Dellamorte dellamore

Okay, forget the really cheesy American title ("Cemetery Man") and just pick it up if you ever see it. Anyone with an open mind and any mind at all should be able to like this film, if not for the bizarre story for Michele Soavi's incredible visual style, the perfect performances by Everett and Lazaro, or just as a plain, good old time.

"Dellamorte Dellamore" begins like a fun B-horror movie telling us of the care-taker of th Buffalora cemetery, Francesco Dellamorte. In the cemetery some dead people come back to life 7 days after burial, but, Dellamorte isn't too bothered by this, he just takes it as part of his job to put the dead back in the ground, answering his door with a gun in hand, ready to dispense some Grim Reaper-type justice. But, within the first three minutes we know from the visual complexity of the film that this won't be just any B-horror movie, and within the first ten minutes we get a glimpse of what is to come - a fascinating meditation on the difference (if any) between life and death, a philosophical look at insanity and loneliness, a recurring love story that grows more bizarre with each telling, and eventually a big old representation about how life is just what we make of it. The dead returning and the whole zombie thing is just a doorway into Dellamorte's world. Fortunately, it never takes itself too seriously, if it had it would be a dull bore, but thankfully Romoli throws in lots of wit and dark humor ("I'd give my life to be dead"), and Soavi never lets us get bored with his always moving, floating camera and elaborate but never over-done sets.

Everett gives one of the best performances in film history because it is so subtle, he delivers his lines with just the right amount of sarcasm, cynicism, and un-emotionalism (is that a word?) to pull off what was probably an incredibly difficult performance - but he does it perfectly. Francois Hadji-Lazaro, playing Dellamorte's mute and retarded assistant manages to build more of a character with his simple one word vocab of "Nyah" and his facial expressions than most big over-done actors/actresses in movies now-a-days. Anna Falchi is mainly there to provide mysteriously beautiful looks, which she does, in all three of her roles and all of her many lives and unlives. Soavi was the protogé of Italian horror-stylist Dario Argento, but in "Dellamorte Dellamore" he comes fully into his own with his own bizarre and incredible style. This isn't just a case of the student copying the teacher, in this case the student might have even surpassed the master. Ah, if only you could see one movie this life time.

If you don't mind horrific, grotesque comedy that mixes the gore of George Romero and Dario Argento with the quixotic irreverence of Monty Python and Delicatessen, Cemetery Man provides the opportunity for a funny, strange time at the movies. Moreover this is a highly atmospheric film and Soavi's love for the horror genre shows in the composition of almost every scene. Soavi uses the time not spent on raucous action to cultivate a sense of atmosphere and craft surreal beauty in the limited setting of the graveyard and that in my opinion is as good as any to see this film.

In Buffalora, Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the administrator of the local cemetery and he lives in a house by the cemetery with the intellectually disabled gravedigger Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro) that is his only friend. The cemetery has a peculiarity since the dead reanimates on the seventh night after their death and Dellamorte and Gnaghi together hunt them down. When a gorgeous widow (Anna Falchi) attends the funeral of her old husband, Dellamorte falls in an unrequited love with her. One day, he shows the ossuary to her stimulating her sex drive, and they make love on the top of her husband's grave. However he awakes and bites her, and when she raises, Dellamorte shoots her. On the next days, Gnaghi falls in love with the mayor's daughter Valentina Scanarotti (Fabiana Formica) but she is beheaded in a motorcycle accident with her friend Claudio (Alessandro Zamattio). Along the next days, Dellamorte meets two women that looks alike his deceased love, but his romance ends tragically. He decides to leave Buffalora with Gnaghi, but their journey abruptly ends.

"Dellamorte Dellamore" is an unconventional, weird, funny and cult black comedy. The surrealistic plot has a great cinematography, direction and performances. Dellamorte is a detached character and Rupert Everett is excellent. Anna Falchi is very sexy and has an amazing body. Unfortunately the dubbing is terrible. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Pelo Amor e Pela Morte" ("For the Love and for the Death")

Michel Soavi's incredible Italian horror film is one of the BEST horror films ever made. It is made with obvious love and affection and respect for the genre and it delivers in every department.

It is also a story about an improbable friendship that is moving and real.

It is surreal, bloody, beautiful, brutal and extremely well acted and photographed.

Rupert Everett is the caretaker of a cemetery where the dead don't stay dead. He has his hands full dealing with the recently returned and the undead love of his life.

Words can not do justice to the magic of this movie or the impression it leaves.

If you believe in the magic of cinema and are willing to embrace fantasy in its purest form, open yourself up to DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE.

From the land that spawned probably the most zombie films to this date, ranging in quality from excellent to exremely dull, comes one film that rises above nearly all the rest. DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE (aka CEMETERY MAN) is that film, and if you haven't seen it yet, you are seriously missing out. The story is about lonely cemetery attendant Francesco (Rupert Everett (!?) in one of his very early roles)and his mute, Igor-like assistant Gnaghi. Every seven days, the dead rise from their graves (for no real apparent reason...) and it is Francesco and Gnaghi's job to dispatch them. The 2 live a pretty solitary existence until a mysterious woman comes along and into Francesco's life. Cut to the chase- Francesco and the woman have sex on her newly buried husband's grave, and when he returns from the dead, everything goes haywire from there...

DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE is several films rolled into one...zombie gore film, dark comedy, romance story - similar in some ways to perhaps DEADALIVE (not nearly as silly or gory), but this is a hard film to make a comparison on. It really is it's own unique experience and should definitely be viewed by anyone into horror/zombie films. Again, one of my all-time zombie favorites...Highly Recommended 9/10