ruediger_vienna

A guy having sex with a woman on a rooftop - just to get her coffee-machine. The opening sequence of Exit - "Don't Panic" tells it all: Hanno Pöschl (his best movie appearance ever) stars as a young outskirt mug; stealing cars he just has one dream: his own coffee house. But tumbling through the Viennese underground, he is keeping himself busy with trouble...

This is quite the movie parents in 1980's Austria did not want their kids to see. Violence, some nudity and very explicit language - which make the movie more than fairly entertaining.

Add a very young Paulus Manker and you get -9 points out of ten.

This movie is now (2007) available on DVD - get it!

Schamlos (shameless) is an exceptional Austrian movie by an exceptional director. While Austrian movies in the 60s mainly were Heimatfilme - colorful pictures about the better days back in the monarchy - Saller did not care too much about this mainstream and started with b/w exploitation cinema. His first movie - "Geißel des Fleisches" - came as a shock to Austrians, his second movie "Schamlos" repeated that experience.

A very dynamic Udo Kier stars as Pohlmann, a teenager setting up a gang to collect protection money, who falls in love with an exotic dancer, who gets murdered. Can Pohlmann revenge her? Pohlmann investigates in caravans, used as mobile whorehouses, threatens everybody he meets with violence - all in all, he behaves like bad guys should behave - especially if you take the German TV series "Der Komissar" as a pattern (which started 2 years later).

The score unbelievable - especially the main theme played during the scenes in the "beatschuppen" (mixture between speakeasy and disco).

All in all a really entertaining movie - and don't forget: you can always tell people that you just watch it for historical research...

"Schamlos" is now released on DVD in an edition by Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" for the first time ever - audio is only available in German.

7 out of 10

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The Plot: Patrick is comatose, his father tries to cure him by giving him the chance to kill using supernatural powers (exactly what one would expect); the victims are invited to a beautiful house in the countryside, Patrick kills some of them - with the major exception of a blonde women, who masturbates in front of him. (which is btw the sole way to survive, in case you see green eyes - big like tennis balls - wobbling in front of you, you know)

Patrick vive ancora is a quite uninspired movie. There are several killing scenes, mostly below the giallo standard, the only real climax is the controversial staking (vagina to mouth), which is very explicit and not cut at all (mediablaster/shriek show DVD edition).

See this scene, be shocked or amused, call for the censor or the Chinese delivery, and skip the rest of the movie.

Except you are the sole fan of supernatural-sado-porn-scifi-giallos.

If so - get it at any costs.

3 black gloves out of 10.

The Story: An American bestseller-author comes to Rome to promote his new book, "Tenebrae". Shortly before he arrives in Fiumicino, a murder series starts, young girls are slashed with an old rasor blade - their mouths stuffed with pages of "Tenebrae".

Police starts investigation (Giuliano "I only drink on duty" Gemma), with little luck - murdering continues. In fact, hardly anybody survives - but the characters don't die in vain: All murders are directed excellent - especially the one with the current Mrs. Silvio Berlusconi, Veronica Lario, who plays "painting" Jane.

Tenebre is pure giallo. A cold movie, shot almost entirely in daylight, in E.U.R. - a district in the south of Rome; modernistic, cool - and very stylish.

There are about 10 very well directed, esthetic murder scenes, which manage to fit a logical plot, well, at least for giallo-standards.

11 black gloves out of 10 - Tenebre is a must see, if you want to explore the Genre Giallo - start nowhere but here. And two thumbs up for the great ABE DVD Version!

Nacktschnecken (translated "slugs") is an Austrian low-budget comedy with quite a fine plot: Three young pals plan to earn money by shooting an hardcore-porno movie. But is it really so easy to shoot some gang-banging with home-video equipment?

What sounds like some stupid German 70s sex-movie is in fact a very entertaining comedy, both clever and sensitive. So if you like new Austrian cinema like "Hundstage" (which is - of course - much more serious) - you should not miss this one.

The flick was shot in Styria, so much of it's charm depends on various local accents (like a Viennese pimp, a girl from Graz's upper class, rural-styrian working class heroes e.a.). So this movie is not really easy to translate.

Ore di terrore aka "Kreuzfahrt des Grauens" is an Italian exploitation movie, inspired by the 68-student revolutions.

The plot (SPOILERS AHEAD): Some businessmen, politicians and (as I must admit, good-looking) women come together on a cruise-ship, after a while they discover a container floating in the sea. They free three men from the container, a really bad idea, as the three men are convicted murders (which are mentally insane, as the film mentions about 20 times). Now terror rules the ship. Will the businessmen - and their women - survive?

Who cares in the end. The movie is bad in acting (one of the worst performances of the later Austrian-Green-Party-MP Herbert Fux), camera, score, natural sound, editing - but really overloaded with moral issues like (a) "who are the real gangsters - businessmen or insane murderers", (b) the role of women in the society in general, or (c) "isn't our society decadent".

The answers - according to "ore di terrore": (a) both, (b) exploited by men, but if they are nude enough, they are just cute, (c) yes, it is.

One major feature of this movie is the absolute absence of humor, which makes it quite hard to watch the whole 90 minutes or so. I did it - and it was not worth the effort.

Rating: 2 black gloves out of 10.

OK, first I have to commit that I´m quite an Argento fan, so I sat down in my car, drove 500 km from Vienna to Udine to watch this flick - so don´t expect any objectivity.

I really like this movie for several reasons:

(1) Great camerawork. This starts in the very first cuts in the police station and keeps up the tension to the end of the movie.

(2) Great score by Claudio Simonetti - which is what you´d expect.

(3) A great lead actress.

(4) Very good style & art direction (as in many italian movies)

The plot was quite easy to understand, even if my Italian is everything but fluent, just read one of the many synopsises available.

So if you want to see the latest evolution of giallo - watch this one, if you expect "Profondo Rosso Part II" or "Tenebre Reloaded - Peter Neil strikes again" - forget about it. Dario Argento has always changed his style - and he did it this time as well. If you can accept this, you will see a good movie. If not, just plug the ABE edition of Profondo Rosso in your DVD...

My comment is based on the 96' German version of Notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba AKA Die Grotte der vergessenen Leichen, which is shown quite frequently on German pay-TV "premiere".

This German TV FSK 18 version is cut as well, but obviously not as severe as the versions mentioned by my fellow posters.

Nice style, beautiful women, brutal killings (some of them chopped away by censors), the plot fails to be logical (but who cares) - and has some twists.

Very charming: The typical 70s anglo-Italian style.

6 black gloves out of 10

Giallo meets the 80s - in a movie made 1996. If Fatal Frames was made in the 80s, then it would be just a styleless 80's movie, but at least contemporary at the time of release (like Le Foto di Gioia by Lamberto Bava). The movie is looking like a music-video from '83, also the score was 100% outdated.

The plot is quite OK if you manage to watch the whole movie - the end is quite logical (for giallo-standards).

Stefania Stella - the lead - also produced the movie, which might be the reason for Festa to cast her. If you are used to female actresses like Daria Nicolodi you could experience serious damage: The acting is practically not present, and her looks - ehh - okay, just forget about her.

So if you are a giallo-collector get this flick, if you're just starting your exploration of the giallo-genre (which you are probably not, if you're reading this on IMDb) please forget about this or you will never catch the giallo-spirit. Start with Argento, Bava(s), Fulci or even Michele Soavi - and then turn to Festa, smile and shake your head.

What´s the main thing about a thriller? It should be chilling, it could have a creative plot, anyway - Panic Room is the exact opposite from "thriller".

The only good thing is the camera - great computer tricks - which could have been tremendous, if directing or acting had worked as well.

Overall 3 - go to Blockbusters and get Psycho or Tenebre.

Not the best Argento movie (that´s still "Opera" to me), but a solid, stylish piece of work. Great score from Goblin, all in all worth seeing - 8. If you buy the DVD buy the english version and not the american, as the american version is cut, not letterboxed and poorly transfered.