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Blood and Black Lace – 1964 Bava
- Mario Bava’s blood and black lace is a fascinating blend of high and low art. The script is putrid and the acting is just straight bad but bava’s gliding camera, and especially his use of color, is a major artistic achievement
- He often uses neon lighting and heavy shadow work in the same mise-en-scene. It’s gorgeous
- Heavy neon with posing characters for the intro title montage—jazz score—it’s a very inspired opening
- The story is a slasher and a who-done-it set in the fashion industry (which gives bava plenty of excuses to go nuts (and I love it) with the décor
- Flashing neon green from vertigo
- Clearly influences argento, mainly suspiria, refn’s neon demon and only god forgives, and greenaway’s the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover
- The film is proof a good director can make an archiveable film from any source material
- The fast motion photography sequences are unfortunate choices
- The second murder set piece, about 20 minutes in, is the main spectacular sequence- it’s about 5 minutes—there’s another one at the end with a superb tracking shot long take through a neon lit house filled with colorful mannequins.. if these sequences had been more than 15 minutes of the 90 minutes or so we could’ve been talking about a top 5 film of 1964—its about ratio here and there are 20 minute chunks here and there where it’s a really weak movie filled with bad acting—even without the dubbing—some of the bad dubbing, simple genre story stuff with spectacular visuals remind me of john woo’s work
- Very cheap “who-done-it” montages as bava cuts to half guilty faces when a new clue comes up
- R/HR border- elements are amongst the best of the year but others are amongst the worst of any film in my archvies—tough film to categorize
Drake2020-07-03T10:31:21-04:00
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This is a bit uneven and convulted narrative to follow. And the dialogue is stilted and I think that has a lot to do with Bava not using close up shot-reverse shot at all in the film? (Perhaps he didn’t have the budget for multiple camera set ups?). Actors are basically coming into the frame and talking to the audience. I do think Eva Bartok has screen presence. I’m not a fan of some of the zoom ins in this film either.
But this is one visually stunning film. I think the daytime scenes are flat and should have been trimmed. But the atmosphere in the night time scenes are amazing. Amazing work with the perennial wind, shadows and use of color via lighting with changing lighting setups throughout the entire film. The interior and costume design is fabulous and needs to be praised as well. Entire objects and costumes are often painted and made in primary colors.
The score can be a bit cheesy at times but works especially in the bookending opening and ending with the soft focus use imitating the jewels in the costumes in the studio. I noticed that in the models posing opening credit sequence the male actors are lit in harsh, thick colors while the actresses are lit in lighter colors. The 2nd half was stronger than the 1st half. My pick for the best scenes would be;
1.) The tracking shot around the mannequin studio set in the finale
2.) The country house girl scene with the butler
3.) The girl searching for her partner in his apartment
And there are many others as well. Unlike most horror films I do think the ending here packs a punch. The lack of gore and blood in this film surprised me a bit. I think the real native title of this film is completely different than the English title “Blood and Black Lace”. I see a lot of this film’s influence in Argento’s Suspiria/Phenomena and Refn’s The Neon Demon. But weirdly enough it is not even in the top 3000 in the TSPDT all-time list.
Bava started as a Cinematographer before becoming a Director and it shows. The American actor Cameron Mitchell worked with Bava in starring roles in other projects but I don’t think they are horror/suspense films. There is architecture use here with the statues, mannequins and the pond in front of the studio. And some mirror use as well. Which all adds up to the atmosphere. Often cited as the first Giallo film or as a breakthrough for Giallo.
Grade: MS
https://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/classic/bloodblack.shtml
Just to clarify, by “Top 5 film of 1964,” do you mean Masterpiece or Must-See?
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