Una ragazza piuttosto complicata

Very hip, cool 1969 Italian movie that exudes the interior fashion and art of the moment. Starring the equally hip and cool, Catherine Spaak and Jean Sorel, plus a debut appearance from Florinda Bolkan, this was always going to be watchable and being based on the writing of Alberto Moravia, even more so. On the surface all is sweet and light but gradually we realize that something darker is going on. Although some consider the eventful outcome cut and dried, I still feel there is ambiguity here, all is not what it seems. The two main stars are great together and if Sorel's continuous hand miming is less that effective, it does lend charm to his character. Spaak with remarkable lack of costume changing looks fantastic throughout and even holds up well when the astonishing Bolkan joins the party. Moments of darkness, then amidst the mid-day sun and more than a hint that the 60s hedonistic heyday may be coming to an end.

Before Dario Argento and his many imitators set in stone what many people expect a Giallo to be, in steps Damiano Damiani's slow-paced, heavily psychoanalytical A Rather Complicated Girl, which despite abundant eroticism and psychedelic visual flourishes shuns graphic murder set-pieces to concentrate on the long psychological build-up to a single significant killing. It's a rather hypnotic experience, serving up squirm-inducing moments of psychological cruelty; certainly not a perfect film by any means, with a tendency to scrutinize rather than empathize with the damaged protagonists that renders things rather cold along with a nagging sense beneath the pseudo-psychological posturing lurks an old fashioned exploitation film. Yet Damiani pulls off a rather clever conceit playing around with the classic motifs of film noir murder mysteries and some interesting direction; there are only so many erotic daydreams about sexy naked women in psychedelic body paint doing provocative things with telephones that one can indulge in before an intervention needs to be staged. All are accompanied by a groovy soundtrack composed by Fabio Fabor with a dance-along children's chorus that treads a fine line between playful and ominous. As someone who isn't very well versed in a lot of Giallo filmmaking, A Rather Complicated Girl certainly made for an interesting experience, one that's more interested in class and elitism than it is blood and transgressive sexuality, with moments of darkness, amidst the mid-day sun and more than a hint that the 60s self-indulgent heyday may be coming to an end.