What's this then? An Art Giallo from the swinging 60's, a psychological crime drama based on an Alberto Moravia story and with the soulful
Brazilian Florinda Bolkan in her screen debut, a role for which she won an Italian film award. Bolkan is my favourite actress of the gialli genre,
always enigmatic and beautiful and with haunting performances, and if i have to chose a favourite role of hers it could be the one she played
in Luigi Bazzoni's Footprints on the Moon (Le Orme/Primal Impulse), a delightfully strange and hypnotic film.

Above: DVD meny

In this film Catherine Spaak is OK and Jean Sorel is Good in a slightly disturbing portrayal of a sociopath. He's our guiding point in the film,
the main role figure which we have to identify with, and at first he seems to be a pretty likeable guy. Boy meets girl, a nice late 1960's
couple you may think at first, but soon we find out that they really are bored nihilistic pieces of shit, unlikeable and maybe also evil.
Jean Sorel may also be insane and not completely trustworthy regarding the narration of the story. I found the sad ending of this film to be
pretty strong and satisfying.This film is an art drama and with a crime which may define it as a giallo, maybe not, a borderline case.

Catherine Spaak and Jean Sorel

Alberto (Sorel) accidently overhears a conversation between two women on the telephone due to crossed lines and this film starts out
strongly with an impressive surrealistic sequence, a montage of pictures. Yes, i remember when you had a landline for the phone and this
sometimes happened, you could overhear strangers talk and even talk with them yourself. Once i talked with a friend and we could overhear
two girls talking and ... that was his sister chatting with a friend. What are the chances for something like that to happen?

Ok, due to the info Alberto overheard he can contact one of the women, and she turns out to be the brunette beauty Claudia (Spaak), an artist
painter. They start to hang out but Alberto can't make love to her due to impotency, caused by some of his inner problems, he's a troubled man.
She's having another boyfriend too, Pietro (Luigi Proietti) so she doesn't care that much anyway.
Throughout the film Alberto now and then narrates the goings-on, and he does it in a literary way ... and loudly, to himself and not to us, the
viewers. A bit odd and you do wonder if he's an author preparing his new book or if he's just crazy?

Claudia has a rich stepmother, Greta (Florinda Bolkan) and she tells Alberto that Greta has molested her during her childhood and that she wants
her dead, and Alberto says he would kill Greta for her. Greta is enigmatic as the beautiful stepmother and beware of false narration.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 and with an italian audio DD 2.0 with english subtitles. No extras, region free.

I read much Alberto Moravia when i was younger, and he often had bored nihilistic people, maybe even fascists, as his main figures.
The soundtrack had some really cool theme music from Fabio Fabor / Borgazzi 1920-2011, a fine but obscure progressive composer