Mix: Danilo Sterbini; Sound dubbing mixer:
into a V.M.4, a move which at least allowed the
Roberto Cappanelli; Re-recording mixer: Angelo
film a very favorable home video run in Italy
Raguseo; DubD: Novella Marcucci; SP: Angelo
and easier access to television broadcasting.
Pennoni; SS: Daniela Tonti; CHOR: Zarko
Prebil; AsstCHOR: Lia Calizza; Ballet advisor:
Notes
Vittoria Ottolenghi. Cast: Jennifer Connelly
1. Morsiani, “Conversazione con Lamberto Bava,” 0.
(Claire Hamilton/Natalie Horvath), Gary Mc-
2. Gianni Vitale, “Dario Argento, l’astratto immaginato.
Cleery (Jason Forrest), Laurent Terzieff (Marius
Conversazione con Dario Argento,” in Rosso Italiano (1977/
Balakin), Olimpia Carlisi (Madam), Mario
1987), 3.
Marozzi (Balakin’s servant/chauffeur), Donald
3. Morsiani, “Conversazione con Lamberto Bava,” 60.
4. Dardano Sacchetti interviewed, in www. davinotti.
Hodson (Dancer), Charles Durning (Uncle
com (http://www.davinotti.com/index.php?option=com_
Joshua), Raffaella Renzi (Dancer: Odette/Odile);
content&task=view&id=3).
uncredited: Tom Felleghy (Concierge). PROD:
5. Dardano Sacchetti quoted in Davide Pulici, “La
Achille Manzotti for Gruppo Berna; Reteitalia
terza volta dei demoni,” Nocturno #82, February 208, 6.
(Rome); EP: Claudio Mancini; PM: Tullio Lullo;
6. Giovanna Grassi, “Vi preparo quattro serate horror,”
Corriere della Sera, February 2, 989.
Production Coordinator: Massimo Iacobis; PSe:
7. Alberto Pezzotta, La modernità imperfetta, in Vito
Cinzia Taffani; PAss: Stefano Mandini; ADM:
Zagarrio (ed.), Argento vivo. Il cinema di Dario Argento tra
Giancarlo Ciotti; PAcc: Archimede Orlando;
genere e autorialità (Venice: Marsilio, 2008), 84.
Cash: Carlo Gagliardi, Angelo Frezza; Press at-
8. Maiello, Dario Argento, 309.
9. Jones, Dario Argento, 79.
tache: Lucherini- Fantoli. Country: Italy. Filmed
10. Ibid.
on location in Budapest, and at Villa Parisi
11. Maurice Lévy, Le Roman gothique anglais 1764–1824
(Frascati, Rome), Spoleto and Cinecittà (Rome).
(Paris: Albin- Michel, 200 [968]), VI.
Running time: 0 minutes (m. 2830). Visa n.
12. Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the
84344 (.2.989); Rating: all audiences. Release
Sublime and Beautiful (London: Routledge, 2009), 72.
13. Lévy, Le Roman gothique anglais 1764–1824, 64.
dates: 3.7.989 (Italy), 0.4.989 (Japan); Dis-
14. Gian Mario Anselmi (ed.), Mappe della letteratura
tribution: Artisti Associati. Domestic gross: n.a.
europea e mediterranea: Dal Barocco all’Ottocento (Milan:
Also known as: Ballet, Os fantasmas de uma Es-
Paravia—Bruno Mondadori, 2000), 343.
trela (Portugal).
15. Costantini and Dal Bosco, Nuovo cinema inferno,
8.
Note: P. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is played
16. Giovanna Grassi, “Un incubo gotico color Argento,”
by the orchestra of the Unione Musicisti di
Corriere della Sera, February 28, 989.
Roma, directed by Franco Tamponi.
Ballet student Claire Hamilton arrives in
etoile (Ballet Star)
Budapest to audition for a new production of
D: Peter Del Monte. S: Peter Del Monte,
Swan Lake. At the hotel she meets a young Amer-
Sandro Petraglia; SC: Peter Del Monte, Franco
ican, Jason, who is immediately smitten with her.
76 1989: Etoile When her moment comes, Claire is so overin an unusual environment such as classical bal-
whelmed that she ditches the audition. She then
let, “the milieu par excellence which cancels any
dances alone in the empty auditorium to find sol-
time dimension… . A mortuary ritual which re-
ace and is spotted by the enigmatic choreographer,
peats itself immutable.”3 The story, concocted
Marius Balakin. One night a pair of mysterious
with Sandro Petraglia, draws from a number of
ballet dancers, a woman and a man, sneak in
elements typical of the Gothic genre—the Dop-
Claire’s hotel room and put a spell on her. Claire,
pelgänger, reincarnation, a revealing portrait, a
now believing she is called Natalia Horvath, is led
mysterious villa which functions as a gateway
to an abandoned villa which belonged to the
between the past and the present, and an aban-
dancer, who died 100 years earlier. There she
doned theater which travels in time like a ghost
starts training for her leading role in Swan Lake,
ship—albeit in a peculiar way, which eschews
under Marius’ guidance. Jason, who followed
horror in favor of mystery and romanticism. Del
them to the villa, starts researching on Balakin,
Monte described it as “a black fairytale, an illu-
whom he recognizes as the man in a 19th century
sionistic game, a big firework show with terri-
portrait, and on Horvath. Jason’s uncle, an antique
fying moments, although without a single drop
dealer named Joshua, is hypnotized by the myste-
of blood.”4
rious female dancer and attempts to take Jason
Co-opting screenwriter Franco Ferrini was
back to the U.S., but the young man flees, and
possibly a move on the part of Del Monte (or
Joshua meets an accidental death. Jason discovers
Manzotti) to give the project a more commercial
that Natalie Horvath played the prima ballerina
edge. A former film critic, Ferrini had worked
in a performance of Swan Lake choreographed by
with Dario Argento on Phenomena and Opera,
Balakin, but she met a tragic fate on opening night.
as well as Lamberto Bava’s two Dèmoni films,
He returns to the villa to save Claire from Balakin’s
and had debuted as a director with a giallo,
spell, and finds himself transported to the past, in
Caramelle da uno sconosciuto (987). Ferrini’s
the theater when Swan Lake is being performed
contribution is quite likely the reason behind
in front of a 19th century audience, with Claire
as the prima ballerina. He also discovers Bal-
akin’s unspeakable secret…
Following Giulia e Giulia (987), the first
fiction film shot with Sony’s HDVS high defi-
nition video system, Peter Del Monte contin-
ued in the exploration of the Fantastic genre,
which he had already approached in an orig-
inal and compelling way in the outstanding
Piccoli fuochi (98). Given Giulia e Giulia’s
commercial success both in Italy and abroad,
his new project was born with the aim of
meeting an international audience. Producer
Achille Manzotti provided the director with
a small but impressive cast which included
the ravishing Jennifer Connelly (Sergio
Leone�
��s Once Upon a Time in America, Phe-
nomena), Gary McCleery (Matewan), Charles
Durning (The Front Page, Tootsie, To Be or
Not to Be) and Laurent Terzieff, a veteran of
French and Italian auteur cinema. Filming
took place in Budapest and Italy in the Sum-
mer of 988, under the working title Balle-
rina.2
The plot reprised one of the director’s
favorite themes, the search for one’s own
identity—already at the core of some of his
previous films, namely L’altra donna (980),
Invito al viaggio (983) and Giulia e Giulia—
International poster for etoile (1989, Peter Del Monte).
1989: Etoile
77
certain passages which look like they were
riddled with psychological nuances, proves
borrowed verbatim from an Argento film, not
detrimental to a film which would have been
just because of Connelly’s presence and the pro-
much better had it been a simple, unpretentious
tagonist being a ballet dancer. Not only is the
genre tale. The opening scenes, set in the fasci-
opening, with Claire’s arrival in Budapest,
nating and arcane Mitteleuropean city, are suit-
vaguely reminiscent of Susy Benner’s arrival to
ably atmospheric, but the fantasy angle never
the dance school in Suspiria (minus the storm,
comes alive, despite Acacio de Almeida’s impres-
the witches and the murders, that is), but the
sive cinematography and an interesting score
ballet audition which she flees in a panic has a
by frequent Wim Wenders composer Jürgen
certain uneasiness to it, which recalls the way
Knieper, as the direction lacks the surreal quality
Argento depicted the petty, jealous dance stu-
such a project would have needed. Several
dents at the Tanzacademie.
scenes seemingly played for suspense (Claire
The Argento connection returns in several
menacing the sleeping Jason with a knife)
scenes: Jason’s visit to a library recalls Inferno,
turn out to be useless, throwaway diversions
while the whole final part, with the young hero
that show the director’s uneasiness with the trap-
discovering access to Balakin’s secret rooms, his
pings of genre filmmaking, while the symbols—
climactic fight with the incarnation of evil and
the juxtaposition of the White and Black Swan
the stabbing by way of a mirror splinter—all this
as the eternal ambiguity between good and evil,
interspersed with the climactic ballet—all look
the references to the myth of Leda being seduced
like a much- toned down retelling of Susy’s de-
by Zeus in the form of a swan—are trite. The ac-
scent into the witch’s lair. On top of that,
tors are poorly directed too and cannot breathe
Balakin’s rendition of Swan Lake, albeit not quite
life into their characters: Durning is wasted in
as bizarre as Marco’s (Ian Charleson) mise-en-
a thankless role, McCleery is a leading man as
scène of Verdi’s Macbeth in Opera, is another nod
bland as Leigh McCloskey in Inferno, and Carlisi
to Argento’s use of opera to convey suspense and
and Marozzi (of Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera) fail
dread. Some elements are lifted from The Phan-
to make an impression as the two mystery
tom of the Opera, the source of inspiration for
dancers.
Argento’s film as well: the tormented choreog-
Etoile was not the commercial success its
rapher, who lives in the bowels of a theatre
makers had hoped for, and Italian critics ravaged
and can cross the boundaries of time, is part
it: “At first it looks like a remake of Opera with
Phantom (minus the mask and the gruesome
Tchaikovsky instead of Verdi, and, alas, without
features) and part Svengali.
suspense… . Confused and not at all fascinating,
What Etoile has certainly in common with
persecuted by music, written … in a semi-
the scripts Ferrini delivered for Argento are the
profound style, and riddled with clues as if
shaky logic and paper- thin characters. The
something is going to happen which never does,
backstory of Natalia Horvath is clumsily intro-
Etoile is… . Del Monte’s worst film.” It had mar-
duced via a quick expository scene in the library,
ginal distribution abroad, although it was
and the final revelation—Marius’ staging of
awarded the critics’ award at the 990 Fantas-
Swan Lake is supposed to end with the triumph
porto Film Festival, in Portugal. The director’s
of the Black Swan and the unleashing of evil in
subsequent project, an adaptation of Gary
the world—turns what looked like a case of
Devon’s thought- provoking novel Lost, produced
amour fou through the ages into a hard- to-
by Alberto Grimaldi and to be shot in the States,
swallow mess about good and evil, clumsily ex-
never materialized, and Del Monte returned to
plained via a brief diary excerpt. The hero’s
intimate psychological drama with the anthology
meeting and climactic fight with a giant black
Tracce di vita amorosa (990).
swan which symbolizes the forces of evil tries
In recent years, Etoile has regained some
hard to be suspenseful but ends up an embar-
attention on the part of film buffs because of its
rassment (a much more interesting variation
many similarities with Darren Aronofsky’s Black
of the scene will be found in Soavi’s La setta,
Swan (200).
99). The animatronic swan, courtesy of an un-
credited Sergio Stivaletti, can be glimpsed in the
Notes
film for a handful of seconds.
1. The Italian locations (such as Villa Parisi in Frascati,
Ultimately, though, the major culprit is Del
whose unmistakable octagonal fountain can be glimpsed
Monte, whose idea of cinema, self- conceited and
in the garden of the abandoned villa where Marius resides,
78 1989: I frati and the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti in Spoleto)
olinist, and then a nude woman who wanders
blend seamlessly with the Hungarian ones (the Buda castle,
around the house. He follows her into the crypt,
Heroes’ square, Városliget park).
where the woman beheads him with a sword. 50
2. Giovanna Grassi, “Jennifer Beals è della Partita,” Cor-
riere della Sera, July , 988. The title refers to Jennifer
years earlier: Roberto Gherghi marries the young
Beals’ starring role alongside Matthew Modine and Faye
Ramona, whom he met casually in the park of his
Dunaway in Carlo Vanzina’s La partita (a.k.a. The Gamble,
villa, much to the chagrin of his housekeeper
988), another production devised for the foreign markets.
Priscilla, who is also his mistress. On the wedding
3.
Paolo Cervone, “Vi invito a una danza macabra,” Cor-
riere della Sera, January 4, 989.
night Roberto is summoned in the crypt by a
4. Ibid.
secret sect, the Red Monks, who warn him not to
5. M. Po. [Maurizio Porro], “Quel ‘mago’ dei cigni,” Cor-
consummate the marriage, since Ramona will
riere della Sera, March 22, 989.
have to be sacrificed as a virgin four nights later.
Roberto’s refusal to perform his conjugal duties
I frati rossi (The Red Monks)
brings tension to the couple; what is more, Ra-
D: John [Gianni] Martucci. S: Luciana Anna
mona is assaulted by a mysterious young man,
Spacca; SC: Pino Buricchi, Gianni Martucci;
and the French housemaid is decapitated by an
DOP: Sergio Rubini (Eastmancolor); M: Paolo
unknown murderer. Ramona finds out that
Rustichelli (Ed. Nazional Music); E: Vanio
Roberto’s family is plagued by a centuries- old
Amici; PD: Joseph Teichner; CO: Silvio Laurenzi;
curse which started in the Middle Ages, when the
MU: Rino Todero; Hair: Regina Usidda; SO: An-
Grand Duke Lodorisio, the founder of the Red
tonino Pantano; Mix: Sandro Occhetti; PrM: Gi-
Monks, was killed by a hired assassin, Gherghi’s
anni Muzzi; SP: Franco Biciocchi; KG: Elio Bosi;
ancestor, and his gypsy wife swore revenge…
ChEl: Antonio Leurini; AC: Mauro Masciocchi;
With only five films directed between 97
W: Giovanna Russu; AE: Marco Buricchi, Carlo
and 988, Gianni Martucci was definitely not a
Pulera; SS: Annamaria Liguori; Generator Oper-
prominent presence in national genre cinema
ator: Otello Simotti; Driver: Aldo Marcenaro.
of those two decades, and yet his scant filmog-
Cast: Gerardo Amato (Robert Gherghi), Lara
raphy as director (with the addition of a few
Wendel [Daniela Barnes] (Ramona Icardi), Mal-
other works he scripted) is somewhat indicative
isa Longo (Priscilla), Richard Brown [Chuck
of the various trends followed by the Italian film
Valenti] (Ben), Claudio Pacifico (Mystery Man),
industry. Born in Rome in 946, Martucci started
Mary Maxwell (Lucille), Ronald [Gaetano]
scripting gialli, namely Ragazza tutta nuda as-
Russo (Riccardo Gherghi), Ludovico Dello Jojo
sassinata nel parco (972, Alfonso Brescia), co-
(Notary Berti); uncredited: Bruno Di Luia
authored with his friend, the elusive Peter Skerl,
(Lodorisio/Old Man), Luca Intoppa (Adept).
Italian Gothic Horror Films (1980-1989) Page 54