Deadly Sweet (1967 Review)
aka Col cuore in gola
aka Le coeur aux lèvres
aka Heart Beat
aka I Am What I Am
Director: Tinto Brass
Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ewa Aulin, Roberto Bisacco, Charles Kohler, Luigi Bellini
Cult Epics / NTSC R0 / Unrated / 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widscreen / Italian Mono / English Subtitles / 105 minutes / PURCHASE
Though primarily known as an erotica filmmaker, Tinto Brass once tried his hand at making a crime drama-thriller-murder mystery like no other. He took his art-house pretense and artistic integrity and set out to make a film based on Italian screenwriter Sergio Donati’s (A Fistful of Dynamite, Once Upon a Time in the West) novel Il sepolcro di carta aka The Tomb of Paper. Brass would throw in every visual trick in the book from double and triple split screens, color filters, B&W inter-cuts and even Batman-style *BAM!* *POW!* *SMASH!* graphics during action scenes to set his giallo-esque cinema fumetti – or “comic book movie” – apart from the rest. And it did, but when that’s one of the only saving graces for the film, that might be a problem.
Italian film veteran Jean-Louis Trintignant plays “Bernard”, a French actor who stumbles into the back room of his business partner’s club to find him dead. The gorgeous, underage (she’s 17) and apparently distressed “Jane” is huddled in a dark corner muttering “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it”. Bernard grabs the girl and sets off to find the killer before the police arrive. Along the way, the pair are chased by the dead man’s criminal acquaintances as well as the authorities. While on the run and unraveling the mystery, they are playing sexy games and falling in love but it becomes very clear that the killer may be closer than Bernie wants to believe. Could this possibly be a case of a lethal lolita or could the title itself be a red herring?
Let me start by saying that I like art-house cinema, I love Brass’ style and eye for art and I like a good mystery. That being said, Deadly Sweet is nothing more than interesting visuals on top of a flimsy, very apparent “who-dun-it” plot. The charade is so transparent that even Brass himself takes artistic license in giving away the killer by literally spelling it out for you halfway through the movie. While I was amused (to a point) by the pretty, artsy-fartsy sparkles and eye candy onscreen (including leading lady Ewa Aulin, YOWZA!), the plot meandered and confused for the most part. There is never any real coherence to keep the viewer interested in who everyone involved is or what the fuck is going on throughout. Unless you are a die-hard Italian crime-drama fan, this may not be the movie for you.
Brass didn’t bother to add any graphic sex or violence to the self indulgent proceedings. The sex and nudity, along with comically childish “violence”, are on par with a soft “R” rating or hard “PG-13″. The underage girl angle wasn’t even played up to its full exploitative potential. Speaking of not adding much, the Cult Epics disk – while looking and sounding okay – contains only a commentary with Tinto, some lobby card stills and the original trailer with nothing but the movie’s theme song playing in the background. The music, by the way, was a high point. Armando Trovajoli’s score is very catchy, hippy-flavored rock that I found myself humming while writing this. So, see, all is not lost; cool visuals, hot chick and groovy music. But, yeah, boring movie.
With Cult Epi9cs you’re lucky you got any bonuses. They don’t usually put a lot on their discs. How was the Tinto commentary?
I didn’t sit through the whole thing because; 1.) his English isn’t great and 2.) the movie wasn’t good enough for him to say anything interesting.