LIBIDO
Italy 1965
D: Ernesto Gastaldi & Vittorio Salerno.
P: Ernesto Gastaldi & Vittorio Salerno for Nucleo Film//Sc: Ernesto Gastaldi & Vittorio Salerno//DP: Romolo Garroni//E: George Money//M: Carlo Rustichelli.
Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Mara Maryl(Maria Chianetta), Dominique Boschero, Alan Collins.
As a boy Christian sees his father murder his mistress. Twenty years later he takes his new bride Helene back to where the murder took place. His lawyer Paul (Alan Collins) and his wife Brigitte ( Mara Maryl) accompany them. Christian (Giannini) becomes convinced that Paul is trying to drive him insane so that he can take control of the inheritance. Too late, he discovers that actually Helene (Dominique Boschero) and Brigitte are the ones attempting to make him think he's insane.
Mara Maryl could almost be considered a co-auteur of this film as she wrote the story the film's based on and co-stars as Brigitte. Parts of this film turned up almost twenty years later in Gastaldi's & Salerno's NOTTORNO CON GRIDA. The footage was tinted and used in a completely different context. Stylish direction by Gastaldi & Salerno makes one wish they had done more work in that position, rather than concentrate on cranking out screenplays. Giancarlo Giannini was still a decade away from finding fame with Italian art-house fave director Lina Wertmuller, yet even here he hams it up for the camera. The B&W cinematography certainly helps to maintain the film's atmosphere of insanity. Rustichelli's score is one of his better efforts with a special emphasis on using an organ and saxaphone to create tension. The fact that only 4 people appear in the film certainly indicates the low budget, however Gastaldi and Salerno use the exteriors surrounding the gothic-like abode well to offset this. With the financial failure of this film, it sent both co-directors back to the salt mines of screenplay writing which was a shame, based on the quality of the presentation here. Salerno (whose brother was famous actor Enrico Maria Salerno) resurfaced 8 years later with a duo of excellent thriller/sleaze affairs: NO, THE CASE IS HAPPILY RESOLVED and SAVAGE 3.