L'imbalsamatore

A vision of the psychological extremes that unrequited erotic obsessions can create, L'IMBALSAMATORE has a deceptively placid surface.

Peppino, a dwarfish, homely-looking taxidermist with horrible teeth, takes an interest in Valerio, a gorgeous young man who is biding his time unproductively as a food runner in a cheap restaurant. Peppino takes Valerio on as assistant, even though he can't really afford it, and Valerio is overwhelmed with gratitude for the mentorship. But Peppino's attitude soon begins to take on uncomfortably sexual and possessive overtones, that everyone except Valerio sees - at first.

L'IMBALSAMATORE has an opaque atmosphere of unease. Like THE VANISHING, much of it is shot in cheerful, sunny daylight, and there is plenty of light-hearted humor; like MONSIEUR HIRE, you can't be sure if what seems creepy is your own prejudice or a genuine malice.

Matteo Garrone builds the erotic tension to an almost unbearable intensity. This is an audacious picture that plays with perception and memory; we can never be sure if what we are seeing is really happening, or occurring only in Peppino's twisted fantasies, or in Valerio's bewildered daydreams. Reality and fantasy blur. L'IMBALSAMATORE is feverish and spellbinding.

Matteo Garrone's deeply morbid subjective reflection from Italy is an insightful musing of two characters, and then a third which works as an agitator. The short man finds the tall man at the zoo, where he is watching a vulture. The short guy, named Peppino, is a sweet talker. He's about 50, balding, under 5 feet tall. The tall guy, named Valerio, is a head turner, about 20, attractive, over 6 feet tall. As they struggle to recall where they've met before, the perspective periodically shifts from the humans to the vulture, a bird that survives by detecting dead meat. The picture is mangled, the sound is dampened, and we get an inverted look of the bird blinking its eyes. Valerio says animals are his strongest interest. Funny, says Peppino, they're also his. He is a taxidermist.

Peppino, with a light manner and a genial grin, is a beast of prey who likes to entice young men with his money and favors. Valerio, who is told extraordinary things about his Adonis-like looks, is not very smart, and likes to be charmed. Peppino works by artifice, taking Valerio to clubs and hiring hookers for parties; the two friends end up in bed with the girls, and Valerio doesn't see that for Peppino, the girls are the snare and he is the sitting duck.

The Embalmer is adept at camouflaging its real essence and rattling us with the shifts of the plot. Among the movie's charades are not all overstated, but eerily implicit. Does Peppino see himself as a homosexual, or as a philanderer who likes good buddies and is open-minded in bed? Does Valerio know Peppino wants him? Does Valerio favor Peppino's money or Deborah's abundant sexual skill? Is Valerio totally retarded? Twice he infuriates Deborah by standing her up; he continues go along with Peppino's insistence upon just one more time. Is it a defect or an advantage of the film that we don't always know what occurs? Another intended question I think, as we ponder over Valerio, a babe in the woods who, when he's not with the one he loves, loves the one he's with, if he loves at all.

This incredibly unsettling and implacable experience takes place largely in Italian beach towns, but in a gray season, against chilled, steeled skies. The sea is nonetheless far away and dejected, and Garrone's images bleed the life out of some scenes. The music is a sobbing, deeply haunting jazz abstraction. This is not a comedy or a sexploitation pic, but a prurient matter concerning two obsessed pursuants and their prey, whose physicality may have made life such a breeze for him that he never got the dexterity to live it.

It may sound absurd that a balding old midget could seduce an apparently heterosexual young Apollo out of the arms of an insatiable woman, but after Deborah checks Peppino out, she knows she has to take him seriously. What the short man wants, he goes after with skill, guile…and desperate longing. And it's compelling to watch him maneuver.

From beginning to end, the artful use of cinematography is exact. The director conveys the emotion through the use of scenery, "natural" lighting, or lack thereof, and the soundtrack.

The production team and cast did a great job of taking words on paper and creating an original, thought evoking film that has no real category. A sort of twisted love story with a rather unexpected ending, where you are compelled to see what happens next by a feeling of expectation and suspense, not knowing when some major event will happen and actually being surprised when they do.

The actors do a great job of conveying the emotions, thoughts, and tensions in every scene, especially Ernesto Mahieux and Valerio Foglia Manzillo.

Unlike many subtitled films, whoever performed the English translation seems to have converted the Italian flawlessly- bravo to them.

A film that is not likely to see wide distribution, and comes across as not trying to do so. More emphasis seems to be on the personal connection with each viewer, who then takes an interest in the storyline and anxiously awaits the rest of the story.

Possibly a gateway film for those interested in Film Noire or who simply want to take a break from the usual with a bit "darker" film- worth the viewing charge.

It's a noir, no doubt... you even have the dark lady. Take three excellent actors, a well-chosen setting, a young and talented director, and you have L'imbalsamatore. Once again, when an Italian director is really good, like Sergio Leone, he can take an American film genre, turn it upside down and make a great Italian movie. However, Garrone proved how good he is not just by filming this, but by making another masterpiece, that is, Gomorra. If you like this one, try also the other movie. Basically one of the plots of Gomorra is set in the same places where L'imbalsamatore is set.

Another important element of the film is the landscape. When Italian directors are at their best, they can render landscape like no one. Garrone can do this with the wastelands of Northern Campania.

Hats off, then, to Ernesto Mahieux, who delivers an impressive performance that you won't forget easily...

A story of haunted people from haunted places that doesn't end well. Loosely based on a true story, this is movie is a more of a grim fairytale in which the characters are marginalised people who live in squalor. Definitely not a feel-good movie but worth watching.