Friday, February 19, 2010

LA DECIMA VITTIMA - Piero Piccioni - "The 10th Victim" (1965)

Eye Candy! It's just that simple!! My feeble olde mind can't keep up with the CGI of today's motion picture industry, that's why I'm stuck in the past, when they didn't mind keeping the camera in one place for more than a few seconds, because the camera angle and background were cool looking! "La Decima Vittima" is a perfect example of what I'm talking about! Based on an original story by Robert Sheckley called "The 7th Victim," I'm not exactly quite sure how it got bumped up to 10!!

It's a fanciful futuristic Pop Art extravaganza right out of the box, and it doesn't let up for a minute! If Director Elio Petri isn't busy smacking you around with Pop imagery like that Caddie, the music by composer Piero Piccioni, and sung by Italian Pop star Mina, soars along in the clouds to keep you plenty distracted! Mina still records today, but supposedly she hasn't been seen in public for something like 20 years!!

So here we are at the "Masoch Club"

Ursula Andress as Caroline Meredith is the main entree on the menu tonight! Trust me, that's quite a pair of guns she has!!

In the future they've got a little cat and mouse game going on with hunters and victims, and if you make it through 10 victories, you get a million dollars, so people are chasing each other all over the place, trapping, shooting and exploding to the delight of the media, kinda like "The Great Race" with lethal weapons!
Caroline even has her own P.R. and management team, and surely, I don't have to tell you who Ursula Andress was!!

The other reigning champion of the hunt is Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Polletti seen here with his little buddy!!

More homage to Pop with a close up shot of the shelf with "The Phantom" and "Mandrake The Magician" comics predominantly displayed!

Without a doubt, I'm sure the brilliant eye of Cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo had a lot to do with the whole visual concept!

Marcello is so cool, he is capable of ignoring Caroline while he reads his comic book, and then the game becomes more complicated by the fact that the players happen to end up liking each other!

Marcello was born on Sept 28, 1924, escaped from a prison camp during WWII, worked with Fellini, was quoted as saying "I only exist when I am working on a film," and passed away right before X-Mas in 1996! This film would basically be his only horror or Sci-Fi role!

Marcello's ultra swank and beyond hip pad is built on the beach in what appears to be a 4000 gallon holding tank!

Oh, No, Caroline pushes the wrong button..........

.....Only to reveal Marcello's parents living a very conventional middle class lifestyle hidden behind a secret panel!! Wow!!

It just never stops, how's this for a nice Victorian bedroom?

I hate the term as it is commonly used today, but this was a real Tea Party!!!

I'm not really sure where you expected this to go, but you can relax in knowing that the future is LOVE!!

5 comments:

  1. beautiful movie, beautiful post. a long time ago a friend of mine needed dating advice and i just said to him- "remember Marcello from "The Tenth Victim" and "8 1/2"? his eyes lit up and inspiration kicked in- he became "a regular cyclone!"...

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  2. The soundtrack CD for this film is perpetually in my car!

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  3. cool to have find your great blog!
    could you upload the link again, please?
    JB

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  4. JB,
    I'll reactivate it again for a little while so you can get the full experience! I'd love to leave all the sound clips up all the time, but............

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  5. I dont know if you're still working on this blog, but can you upload the soundtrack again.
    thanks

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