Neuigkeiten

In the late ’80s, Lamberto Bava agreed to direct a four-part anthology series for Italian TV under the title High Tension. But when executives saw the completed features’ extreme themes and graphic violence, their broadcast was blocked for nearly a decade and they have only existed as grey market bootlegs since. Severin Films now presents their official worldwide Blu-ray premiere: Tomas Arana stars as a horror director stalked by evil forces in The Prince of Terror, written by Dardano Sacchetti and featuring grisly FX by Sergio Stivaletti; in The Man Who Wouldn’t Die, adapted from a short story by poliziotteschi novelist Giorgio Scerbanenco, the survivor of a home invasion seeks vengeance; Daria Nicolodi stars in School of Fear, about a student academy with a dark secret; and in the giallo shocker Eye Witness, Barbara Cupisti stars as a blind woman who sees a murder.

All four films are scanned in...

The first film in Fernando Di Leo’s so-called Milieu trilogy, Caliber 9 explores the criminal underbelly of Milan, a city more typically associated with the modish institutions of high finance and haute couture. The film’s full Italian title, Milan Caliber 9, emphasizes the centrality of location, while also referring to a collection of stories by crime writer Giorgio Scerbanenco, several of which Di Leo loosely adapted for the film. Generically, Caliber 9 is a fascinating mashup of the gritty poliziotteschi genre and stylish neo-noirs in the vein of Jean-Pierre Melville. Its tight-lipped protagonist certainly seems patterned after Alain Delon’s buttoned-down hitman in Le Samouraï, right down to the brown trench coat.

Di Leo’s film opens with a brilliantly executed pre-credits sequence that details a laundered currency handoff gone wrong, as well as the mob’s violent reprisals, along the way providing a handy cross-section of Milan’s criminal demimonde,...

Stars: Gastone Moschin, Mario Adorf, Barbara Bouchet, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli, Ivo Garrani, Philippe Leroy, Lionel Stander, Mario Novelli, Giuseppe Castellano, Salvatore Arico, Fernando Cerulli | Written and Directed by Fernando Di Leo

One of the things I love about Arrow Video releases is the ability they give me to extend my exposure to movies that are harder to find, especially world cinema releases. Fernando Di Leo’s Milano Calibro 9 is the latest Italian gangster film to be released by the company and brings on the gritty ultra-violence to the gangster movie.

When Ugo Piazza (Gastone Moschin) is released from jail he looks to lead a straight, the last thing he wants is to return to his life of crime. This is soon out of the question though when psychopathic hoodlum Rocco (Mario Adorf) informs him his former boss wants to see him. With $300,000 missing from a previous job all...