Leptirica (1973)

According to an old Serbian legend, in the village of Zarožje there was a man named Sava Savanović, who worked in the mill that was close to the river Rogačica. Despite already being an old man, Sava Savanović married a beautiful young lady he loved. However, the young lady was in love with Sava's brother, and the couple began an affair. In an act of fury, Sava Savanović murdered the two lovers inside the mill. When the villagers of Zarožje discovered the crime, they captured and lynched Sava Savanović, and then buried his corpse deep in the woods. Soon after this rumours were heard about Sava Savanović, who supposedly now was a vampire roaming the old mill. With this legend, Sava Savanović would become one of the first vampires in Serbian folklore, and his popularity was such that celebrated writer Milovan Glišic wrote a novel based on the old story ("Posle devedeset godina" or "After Ninety Years" in 1880). The plot of this novel would be taken as basis for a TV movie released in 1977 by director Djordje Kadijevic with the name of "Leptirica" ("Лептирица").

"Leptirica" (literally "The Moth" or "The She-Butterfly", which is the English title of the film), begins with the mysterious death of the town's new miller, Vule (Toma Kuruzovic). As he prepares to spend the night at the mill, Vule is murdered by a strange creature with dark skin and long fangs. The following day the villagers are worried since Vule is the fourth miller in the year to be killed under strange circumstances while spending a night at the old mill. In the meantime, the humble Strahinja (Petar Božovic) is madly in love with the beautiful Radojka (Mirjana Nikolic), the daughter of rich landlord Živan (Slobodan Perovic). Strahinja asks Živan to allow him to marry his daughter, but he refuses to accept his daughter marrying someone as poor as young Strahinja. Disappointed, Strahinja decides to leave the town, but instead ends up convinced to take the dangerous job of miller. Strahinja spends the night at the mill and manages to survive the monster's attack. After this, Strahinja and the villagers decide to discover the nature of the creature, so they find out about the legend of Sava Savanović.

Adapted by director Djordje Kadijevic himself, "Leptirica" is developed precisely as the thing that originated it in the first place: a folk tale. That is, at taking "Leptirica" to the screen, Kadijevic opts to give it a simple approach, avoiding to make the plot too complicated and focusing in enhancing the legendary (or better said, mythical) aspects of the story. Thus, the characters are basically a group of classic fairytale archetypes, in a story that transcends its origin in Serbian folklore and becomes a universal tale: "Leptirica" becomes essentially the story of a young humble man who must prove his worth to society and himself. The vampire myth in "Leptirica" is more a force of nature, with Sava Savanović acting as demon of the woods, an opposition to the civilized villagers. There's also in "Leptirica" a subtle subtext of vampirism taken as an equivalent to sexual awakening inherited from Glišic's novel. With a certain touch of comedy, Kadijevic keeps his plot between horror and fantasy, using a light-hearted tone that evokes the rural fairytale origin of the story of Sava Savanović.

Director Djordje Kadijevic makes a simple yet effective work in his making of "Leptirica", capturing the atmosphere of myth that the story has with great skill. In fact, this atmosphere is perhaps the most important element in "Leptirica", as Kadijevic manages to give his film the sensation of being set in an undefined period of history, in a timeless fantastic Serbia where myth is mixed with reality. This is particularly obvious in the horror scenes of the film, which have a certain surreal beauty in their craftsmanship thanks to the great use given to the work of cinematographer Branko Ivatovic. However, Djordje Kadijevic isn't that lucky in the making of the comedic scenes of his movie, which feel a tad forced and stagy, in sharp contrast to the aforementioned horror scenes. Certainly, Kadijevic is a devoted horror fan, (in fact, his 1969 film "Darovi moje rodjake Marije" was the first 100% Yugoslavian film with horror touches), and this becomes obvious in the great care given to the making of the horror scenes. Nevertheless, it would had been better if the same care had been put in the rest of the film.

The performances in "Leptirica" are a bit regular, as while there are a couple of great quality works, others aren't really that good. Of the former it's worth to point out the work of Petar Bozovic, whom plays young Strahinja, the archetypal rural hero of the story. Poor and humble, but noble in heart, Strahinja would rather leave before watching his beloved married to another man. While looking a bit too old for the part, actor Petar Bozovic makes a pretty good job and manages to capture the naiveté and nobleness of his character. However, it's actually Slobodan Perovic whom shines the most in "Leptirica" as the harsh landlord Živan. Perovic makes an excellent job, to the point that it would had been good to see more of his character. Young actress Mirjana Nikolic also makes an effective performance as Radojka, the beautiful daughter of Živan. The change her character endures as the film unfolds makes her an iconic figure of Serbian horror. The rest of the as isn't really up to the level of the aforementioned, and this is probably one of the film's weakest elements.

Done as part of a series of horror movies for the Yugoslavian television (the other films are "Devicanska svirka", "Sticenik" and "Zakletva", all directed by Djordje Kadijevic), "Leptirica" suffers from the technical and budgetary limitations of being a product made for television. However, the real problems of "Leptirica" aren't really related to its poor production values (director Kadijevic manages to do wonders with limited resources), but with his screenplay, which seems to be divided between a desire for being both a true horror film and an accessible rural comedy at the same time. Kadijevic fails to keep a balance between both genres, resulting in haunting horror scenes of great quality and moments of comedy that feel cheap and rushed. The contrast between them is abysmal, and truly show that the real interest of director Kadijevic was in the horror moments of his film. Despite this problem, "Leptirica" is still a quite interesting vampire story that, spiced up by Serbian folklore, gives a nice spin to the classic myth.

Considered as a classic of Serbian horror, the work of Djordje Kadijevic offers an interesting vision of the genre deeply rooted in his country's folklore. From amongst his works, "Leptirica" is perhaps the better known film, a movie that perfectly captures the essence and symbolism of Serbian folktales and transports them to the screen. Owner of a surreal atmosphere and an interesting visual design, "Leptirica" presents an interesting twist to the vampire myth, portrayed in the film as a force of nature that evokes the ancient fear to the unknown, to the savage: the woods, the darkness, the night. More symbolic than descriptive, the film is a faithful representation of a mythic struggle in film. While far from being a masterpiece, "Leptirica" has a certain charm that could only be described as "magic".

7/10
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La corta notte delle bambole di vetro (1971)

Having done a career as assistant director during the last years of the decade of the 1960s (in works such as Bernardo Bertolucci's "Il conformista" and several films with director Maurizio Lucidi), Italian filmmaker Aldo Lado got his chance to debut as a director with a story of mystery and horror (a giallo film) with the title "Malastrana". Executives from the film's distributor thought the title, which was a reference to the Malá Strana neighborhood in the city of Prague (where the story was set), was a bit too ambiguous and wasn't working, so it was decided that the film would be titled "La corta notte delle farfalle", meaning "Short Night of the Butterfly". To director Aldo Lado's misfortune, that very same year another tale of mystery was being released in Itay with butterflies in the title: "Una farfalla con le ali insanguinante", so another title changes was required at the last time, settling for the more ambiguous and poetic "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro", or in English, "Short Night of Glass Dolls". The film would end up being considered one of the most celebrated and unusual within the giallo subgenre.

"La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" begins with the discovery of the corpse of Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel), an American reporter who had gone missing a couple of days before. However, while it's apparently clear that Moore is dead, he is actually alive and conscious, trapped in a body that he can't control and unable of any form of communication. Confused by this, Moore tries to understand what has happened to him, remembering how everything started: with the mysterious disappearance of his beautiful girlfriend Mira (Barbara Bach) after a party they had attended. Moore begins to remember the events that took place after her disappearance, as while the local police had quickly dismissed the case as the bitter splitting of a couple, Moore had discovered a link between Mira's disappearance and other cases of missing girls in town. Moore's co-workers, Jessica (Ingrid Thulin) and Jacques (Mario Adorf) try to help him, though without really believing the clues that Moore follows, clues that will lead him to discover the morbid secrets of Prague's high society.

Written by director Aldo Lado himself along veteran scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (writer of several Italian films of the genre), the story of "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" presents an unusual spin to the mystery thriller at basing the plot in a series of flashbacks to reporter Gregory Moore's memories, while at the same time he tries to recover the control of his body. It's in this element where suspense comes into play in the story, as Gregory Moore isn0t really dead, just completely paralyzed by some reason unknown to himself, so tension rises by having him unable to communicate or defend himself. Mystery is perhaps the most important element in "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro", because as the plot unfolds it makes some unpredictable twists and turns that take the story each time closer to more extraordinary and morbid terrains. Certainly, "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" moves away from the classic model of Italian giallo (stylish thrillers with great emphasis on graphic violence and eroticism), however, it truly keeps the horror and tension typical of the genre.

Another giallo element that remains intact in "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" is its great visual stylization. Director Aldo Lado creates in "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" an ominous atmosphere of mystery that reaches a haunting oneiric level as the plot unfolds and Moore gets deeper into the horrible secrets of Prague. It's interesting how what starts as a somewhat typical thriller get a greater stylization as Moore descends into darkness. Despite this being his feature length debut, director Aldo Lado shows a great domain of his camera and a quite developed visual narrative, as he manages to take full advantage of the awesome work of cinematography done by Giuseppe Ruzzolini. As mentioned before, suspense is a fundamental thing in "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro", and the film has director Aldo Lado showing his great domain over it. Besides this, it's worth to point out the truly remarkable musical score composed by the master Ennio Morricone, which truly enhances the ominous atmosphere of surreal nightmare that Lado's film has.

Acting in "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" is in general of great quality, even taking into account that the work of dubbing done in the film (a common practice in Italian cinema) is less than stellar. Leading the cast is French actor Jean Sorel (known for his work in Luis Buñuel's "Belle de jour") as reporter Gregory Moore. While nothing truly outstanding, Sorel makes a pretty acceptable job and, despite his dubbing, manages to carry the weight of the film without problem. However, he is a bit overshadowed by Ingmar Bergman's legendary muse, Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin, who plays his coworker and former lover, Jessica. Thulin manages to create a pretty complex character despite having a character with less weight in the plot, showing her talent as a woman divided between what she feels for Moore and her hatred towards his new girlfriend. As Mira, Barbara Bach (in her second giallo after "La tarantola dal ventre nero") makes an acceptable job, and even when her character is limited to looking good, Bach manages to fill the screen with her great presence.

The rest of the performances are pretty good, and even the dubbing isn't really that aggravating (with the sole exception being the case of Mario Adorf's dubbed voice). "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" reveals itself as a quite atypical giallo, gifted with a great visual beauty and an attractive plot that aims for tension and suspense instead of graphic violence. If there's any problem in "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" is that probably director Aldo Lado at times abuses too much of the resource of having Gregory Moore's narrating the film, resulting in moments that could seem a bit ridiculous. Another problem is that the film becomes a bit slow in occasions, however, it's worth to point out that it never becomes tedious or boring. Certainly, the premise where the story rests requires a bit more suspension of disbelief than what would be desired, given how extraordinary the situation is. Fortunately, the film more than compensates this with an unpredictable plot and a superb finale full of tension.

In this his debut, director Aldo Lado manages to create an excellent story of suspense and mystery that breaks the classic conventions of Italian giallo. Focused more on mystery than on violence, "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" opts for a kind of horror a bit different, one based on tension and paranoia rather than in visual shock (which isn't bad, really). Lado keeps his moments of violence for carefully established moments, which enhances a lot the film's suspense. While far from the traditional style of "thriller all'italiana", Director Aldo Lado's film "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" is one of the best films ever done within the giallo subgenre. With a haunting visual beauty and a captivating musical score, "La corta notte delle bambole di vetro" is a forgotten classic of horror and mystery.

8/10
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