Eyes Behind the Wall

It's a shame, 'L'occhio dietro la parete' has a promising cast, including the great Fernando Rey, who starred in some of Buñuel's best films, including 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie', as well as some good Italian genre films, like 'I Due Volti della Paura'. Unfortunately, despite the 'Rear Window'-inspired plot, there's not much suspense and it's pretty far-fetched stuff.

Rey stars as a wheelchair-bound man who uses some sort of contraption that looks like a periscope to spy on his neighbour (John Phillip Law from 'Danger: Diabolik') with his partner played by Olga Bisera. Then there's the butler, played by José Quaglio, who is obsessed with Olga in a creepy way and chases schoolgirls, which seems to have little to do with the story.

There is a giallo-esque twist at the end, but the rest of the film is pretty slow, with no real suspense, no violence, just a whole lot of sleaze like full-frontal male nudity, male on male action, pubic hair collections, but none of it is very sexy.

Normally, I'll find some redeeming quality in a giallo with mediocre reviews, but this one was a snorefest.

Fernando Rey stars as Ivano,a wheelchair bound man with some strange perversions.He gets his sexual kicks by spying on Arturo,their tenant in the apartment next-door and forcing his sexy accomplice Olga to watch as well.To increase his perverse thrill,Ivano persuades Olga to seduce Arturo and to have sex him as he watches.Unfortunately for all involved,the sex game starts to get very deadly as it is learned that Arturo is a psychotic serial killer."The Eye Behind the Wall" is a bizarre and very sleazy sexual thriller.Sadly writer/director Giuliano Petrelli never made another film after this.It actually reminded me Alfred Hitchock's masterpiece "Rear Window".The film is atmospheric and features a good amount of nudity and sleaze.Check it out.8 out of 10.

This odd and obscure Italian mix of giallo and drama tells the strange story of an old paralyzed writer (Fernando Rey), his younger wife (Olga Bisera) and a young man (John Phillip Law, "Delirio di Sangue") who lives in an apartment the couple rent him. What the young man doesn't know: the writer watches him on a telescope whose lens has been installed in the wall of the apartment. The paralyzed man, who shares a subvert secret with his wife, "needs" to spy on the tenants to find inspiration for his writing work. With this new tenant, however, the writer becomes obsessive and urges his wife to follow him to find out more about his personality. The wife becomes fascinated by the mysterious man too, and - needless to say - this "triangular relationship" won't come to a happy end.

"L'Occhio Dietro la Parete" is a really strange picture. All characters in it obviously have a psychological problem concerning relationships towards the other sex. Everyone has weird or even wicked desires and hides a depraved secret: The young man has an urge to kill, the couple's butler preys on teenage girls, and the couple... well, I won't give that away. The film is very atmospheric, shows quite an amount of nudity without becoming too sexploitative, and boosts a moody soundtrack. Sadly, this obscure oddity remains extremely hard to find. But if one can get hold of it, he shouldn't waste the opportunity and watch it: It's a really remarkable and quite unique film. Rating: 7 out of 10.

John Phillip Law (Night train to terror, Death Rides a horse) is a strange man. When we first see him he's on a train apparently murdering and raping some girl, and now he's moved into a house owned by Fernando Rey (High Crime, Price of Power). What Law doesn't know is that the wheelchair bound Rey has rigged his house with some weird sci-fi periscope gadget, allowing him to spy on Law in order to get ideas for his books or something to do with psychology. Far fetched? You betcha. An Italian film? Oooooh, yeah.

Rey's also got a hot wife and a butler who really likes Rey's hot wife, to the point where he's got a life size photo of her in his cupboard which he either punches in the crotch or rubs his face on, and collects her pubes after she has a bath to either smell or pretend he's got a moustache. She hates him though, so he turns his attention to some local girl and puts on a pretend rape show for Rey's wife's benefit. Rey's wife by this point has got the hots for Law after watching him exercising naked (and it's scrotum bouncingly funny).

Meanwhile, just in case anyone doesn't think this film is sleazy enough, Law picks up some joint smoking black dude at a disco (where some chick dances in the buff) and gets botted in the bott by the botter while screaming at the top his voice while Rey and his wife watch on. I actually burst out laughing at that which I'm not sure was the director's intention. It was just the screaming and the look on Law's face.

Rey's wife is all "You didn't tell me he liked his tea towel holder being stabbed by a chocolate javelin" but Rey convinces her to put the moves on Law. For some reason. So she toddles over to Law's house with a lease to sign and the next thing you they're walking around, going out for food and walking around some more while Law spouts philosophical crap about life. Usually buying a couple of bicardi breezers works for me, but before you know it Rey's wife back at Law's house, listening to Tangerine Dream records and getting all naked, while Fernando Rey watches on, having a flashback I won't reveal here. Rey's wife is shouting "Not there! No!" at this point which makes me think that Law was trying on a bit of back door action. Who knows with this film.

While the overall tone of this film is sleazy as hell (even more so with the twists that come later in the film), it's not overall graphic, thankfully, unless you want to see John Phillip Law's knackers, which I'm certain you do. Other than that it's all about the twists, and how everyone in this film is fecked up. It's a not bad thriller but from this genre you'd expect a bit more. Worth a watch though.

It's often said that Italian cinema is based on repeating itself, and this is never truer than when it comes to the Giallo sub-genre; but every now and again, you'll come across a completely absurd effort that isn't like any other Giallo, and Eyes Behind the Wall is one of those films. However, despite its originality, it has to be said that the film really isn't all that good. Despite the themes of voyeurism (obviously inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window), Eyes Behind the Wall is a rather tame film. Ideas of the spied-upon neighbour's more sordid antics aren't really explored, and even the final sickening twist doesn't feel too bad because of the matter-of-fact way that it is presented. The plot revolves around a wheelchair bound aging writer who has set up some equipment in his house so that he can spy on his next door neighbour, who apparently fascinates him and inspires him for his work as a writer. He soon gets his wife Olga involved in the voyeurism, and even convinces her to get involved with the neighbour in order to give her husband more information on the man he's spying on...

I'm not sure if the version I saw was cut or not (77 minutes long); but considering that this film is about sex, there's very little of it present. There's also not a lot of violence or murder, with most of those themes seeping in almost as an afterthought, probably to ensure that the film was considered a Giallo. It's actually more of a psychological thriller, with all the characters having some sort of vice that makes them sick enough to even be in this story. Aside from the central theme and the final twist, there's also a subplot involving a butler who obsesses over the lady of the house, which he does by taking her underwear and pubic hairs to worship them! The acting is actually quite good, and even though nobody stands out too much; it seems obvious that director Giuliano Petrelli wanted his trash film to have a little more class than most of its counterparts. Overall, I really wanted to like this more, as aside from being one of the more original entries in the genre, I can also admire the film for it's trashy themes. However, the execution is poor and the lack of blood and nudity is none too pleasing, meaning the resulting film feels a little flat.