Fatal Frames

Last updated
Fatal Frames
Fatal-frames-poster.jpg
Directed byAl Festa
Screenplay byAlessandro Monese [1]
Story by
  • Al Festa
  • Alessandro Monese [1]
Produced byStefania Di Giandomenico [1]
CinematographyGiuseppe Berardini [1]
Edited byMaurizio Baglivo [1]
Music byAl Festa [1]
Production
company
Sail [1]
Release date
  • 1996 (1996)
Running time
137 minutes [1]
CountryItaly [2]

Fatal Frames (Italian : Fotogrammi mortali) is a 1996 Italian giallo film directed by Al Festa. It stars his wife, singer Stefania Stella. The film is about the American music video director Alex Ritt (Rick Gianasi) who is hired to direct the latest Stefania stelle video in Rome. While there, he witnesses a brutal killing. By the time the police arrive, the body has vanished and no traces of blood are found. When Ritt witnesses a second murder with the same circumstances, he tries to discover the truth. [3]

Contents

Fatal Frames was conceived by music video director Festa and his wife, the singer Stefania Stella. The two developed the film in the style of 1970s Italian thrillers. During filming, the film ran out of production money leading to filming being halted. During this period, two key actors died: Donald Pleasence and Rossano Brazzi. This led to the script being re-written with David Warbeck to fill in the gaps of these characters. The film received negative reviews on its release.

Cast

Cast adapted from So Deadly, So Perverse Volume 2. [3]

Production

Fatal Frames was conceived by music video director Al Festa and his wife, singer Stefania Stella. Finding that the gialli was a genre in a slump, they decided to make a film to reflect the style and tones of 1970s-styled gialli while incorporating their own music into the film. [3] Critic and film historian Roberto Curti described that this style had "almost totally vanished" from Italian cinema in the 1990s, and that it was confined to "bottom-of-the-barrel footnotes" such as Dario Micheli's Il gioco della notte (1993) and Pierfranceso Campanella's Bugie rosse (1994). [4]

Fatal Frames began production in 1993. While filming into 1994, financing on the film dried up leading for production to shut down to find additional funds. While not filming, cast members Rossano Brazzi and Donald Pleasence died. [5] Funding was found through Silvio Berlusconi's Media set production company, but re-writing had to be done on the film to deal with the death of two actors. This led to David Warbeck being drafted into the film, with his part being written to cover up for the death of the other two actors. [5]

Festa's original edit of the film was two hours and 20 minutes, which was later cut down to two hours and five minutes. [5]

Release

Fatal Frames was released in 1996. [4] [6] It was released on DVD by Synapse. [3]

Festa did not return to directing films until The Hermit in 2012. [5]

Reception

Film historian Troy Howarth described the film as receive "blistering reviews" on its initial release. [5] In the 1999 book Blood & Black Lace, author Adrian Luther-Smith described the film as an "overblown trash epic", comparing it to Indian films which takes breaks from the narrative to feature extended dance and song sequences which he referred to as "bland numbers". [1] Luther-Smith also commented that the film had a "flawed over-reliance on [an] oudated look", noting the blue and red filters used in the film. [7] Troy Howarth, in his book So Deadly, So Perverse (2015) echoed Luther-Smiths's statements about the films breaks for music sequences, and stated that "all the references in the world are not enough to make for a compelling thriller" stating the writers forgot to include "interesting characters" describing the casting as a"bizarre." [3] Howarth also commented on the look of the film, stating that despite trying to emulate the looks of works by Mario Bava, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, the film was lit and edited like a music video. [5] In his book overviewing Italian gialli, Curti declared the film to be "incoherent and naive, full of plot holes, and plagued by an unnecessary exhibition of flashy technique but desperately lacking suspense." [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Orgasmo</i> 1969 film by Umberto Lenzi

Orgasmo is a 1969 giallo film co-written and directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Lou Castel, and Colette Descombes. It follows a wealthy American socialite who finds herself preyed upon by two nefarious young siblings who indulge her in sex, drugs, and alcohol while she vacations at an Italian villa. This film helped launch the second phase of Baker's career, during which she became a regular star in Italian productions.

<i>Giallo</i> Literature and film genre

In Italian cinema, giallo is a genre of murder mystery fiction that often contains slasher, thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamberto Bava</span> Italian film director

Lamberto Bava is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Bava began working as an assistant director for his director father Mario Bava. Lamberto co-directed the 1979 television film La Venere d'Ille with his father and in 1980 directed his first solo feature film Macabre.

Ernesto Gastaldi is an Italian screenwriter. Film historian and critic Tim Lucas described Gastaldi as the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. Gastaldi worked within several popular genres including pepla, Western and spy films.

Bruno Mattei was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor who directed exploitation films in many genres, including women in prison, nunsploitation, zombie, mondo, cannibal, and Nazisploitation films. Mattei's films often followed popular genre trends of the era. Mattei continued work as a director primarily in the Philippines until his death in 2007, just before he was to enter production on his fifth Zombie film.

Franco Ferrini is an Italian screenwriter. His works often fall into the genres of horror or thriller. He was one of the interviewees represented in the book Spaghetti Nightmares.

Door into Darkness is an Italian television series conceived by Dario Argento. It consists of four one-hour episodes broadcast in 1973.

Alberto De Martino was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born in Rome, De Martino started as a child actor and later returned to the cinema where worked as a screenwriter, director and dubbing supervisor. De Martino's films as a director specialised in well-crafted knock-offs of Hollywood hit films. These films were specifically created films in Western, horror and mythology genres which were developed for the international market. The Telegraph stated that his best known of these film was probably The Antichrist. The Antichrist capitalized on the box-office appeal of The Exorcist (1973) and in its first week in the United States earned a greater box office than Jaws.

<i>Delirium</i> (1987 film) 1987 film

Delirium is a 1987 Italian giallo film directed by Lamberto Bava and starring Serena Grandi, David Brandon, George Eastman and Daria Nicolodi. The film is about Gioia, a centerfold model for the adult Pussycat magazine. She is harassed by a killer who sends her photos of her co-workers with her own erotic photography in the background.

<i>Cold Eyes of Fear</i> 1971 film

Cold Eyes of Fear is a 1971 Italian-Spanish thriller film directed by Enzo G. Castellari, starring Fernando Rey.

<i>Col cuore in gola</i> 1967 film by Tinto Brass

Col cuore in gola is a 1967 giallo film directed by Tinto Brass. It is loosely based on the novel Il sepolcro di carta written by Sergio Donati. The film used storyboards from cartoonist Guido Crepax. It has been released under several titles including Deadly Sweet and I Am What I Am.

<i>The Killer Is on the Phone</i> 1972 film

The Killer Is on the Phone is a 1972 giallo film directed by Alberto De Martino. It was released in the U.S. in July, 1975. The film is set in Bruges, Belgium, and stars Telly Savalas and Anne Heywood. The story follows an attractive actress who suffers from amnesia and paranoia triggered by a chance encounter with a professional assassin, who in turn begins to follow her with his knife.

<i>Amuck!</i> 1972 film by Silvio Amadio

Amuck! is a 1972 Italian giallo film written and directed by Silvio Amadio.

<i>Sweets from a Stranger</i> (film) 1987 film

Sweets from a Stranger is a 1987 Italian thriller film directed and co-written by Franco Ferrini. The film is about a serial killer targeting sex workers. The women decided to band together to protect themselves, but their efforts are only partially successful as the killer continues their killing spree. As the police investigate, the sex workers group together to try and find some leads on their own.

<i>So Sweet... So Perverse</i> 1969 film

So Sweet... So Perverse is a 1969 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and written by Ernesto Gastaldi, starring Carroll Baker and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Set in Paris, it tells the story of a wife who plots to get rid of a rich and errant husband but is herself the victim of her accomplices.

<i>The House of the Yellow Carpet</i> 1983 film

The House of the Yellow Carpet is a 1983 Italian giallo film directed by Carlo Lizzani.

<i>Formula for a Murder</i> 1985 film

Formula for a Murder is a 1985 Italian giallo film co-written and directed by Alberto De Martino.

<i>Midnight Killer</i> 1986 film

Midnight Killer is a 1986 Italian giallo film starring Valeria D'Obici and Leonardo Treviglio, and directed by Lamberto Bava.

Ermanno Donati was an Italian film producer. Along with Luigi Carpentieri, Donati won the Nastro d'Argento award for Best Producer for the film The Day of the Owl.

Madness is a 1994 Italian giallo film directed by Bruno Mattei. The film is about Giovanna Dei who is the creator of the comic series Doctor Dark, a character with a split personality. After a series of murders begin to happen in a similar fashion to how Doctor Dark's fictional murders. Dei defends herself against any criticism of the violence in her comics and later finds that the murderer is leaving the eyeballs of her victims in her apartment.

References

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.