Giallo
Giallo (pronounced
JAH-loh) is an
Italian 20th century
genre of
literature and
film. It is closely related to the French
fantastique genre,
crime fiction,
horror fiction and
eroticism. The term is also used to mean an example of the genre, in which case it can take the Italian plural
gialli. The word
giallo is Italian for "yellow" (see
Wiktionary: giallo) and stems from the genre's origin in paperback novels with yellow covers.
The term
giallo was originally coined to describe a series of mystery/crime
pulp novels first published by
the Mondadori publishing house in
1929 (see
Giallo Mondadori). Their yellow covers contained
whodunits, much like their American counterparts of the
1920s and
1930s, and this link with English language
pulp fiction was reinforced with the Italian authors always taking on English
pen names. Many of the earliest "gialli" were however English-language novels translated into Italian.
 |
An example of an Italian giallo cover. |
Published as cheap paperbacks, the success of the "giallo" novels soon began attracting the attention of other publishing houses, who began releasing their own versions (not forgetting to keep the by-now-traditional yellow cover). The novels were so popular that even the works of established foreign mystery and crime writers, such as
Agatha Christie,
Edgar Wallace and
Georges Simenon, were labelled "gialli" when first published in Italy.
Giallo Mondadori is currently published every month, as one of the most long-lived publications of the genre in the world.
This led to the word "giallo" to become, in
Italian language, a synonym of the mystery, crime and detective story genre, with a more generic significance than that it has currently in
English, especially when it defines the cinema sub-genre (see later).
The film genre that emerged from these novels in the 1960s began as literal adaptations of the books, but soon began taking advantage of modern cinematic techniques to create a unique genre. Films known abroad as "gialli" are called
thrilling or simply "thriller" in Italy, the first term usually referring to Italian
1970s classics by directors like
Dario Argento or
Mario Bava.
Characteristics
"Giallo" films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and unusual musical arrangements. The literary
whodunit element is retained, but combined with modern
slasher horror, while being filtered through Italy's longstanding tradition of
opera and staged
grand guignol drama. They also generally include liberal amounts of nudity and sex.
Gialli typically introduce strong psychological themes of madness, alienation, and paranoia. For example,
Sergio Martino's
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (also known as
Eye of the Black Cat) was explicitly based on
Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat".
They remain notable in part for their expressive use of music, most notably by Dario Argento's collaborations with
Ennio Morricone and his musical director
Bruno Nicolai, and later with the band
Goblin.
Development
As well as the literary
giallo tradition, the films were also initially influenced by the German "
Krimi" phenomenon - originally black and white films of the 1960s that were based on
Edgar Wallace stories.
The first film that created the
giallo as a cinema genre is
La ragazza che sapeva troppo (The Girl Who Knew Too Much) (1963), from
Mario Bava. Its title referred to
Alfred Hitchcock's famous
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), again establishing strong links with Anglo-American culture. In Mario Bava's
1964 film,
Blood and Black Lace, the emblematic element of the
giallo was introduced: the masked murderer with a shiny weapon in his black leather gloved hand.
Soon the
giallo became a genre of its own, with its own rules and with a typical Italian flavour: adding additional layers of intense colour and style. The term
giallo finally became synonymous with a heavy, theatrical, and stylised visual element.
The genre had its heyday in the
1970s, with dozens of Italian
giallo films released. The most notable directors who worked in the genre were
Dario Argento,
Mario Bava,
Lucio Fulci,
Aldo Lado,
Sergio Martino,
Umberto Lenzi, and
Pupi Avati.
Notable giallo films
|
Poster art for Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). |
*
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (by
Mario Bava, 1963, also known as
The Evil Eye)
*
Blood and Black Lace (by Mario Bava, 1964, also known as
Fashion House of Death,
Six Women for the Murderer)
*
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (by
Dario Argento, 1970, also known as
Phantom of Terror,
Point of Terror,
The Gallery Murders)
*
Five Dolls for an August Moon (by Mario Bava, 1970, also known as
Island of Terror)
*
Lizard in a Woman's Skin (by
Lucio Fulci, 1971, also known as
Schizoid)
*
Next! (by
Sergio Martino, 1971. also known as
Blade of the Killer,
The Next Victim,
The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh)
*
The Cat o' Nine Tails (by
Dario Argento, 1971)
*
Short Night of the Glass Dolls (by Aldo Lado, 1971, also known as
Paralyzed)
*
The Case of the Bloody Iris (by Giuliano Carnimeo, 1972, also known as
What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing On Jennifer's Body?)
*
Don't Torture a Duckling (by
Lucio Fulci, 1972)
*
Who Saw Her Die? (by Aldo Lado, 1972, also known as
The Child)
*
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (by
Sergio Martino, 1972, based on
Poe's "The Black Cat" and also known as
Eye of the Black Cat)
*
What have you done to Solange? (by
Massimo Dallamano, 1972, music by
Ennio Morricone imdb)
*
Knife of Ice (by
Umberto Lenzi, 1972, also known as
Silent Horror)
*
They're Coming to Get You (by
Sergio Martino, 1972, also known as
All the Colors of the Dark,
Day of the Maniac,
Demons of the Dead)
*
Torso (by
Sergio Martino, 1973)
*
Eyeball (
Umberto Lenzi, 1974, also known as
The Devil's Eye,
The Eye,
The Secret Killer,
Wide-Eyed in the Dark)
*
A Dragonfly for Each Corpse (by
León Klimovsky, 1974, also known as
Red Killer)
*
Deep Red (
Dario Argento, 1975, also known as
The Hatchet Murders,
The Sabre Tooth Tiger)
*
Strip Nude for your Killer (by
Andrea Bianchi, 1975)
*
The House with the Windows that Laugh (by
Pupi Avati, 1976, also known as
The House with Laughing Windows*
The Psychic (
Lucio Fulci, 1977, also known as
Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes,
Seven Notes in Black)
*
The Blood Stained Shadow (by Antonio Bido, 1978, also known as
Solamente nero)
*
Tenebrae (by
Dario Argento, 1982, also known as
Unsane or
Under the Eyes of the Assassin)
*
The New York Ripper (by
Lucio Fulci, 1982)
*
The Pencil Murders (by
Guy Lee Thys, 1982)
*
Opera (by
Dario Argento, 1988, also known as
Terror at the Opera)
*
Sleepless (by
Dario Argento, 2001)
* Mikel J. Koven. "Superstition & Pseudoscience: The Ambivalence of Belief in the Giallo Film" Midwestern Folklore. 30.2 (2004): 21-29.
* Mikel J. Koven. "La Dolce Morta: Space, Modernity and the Giallo"
Kinoeye 3.12, 27 October 2003.
*
KinoEye: An Introduction to the Italian 'Giallo'*
Killing in Style: A blog about the Giallo*
Italian bibliography (1929-1941) of giallo novels*
The Giallo Zone at EOFFTV*
Italian Terror at The Terror Trap
*
DIY Giallo Kit Do-It-Yourself Giallo Generator
