aka Hanna D. – La ragazza del Vondel Park

Director: Rino Di Silvestro

Cast: Ann-Gisel Glass, Karin Schubert, Fausto Lombardi, Sebastiano Somma

Severin Films / Region 1 / Unrated / 1.85:1 Widescreen / Dolby Digital Mono / Color / 88 minutes

When I think of naive, young, innocent, virginal-yet-at-the-same-time-extremely-sexual European sex-pots, I think of Swedish dish Christina Lindberg. From Maid in Sweden to Thriller: A Cruel Picture, we see Lindberg as the fully developed woman-child that just oozes “fuck me” pheromones. So when I see that writer/director Rino Di Silvestro decided to cast young French actress Ann-Gisel Glass (who ended up starring in over 50 films, most of them French productions) as the troubled lolita “Hanna”, I wasn’t very enthusiastic from a boob lover’s point of view. Glass’ body looks like a 12 year old boy save the fact that she has a vagina… or does she? I couldn’t see for all of the hair. Maybe she tucks… but I digress. Let’s get the picture of tucking pre-adolescent boys out of our head, shall we?

Hanna is – as I said before – very troubled. She sells her sex to take care of herself and her alcoholic mother who despises her for being born and ruining her body. Every man she turns to for love and comfort ends up tricking her out and abusing her. One of them, her pimp/boyfriend, gets her hooked on heroin to keep her in line. So she begins hanging out with territorial street whores and disgusting Trainspotting-esque junkies and continues falling deeper and deeper into hell. She then meets Alex who is the only person in her life that wants to take her out of her horrible situation and make a loving life with her. But that isn’t going to be easy because Hanna, her pimpfriend and her forever-drunk mother aren’t going to make it easy. None of them want her to be happy and all of them want to use her until she is all used up.

Hanna D is an obvious Italian rip-off of Christiane F. right down to the name, but rather than being based on a real-life person’s story, Di Silvestro decided to go the way the Italians often do; straight exploitation. Scenes of young Hanna hugging her doll after turning a trick, horrific scenes of needle junkies graphically shooting up and one particularly shocking scene of a woman pulling drugs out of her asshole (yes, you actually see it) all adds up to Di Silvestro giving the fans what they want. I was amazed at the level of lurid subject matter, but the pacing seemed to slow to a very methodical pace about halfway through the movie. At some points I actually lost interest but by the end I was into it and wanted only the best for Hanna. One thing that could have caused the snail’s pace is Bruno Mattei‘s editing. That guy can be film death, just watch Zombi 3 for an example of that.

One of the best things about Hanna D was German adult and exploitation film star Karin Schubert. Schubert has acted alongside of exploitation legends Edwige Fenech, Laura Gemser and George Eastman and for Italian sleaze-meister Joe D’Amato. She is an incredibly sexy woman with some of the best curves I have seen on film. Aside from her striking looks, she can act. Playing the horrific drunken mother who only thinks and does for herself, you somehow feel very sorry for her and I found myself wondering what her life was like when she was a young girl and woman. I know I said that actress Ann-Gisel Glass looks like a little boy in the opening of this review (she does!), but she too is a very good actress. Her character goes through a range of emotions and she nails them all with realistic effect.

Before Severin’s press release about this movie, I had never heard of it. I knew of Christiane F. because of its notoriety in the genre community but this one slipped through the cracks. Like with every other Severin release, they did a great job with restoring the film. The picture was fantastic. The contrasts were deep and the images crisp. The only problem I had was a little unevenness in the sound. Some low dialogue then LOUD soundtrack had me scrambling for the volume control. Aside from the original movie trailer, the only other DVD supplement is an interview with writer/director Rino Di Silvestro called “The Confessions of Rino D” that is worth a view. This fully restored DVD version is worth picking up on even a blind buy. Fans of Euro-sleaze will dig it for sure.

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aka M.A.R.K. 13

Director: Richard Stanley

Cast: Dylan McDermott, Stacey Travis

Severin Films / Region 0 / Unrated / 1.85:1 Widescreen / 5.1 Dolby Surround / 93 minutes

I have never been a huge sci-fi fan. Yeah, I enjoyed the classics like the original Star Wars movies and even grittier stuff like the original Terminator and Blade Runner but I never have been turned on by techno-futuristic cinema. More specifically, I’m not really into stuff like the Mad Max trilogy and other post-apocalyptic films. You know, where dirty, mongoloid looking kids are running around throwing boomerangs at armored vehicles and shit like that. But what I am into is horror. Gritty, tense and thought-provoking horror. So on the rare occasion a movie maker mixes the two – ala Cronenberg’s Videodrome – I’m all over it. When I heard Severin Films was releasing writer/director Richard Stanley’s (Dust Devil) M.A.R.K. 13 aka Hardware, I had to take a look.

A post nuclear war scavenger (McDermott) buys a destroyed android body in hopes of reselling it for a profit. When his usual buyer won’t give him the money he thinks he deserves, he takes his losses and returns to his artist girlfriend and gives her the robot as a gift. She quickly makes a piece of art from it but little do they know that the scraps of metal – specifically the head – are still alive and able to rebuild and recharge its body. The Mark-13 unit is a military machine designed to kill almost indiscriminately and its body is full of weaponry including bio-chemical toxins, saws and what looks like a drill penis. The rest of the movie is full of all kinds of carnage as the droid runs amuck and a small group of people try to blast it back to spare parts!

“Mark 13″ refers to the book of Mark chapter 13 from the Bible where Jesus is speaking to his disciples about what will happen on Earth during the “End Times” or the time right before end of the world. More specifically verse 20 that says “no flesh shall be spared”. The mood of the movie from the opening scene is very depressing, grimy and truly attention grabbing. It reminded me a lot of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner in the hi-tech yet run-down kind of look and atmosphere. It even had that other-wordly feel where things just aren’t quite right and a little askew. While not overtly sexual, gory or shocking by today’s standards, Hardware brings some real scares and gross-outs that are made effective by the cinematography and use of shadow.

The real horror comes from the uneasy feeling you have throughout the movie. The viewer is constantly on guard thinking at any moment something could jump from the darkness and devour you or assimilate you in some way. The technology itself creeped me out somehow with all of the wires and tendrils and whatnot. Not to mention a disgusting, fat, perverted peeping tom being thrown into the mix for good measure as the viewers are already on-edge about the damn murderous robot! Richard Stanley created an acid trip-like techno-nightmare here and it deserves a spot right up there along side Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange and 1984 as a classic dystopian story.

Thanks to Severin Films, we are able to discover (or rediscover if you are one of the lucky few) this nearly lost classic. Not only did they bring it back, but they gave it the royal treatment. This 2-Disk Special Edition doesn’t skimp on anything. The video transfer lets Stanley’s use of lighting – or lack thereof – be a very effective tool in creating the suffocating bleakness that amplifies the terror. The audio is also crispy clear so you can hear the fantastic soundtrack and score that features bands like Motorhead, GWAR and Johnny Rotten’s second band, Public Image Limited. The second disk is worth the price in and of itself which features the tons of extra features including commentary with the director, a “making of” documentary, 2 shorts by the writer/director and so much more.

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