Interrabang

Two clear warnings here that this is not going to be the most straightforward of movies. One, that 1969 crazy film release year and two, the title. More correctly 'interrobang', I believe was a punctuation mark invented in 1962 to combine the exclamation and question mark, in order to indicate a rhetorical question with simultaneous surprise. this never really caught on and has probably has maybe been replaced with WTF?! Anyway most appropriate for this film with three bikini clad lovelies stuck on a rocky isle with either a poet or an escaped convict, or maybe even both. the guy who was with the girls has gone to get a replacement part for the boat and the girls enjoy the new guy in his absence. All, of course, is not quite what it seems and by the end a number of swift surprises and revelations leave us reeling. Actually, not a lot of action here but pleasant enough with some great beachwear and mysterious going on.

Fifteen years after he had been a protégé of Roberto Rossellini in 1953, Italian director Giuliano Biagetti somewhere stumbled across the term "Interrabang" (now consult your dictionary, per favore) and decided to knit the ultimate meta-thriller around it. The whole intertextual stupor begins with pseudo-existentialist banter between photographer Fabrizio and three trendy dolls (among them Haydee Politoff, who had played the lead role in the first installment of Rohmer's contes moraux, La collectionneuse, two years before) while heading to a rocky island for a fashion shooting, where a blue-eyed poet/ psycho is already waiting for the bikini bunch. The ensuing beach party is refined with Fitzgerald quotes, Daft One Dialogue ("How did you kill your woman?" "I didn't kill her. She was already dead for me."), the per se not-too-bad theme by Berto Pisano varied and overused to the retchy max, plus three dozen ultra-fishy "twists" buzzing off to Spasticland, breakneck-style. When Roberto Rossellini met Biagetti after the premiere, he put an arm around his old colleague's shoulders and told him a little secret about thrillers and postmodernist stunts, though Biagetti didn't listen because he was busy shaking hands with some stunning brunette in those very seconds. "It's no use breaking the rules, amico mio", Rossellini said, "if you don't even know 'em."

This movie is kind of a combination of an early "Diabolique"-style giallo with lots of plot twists and turns, and an island paradise sex romp in the spirit of such films as "The Seducers", "Il Dio Serpiente", and "Wave of Lust". It is more arty, or some might say more pretentious than most gialli or most island-lust flicks. It kind of resembles a couple Antonioni films like "La Aventurra" or (especially at the end) "Blow Up". A photographer is sailing with his wife (Beba Rancor), her sister (Haydee Politoff), and his nymphomaniacal model (Shoshanna Cohen). He leaves the three women alone to get a part for his boat. A mysterious man (Umberto Orsini)shows up, who might be an escaped criminal the police are searching for. This doesn't alarm the three women too much, and he rapidly seduces each of them. Nor are they particularly worried about the dead body of a police officer that appears and then vanishes. These woman are such bored, jaded bourgeoisie types that they don't even seem to care that this handsome stranger might be planning to kill them. The ending combines the surprise plot twists of "Diabolique" and the reality-confounding denouement of "Blow Up", and throws in yet another nasty surprise to boot.

The movie does look very good and both the scenery and the actors are gorgeous. There's a lot less violence than in a typical gialli (especially the later ones) and less nudity than in a typical sex romp (only Cohen has brief nude scenes, but all three of the luscious actresses spend the entire film in the skimpiest bikinis imaginable in the 1960's).

The title comes from a necklace the Politoff character is wearing of an interrabang, a question mark and a an exclamation point ("?!"). She delivers some philosophical speech early on about the existential meaning of the symbol, but it really makes little sense. Whatever the case though, it is a good title for THIS movie which is an alternately bizarre (?) and impressive (!).

This is the kind of late sixties film featuring jaded women, sick of free loving but not sick of talking crap, looking for fresh thrills on a yacht with a similarly free living photographer/playboy type. What's a guy to do when the yacht breaks down and you need to go to Kwik Fit to pick up another? Why, just leave them babes to sunbathe on a remote island - that's what!

These babes consists of bored looking, miniscule bikini clad Valeria, microscopic bikini wearing nympho Margherita, and slightly bigger beach wear wearing Anna. Each woman reacts differently to the presence of sexy possible poet but also possibly an escaped murderer, Marco. When I say 'react'. I mean, 'barely react at all and shed clothes'.

The characters in this film actually remind me of the burned out rich folk of Bret Easton Ellis' books, except without the graphic sex and violence (there's neither in this film by the way). Even when Valeria finds the dead body of a guy, she simply just walks away and doesn't mention it to anyone.

Without fannying about too much and beating around the bush, Interrabang is a borderline arty giallo where not much happens at all, has a lot of jibber jabber (including even referencing Giallo books!), but then again looks really beautiful, has Euro babes lounging about, and a nice score.

The ending made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and every other review explains what an Interrabang is, so I'm outta here.

Interrabang is, superficially, a very beautiful film. The location used is serene and picturesque, and when you add a trio of lovely and often half naked ladies into the mix; you have a film that was probably a lot of fun to make. It's also not a bad film to watch as while things do get a bit silly at times; there's plenty of twists and turns in the plot and director Giuliano Biagetti manages to keep things interesting with only his small cast to rely on. The film is often considered a part of the Giallo genre; although I wouldn't go as far as to call it one myself; the film is more of a precursor to the genre. The plot focuses on a photographer named Fabricio. He has taken a boat with three beautiful women out to sea for a fashion shoot. It's long before the boat has a problem with the carburettor and Fabrizio hitches a lift to land in order to get a new one. While he's gone, a strange man named Mario approaches the boat and begins getting it on with the ladies; however, he might just be the maniac on the loose in the area.

One of the most noteworthy things about this film is the title, and it's noteworthy because most people will wonder exactly what an "Interrabang" is. Well the film is good enough to explain and apparently it's a cross between a question mark and an exclamation mark; and the film uses this to try and make some sort of social commentary...which completely gets lost under the superficial nature of the rest of the film. The film is rather talky and that's actually the main attraction. I wouldn't be surprised to find that this film was re-cut with a load of hardcore porn added for a seventies release since there's room for it; but the version I saw was very clean and there wasn't so much as a naked breast on display (which while slightly disappointing, is a lot better than having this turn into a hardcore porn affair). There's no blood either, and clearly the director wanted the film to stay on point; and this does actually benefit it quite well. The twists come thick and fast towards the end and that keeps things exciting; but the actual ending itself is completely bizarre. Overall, this is a very rare thriller and thus not easy to come by...but I'd certainly recommend it if you can find a copy.