Thursday, 28 June 2007
The post-industrial giallo
One locale that seems to crop up with a disproprtionate frequency in 1970s gialli is the abandoned factory or warehouse, replete with treacherous pitfalls. It appears in The Fifth Cord, Crimes of the Black Cat (which also features the model agency, for a double whammy) and Who Saw Her Die and others I can't recall offhand. Is the death factory just a cool location for a stalk and slash showdown, or is there some deeper significance that can be attached to it?
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3 comments:
I'd say that it is mostly a cheap location, hence the multitude of American B-movies featuring warehouse shoot-outs etc.
That certainly makes sense and would also accord with the frequency with which it also appears in Italian crime films.
One thing I do find odd about it, however, is the contrast is provides with the jet-set and touristic aspects we find in many gialli - it almost seems their antithesis, or at least another reminder of a different world beneath the glossy, glamorous surface of things.
Aren't they also almost always very "static" sets: big, empty, alsmost studio-like? If I remember correctly there was quite some "hardware-action" in Crimes of the Black Cat's industrial-setpiece, which is propably quite unusual, since it costs more planning and money, I guess.
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