Paganini, Kinski would not repeat!
proached and told me that Klaus didn’t want to be
interrupted because—he said—he could come up
Kinski’s dominion over the film also manifested
with good facial expressions. Meanwhile, I heard
with an abrupt recasting. He demanded that
Klaus ask who I was and what was the reason of my
Caminito fire Amanda Sandrelli, who played
presence on the set. Despite my dismay, the next
Helietta’s (Barbara De Rossi) younger sister
1988: Nosferatu
69
Maria, whom he didn’t consider sensual enough
to shape into a coherent whole. It was finally re-
for the role of the virgin who offers herself to
leased theatrically in 988, after premiering as
Nosferatu. Kinski replaced her with an inexpe-
the closing event at the midnight screenings of
rienced young girl—Yorgo Voyagis’ girlfriend
the 988 Venice Film Festival—a choice that left
Anne Knecht, whom he noticed when she
critics perplexed.4 Caminito and Kinski were
visited the set. The fact that the Dominican-
about to leave for Africa, to film Grandi caccia-
born, dark- skinned Knecht didn’t look Venetian
tori, which turned out another ill- fated project
(and Italian) at all, didn’t seem to be a problem.
for the producer.
It was just a matter of changing the script and
In a short piece on Nosferatu a Venezia
turning Maria into Helietta’s adopted sister.
which appeared in the Corriere della Sera shortly
Cozzi, who shot some scenes as second
before its Venetian screening, Caminito men-
unit director—namely, Maria throwing herself
tioned that the film was hour and 46 minutes
from the San Marco steeple, Christopher Plum-
long, whereas the copy submitted to the rating
mer and other characters on boat in the lagoon,
board was about 98 minutes, and the current
as well as details of the duel scene between
version runs 89 minutes—a difference in length
Plummer’s character and the vampire—had to
which speaks volumes about the mess that the
accompany Kinski around Venice at dawn to
movie had become. Its unfinished nature is ev-
shoot additional scenes that weren’t even in the
ident from its haphazard, shaky narrative, barely
script. “I think we ended up with about 0 hours
tied together by a voice- over which explains var-
of footage, which more or less consisted of the
ious passages that were never filmed: according
same thing: Kinski walking here and there.”2
to Cozzi, for instance, the opening section was
Another such addition was the final scene of
originally supposed to be in the middle of the
Nosferatu walking through the streets of Venice
story.6
with a nude dead girl in his arms, filmed without
The film opts for a different approach to
permits: interminable and clumsy, with the actor
the vampire myth than Nosferatu, and more akin
struggling to carry the girl (who visibly clings
to classical Gothic, and its visual style is miles
to his shoulders so as not to fall), it is a testament
away from Herzog’s film. The vampire incarnates
to Kinski’s delirious dreams of grandeur.
a “return of the past” which haunts a Venetian
The actor’s behavior with the other ac-
family for centuries, courtesy of a flashback set
tresses was often downright offensive: for the
in 786: “To him, this house is a door open in
scene in which Nosferatu vampirizes Helietta,
time,” Helietta explains (or tries to). Nosferatu
the actor simply had to bend over the actress
becomes an unlikely Byronic hero, his eyes
and pretend to bite her neck in close- up. But
perennially gazing toward the horizon, who
boom man Luciano Muratori, who was on the
crosses lagoons and quays as if they were cen-
set, is adamant that on that occasion Kinski in-
turies of immortality, and his only chance to end
serted his fingers in the woman’s vagina. Mura-
his torment on Earth is to make love to a virgin
tori struggled with the impulse of grabbing the
woman who loves him.
actor by the neck and flinging him away for that
The script makes attempts at reshaping the
squalid act. After the scene, the actress left the
vampire mythology. During a séance, Catalano
set in tears.3 Tension between Kinski and the
(Plummer, giving the best performance in the
crew rose day by day and at a certain point, ac-
film by far) explains that one can become a vam-
cording to Cozzi, the whole crew abandoned the
pire “by being the illegitimate sons of illegitimate
set in protest against the actor, who had to apol-
parents, the son of witches and warlocks, a man
ogize publicly for his behavior.
who takes his own life, those who died by hang-
After six weeks’ shooting on location in
ing, those who died of the plague, those who
Venice, Caminito had completed only half of the
died with blasphemy on their lips, murderers
scenes to be filmed there, and there was still a
who die unpunished, and the descendants of
third of the script to be filmed. But he had no
vampires.” Other details are sparsely mentioned
alternative than wrap the shoot and make do
in the dialogue: the vampire is said to sleep 24
with the footage he had, no matter how inco-
hours every 24 days in a coffin leaning on cursed
herent. Born under a bad sign, and at the mercy
soil, he can walk around in the daylight, casts a
of its undisputed master, Nosferatu a Venezia
reflection in the mirror, which in a scene he con-
ended up an unlikely—and unfinished—con-
templates, and is not at all scared by crosses. The
coction, which not even three editors managed
most interesting scene in this respect is Nosfer-
70 1988: Nosferatu atu’s encounter with a group of gypsies on the
ravation of humanity, great master of rottenness,
beach, who are his worshippers, where an elderly
champion of evil.” Caminito injects some timid
woman offers him her daughter to be vampirized.
gore in the process, with a priest falling from a
The gypsy is Micaela Flores Amaya “La Chunga,”
window and ending up transfixed by a spiked
a noted barefoot Flamenco dancer and painter
gate as in Black Cat, and gives room to the erotic
who had been the muse of several writers and
aspect of vampirization, with some soft- focus
painters, including Rafael Alberti, Picasso and
nudity more in tune with 980s soft porn. The
Dalí, and had appeared in a handful of films, such
lack of a firm directorial hand is dramatically
as Tip on a Dead Jockey (97, Richard Thorpe).
evident in such scenes as the duel between the
The Venetian setting allows for a few ar-
vampire and his hunters, which is filmed like
resting but repetitive images, such as Catalano
some sort of Spaghetti Western showdown and
arriving on boat at dawn, or Nosferatu on a gon-
comes off as utterly ridiculous. Apart from
dola amid the fog of the lagoon, well- served by
Plummer, the supporting players look mostly
Luigi Ceccarelli’s score (which covers a couple
uninterested (Pleasence’s wily and famelic priest
of movements from Vangelis’ 98 album Mask),
is a case in point), or totally lost: poor Anne
but it betrays the filmmaker’s simplistic ap-
Knecht is embarrassing in her only screen role
proach: the city never becomes a living presence
as Nosferatu’s great love, a character so sketchily
in the film (as it was in, say, Don’t Look Now),
developed that it is almost ignored for much of
but it serves merely as eye candy. In a way, Nos-
the film.
feratu a Venezia is telling of the Italian way of
However, it is Kinski who ultimately drowns
life in the 980s, a country that lived above its
the movie. His charismatic presence is vampiriz-
means, and sported an abundance it couldn’t re-
ing, and unlike in the actor’s stints in 970s Goth-
ally afford.
ics—such as Sergio Garrone’s Le amanti del
Despite the script’s ambitions, the dialogue
mostro and La mano che nutre la morte—it be-
is often poor if not ridiculous: Nosferatu is
comes distracting and self- sabotaging. Rather
pompously described as “adversary of life, dep-
than act, here Kinski simply is himself, histrionic
Nosferatu (Klaus Kinski) carrying his own coffin in a German lobby card for Nosferatu a Venezia.
1989: La chiesa
7
and disturbed, spiteful of the story and the peo-
Luigi Cozzi gave a more picturesque version of the episode
ple surrounding him on the set, constantly mov-
(in Cozzi, “Di Nosferatu e di altri mostri a Venezia,” 363–
364), with Kinski throwing a portable mirror at Caiano’s
ing as if to detach himself from the ordinary
face and calling him “a shitty director,” but Caiano denied
crowd, lost in his own train of thought and pos-
this, and pointed out that Cozzi wasn’t even on the set that
sibly dreaming of his life project, Paganini. But,
day.
like Nosferatu, leaving behind a trail of (cine-
9. Ibid. The change in directing took place within the
matic) destruction.
course of a few days, in late August or early September
986. See Giuseppina Manin, “Miguel Littin: ‘Ecco il mio
Cile torturato,’” Corriere della Sera, September 7, 986. On
Notes
the other hand, an article on Kinski published a couple of
days earlier still mentioned Caiano as the director. Lam-
1. Stefano Loparco, Klaus Kinski. Del Paganini e dei
berto Antonelli, “Klaus Kinski un vampiro sulla laguna per
capricci (Piombino: Il Foglio, 20), 4–8.
il secondo Nosferatu,” La Stampa, September , 986.
2. Luigi Cozzi, “Di Nosferatu e di altri mostri a Venezia,”
10. Zanotto, “Kinski assetato di sangue “gira” per
in Antonio Tentori and Luigi Cozzi, Guida al cinema horror
Venezia.”
Made in Italy (Rome: Profondo Rosso, 2007), 362.
11. Cozzi, “Di Nosferatu e di altri mostri a Venezia,”
3. However, Lucidi is still credited as the director in the
367.
986 Public Cinematographic Register, with the start of
12. Ibid., 368.
shooting date indicated as April 28, 986.
13. Loparco, Klaus Kinski. Del Paganini e dei capricci,
4. Piero Zanotto, “Kinski assetato di sangue “gira” per
6–66.
Venezia,” Stampa Sera, October 6, 986.
14. Maurizio Porro, “Kinski, vampiro stanco che vuole
5. Loparco, Klaus Kinski. Del Paganini e dei capricci, 63.
andare in pensione,” Corriere della Sera, September , 988.
6. Cozzi, “Di Nosferatu e di altri mostri a Venezia,” 362.
15. Caminito, “Il vampiro Kinski.”
7. Augusto Caminito, “Il vampiro Kinski,” Corriere della
16. Cozzi, “Di Nosferatu e di altri mostri a Venezia,”
Sera, August 28, 988
37.
8. Loparco, Klaus Kinski. Del Paganini e dei capricci, 64.
1989
La chiesa (The Church)
Marisa Calia; AsstD: Claudio Lattanzi. Cast: Hugh
D: Michele Soavi. S: Dario Argento, Franco
Quarshie (Father Gus), Tomas Arana (Ewald),
Ferrini [and Dardano Sacchetti, uncredited]; SC:
Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. (The Bishop), Barbara Cu-
Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Michele Soavi;
pisti (Lisa), Antonella Vitale (Bridal Model), Gio-
DOP: Renato Tafuri (Eastmancolor); M: Keith
vanni Lombardo Radice (Reverend), Asia Argento
Emerson, Philip Glass, Goblin [Fabio Pignatelli]
(Lotte), Roberto Caruso (Freddie), Roberto
(Ed. Bixio C.E.M.S.A.); E: Franco Fraticelli; PD:
Corbiletto (Hermann, the Sacristan), Alina De Si-
Massimo Antonello Geleng; CO: Maurizio Paiola;
mone (Lotte’s Mother), Olivia Cupisti (Mira), Gi-
MU: Laura Borselli, Franco Casagni, Barbara Mo-
anfranco De Grassi (The Accuser), Claire Hard-
rosetti, Rosario Prestopino; Hair: Piero Cucchi,
wick (Joanna), Lars Jorgenson (Bruno), John
Assunta Emidi; AD: Filiberto Fiaschi; C: Alessan-
Karlsen (Heinrich), Katherine Bell Marjorie
dro Carlotto, Enrico Maggi; Steadicam: Nicola
(Heinrich’s Wife), Riccardo Minervini (School-
Pecorini; AC: Maurizio Cremisini, Alfonso Vicari;
boy), Enrico Osterman (The Torturer), Micaela
1stAE: Piero Bozza; 2ndAE: Roberto Priori; SD:
Pignatelli (Fashion shoot photographer), Patrizia
Caterina Napoleone; AsstSD: Daniela Giovannoni,
Punzo (Miss Brückner), John Richardson (Archi-
Barbara Morosetti; Set furnishing: G.P. Postgione,
tect), Matteo Rocchietta (Younger Schoolboy), Is-
E. Rancati; SE/SPFX: Sergio Stivaletti, Renato
abella Rocchietta (School girl), Michele Soavi (st
Agostini, Danilo Bollettini, Massimo Cristofanelli,
Policeman at Lisa’s house). PROD: Dario Argento
Danilo Del Monte; Props: Fabio Altamura,
for ADC, Mario Cecchi Gori, Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Osvaldo Monaco; Set construction chief: Aldo
for Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica, in
Taloni; Carpenter: E. Tappezzeri; W: Carla Latini,
collaboration with Reteitalia; EP: Giuseppe Man-
Claudio Antonucci; SOE: Luca Anzellotti, Luciano
gogna; UM: Saverio Mangogna; PSe: Ezio Orita,
Anzellotti, Massimo Anzellotti, Mauro Anzellotti;
Daniela Rocco; PAcc: Carlo Du Bois; Paymaster:
B: Claudio Paolucci; Mix: Giulio Viggiani; Stunts:
Carlo Cestari. Unit publicist: Enrico Lucherini, Gi-
anluca Pignatelli. Country: Italy. Filmed in Bu-
nando Massaccesi; KG: Augusto Proietti; SS:
dapest, Hamburg, and at R.P.A. Elios Studios
72 1989: La chiesa and De Paolis In.Ci.R. studios (Rome). Running
numbers. The film will be directed, as usual, by
time: 00 minutes (m. 2728). Visa n. 8403
Lamberto Bava, who’s very good.”2 Bava claimed
(3.0.989; 4.2.989); Rating: V.M.8/V.M.4. Re-
that the third chapter was going to be rather dif-
lease dates: 3.0.989 (Italy), 8.8.990 (Japan),
ferent from the previous ones and pointed out:
8.22.990 (USA), 6.8.992 (Spain); Distribution:
“We don’t want to make a “Number 3,” we want
Cecchi Gori (Italy), TriStar Pictures (USA) Do-
to make a film about demons, of course, but it’s
mestic gross: ,926,277,000 lire. Also known as:
not going to be a sequel, let’s say we’d like to
Sanctuaire (France), El engendro del diablo (Spain,
reprise the “demons” subject from other points
Argentina), Démonok temploma (Hungary).
of view. A bit like when Spielberg and Lucas
Germany, Middle Ages: an army of Teutonic
talked about the Star Wars movies: let’s say it is
knights discover a village of witches. They burn
a chapter of the Dèmoni saga.”3
it, kill the inhabitants and bury them in a mass
The original story, concocted with Franco
grave, on which a cathedral is built. The present:
Ferrini and Dardano Sacchetti, took place on a
a librarian, Ewald, is hired to catalog the church’s
plane which, due to a perturbation, was forced
books and finds an ancient manuscript that re-
to an emergency landing in a strange, extradi-
veals a secret about the cathedral. Assisted by a
mensional universe, near a volcano; there, the
young restorer, Lisa, Ewald follows the indications
passengers had to face the demons’ assaults.
on the manuscript and finds a heavy cross placed
“The idea was that they ended up in some sort
on the floor in the basement of the cathedral to
of a weird Hell,” Sacchetti explained. “The plane
seal the witches’ grave. He removes the cross and
was taken into consideration because we were
releases the demons, who possess him. The fol-
looking for a closed, isolated place, in a totally
lowing day lots of people gather in the church—a
Italian Gothic Horror Films (1980-1989) Page 52