Who's Adelina Poerio?
Chris DeBurgh wrote a song about her - Lady in Red
.....................................
A Horror-Thriller Classic made by artmovie director
Roeg and with amazing photo from cinematographer Tony
Richmond. Even though Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie both are
great in this film, the main role is played by
the city of Venice. A wintry Venice has surely never looked better on
film, or more damp and atmospheric at least
with it's maze of narrow alleys, canals and small bridges. Just fantastic
and that small figure in red running around
in the brink of our visual field ... There are also some serial killings
going on and this may make this film a Giallo ?
If there's anything to complain about in this film it
could be the intro in England with the drowning of the child, the
death of Christine (she can be seen on the disc cover above standing
on a bridge). It felt a bit clunky with the slow
mo scene and how did she manage to die in a small pond? Did she slip
and fell and hit her head against something
maybe? Well, accidents happen. The audio soundtrack, a dub?, also sounds
bad in the beginning.
After loosing their daughter in this freak accident,
John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura (Julie Christie) leave their
other child, their son, in England and move to Venice, Italy, where
John the architect is hired to renovate a church.
Laura is not well in her nerves after the death of Christine and after
25 min Donald Sutherland looks into the camera.
A couple of creepy older ladies, the sisters Heather (Hilary Mason)
and Wendy (Clelia Matania) befriends Laura
and the psychic one, Heather, tells Laura that she can see Christine
at her side, and that the girl looks happy.
Then John and Laura has that famous love scene, one of the best in film
history.
By the way, Hilary Mason is great as the blind psychic Scottish sister
Overstrung Laura is overjoyed to hear this and starts
to hang out with the ladies. John is happy as Laura is happy
but don't believe in any ESP mumbo jumbo. But, there's a serial killer
on the loose in Venice and John sometimes
see a little figure dressed in red running around in the brink of his
visual field. Is it Christine?
The amazing scenery sometimes looks like a really elaborate stage setting,
but everything was shot in real Venice
according to cinematographer Tony Richmond, and the shock ending of
this film looks out of this world.
The turned back of the figure .... i'm pretty sure Dario Argento borrowed
this to his Phenomena a decade later
when Jennifer Connelly speaks to Daria Nicolodi's son in the asylum.
Yes, almost forgot, this great film also has a fine music score from
Pino Donaggio
widescreen 1.85:1, english audio DTS-HD MA 2.0 with
english or swedish subtitles i.a. Only extra an interview
(45 minutes) with cinematographer Tony Richmond who tell us that the
film was shot during 6 winter weeks.
A really strange interview with strange interviewers and lots of strange
silences ? No info is given about when
this interview was made or by whom. I guess they want to remain anonymous
after this mess?
But, at least Tony Richmond is professional and tell us many interesting
things about his work with Nicolas Roeg