Italian Crime Film Night, oh yeah baby, this is what I’m waiting for… Last year, when Tarantino introduced Italian Crime Night to the QT fests, it was a night of pure splendor… A perfect night of intense friggin filmmaking.
I was hoping that this night would be no different.
Quentin charged the stage and called the Italian Crime movies, "Don" movies, because Don So-n-So was always out to kill you. Then he told us that when THE GODFATHER hit, it made the "Don" movies a really huge industry in Italy. But that in Italy, they didn’t see the Mafia as this romanticized Family for Family sake happy American Bullshit, to them it was no figment of the imagination, it was real, so when they made these movies there was no glorification, they treated the mafia like "a bunch of sick squirrelly dogs" and that there was no respect, they were rats to whom loyalty means nothing.
THE FAMILY
In its UK release it was known under the far better title, VIOLENT CITY. Quentin said, "In the trailer for the film, the tagline was, ‘THE GODFATHER made you an offer you couldn’t refuse… THE FAMILY leaves you no alternative’" The film stars Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland and Telly Savalas in what is essentially a remake of OUT OF THE PAST. "The Italians didn’t do fucking remakes, they just fucking steal it. ‘Hey you put it out there, its ours now!’ This is a paraphrase remake of OUT OF THE PAST." The big difference is Bronson is a Hitman, not a Detective, but otherwise… well… check it out for yourself…
The film is directed by Sergio Sollima, "Who was considered the greatest Spaghetti Western director outside of Leone" He directed Lee Van Cleef in THE BIG GUNDOWN and a ton of others.
"Now you are going to be seeing some dubbing and seventies styles, but just get over the dubbing and you’re going to be on a helluva ride. You know, people come up to me and ask, ‘Why you like those shitty Italian crime junk,’ and the reason is Operatic Elegance… Watch for the end of this film, I’m not going to spoil it, but it is grandiose. It is a Beautiful Auteur set piece and we just don’t get enough of those"
Quentin left the stage and the Trailers Began:
MANDINGO: "The only true epic of the Old South"
OPEN SEASON: This is a Peter Fonda and John Phillip Law flick that’s pretty disturbing… 3 friends kidnap a couple to torture up in a cabin… Pretty fucked up!
TEENAGE GRAFFITTI: "Nobody does it like the teens do it, and they do it all!" Wow, lots of pretty titties.
THE HAPPENING: Hippies kidnapping a Mafia Don played by Anthony Quinn… fun trailer
THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN: "In 1946 this man killed five people. Today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Arkansas." Creepy damn movie about a white hooded serial killer.
THE BIG DOLL HOUSE: "See What They Do For Thrills. See What They Do For Action" "Their bodies were caged, but not their desires. They would do anything for a man… or to him." Great great great Jack Hill flick
DRUM: "Mandingo lit the fuse, DRUM is the Explosion!" Man, Ken Norton is the man!
ANGELS – HARD AS THEY COME: "Big Men with Throbbin Machines… And the Girls that take them on!" This trailer is a biker trailer from hell, great font.
LAST EMBRACE: Chief Brody in an early Jonathan Demme flick!
THE McCULLOCHS: "1949. A Neat Time To Be Young! To Be A… McCulloch!" Didn’t really dig this one.
BOXCAR BERTHA: Cool friggin Scorsese trailer… Really love those L.B. Cole color frames. "America in the 30’s was a Free Country. Bertha was just a little big free’er than most!"
WHITE LIGHTNING: Burt Reynolds is a Sweaty God in this one!
THE ITALIAN CONNECTION - Oh cool we’ll see this movie next
FANTASTIC INVASION OF PLANET EARTH: In 3D!!!
CRASH – Looks like a helluvalot more car crashes than in Cronenbergs.
THIS IS A HIJACK – Adam Roarke is the man! "Stay in your seats and Don’t Anyone Move!"
THE FAMILY
Well, I prefer OUT OF THE PAST, but this is a damn fun film in its own way. My favorite bit in the film is when Bronson is in jail at the beginning and there’s this Black Cellmate that tells him:
"I once heard of a Good Husband… a good man. One day instead of going to work he bought himself an automatic machine gun… stood on a street corner and just started shooting as many people as he could. Some said he was crazy… That wasn’t it though… He’d just found his calling. He was just a NATURAL BORN KILLER!"
That is literally where Quentin got NATURAL BORN KILLER from and it is no wonder… What a wonderful little bit there. We never see that character again, but that’s fine because Telly Savalas and Charles Bronson are eating up the screen pretty fiercely.
There’s a scene in Savalas’ office where he makes some sort of weird coconut mixed drink in a half coconut shell and offers it to Bronson, who looks at it, as if he were saying, "I don’t want that sissy fucking drink! Do I look like I’m wearing satin undies to you gal?"
And about that grandiose operatic ending that Quentin mentioned… Oh yeah, yeah it is right there. Big as life. Man, listen I think it is just a really honestly terrible idea to try and screw over one of the world’s greatest hit men. Just one of those… ‘not to do things’.
Especially when said hitman happens to be CHARLES ‘I will get even’ BRONSON. Christ what are these people thinking.
This movie was good, but in no way prepared me for the next one.
As Quentin took the stage to introduce THE ITALIAN CONNECTION the audience, which was bigger than capacity, cheered… everyone had a really good feeling about tonight.
"Now for all of those that were here last year when I introduced the QT fest to Fernando Di Leo, he went over very well. Some friends of ours that are coming in from New Jersey, a Harry Guardo of Exhume films sent me his list, and when I saw he had THE ITALIAN CONNECTION in scope, I just had to bring it down here. This is Fernando Di Leo’s most famous movie. Being a video store junkie, I often walk into random cool looking video stores and You’ll find this title under a lot of different titles: HITMAN, MANHUNT, HIRED TO KILL, MANHUNT IN MILAN and so on.."
"Out in the lobby somebody asked me, ‘Where’s our Big Pimping Friday this year’ and I told him, ‘How many Pimp movies do you think there are?’ It isn’t like that’s a gigantic genre, it is a sub genre of a genre. But having said that, this movie is our BIG PIMPING FRIDAY movie this year!"
The film stars Mario Adorf as Luca Canali and as Quentin said, "He’s a bear of a man." Luca is a pimp that everyone in Milan is after. Woody Strode and Henry Silva as U.S. Hitmen… The Mob, everyone. "This is the A-Typical Personification of the Italian Crime Genre!" He left the stage with a strange grin… like he just knew what this film was and what it would do to us…
TRAILERS:
THE LAWYER: "I’d cheat on my wife if I had the time" This is a fantastic trailer… This is the sleaziest lawyer ever.
A LONG RIDE FROM HELL: Man I love the 1-Sheet for this movie, and my mom used to go on and on about the film, but then she was in love with Steve Reeves… Cool trailer
KILL THEM ALL & COME BACK ALONE: This title rules the earth. Chuck Connors is such a badass.
THE MAN WHO HAD POWER OVER WOMEN: I was disturbed by this movie something fiercely… Rod Taylor as the world’s greatest womanizer… disturbing.
THE LADY OF MONZA: This is an astoundingly cool nun exploitation movie trailer… Fantastic!
WEEKEND WITH THE BABYSITTER: A middle-aged husband falls for a teenage babysitter and discovers the joys of the evil hippie drug and screw lifestyle… at least that’s what I gathered.
MYRA BRECKINRIDGE: This trailer actually offended some in the audience…
PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW: Oh man, this movie is wonderful… I want to see this movie again. Quentin showed this last year and it’s classic.
CASTLE OF BLOOD & HERCULES IN A HAUNTED WORLD -- Completely beautiful.
Now for THE ITALIAN CONNECTION…
Folks, find this movie. Find THE ITALIAN CONNECTION and watch it instantly. I friggin love the hell out of this thing. Mario Adorf is a God in this thing.
If you’ve ever seen the classic D.O.A. with Edmond O’Brien, this movie has that sort of tension and sense of urgency… Luca Canali is just plain screwed in this movie. Life is so not fair. He’s just an average good Pimp… He doesn’t beat his women. He pays child support for his wife and daughter and brings her cool robot Teddy Bears with twirling balls…
He’s about as good a guy as a pimp could ever hope to be, and he’s low on the radar. He doesn’t fuck anyone over, but one day he wakes up and everyone everywhere is trying to kill him.
In a way the movie reminded me of UNBREAKABLE… because Luca Canali ain’t a super super action hero, but he has the ability to just barely fucking survive. Accept the movie is so much harder than UNBREAKABLE… it is intense.
There is a chase scene that I would put right there with the great RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK truck chase scene. This movie rules!
You really can’t believe how cool this movie is. Luca Canali is a so cool. When he’s facing out with Woody Strode and Henry Silva… CLASSIC! Absolutely Classic!
When the film was over, Tarantino came over as if to say, "Now that was the shit wasn’t it?" And I just started spilling out praises for this flick. I mean Christ… what a film! He tells me that I should check out CALIBRE 9 (which is also known as THE CONTRACT) if I liked this one. Well, I will try….
Quentin takes the stage and tells how Linklater ran into Scorsese after last year’s festival and found out that Scorsese is doing a documentary on Italian film and the first thing Linklater said to him was, "You got a little section in there on Fernando Di Leo?" and Scorsese was like, "uh, um, No" and then Quentin injected his own personality with, "Yeah, Well WHY THE FUCK NOT!?!?!?!?!?"
Ok, then it was on to MACHINE GUN McCAIN… Now this Italian crime film has an amazing cast. John Cassavetes, the amazing Britt Ekland, Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands… Wow.
Quentin informs us that this is a Gangster/Heist Flick that vaguely reminds him of CASINO… and how Peter Falk is exactly playing the Joe Pesci character here. The director is Giuliano Mantaldo, who Quentin reminds all of us directed that amazing caper flick GRAND SLAM.
He starts enthusing that the film is Massively Violent like all Italian Crime flicks, but has a really groovy theme song, which he then began singing… Ahem… Ah what a lovely set of chords he has… hehehe…
The introduction wasn’t the fire and brimstone of the Di Leo flick, but this cast was just amazing and I was awaiting a great film to finish off a great evening.
MACHINE GUN McCAIN…
This is the most non-Italian looking Italian Crime Film that I’ve ever seen. Vast portions taking place in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York. Cassavetes is such a bad ass in the flick. He’s an ex-con that has been locked up for 12 years, he’s released and his son has a plan for him.
To pull a heist on a Las Vegas casino that just went up. His son… well…
Jack, "This is my chance to no longer be small time!"
Cassavetes, "Son… you’ll always be small time!"
