Violet Crown embarks on a “Mediterranean Cruise”

Violet Crown embarks on a “Mediterranean Cruise”

The strange, haloed figure of the Brocken spectre, a phenomenon that occurs when the sun is behind an observer and projects his or her gigantic, magnified shadow onto mist or fog, seems analogous to cinematic experience. A film, after all, is projected before an audience on a big screen, the images appearing much larger than they are in the frames themselves. And some films, like the classics of Mediterranean cinema coming to the Violet Crown this month, have legacies as far-reaching as the Brocken. The analogy is especially apt when one considers that English essayist Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), a major influence on director Dario Argento, included a literary treatment of the phenomenon in his 1845 work of psychological fantasy Suspiria de Profundis. In fact, Suspiria is the title of one of Argento’s best-known films.

As part of “Mediterranean Cruise,” a film series that runs for eight consecutive Sundays beginning in February, Violet Crown Cinema is showing two newly restored movies from Argento’s oeuvre: The Bird

With the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Deep Red (1975). Both films are considered landmarks of the horror genre called giallo and tell stories that begin with eyewitnesses — to attempted murder and murder, respectively — who aid police in unmasking the villains. Giallo (“yellow”) is a term used for Italian cinema and literature involving elements of mystery, crime, slashers, and/or psychological horror. The name comes from the yellow covers of popular works of pulp fiction called “il giallo Mondadori” that Arnoldo Mondadori Editore began publishing in 1929. Italian giallo films, which are often brutally violent, are also stylish, with vibrantly colorful visuals, odd camera angles, and extreme close-ups.

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and Deep Red are the closing films of the series, and admittedly, they’re downbeat, frightening stories to end on. The Bird With

the Crystal Plumage is set in Rome, where Sam (Tony Musante), an American writer, watches in horror as a woman is viciously attacked in an art gallery. Sam, a material witness to the crime, which police link to a spate of serial killings, is forced to forgo his plan to return to the U.S. He becomes obsessed with the case, and as he’s drawn deeper into the mystery, he and his girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall) become targets. The film is credited with starting the giallo horror boom of the 1970s and was Argento’s first directorial effort. It won Italy’s Golden Globe for best first feature.

If you’re a true fan of giallo, Deep Red is a must. It’s a mystery thriller that follows Marcus (David Hemmings), a musician who watches helplessly through a window as his neighbor, a psychic, is murdered with a meat cleaver. Embroiled in the ensuing investigation, Marcus is haunted by a children’s folk tune that he hears when the killer strikes, which may help lead him to the identity of the fiend. Boasting a soundtrack by prog rockers Goblin (Argento regulars in the music department), striking visuals, and the director’s trademark energetic camera movements,

Deep Red is quintessential Argento — even if the killer’s laughing, sneering mechanical doll, who serves no real purpose other than to surprise and distract a would-be victim, seems to come out of nowhere.

“Mediterranean Cruise,” curated by Jon Bowman, film historian and former manager of the Jean Cocteau Cinema, is the second series at Violet Crown to focus on films by region. Last year, the theater showed a series of titles by Parisian directors over a four-week period. “We wanted to follow up on the surprise success from our Summer in Paris series,” said Peter Grendle, the theater’s general manager. “Jon, myself, and our owner, Bill Banowsky, started picking out favorite countries, favorite regions, favorite styles, genres, and decades. In my mind, a movie’s true cultural impact is either responsive to society or predicting society. I personally feel that you can track genres and movements by tracking the history of world wars, for example. The horror genre does something different before and after World War II. The Western genre does something different before and after the Vietnam War. With Paris, we were all about the ’50s and ’60s for horror and sci-fi. With this one, we’re more about how these filmmakers think, act, feel, and create their art in this certain region. The challenge for an audience would be to identify that general mentality and operating procedure and be immersed in a different area and experience all the genres in that area.”

Early on in the “Mediterranean Cruise” program, Violet Crown shows two films by Federico Fellini: the surrealist comedy 8 ½ (1963) and the comic drama

Orchestra Rehearsal (1978). 8 ½, so named because the director’s three previous films included six features, two shorts, and a collaboration (he considered the last three to be half a film each), is a semiautobiographical story about a director, played by

Marcello Mastroianni, who is suffering from anxiety on the set of his latest movie. He retreats to a spa to recuperate and delves into the memories of his past. Haunted by the image of a beautiful woman and struggling to come up with a movie that’s authentic rather than merely crowd-pleasing, he avoids his producer and the press, and his mounting inaction threatens to derail the project. The film has a lot to say about the ego of auteurs whose self-image overrides their art. 8 ½ won the Oscar for best foreignlanguage film at the 1964 Academy Awards, and Fellini was nominated for best director.

Orchestra Rehearsal was made relatively late in Fellini’s career. Set in a medieval Roman chapel, the film was originally made for Italian television and follows a German conductor (Balduin Baas) who rails at a group of classical musicians assembled for a rehearsal. They turn on him in open revolt. Fellini uses the setting as a microcosm representing a world in chaos, threatened by dictatorial madness, demagoguery, and power struggles.

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and Deep Red are the closing films of the series, and admittedly, they’re downbeat, frightening stories to end on.

The series continues with Z (1969), Greek-French filmmaker CostaGavras’ satirical political thriller inspired by the real-life assassination of Greek politician and anti-war activist Grigoris Lambrakis. This fictionalized account of events features a stellar international cast including Jean-Louis Trintignant, Yves Montand, Irene Papas, and Jacques Perrin. It’s a searing indictment of the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974 and was made while the regime was in full swing. The film won Oscars for best editing and best foreign-language film in 1970 and was nominated for many others, including best picture and best director.

Spanish director Fernando Arrabal’s Viva la Muerte (1971) follows Z. Arrabal’s directorial debut tells a story of the atrocities of war from the point of view of ten-year-old Fando (Mahdi Chaouch), trying to make sense of his parents’ roles in the Spanish Civil War. Partly Oedipal in nature, the film relies on Fando’s life experiences and wild imaginings to tell a gruesome, hallucinatory tale of human cruelty.

Also included is Luchino Visconti’s historical costume drama Ludwig (1973), a biopic about the Bavarian king Ludwig II, starring Helmut Berger in the lead role. This epic film is about Ludwig’s controversial reign and many loves — men and women both including his cousin Elisabeth of Austria, played by the stunning Romy Schneider, and the composer Richard Wagner (played by Trevor Howard, although the director intended to cast Laurence Olivier). The costume work of Piero Tosi was nominated for an Academy Award. The film is being shown in its complete, four-hour entirety.

Next comes an atypical Mediterranean serving: Marco Ferreri’s opus to bourgeoisie excess, the black comedy La Grande Bouffe (1973), starring Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli, and Philippe Noiret. A restaurateur, a pilot, a television producer, and a magistrate spend a hedonistic weekend at a Parisian villa, intent on gorging themselves to death. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d’Or. Bon appétit. ◀