...hanno cambiato faccia

Intelligent critique or consumerism. Very low budget, but they def made the most of the budget which was truly impressive. Setting and atmosphere are excellent. Acting is very good. Music is outstanding and reminiscent of the band Goblin. The spirit of the film reminded me of "Sorry to Bother You (2018)" - only Sorry to bother you is much funnier and has a much bigger budget. I won't say anything else so not to spoil it. But if you like movies from this era that have something to say and go off the beaten path then give this a try :)

This Italian horror film is one that is most certainly coming at us from a decidedly different angle. Its director Corrado Farina was also responsible for the more well-known Baba Yaga but for my money They Have Changed Their Face is the better film. It's an adaption of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula but with some serious differences. In it the Dracula substitute is a powerful businessman called Giovanni Nosferatu. Like the book, he also lives in a remote mountainous region of Eastern Europe and the storyline also follows a hapless businessman who has been sent to see him. But aside from a similar basic story structure this film takes the material into very unusual places. Atypically for an Italian horror film this is a somewhat satirical movie. It's an allegory on capitalism, where the modern vampires have moved with the times and now prey on the public differently. Instead of sucking their blood, they suck the life from them with soul-destroying commercials and generally prey on the population with ruthless capitalism.

All this is well and good but what takes it up a level is the overall strangeness of the presentation. The vampire's house is a crumbling old building but inside it is very chic and modern. His henchmen drive around in white minis while sporting jump suits and helmets. While inside the house the hero is exposed to commercials; cumulating in an excellent later scene where a selection of newly developed adverts are shown to Mr Nosferatu in his board room. It's all very disconcerting and, to be honest, it's very hard predicting where this one is going to go. This is very inventive genre film-making that's for sure. The soundtrack by Amedeo Tommasi is great as well, with a variety of tones and themes. It helps set the atmosphere, which is one of real mystery. There is also a good cast too. Adolfo Celi is well suited to the role of Giovanni Nosferatu. But perhaps most interesting of all is Geraldine Hooper who was most famous for her turn as a male homosexual in Dario Argento's Deep Red. Frankly, it was only due to this film that I was even aware that she was not a bloke!

This is one of the most original Italian genre pictures from the 70's. It's one that certainly needs to be seen by a far wider audience.

Italian jazz, Italian car factories and an invitation to meet the boss. That juxtaposition of the naked woman in the fur coat and the lifeless village. All surface style in the villa, executive toys clacking away. Great first appearance (complete with choir!) of Celli. The offer is made; there's a room full of ickle babies and a troupe of white fiats. It's a fascinating little flick. The allegory may be a bit heavy handed, but there's a real style here.

A largely unknown but highly rewarding Euro-Cult gem that transposes the ancient Transylvanian vampire legend into the commercialized industrial age of 1970s Italy; director Farina is perhaps best-known (if at all) for the Carroll Baker-starring adult comic-strip adaptation BABY YAGA (1973) – a film which I was kind of lukewarm on at first glance but would now love to revisit (for the record, I do own the Blue Underground DVD of it). The mostly anonymous cast is headed by distinguished character actor Adolfo Celi (playing the all-powerful tycoon Giovanni Nosferatu) and whose underlings include one Harker, one Van Helsing, etc.!; the hero of the piece is played by Giuliano Disperati (who reminded me of a less handsome version of Hurd Hatfield) and their female counterparts are essayed by Geraldine Hooper (as Celi's androgynous secretary) and red-headed hottie Francesca Modigliani (portraying a bare-breasted hippy who hitches a ride in Disperati's car and stays on). Obviously, Jean-Luc Godard had already paid similar tribute to F.W. Murnau's Silent vampire masterpiece in his own iconic neo-noir/sci-fi opus ALPHAVILLE (1965) by naming the Howard Vernon character as Professor Nosferatu von Braun; the beauty of Farina's – and co-writer/assistant director/editor Giulio Berruti (who would go on to direct the middling nunsploitation/slasher KILLER NUN [1978]) – concept, however, is that (as the film's very title implies) vampires have nowadays changed their faces and instead of sporting bloodied fangs and enveloping cloaks, they don suits, haunt business boardrooms and prey upon millions of gullible TV viewers via puerile (but obviously effective) commercials! The film's initial stages have a deceptively light-hearted air about them: predating the amiable "Fantozzi" comedy series of movies by four years, Disperati cannot believe his luck in being invited to meet the elusive President of the firm he works for (who inhabits the 20th floor on which, apparently, only a handful of people have ever been to); when Disperati is invited to Nosferatu's country house, he is made to listen to commercials whenever he gets to sit on the sofa or take a shower! Even so, the subtle choral music on the soundtrack ominously underscores the sinister air of the rural surroundings – represented by Nosferatu's omnipresent watchdog army of white Fiat 500 which 'accompany' every visitor to the villa. Needless to say, the usual expected elements of vampire movies are also present in the mix here: the crypt housing Nosferatu's decaying coffin; the midnight secret meeting of the Vampire and his acolytes (here made up of, among others, a Renfield-like advertising agent dreading his boss' reaction to his clips and even an ecclesiastical authority who imparts his blessing on the latter's work vis-a-vis censorship issues, etc.). Despite Disperati's apparent shooting of Nosferatu (whose main relaxation activity is taking target practice on moaning puppets!), the eventual climactic defection to the cause – conformism to the consumerist mentality – of both hero and (the sadly largely absent) heroine does not really come as a surprise and concludes the movie on a satisfying ROSEMARY'S BABY-like coda.

(1971) They Have Changed Their Face/ ...hanno cambiato faccia (In Italian with English subtitles) DRAMA HORROR

Co-written and directed by Corrado Farina that has regular office factory worker, Alberto Valle (Giuliano Disperati) ordered by his superior to meet the president of the corporation, Giovanni Nosferautu (Adolfo Celi) of "Auto Avio Motors" comp. And during his drive he then notices he is running low on gas and tries to communicate with the villagers with the only person who reached out to him is a female wearing a thick coat with no bra and topless, Laura (Francesca Modigliani) coincidentally heading toward the same direction. And by the time he reaches the villa, and tries to ring himself in, there is no one there to greet him by the fence's gate. And when a door is finally discovered, he then decides to walk the rest of the way with Laura deciding not to to walk with him. He would then hands her the keys, she tells him she will wait for him. As he is walking toward the villa, two cars are driving alongside with him. And when Alberto tries to make conversation with them, they act unresponsive as if they are dead. He is then greeted by Giovanni Nosferatu's secretary, Corrina (Geraldine Hooper) and she tells him he will not be able to see him until dinner which is weirdly served at 10 PM. It is during then Alberto does some snooping around that does not really does anything. It just resorts to more weird stuff happening.

The name Nosferatu was mentioned on purpose and although I did not see the ending the way that it happened, the entire set up was routine and boring. To which if anyone were to watch many vampire movies the approach is still the same for I would have liked it more had it been shortened to 45 minutes both the impact and message of capitalism would still be the same.