Amour et mort dans le jardin des dieux

This wonderfully atmospheric, teasingly twisted psychodrama from talented director, Sauro Scavolini is a brooding, elegiac tale of emotional violence, starring two of the most luminescent Euro-starlets, that deliciously intoxicating redhead, Erika Blanc, and the voluptuous, Orchidea 'Devil in The Brain' De Santis! Masterfully exotic cinema that reminded me of the equally skewed neo-Gothic piece 'Anima Persa', whereby an octogenarian professor hires an ostensibly deserted, dilapidated mansion to further his study of rare bird call, and soon discovers, in true-blue, kooky Gialli-style, a stone-cold, hyper-sexualized, obsidian dark tale of incest, infidelity and escalating madness! There is a decidedly decadent whiff of Hitchcockian diabolism about this deadly tale of twisted desire and dreadful deceit; and it is rendered with considerably more moral restraint than cinematic rabble-rouser Umberto Lenzi! I happily discovered that maestro, Suaro Scavolini also wrote 'The Case of The Scorpions Tale', 'Your vice is a locked room, and only I have the key' and 'All the colours of the Dark' - so his pristine Giallo genius credentials are somewhat unimpeachable! The darkly fascinating Giallo, 'Love & Death in The Garden of the Gods' is most certainly worthy of rediscovery, especially in its handsomely restored Blu-ray edition.

So typically early seventies that when the cropped crochet top appears it is almost as if it is a joke. Many and varied fashions of the time aside this is a languorous film, again very much of the period, with much very pretty photography and much talking. Much talking about brother and sister and husband and brother and sister once more. Yes, of course, incest is more than hinted at and the fleshy scenes, incestuous and other are again beautifully photographed. Its just that it is apparent very early on that this is really not going anywhere and slowly at that. Erika Blanc is as good as ever and truly has to carry most of this film because she is simply the most interesting thing about it. The young male lead, Peter Lee Lawrence, I understand played in a lot of spaghetti westerns so I just trust that he made more effort in them as he seems not to in this. Maybe he just found the ponderous dialogue too much to bother with. For all my harsh words, the look and Erika mean you can't dislike the thing and at least it doesn't outstay its welcome.

An ornithologist imprisoned in a villa with a large park finds a tape which features traces that could be traced back to a massacre some time ago.Sauro Scavolini's "Amore e morte nel giardino degli dei" was photographed by Romano Scavolini of "Spirits of Death" and "Nightmare" fame.The film is well-acted and offers a nice amount of nudity.There are traces of giallo and Gothic melodrama in the plot.The finale is especially memorable,because it's violent and bloody.Various characters are killed with a sword or shot to death.Lovely Erica Blanc provides a bit of delicious sleaze and Sauro Scavolini directs with a sure hand.6 out of 10.

Nice style but boring structure.

The director, Romano Scavolini, has a nice style. The are a number of inspiring shots. The use of color, lighting, and cinematography are all above-average. The acting is good across the board. Peter Lee Lawrence stood out to me as being particularly good.

However, the script and the structure of the story held this one back. It's a story within a story told with multiple flashbacks and shifting in and out of narration with too much exposition. This robs it of a lot of suspense. Plus, it takes like an hour for any murder to happen so it's not much in the way of a thriller or giallo. This had potential, and a better script would have made a big difference.

Sauro Scavolini directed and wrote that original murder story with inventive flashbacks with a terrific ending, and it was shot in 1972 the great year for italian murder movies. Scavolini was mainly a screenwriter (3 giallos for Sergio Martino). It's his first movie for cinema, he did 3 tv movies and another for cinema, they do not seem available, what a pity when you see the casting. This story is maybe slow but it gets more and more tense and it gets incredibly gripping in the last part, unforgettable. Thanks to the courageous french editor who released it.