El túnel

Massimo Pirri isn't one of Italy's best-known directors, and it's probably because of his really slipshod style of directing movies. In most of his films, the lighting and editing work okay, but there looks to be little or no camera or directorial technique. To give the guy credit, he was probably the youngest of Italy's directors at the time.

Anyway, compared to his other films, Pirri probably thought of his creation THE TUNNEL (aka HEROIN) as high art. The movie tries really hard to seem like a art-house, high-class, or poignant film showing the dumbing effects of heroin addiction following our two loser heroes Helmut Berger and Corrine Clery. Helmut Berger probably wasn't even acting at the time, they probably just followed him around with a camera.

However, the film itself is numbing, with non-stop music from The Pretenders (how the heck did Pirri manage that?), which is often quite good but gets droning as the film plods along. The downbeat atmosphere really takes its toll as well, sort of like MIRACLE IN MILAN, except without any Miracle. It's fun to see Karl Zinny in an early role as a young heroin addict, though he does an awful job playing dead (blinking his eyes when Berger shakes him). Zinny did a much better job in DEMONS and FINAL EXECUTIONER a few years later. The girl from CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is given a small scene as an angry drug-pusher. The film has a few other rewards, such as frequent Corrine Clery nudity (she was in MOONRAKER the year prior) and a few minor action scenes, but mostly it's just constant drug abuse.

This no-budget film was actually shot in early 1980, but sat unreleased for several years and was only given a couple quiet theatrical and video releases in Europe. For anyone hard-core enough to track it down, you've been warned.

"The Tunnel" might not tell a very original story, but it tells the tale of junkie life pretty accurately, and with a lot of style. This film features a cast that should make any cult euro-cinema addict thrilled. We have Helmut Berger, the main man of so many legendary Euro-trash (and genuine art-house) movies, shooting heroin and selling his ass to old gay men for money to pay for his drug habit. We have the amazing Corrine Clery, famous for her starring role in "Story of O," shooting heroin in her vagina, conning people and turning tricks, also to support her heroin habit. and then there is 'Accattone' himself, Franco Citti, another main player in countless Italian crime films from the glorious 1970's, as a scary bad guy, a cut-throat scumbag with no moral compass. When I first read about this one it became my obsession to find a copy of this ultra-rare title. I finally found an ancient VHS tape in a second hand shop, under the name "Fatal Fix." Not only does it have a dream cast, but it also boasts an incredible soundtrack, provided by the iconic 80's band "The Pretenders." The film is gritty, it's stark, and it's relentlessly depressing. Marco & Pina live in a bus that has been converted into a kind of mobile home. Marco actually has a brother, and an ex-wife, who try to help him, but he rejects them both, in favor of his junkie girl and lifestyle. Corrine Clery as Pina, is tough, hardened, and knows how to survive. "Fatal Fix" is similar to "Panic In Needle Park" in many ways, and many scenes seem to be influenced by that more well-known film. This title is certainly due for a remastered release on DVD. Until then I'm happy to have that VHS copy. This is a forgotten gem.