Occhi di cristallo

Everything has been said and written about the giallo sub-genre, initiated by Mario Bava at the end of the 60s, polished to near perfection by Dario Argento in the 70s while generating countless attempts at this specific kind of thriller, most of them Italian. It is generally admitted that the last great giallo was Argento's 1987 Opera, with purists discarding it in favour of 1982 Tenebre, as it is bitterly regretted that the Italian master's production since then was a sad slide into the morass of self copycatting, resulting in movies varying from disappointing (Nonhasonno, Il Sindrome di Stendhal) to terrible (Trauma, Giallo), deprived of any of the visual brilliance his earlier work displayed.

Various attempts have been made at revamping the giallo form for contemporary film-goers, most of them ludicrous (German Masks, French Amer, to name but two). To this day, none can even remotely pass for a good giallo, the formula having been preempted by serial killers in the 90s and enshrined in amber ever since. It is therefore a very pleasant surprise to discover Eros Puglieli's movie, who achieves a lot by virtue of a rather good screenplay, solid actors, an interesting choice of music and a visual parti-pris which mostly works in spite of a few weaknesses.

Inspector Amaldi (Luigi Lo Cascio, a little know but intense actor) is a conflicted man and a talented police officer with a background in criminal psychology. He was victim of a gruesome experience in his youth and finds himself confronted to a twisted killer with a keen interest in taxidermy, a niche discipline that he pushes a bit too far for the well-being of a sizable portion of the cast. Meeting a good looking student complaining about a stalker, he has to dig deep into his abilities and emotions to find the killer before he finds her.

All the codes of giallo are respected in an otherwise contemporary feature: a vicious killer with a traumatic past killing his victims with sharp weapons and collecting trophies; coded enigmas announcing the next murder; obvious red herrings; a scary antique doll loaded with sexual implications; an oppressive soundtrack; "improbable when you eliminate the impossible" killer identity. Even the mandatory killer-falling-to his- death is delivered, in a rather satisfying scene. It could be said in fact that the only non-giallo component is a tight screenplay, as the genre is known to be prone to plot holes the size of a wound by ax.

Don't pay too much attention to the shaky initial chase: the rest of the movie is much better filmed, with some inspired moments like a conversation between two characters cleverly filmed through a variety of visual obstacles. Evidently, the murder set pieces are what draws one to a giallo in the first place; without being overly gory they nevertheless reach a decent level of nastiness. Yellow is definitely an Italian colour. Lol

Being Italian, I'm always happy when good products like this "Crystal Eyes" are baked.

The director Eros Puglielli takes his cue from classic Italian thriller films from the 70s such as Argento, Bava and Fulci and manages to orchestrate a dark, very violent and very fascinating film, with atmospheres that immerse you in a truly exhausting spiral of terror, in which involved from the beginning until the shocking final twist that reveals the identity of the killer.

Honorable mention for the excellent cast, starting with the very good Luigi Lo Casio up to the beautiful and talented Lucia Jimenez.

A thriller to be seen and enjoyed without a doubt.

Eyes of Crystal is certainly a very welcome film. Good Giallo's are few and far between these days, and this is easily the best that I've seen since 2001's Sleepless, which in turn is the best since Argento made the fantastic 'Opera' back in 1987. The film isn't a lot like the Giallo's of the seventies (the golden period of the style), as the picture is largely glossy and clear and overall, the film is more character orientated than the murder fuelled classic Giallo structure; in fact, I'd say that this film is more like the hit thriller Seven than any film by Dario Argento or Sergio Martino. The plot has two main areas; firstly, it's a film about a police investigation into a series of murders, and secondly it's the story of the investigating officer wrestling with his conscience as he tries to solve the crimes. The plot starts off properly as a brutal triple murder is committed, and from there we follow the investigation into the murder, and see how the police pick up small clues to try and track the killer.

Director Eros Puglielli injects his film with a slick sense of style as he directs the action through a number of different angles. The film features many scenes that really are beautiful; the favourite of mine being the sequence that sees the police enter a murder scene in the dark with torches. The music is less frantic than that seen in previous Giallo films, and tends to be of a more searing nature, which helps to elevate the film over and above the story of murder and policemen that it is. I have to say that the music does go over the top at times, but generally it fits the scene. The main problem with this film, however, stems from the plot. The murders are grisly and gruesome, but it becomes too obvious where it's all going too quickly, and the reason behind the killings is hardly original, and since it's also rather silly; it almost undoes all the hard work that has gone into the film up until the final twist is revealed. Giallo's have never been known for completely making sense and staying away from silly story lines - but Eyes of Crystal tries to go over and above the common tradition, and doesn't completely succeed. Even so, this is a quality thriller with good acting and fine direction which, when combined with the fact that this is the best Giallo in ages, means that Eyes of Crystal is well worth seeing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The suspense built up reasonably through the film, keeping you guessing all the time in the best tradition of the Italian "giallo" genre. The characters are acted out quite well, especially that of tormented inspector Amaldi. The photography and special effects are also very good, giving the film an almost glossy and "arty" edge (especially during the flashback scenes and in Ajaccio's hallucinations) and arguably even the murder scenes have an aesthetic edge to them. The killing sequences are very crude and graphic and this element, along with the way the plot is structured, reminded me a lot of Dario Argento's style, the Italian horror master who, I am sure, inspired Puglielli in this production.

slow, profound, unusual. a "policier" in a different manner, full of nuances, shadows of past and with a central character far from policeman definition.the vulnerability of inspector Amaldi, the delicate love story, the images - bricks of victims, the precise - delicate performance of Luigi Lo Cascio, each are good ingredient for a poetic movie , mixture of roots of past," film noir" and taxidermy. a horror in crime skin. with a good result. sure, it may be a version of Se7ven but in a specific mode. it may be version of a kind of horror , refined, scene for sophisticate mysteries. but it is only a n Italian part of an ambiguous genre , case in which director hopes to create a different product with usual rules. nothing else.