DAY 4: Female-Helmed Horror Movies for October
The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears
Written and Directed by Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani
2013
1 hour, 42 minutes
I figured it was time to take a break from ‘80s slashers, much as I love them. So I went in an entirely different direction: “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears,” a modern giallo film, directed by Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, that takes very little interest in a narrative but packs a constant visual punch. I’m always one foot in, one foot out with liking giallo. You can’t help but appreciate the inventive, bananas imagery but I guess I’m still just a story and character gal. But sometimes I can go along with the you’re-in-a-nightmare-and-nightmares-don’t-make-sense vibe, like I did with this one.
As with most giallo movies, the plot summary is going to be probably inaccurate, because they are all confusing. Dan (Klaus Tange) returns home from a business trip to discover his wife, Edwige (Ursula Bedena) is missing. Their apartment was locked from the inside, none of her belongings are missing, and all the messages from his trip away are still on the machine (pretty telling that he wasn’t worried before when he hadn’t heard from her). He gets super drunk, deletes his messages (maybe?), calls the police and rages around his apartment building, interrogating the other residents. A police detective gets only sort of involved and then it’s mostly Dan working his way through the building, sort of asking everyone questions but mostly just seeing insane things everywhere he goes. After some “investigation,” it appears his wife got caught up in some kind of psychosexual, possibly otherworldly group.
I think this movie would be frustrating if you held out for a strong narrative, or even a weak one. But if you can go along with the bonkers ride, it’s rewarding. The title alone is a delight. I recently listened to an episode of the “This Is Rad” podcast where they talked about giallo films and a big section was just listing a bunch of insane titles. Apparently, there’s even a giallo title generator app out there. I also loved the score, featuring work by masters like Ennio Morricone and Riz Ortolani, especially the final credit music, although the movie is often pretty quiet, almost scoring with sighs and slicing sounds.
Bonus points go to Production Designer Julia Irribarria and Location Managers Pascale Brischoux, Al Huynh and Robert Schlungs for that outstanding apartment. My God, that window is the stuff of dreams. I had to throw in extra pictures today because “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears” is a classic example of every frame is compelling.
So now that you’ve read this far: what is it with this movie and nipples? I don’t know but I love it. It hits that visceral “ohnonono,” like when someone pulls out a nail or a tooth in a movie. The whole film is a bombardment of crazy images, but the way the nipples are treated is definitely more sensitive about what they show than most giallo movies I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong. There’s oh so much blood here, so if you have a low gore tolerance, allow me to recommend something like “The Haunting” instead (which I also love, not directed by a woman though). The movie is chock full of sumptuous insanity: Edwige’s hat box of secretly perverted toys, people crawling around between walls and wallpaper, and of course, as is required, so very many straight razors.
SPOILER ALERT! (BUT REALLY IT’S GIALLO, SO I’M PROBABLY WRONG ANYWAY.)
My best guess is this is about a man’s fascination with an older girl from when he was a young boy and somehow that turned him into a shape shifting serial killer? Or did Dan just remember being in love with that girl and then having his mind blown by seeing she’d gotten her period? The period imagery occurs several times in the film and I am here for it. Why don’t we have way more period talk in horror movies? That seems like such a natural topic. Hit me up if you know of any others!
