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Giallo a Venezia More at IMDbPro »

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12 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Truly disgusting and misogynistic giallo. **Spoilers**, 20 March 2001

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

"Giallo a Venezia" is,without a doubt,one of the sleaziest movies ever produced in Italy.Along with "The New York Ripper"(1982,Lucio Fulci)and "The Killer Is Still Among Us"(1985,Camillo Teti)this is possibly the nastiest giallo ever made.The film begins with a double murder on the Venetian docks:architect Fabio(Gianni Dei)is stabbed with a pair of scissors,while his wife Flavia(Leonora Fani)is drowned.The fact that Flavia was pulled back from the water by the killer after being drowned,intrigues inspector DePaul(Jeff Blynn)and his assistant Maestrin.As they begin investigating friends of the couple,such as Marizia(Mariangela Giordano from "Burial Ground" and "Malabimba"),they soon discover that Fabio was in fact a sex crazed cocaine addict,who could only achieve sexual gratification by violence and sick voyeurism put upon his wife.During the investigation Marizia begins to receive threatening phone calls from ex-lover and soon after that a series of brutal murders is set in motion.Director Mario Landi("Patrick Still Lives")fails to create any suspense or mystery.What Landi looses in mystery he more than makes up for with some of the most brutal violence and sex ever put on the screen.The violence in "Giallo a Venezia" is truly shocking.A prostitute is stabbed repeatedly in the crotch in one of the most sickeningly audacious murder sequences ever filmed.Another gory highlights include Giordano being tied naked to her kitchen table and having her leg cut off with a handsaw by the killer and Marizia's lover being doused in gasoline and set alight.The long sex scenes are pretty explicit and it's quite obvious that Landi's intentions were only to show as much sex and blood as he could.To sum up,if you like sleaze and extreme gore then you should check this one out.Recommended!

7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Nasty offering, 18 March 2008

Author: adriangr from United Kingdom

My god, this film is a piece of work. Rough as a bag of spanners. One of the ugliest and sleaziest giallos you could ever hope to see. Plot wise there is very little to say, the impact in this film comes from its audacious insistence on making everything look as unpleasant as possible.

But let me give you a quick plat re-cap. Two dead bodies are found at the edge of a canal in Venice. The police start asking friends of the late couple for clues, but as soon as they start their investigations, more dead bodies start piling up. What is the connection, and out of all the unsavoury characters that appear on the screen, does any of them have a clear alibi (or conscience)?

Enough of that then, what is really so bad about Giallo A Venezia? Well it's just that the sleaze factor is so high it's off the scale. The dead couple are at the centre of the plot, and the film consists of many flashbacks in which we see how the husband took pleasure in humiliating and sexually abusing his timid wife. The poor actress who plays Flavia (the wife) suffers the indignity of being stripped naked and roughed up in nearly every scene she appears...I hope she got paid well. Worse still, her husband Fabio is not blessed looks-wise, and add this to the fact that the sex scenes between the pair of them are completely devoid of chemistry makes watching them a real chore – and they go on for AGES!! You'll see a lot of Flavia naked which might have looked nicer if things were better filmed but the whole thing is done so sloppily that a lot of the time it's just not that exciting. Especially when Fabio is slobbering all over her (he's a really terrible kisser!) and trying to roll all over the place without showing his private bits, whereas of course there's no modesty allowed for his wife who is shown very graphically naked in several scenes.

The reason why I have had to devote a full paragraph to describing the sex scenes is because that's really all that happens for 75% of the films running time! Other than that, we have to sit through the police force carrying out their investigations which is kinda boring, even with the running gag of the main inspector eating hard boiled eggs in every scene (why? who knows... It must be an Italian thing), and some half hearted attempts by director Mario Landi to spin a web of mystery around the proceedings.

So that just leaves ...the murders. And just as he manages to make all the sex scenes ugly, unpleasant and graphic, Landi cuts no corners with the violence either. So prepare yourself for some very grim scenes of violence. Although the scenes are not dwelled on in loving detail like they are in a Lucio Fulci gore flick, they all seem to have a very nasty flavour to them. Scissor stabbings to the crotch and a human torch are two that spring to mind. Oh wait, did I say the gore is not dwelled on? Sorry I forgot the film's gore "highlight' in which victim has their leg sawed off while tied to the kitchen table. I have seen a lot of graphic gore but I found this intensely unpleasant. I think it's because it's just all sort of...thrown at you. No artistry to speak of, just events.

This film has absolutely no class whatsoever. And if you get a kick out of sleaze, it's almost possible to appreciate it on that level alone, but anyone with any taste in good cinema is likely to be left shaking their head in disbelief. Very hard to find - at time of writing there is no DVD or VHS release in print, so you're stuck with finding bootlegs if you want to track this down, and even then I believe it was originally released in Italian only – so make sure you get a subtitled copy if you must seek this out! A bleak, bizarre and depressing piece of grime, it's very hard to be positive about this movie. Even calling it a giallo is an insult to that genre, as the "whodunnit" value is very weak. Its just 90 minutes of bad simulated sex and some equally badly simulated murders, but if the phrase "in your face" was ever deserved, it is here.

7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Mean spirited and misogynistic giallo sickie, 16 February 2003

Author: Bogey Man from Finland

Mario Landi's giallo attempt Giallo a Venezia (Italy, 1979) is incredibly exploitive and hyper sleazy film that tries to be more (but turns out to be less) than any of the previous films of the yellow (=giallo) genre. It concentrates on sadism, gore and almost hardcore level scenes of sex and masturbation. We cannot talk about a noteworthy film for the fans of Italian genre cinema from the sixties to the eighties, but we can talk about one of the lowest exploitation films ever made!

Flavia (Leonora Fani) and Fabio (Gianni Dei) are lovers, or "lovers" more precisely as we learn very soon that thair relationship is a little twisted. Fabio likes to make love while somebody's watching them and when that is not anymore enough (which is very soon once the film has started), he starts to whip his girl and also force her to whore herself while he himself is watching from a safe distance. This continues in various places and I don't think the reason for Fabio's acts is never really explained which is not a surprise either. Due to the film's circle-like structure and some surprising plot turns at the beginning and the end, I can't tell more about what happens, but without spoiling anything: a double murder takes place, a policeman (Jeff Blynn) starts to investigate and soon more murders take place and they all are as gratuitously graphic and disturbingly sick as could expect. Imagine a hard core porn film where all the porn is gore and violence and you have an idea what kind of a film Giallo a Venezia will be.

Naturally the film is awful on every noteworthy level. The cinematography is nothing special albeit the setting is beautiful and elegant and can be seen also in a much better and real giallo film Nero Veneziano (1977) by Ugo Liberatore. The acting is not TOO bad which naturally makes it easier to sit through the 91 minutes of sleaze on display. The soundtrack is rather amusing as it could fit perfectly in your average 70's porn flick, too, and that makes my above statement even more valid I think! So all the things and elements that made the giallo classics of Argento (Profondo Rosso, Tenebrae), Bava (Blood and Black Lace), Dallammano (What Have They Done to Solange) and Fulci (Don't Torture a Duckling, Sette note in nero, which are both his masterpieces) among many others so great are totally lacking in Landi's film but what can be found in it is the thing that wasn't the most important in those mentioned films: gore and sex.

The murders are not after all so plentiful but they are so calculated and just plain sick that the film ranks easily among the most nastiest films ever made. The three scenes in the film stand out and include a burning death (a scene that is equally sick with the early 80's US serial killer romp Don't Go in the House by Douglas), a repellent genital mutilation (like in Fulci's NY Ripper but even more explicit but no less gratuitous) and a leg sawing that reminds me of the infamous Japanese Guinea Pig sickies, especially part 2 directed by famous manga artist Hideshi Hino. Still Giallo a Venezia is never as depressing, haunting and mentally disturbing than the strongest of the mentioned Japanese underground cinema genre like Guinea Pigs. The effects are pretty good as can be expected by Italian production like this and the camera captures every detail in close up that makes the film's exploitation status so obvious and its lack of real merits so easy to see. Naturally the gore is so strong that if you (understandably) felt bad while watching Fulci's New York Ripper or other films with such misogynistic elements, then don't even try to (first) track down and watch Giallo a Venezia.

The other reason this film was made is naturally the sex and sleaze which is also more graphic than in the other giallos. The film includes many scenes of sex, masturbation and female nudity and they all are as long and detailed as the gore scenes. This film is so filled and covered with blood, smut and degradation it could easily be a film by the late Joe D'Amato, too, as his 1979 film Beyond the Darkness, alongside Landi's film, stand out in the list of all time nasties. Giallo a Venezia is the kind of film that can give the whole genre a bad name in its lack of ambition and interest to deliver nothing else than gore and sex.

The structure of the film however could be an effective one in a thriller like this and that is perhaps the only positive thing I can find in this film. Otherwise this film has nothing to make it interesting or worthwhile on any other level than exploitation. The film is a very rare little sickie and available only in various illegal forms and as far as I know, there are no legal English versions available. The Brazilian VHS should be the longest version but alongside the Italian tape it is very rare and hard to find. But after all, depending on what you're waiting from your films and giallos, that is not necessarily so bad thing. Many thanks to my dear friend and IMDb supporter Bart for offering me a chance to see this!

1/10

or 10/10 (if I'd wear a raincoat, both literally and symbolically in my taste in movies.)

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
controversial little rarity, 11 January 2007

Author: christopher-underwood from Greenwich - London

Well here's a controversial little rarity, subtitled too. Like 'House at the Edge of the Park' and 'New York Ripper' this is ultra sleazy and very hard to defend. On the other hand one can just enjoy. It's not the best made giallo, in fact barely justifying the moniker but like the other two films mentioned is most efficient in covering the ground it intends to make it's own. Lots of sex of all sorts, indoors and out, in ones, two's and in groups. Masturbation, buggery, voyeurism, prostitution, rape, whipping, double rape, and not just brief glimpses, whole scenes. Then there is the gory violence including the scissors in the crotch killings and the appalling sawing off of the bound women's leg. She passes out but after he's finished he slaps her so she can awaken again to the pain! Extraordinary, as is much of this unremitting near hardcore tour de force. Venice looks a bit tawdry which I guess is appropriate but the music by Berto Pisano is a real treat and is one of the elements that stops this falling completely into the gutter. Another plus is the acting which especially considering the material is very fine. But then I like the minuses too!

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Incredibly Sadistic and Sleazy Giallo, 23 May 2010

Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Quelle surprise! Before watching the relatively unknown "Giallo a Venezia" (1979) I certainly didn't expect it to be one of the nastiest, sleaziest, most sadistic and misogynistic films of the Giallo-genre (which generally doesn't scant with sleaze and violence). Director Mario Landi's supremely sleazy flick is certainly no Giallo-highlight, but still highly recommended to all the fans of genuine 70s nastiness.

The film already starts like a punch in the gut, when a guy is repeatedly stabbed in the groin. The corpses of the guy and his wife are found shortly thereafter, he obviously died of the groin-stabbing, she was drowned and then dragged out of the water. When investigating the case, Inspector DePaul (Jeff Blynn) finds out that the murdered couple had a somewhat unusual sex life: The husband was a deranged pervert, who would constantly force his poor young wife (Leonora Fani) to participate in demented and exhibitionist sex-activities. As the couple's acquaintances are interrogated, more people are getting killed...

Half of the film consists of pretty deranged sex-scenes, the rest is full of truly nasty killings. For Giallo-standards, there are not very many murders, but those that take place are brutal as hell: A guy gets (repeatedly) stabbed in the groin, a woman gets (repeatedly) stabbed in the vagina, a guy gets burned alive, and a naked woman (played by Mariangela Giordano, who also had her nipple bitten off in Andrea Bianchi's ultra-gory Zombie flick "Burial Ground") has her leg sawed off while still alive. The music is sub-standard for a Giallo, and even though set in beautiful Venice, the film (unlike most Gialli) features little cinematographic elegance. The budget was pretty low, as it seems, and most of the money probably went into the brutal gore effects, and into paying the actresses to undergo all the sleaze going on on camera. Since none of the characters are likable, there is little suspense for Giallo-standards. The Inspector, who sports John Lennon glasses, is a total ass who cracks jokes about murder victims (Assistant: "The female victim was wearing no underwear." - Inspector: "Too bad for her. Hahaha."). Overall, "Giallo a Venezia" is a sadistic and trashy pile of sleaze with several brutal murders and a rather un-compelling plot; however, it is still highly recommendable to all my fellow Exploitation fans out there, exactly for being such a sadistic and trashy pile of sleaze. While you will never hear me say that it is a good movie, it will doubtlessly entertain those who are demented enough to find this kinda stuff entertaining - such as yours truly. My copy is in rather bad quality, which, strangely enough, fits the movie. If you are a fan of the sleazy and nasty kind of Italian Horror, give it a shot.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Essential mean spirited sleaze gem, 20 February 2011

Author: Bloodwank from United Kingdom

Giallo A Venezia opens with a swiftly edited stabbing, then a lady floundering in water. Credits roll and we discover that these two luckless chumps were a married couple, Fabio and Flavia, and its now up to egg eating, bad joke cracking detective De Paul to sort out the mess, a process which involves much delving into the sordid details of their relationship. Meanwhile, things are about to get nastier... Despite the title, this one only just about qualifies as a giallo. It has a mystery, some killings and a whole lot of perversion, but when stacked against the notables of the genre Giallo A Venezia is a terrible example, with little in the way of style (one rather nifty moment aside) and even less in the way of interesting detective work or problem solving. It doesn't matter too much though, the title just about captures the nature of the plot and the film never really tries to compete in the giallo field. The main thing on its mind is sleaze and sleaze is what it serves up in delicious helpings, comparable perhaps to a three course meal. See, our unfortunate Fabio and Flavia had rather an unconventional relationship, he a dominant deviant and she a submissive, if often unwilling partner to his lusts. A lot of the film is spent on their sex lives, delivered as seedy soft-core with a dollop of sadism we get voyeurism, rape and humiliation as the more traditional female masturbation and conventional coupling. Gianni Dei and Leonora Fani are excellent as Fabio and Flavia respectively, he commands just the right air of haughty perversion that knows no sympathy beyond its own satisfaction, and she a tragic figure of the sort who just can't make herself get out. It helps that Leonora Fani has a splendid body and the sort of bush that makes you want to go exploring, gives her degradation an even meaner feel. There's more sexy shenanigans as well, lest you be afraid that this is a two hander, we get Mariengela Giordano nude in the films best loved sequence, and at least one more partly nekkid gal so its all good. The score works wonders for the soft-core side as well, natty porno lounge from Berto Pisano that bursts into indecently rousing loudness when good stuff goes down. For all this, the film doesn't completely forget its title, as the plot does steadily develop with one or two twists and turns and a few possible suspects/motives. It isn't too taxing though, and the mystery serves mostly as a means of joining together the sexual and the violent aspects of the film. As with any giallo worth its salt, there are a few gnarly murders in here, a couple of which have earned the film a deserved infamy. I won't go into details, but one would be better served by higher quality prints than the one mostly available (though it is still pretty sweet), and the other is an absolute ripper, real squirmishly entertaining classick. The finale is a corker as well, wrapping things up nicely just when the film is looking like it might have used up all its steam. There isn't really legitimately redeeming value here, no social themes nor insight into the interesting territory of a sexually twisted relationship, there isn't much style and the cinematography makes Venice look dull. I've never been but apparently its a nice place, not so in this film. This is pretty much aimed straight at the sleaze and nastiness brigade and no one else, seekers after truth and beauty should seek elsewhere and even average giallo lovers will likely be nonplussed. But if you like 'em mean, check this sucker out pronto as it plays a mean game and it plays it well.

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Adorable trash..., 28 July 2009

Author: Oggz from london UK

...if for no other reason (of which really and truly there aren't any to speak of unless the trinity of coke, sex and murder is what gets you going) - then for Berto Pisano's stellar, lush, textbook pornographic musical score, all in routinely dizzying major 7 chords, swirling strings and the bop-bop melody firmly rooted in the 60's, already horribly dated by the time this was filmed (late 70's) but very charming and very pleasant nonetheless - for those into that sort of thing - it's a standout winner. What makes this additionally twisted is that the soundtrack is often strangely out of sync with what we see on screen (people are having copious amount of often kinky sex but are also being whipped, stabbed and mutilated to some rather blissful musical sounds, adding to the perverse appeal). The film is certainly a very decadent Eurotrash oddity worth checking out, provided you watch with your ears. And with your brain on leave.

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
trash masterpiece, 9 July 2006

Author: Scott-from-Modesto (andrea_yates_clogged_drain@comcast.net) from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Giallo a Venezia is a great little Italian crime flick. It's sleazy and unpretentious, just like Landi's Patrick Viva Ancora made the following year, to which it bears a few similarities. Gianni Dei is the killer here, as he was in his Patrick. Mariangela Giordana gets her leg sawn off here--in Patrick Still Lives she got the flying spit through the vagina treatment. Giordano, who slips off all her clothes here as she always does faithfully, does not usually have a good time in films. Even in Burial Ground, she has her nipple gorily bitten off--the poor, poor beautiful dear.

Another similarity to Patrick is the infamous whore crotch-stabbing scene which uses the same type of bloody vagina prop. The few gore scenes peppered throughout are pretty decent, not on par with Fulci's New York Ripper, but then again Giallo a Venezia is much more graphic than that.

If you care to entertain even more comparisons, Giallo a Venezia is not even close in terms of quality to the vagina-unfriendly exploitation films Assault! Jack the Ripper or What Have You Done To Solange?, but it does make up for its cinematic deficiencies in the graphic over-the-top sleaze department--something that pair of movies is sorely lacking. Landi stacks his magnum opus with softcore sex and explicit female masturbation, lots of leering at furred undercarriages, and some cool gore shots. Gianni Dei really fits this film well as a voyeuristic and jaded rich, coke-snorting scumbag who can't get it up without resorting to misogynistic sadism and rape, not to mention setting up his pretty wife in some dodgy situations for his own jollies.

What will you take away from Giallo a Venezia? I don't think it's quite the pinnacle of shock cinema it's been made out to be but I do think it's a perennial sleaze favorite for good reason, although I find that time has taken some of the love I had for this one. This is a good time for all--8/10.

4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Sleazy And Enjoyable Italian Mystery..., 2 August 2006

Author: EVOL666 from St. John's Abortion Clinic

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I can't say that I've seen too many of Landi's films - but after PATRICK STILL LIVES and this one, I must say that the man sure loves his crotch-violence...and dammit - so do I. GIALLO A VENEZIA is a film I've been looking to get ahold of for a while but kept putting off - until now. I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and am actually surprised, because I thought that the only thing I would get from this film was the often-noted misogynistic violence - but I felt that GIALLO A VENEZIA worked pretty well as a mystery-film as well...

A habitual hard-boiled egg eating detective is on the trail of a killer who uses scissors to dispatch his victims. Throughout the investigation, we learn that there is more to the killings than meets the eye, when we discover a husband whose twisted desires cause major problems for his wife (among others), a hooker who is brought into the "game", and some friends of the troubled couple who have much of their own to hide, and a jealous ex-lover who won't take "no" for an answer...

GIALLO A VENEZIA is an obviously low-budget "shock" film that is meant to be as sleazy as possible - and it definitely works on that level. The vag-stabbing that pretty much every reviewer will note, is definitely graphic and "rough", and the hooker-leg-sawing is also protracted and "nasty" - if a little phony looking...but again - I felt that the storyline of VENZIA worked pretty well and provided the requisite "twists" that any decent giallo should contain. The performances were decent, and the balance of decent story-line and super-trashy sex and violence worked in the film's favor to create something relatively unique. Fans of ultra-sleaze cinema should definitely get a kick out of this one...8.5/10

sleazefest, 21 June 2010

Author: trashgang from Midian

I had this movie at my place already for a long time but never watched it until i bought some new sunglasses. No connection you think or you don't get it, well, if you ever have seen a trailer or the goriest part of the movie then you surely never forget the killer with the reflecting sunglasses. You can guess it, that scene was burned into my memory and by buying new sunglasses, like that killer, I thought this is the time to watch it. And I really liked it, first of all, it is an OOP and well sought after. Many demands to release it on DVD but I guess it will never happen due the sleaziness. If you don't like the following things that are in the movie don't watch it otherwise, be my guest. This is what you will get in the full uncut version, nudity, hard ons, vaginal stabbing, masturbating, exhibitionism, egg-eating detective with the wrong hairstyle and a stupid mustache, bad editing, SM, voyeurism, pictures of orgy's, while visiting a porn movie going into triple sex, bad quality of the film, cheap porn music and bad Disney music, than you have your Gillo in Venezia.

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