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FILMS / REVIEWS Italy

Review: Fulci Talks

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- Antonietta De Lillo’s documentary paints an unseen portrait of a brilliant craftsman of cinema: the master of horror Lucio Fulci, who has since become a reference point for a generation of filmmakers

Review: Fulci Talks
(© Alessia Bulgari)

A poet of the macabre? A master of horror? The Godfather of Gore, as he was known in the nineteen eighties? The best description of Lucio Fulci’s particular brand of cinema is offered up by the man himself in Antonietta De Lillo’s documentary Fulci Talks [+see also:
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: “My work is incoherent, and I’m proud of it”.

“It is impossible to write his biography because, according to him, he is 600 years old and has exercised every profession, residing in all places including Atlantis”, reads an Italian dictionary of directors, dating back to 1961 and quoted by Marcello Garofalo in the preface of Paolo Albiero and Giacomo Cacciatore’s magnificent book, “Il terrorista dei generi” (lit: “The Terrorist of Genres”) – a title which, arguably, comes closest to describing the master’s approach vis-à-vis comedy, the thriller genre, spaghetti westerns and horror.

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Marcello Garofalo is the critic who, in Rome in June of 1993, and in the company of Antonietta De Lillo, recorded a long conversation with Fulci which, today, almost 30 years on, gifts us with rare and precious material - pure, complex and comprehensive historical documentation. It’s an unseen portrait of a brilliant craftsman of cinema, sketched out in the years when critics were finally recognising the cult status of his films - films which would become reference points for young viewers and an entire generation of directors. Indeed, as testified by Fabio Frizzi, a composer and collaborator of Fulci’s, Quentin Tarantino, Nicolas Winding Refn, Eli Roth have all confessed their genuine veneration for the master, and every day Fulci, who died in 1996, is rediscovered by dozens of wannabees and thousands more viewers. After starting out in comedy, and following the western Massacre Time (1967), Fulci began work on his more significant productions, namely The Conspiracy of Torture (1969), Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972), The Psychic (1977) and thriller and horror classics such as Zombie (1979), The House by the Cemetary (1981) and The New York Ripper (1983).

In Fulci Talks, there are no clips from his films or photos from film shoots (apart from at the end). We see the backdrop of a white wall cast in shadow behind the director, who is dressed in black and sat in a wheelchair. On another wall, illuminated this time, Fulci’s Hitchcockian shadow looms, while on the left, a white, metaphysical, half-lit staircase seems to climb towards nothingness (it’s actually a corner of De Lillo’s home). At the point of editing the film, the director has left in some very brief “off-air moments” in which we glimpse the director’s personality: placid yet fully in control, an educated man armed with a cutting, biting sense of irony. Fulci speaks about his films and the films he loves, spurred on by Garofalo and the director’s questions. He offers up moments of deep reflection alongside entertaining anecdotes about an artisanal film approach which erects temples to creativity, and which is sublime for this very reason. As well as subliminal. Cathartic. “Horror is pure imagination; it wanders through the absolute. It is anarchic because it has no moral base on which to rest”. Indeed, there’s always something liberating and mocking about Fulci’s particular brand of horror. “The difference between me and the others? Irony. Maintaining a proper distance. I go out in a sailboat instead of going to see a psychoanalyst, and I recommend it to my colleagues”. The antagonism between Fulci and Dario Argento weighs on the former: “He lives cooped up with his nightmares”. Garofalo sees madness, humour, insolence, cruelty and provocation in Fulci’s films and singles out the key features of his work: doubt and sin. “I’m a legend”, jokes the master, proudly.

The archive material featured in Fulci Talks was selected by Fabrizio D’Alessio, while editing and VFX come courtesy of Elisabetta Giannini. The documentary is produced by Marechiarofilm and will be available on demand via the CG Digital and Chili platforms from today, 10 March, following the film’s world premiere at the 30th Noir in Festival.

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(Translated from Italian)

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