sGatto Nero (Black Cat) 1980, and Lamberto Bava’sBlastfighter 1984, and in-between them he worked on Andrei Tarkovsky’sNostalghia 1983. Spaniard, del Rio’s work can be seen in stuff spanning from the old Mario Bonnard, Steve ReevesGli ultimo giorno di Pompei (The Last days of Pompei) 1959 to Guillermo Del Toro’sPan’s Labyrinth 2006. Just a few years ago there was a documentary made on the work of Emilio Ruiz de Rio and of the ten Goya awards for special effects he’s been nominated for he’s won three. His models, miniatures and mattes work like perfection for Lenzi in The Ironmaster
Maurizio & Guido De Angelis score is fitting, there’s a chanty sit-down-by-the-firey quality to it that works for the movie, and on repeated viewings that tune may very well stick in your head.
Ironmaster is an enjoyable prehistory action flick, with an engaging story and a great movie to waste a hung-over Sunday on. Ironmaster is due for Scandinavian release in mid February, and it’s presented in a glorious widescreen print that will blow you away!
Image:
Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0
Extras:
Trailers for other NjutaFilm movies, and it’s an odd selection, because I’d definitely had put more Italian related flicks on there instead of the series of US soft-core sexploitation junk.
Wrapping up the loose trilogy of Jet-Set thrillers starting withCosì dolce… così perversa (So Sweet… So Perverse) and Orgasmo, both 1969, the series comes to an end with Carroll Baker in her third flick for Umberto Lenzi. The suave, mordant and enthralling Paranoia.
Once again relying on Boileau-Narcejac’s novel Celle qui n’était plus (The Woman who Was) which also inspired Henri-George Clouzot’sLes Diabolique 1955, Hitchcock’sVertigo 1958, not to mention a shit load of other Euro Thrillers including Lenzi’s two previous instalments in the “trilogy “, Paranoia may just be one of the finest adaptations to be inspired by that story and previous movies. Building not only a destructive threesome, the team of writers – including Bruno Di Geronimo (Gianfranco Mingozzi’sFlavia, la monaca musulmana (Flavia, the Heretic)) 1974. Marie Claire Solleville, who also wrote on Orgasmo, and Marcello Cosica who participated on one of my all-time fave zombie flicks, Jorge Grau’s Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) 1974 and the screenplay to Mario Bava’sLa maschera del demonio (Mask of Satan) 1960, put a twist on the story that actually had me going off track a few times. Which was surprising, unexpected and highly entertaining.
Helen [Carroll Baker] is a filthy rich, jet setting race-car driver who belts prestigious vehicles around the tracks at deadly speeds. After a somewhat serious accident she’s put in hospital all banged and bruised. She may be suffering from slight amnesia, this version is in Italian without subs, so I’m not with it all the way during the set up, but I’m going with the amnesia thread as that works better for the movie. Anyways she’s discharged from hospital and goes to rest along side her ex-husband Maurice [Jean Sorel] and his new sugar momma Constance [Anna Proclemer], who mysteriously invited her there to recuperate at their residence. The atmosphere is tense and the threesomes don’t quite know how to approach each other in this somewhat awkward scenario. Despite being divorced, Maurice still makes moves at Helen, and an effective flashback showing Helen and Maurice back at the breaking point of their relationship – a beautiful slow-mo scene where Maurice wrestles a gun out of Helen’s hand, which somewhat supports the amnesia theory as she wouldn’t be there if she’d recalled the bad ending.
After establishing what we suspect is the set up – Helen and Maurice wanting to get back together and Constance being in the way, there’s the obligatory scene of Carroll Baker in the shower peeked upon by not one, but two characters, and the first of several sudden plot twists. Constance starts to flirt with Helen, and there’s a fantastic scene of Helen trapped in a seductive game of footsie where both Constance and Maurice are working her legs and feet. Some nights later when Maurice comes home drunk, Constance suggests sinister plan to Helen, which would see her assist Constance in the murder of most likely cheating bastard Maurice. This also evokes flashbacks of happy times when Maurice and Helen where still in love, and it makes for a neat twist as it see’s Baker slowly falling into a state of disorder as she’s torn between her love and hate for Maurice. There’s a couple of classic deceptive moments as we now are lead to believe that Constance and Helen are going to off Maurice, but when push comes to shove… Obviously there’s a last minute spin and Helen doesn’t have courage to harpoon Maurice, and things take a completely different turn.
With Constance "out of the way", it looks as Maurice and Helen are safe on route to getting it all back together again, but… and there’s always a but, their happiness is threatened when an attorney friend of Constance, who always has his movie camera with him, starts to ask questions about accident that took Constance life. The suspicion and persecution starts to drive Helen round the bend – which to be honest has been done three times by lenzi and Baker at this time – and to make things worse, Constance daughter Susan [Marina Coffa] arrives and wants’ to know what happened to her mother... and finds her mother's husband being intimate with his ex wife!
It’s quite apparent that Umberto Lenzi started toying with the sadism that would become something of a signature trait of his here. There’s a lot of drawn out moments of mental torture like waiting for a corpse to be emerged from the sea, possible evidence on a reel of home movie, and constant suspicious stares. It all comes together wonderfully as editor Enzo Alabiso draws out the edits to the maximum, creating some immensely tense moments. It’s no wonder that Helen slowly goes insane considering the sadistic mind games that are played at her expense. Much like in previous instalments.
Anyways, back to the flick, where Susan wanders the same house as Helen and Maurice, after all it is her mother Constance house, and stats her own investigation into the mysterious accident that supposedly took her mothers life. Helen who in-between bouts of frustration and paranoia takes to snogging and shagging Maurice to keep her mind off the guilt that torments her, still has a harrowing surprise, shock and twist sequence left before the movie comes to it’s closure.
A common trait for all three movies in the “trilogy” is that cinematographer Guglielmo Mancori has something of a fetish for mirrors and composing frames within the frame. It’s not a bad thing, quite the opposite, as it treats the audience to some fantastic moments and at least once in each movie there’s a splendid illusion that a dead character is in fact alive. Something that lies close to the main device of these three movies – who is fooling who, and more than often with a rather cynical dark ending. It’s also noteworthy that Aristide Massaccesi (Joe D’Amato) worked as Mancori’s camera operator on Paranoia, just a few years before he started directing movies of his own.
Being a Spanish/French/Italian co-production, Antionio Ramírez – who edited several Leon Klimovsky & Paul Naschy flicks – accompanied Enzo Albasio in the editing. But that editing is still as ferocious as ever, and goes hand in glove with Mancori’s superb cinematography. Much of the same hard, almost violent editing style that was found in Orgasmo, and later in Il cotello di ghiaccio (The Knife of Ice) 1972, is seen here.
Gregorio Garcia Segura’s score (directed by Piero Umiliani) is groovy and sounds more like a cheaper companion part to Orgasmo than anything else. It even goes as far as reusing the rock act Weiss and the Airdales performing Just Tell Me once again in a club setting much like the one in Orgasmo.
Paranoia neatly wraps up the loose trilogy and sees some interesting traits evolve from the suite. The three movies showcase a progression of Umberto Lenzi traits that he’d later push further with the thrillers and several Gialli to follow. It’s also a treat to see Carroll Baker and Jean Sorel teamed up again as Paranoia with Romolo Guerrieri’s Il dolce corpo di Deborah (The Sweet Body of Deborah) 1968 are the only two movies they starred in together. Umberto Lenzi would follow Paranoia with a seedy sexploitation thriller – Un posto ideale per uccidere (Oasis of Fear) 1971 before starting off his fascinating string of fascinating Gialli that would definitely have him make his mark on the genre scene.
Image: 2.40:1 Original aspect ratio (16x9 enhanced)
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Italian dialogue. No subtitles
Extras: None.
Here's some freaky opening titles with some suave music for you to enjoy.