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Our August double bill revisits the golden age of Giallo, with Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and Dario Argento’s Deep Red — two lurid Italian murder mysteries from supreme stylists and masters of the genre.BLOOD AND BLACK LACE
dir. Mario Bava / Year: 1964 / Runtime: 90 minutes / Format: Digital
A mysterious killer, dressed in a black mask, hat and trench coat is picking off the models and employees at the Christian Haute Coutre fashion house. Director Mario Bava had established himself at the forefront of the emerging genre of ‘giallo’ – a term derived from the yellow-clad pulp crime novels popular in Italy – with gothic precursors such as Black Sunday (1960) and Black Sabbath (1963), and early gialli The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963).
But it was with 1964’s Blood and Black Lace that the former special effects artist/cinematographer perfected the delirious mix of eye-popping colour, lurid sexuality, wicked humour and shocking, stylised violence — helping define our modern conception of the genre.
DEEP RED
dir. Dario Argento / Year: 1975 / Runtime: 122 minutes / Format: Digital
After witnessing the murder of a famous psychic in his apartment block, an obnoxious jazz pianist (David Hemmings) teams up with a journalist (Daria Nicolodi) to solve the mystery of the axe wielding murderer, unaware that the killer may be closer than they think.
One of the few filmmakers of the period who could match Bava as a visual stylist was Dario Argento. A prolific director of giallo, his 1975 masterpiece Deep Red is a thriller that on the one hand holds up established traditions, while taking off in a variety of unexpected avant-garde directions. Featuring an off kilter jazz/funk score from regular collaborators Goblin, alongside mysterious flashbacks, confounding slapstick moments and the signature hyper-stylised Argento murder scenes — including what might be his most gruesome
These screenings will be introduced by Tom Grieve and Jim Laycock, programmers at Bigger Than Life. Tickets are £7.50 per film, or £10 for the double bill. There will be an intermission.
Chapeltown Picture House is a 100-seat 4K capable cinema set within GRUB Manchester.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Chapeltown Picture House, GRUB, 50 Red Bank, M4 4HF Manchester, UK, Manchester, United Kingdom
Tickets
GBP 11.37