L'arcano incantatore

From the opening credits of the movie, Avati clearly uses all of his skills to make sure that "L'arcano incantatore" or "Arcane Sorcerer" or "The Mysterious Enchanter" looks and feels like an old, classic horror movie and he completely succeeds. The movie is beautifully shot with maximum care for it's atmosphere. It is a very slow movie that takes it's time to tell you a story. While not a lot of things happen, the movie still manages to be interesting and I think that the fact it doesn't show a lot is it's biggest strength and when it tries to show something, it often fails to produce the effect it wanted to. While I personally think the movie could have had a lot more satisfying conclusion and approached it's own "showing something scary" parts better, it's still an effective and entertaining horror movie made with passion and care, clearly providing an example what good style can do for a movie. Avati really tried to make a good horror movie and it payed off. I give it 7/10! I recommend it everyone. Just keep in mind that you won't find a fast thriller here. This one is a slow burner.

Settled in Italy during the 16th century. This a very good movie. If it has one defect, it's the end, that left me unsatisfied, even if as we all know most of the mysteries unveiled lose their power.

But there is one thing that is worth: the atmosphere, that is really Gothic. The characters are isolated in a forgotten manor, they move slowly, talk slowly, and web you in an enticement of stillness. The only rumors are the constant blowing of the wind and the screech of dust under their feet. (Audio is of the essence for this movie.)

In conclusion, this is worth renting the tape, provided you see it in silent and darkness.

The Arcane Sorcerer is the third Pupi Avati film which I have seen. While it may not be my favorite (though it's at least as good as the other two), it is the best made. The film has a disgraced seminary student agreeing to serve as secretary for a defrocked priest. So odious is this former priest's reputation that villagers have been forbidden to look on him or speak to him directly. Appartently, it was an unhealthy interest in forbidden books about conquering death that forced the isolation of this former priest now known as the arcane sorcerer. The catch for the seminary student is that he must never reveal what goes on at the arcane sorcerer's villa. There will be severe consequences in this world and the next should he break his oath.

The film has much to recommend it, good acting, cinematography, and set designs. I especially liked the library, candle lit hallways crammed floor to ceiling with ancient tomes. The plot also holds together better than in some of Avati's other films. The only problem is that pace is extremely slow. Most of the running time serves as build-up. The climax is intense! Then, the film ends. I did like The Arcane Sorcerer more than I did Avati's much loved (by others) The House with the Windows that Laughed.

This lesser-known Avati wade into the fantastical is nonetheless highly accomplished, even if you handle that the supernatural elements don't really kick in until halfway through, and then not in a terribly flamboyant way. A disgraced young seminary student is dispatched to the remote castle of an aristocratic hermit rumored to be dabbling in occult matters. (And some locals have disappeared, adding fuel to the rumors.) Needless to say, the new helpmate eventually discovers this is true.

It's a slow but genuinely sinister tale that is very well put across by the two lead actors and Avati's great care with the visual presentation--this is hardly an extravagant production, but the modestly scaled period production design, the compositions and camera movement convey much more atmosphere than many a more expensive, FX-laden enterprise. There's probably not enough "payoff" for those who want conventional horror content in terms of kills and gore, but this is an admirably restrained exercise in supernatural creepiness that never goes slack.

A splendid pledge about the ambiguity of sin. Lesson about fundamental values and the nimbus of books. About illusions and chimeric truth, about search and secrets like means of life. And, very important, about the price of dreams.

A beautiful film like result light and subtle acting. A horror or thriller, a exploration of mystery and magical story, another Jacob wrestling with same Angel.

Story of a student out of law who discovers a special world with master and servants, a impressive library and restless whispers, an intangible corpse and a malefic shadow.

Blak magic and subtle art of Dionisi. And slices of seductive Utopian time with powerful flavor.