Disc 1 with Episode 1 - 3 Disc 2 with Episode 4-6
Episode 1 : L 'uomo della
sabbia (The Sandman written by E.T.A. Hoffman, 1 hour
20 minutes)
Aired 20 May 1981 taken from RAI standard tapemaster, a film copy does
not exist
Director: Giulio Questi - the interesting
director of the unique avantgarde spaghetti paella western 1967
"Django, Kill !" and the also unique avantgarde giallo 1968
"La morte ha fatto l'uovo" - read more about the
giallo on my Gialli and Eurocrime page 1, and more about the western
on my Cult Classics page 2 (the
latter one text in swedish only)
The Story:
Nataniele (Donato Placido)
tells his girlfriend Clara (Francesca Muzio) and his friend Lotario
(Saverio
Vallone) about a childhood experience that has traumatized him, When
he was very young he saw his father
being murdered by the lawyer Coppelio, A.K.A. the evil entity called
The Sandman who use to gouge
out the eyes of sleeping children.
Nataniele is a mysticist believing in dark forces and he's obsessed
with his fantasies of Coppelio as being
Death finally catching up to him. He's so maniacal that his friendship
with Lotario and Clara ends.
Nataniele returns to his university town, and seems
to have calmed down, when ... when an old salesman
(selling barometers and glasses) visits him and says his name is Coppola
(Mario Feliciano). Nataniele is
sure that the man is the evil Sandman from his childhood. When visiting
a party held by the professor
Spellazani (Ferruccio De Ceresa) he falls in love with the professor's
beautiful opera singing daughter,
Olimpia (played by Francesca
Muzio in a double role, but not credited for this).
She can sing and play the piano but otherwise she just sits and stares
glumly, like a wind-up toy. She
has a dull mind people says, she's inanimated and like an automaton.
But Nataniele falls madly in love
with her and the ending of that love affair is delightfully crazy.
I loved this film by the Giulio Questi.
The blu-ray presents the film in its original 4:3 ratio with italian
mono audio and english subtitles.
