Token possession of an old "villa", a German ornithologist casually discovers some old tapes on which a psychologist has recorded the mysterious doings happened into those isolated walls. So he learns about a gloomy story of incestuous loves and trivial betrayals that will lead to a bloodbath orchestrated by an unexpected crazy character. A love drama disguised in a "giallo" movie that moves too much slowly; but has the regard to show a beautiful and skilled Erica Blank and an intense Peter Lee Lawrence. Romano Scavolini pays much attention in directing the cast and orchestrating the shot, but seems to forget completely the pacing, transforming an otherwise interesting story in a soporific black fable, which hardly someone can go thoroughly.
10 Reviews
Interesting, arty, field recordings
Bezenby21 December 2017
Another Giallo that takes the unusual approach of having two simultaneous storylines taking place: One in the present, involving an old professor who rents an abandoned villa from a shifty administrator to take some field recordings like the Hafler Trio and ends up finding some crumpled cassette tape hidden underneath a tree. It's on these tapes that the other story unfolds: that of Erika Blanc in psychotherapy sessions with her doctor regarding why she decided to attempt suicide (a scene we see at the start of the film).
Erika once lived in the huge villa the professor now finds himself in and has a bit of a strange set up going on. She lives with her drunken husband but also seems to continually be playing mind games with her friend Manfredi, including teasing him on her wedding day, rejecting him, slapping him around, and throwing in the odd snog for good measure. It's only later she reveals that Manfredi is her brother! Incest, eh?
Yes - it's one of those "In the Folds Of The Flesh" type films that seem sick to us outsiders but are very common to those rich folks who can afford giant villas in Italy. Be warned, although this film does eventually fit into the giallo mould, it also has leaning towards to the artful too, which means a lot of symbolism, characters looking moody, and staring.
That said, it's still a giallo, as we don't get the full story from the cassettes and the old man suddenly finds himself listening to a cassette made by a past character while he was out in town! The last half an hour is where this film gets going, with a sudden outburst of bloody violence and a grim ending we've all come to expect at this point. You've got to be in the mood for a film of this pace, however, but luckily, I was. The beautiful (once again!) giallo cinematography certainly helps.
Peter Lee Lawrence stands out here as Manfredi. Up until this I thought he was just some kind of Germanic bland spaghetti western actor, but there you go.
Erika once lived in the huge villa the professor now finds himself in and has a bit of a strange set up going on. She lives with her drunken husband but also seems to continually be playing mind games with her friend Manfredi, including teasing him on her wedding day, rejecting him, slapping him around, and throwing in the odd snog for good measure. It's only later she reveals that Manfredi is her brother! Incest, eh?
Yes - it's one of those "In the Folds Of The Flesh" type films that seem sick to us outsiders but are very common to those rich folks who can afford giant villas in Italy. Be warned, although this film does eventually fit into the giallo mould, it also has leaning towards to the artful too, which means a lot of symbolism, characters looking moody, and staring.
That said, it's still a giallo, as we don't get the full story from the cassettes and the old man suddenly finds himself listening to a cassette made by a past character while he was out in town! The last half an hour is where this film gets going, with a sudden outburst of bloody violence and a grim ending we've all come to expect at this point. You've got to be in the mood for a film of this pace, however, but luckily, I was. The beautiful (once again!) giallo cinematography certainly helps.
Peter Lee Lawrence stands out here as Manfredi. Up until this I thought he was just some kind of Germanic bland spaghetti western actor, but there you go.
Won't appeal to everyone.
parry_na25 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Not that it matters to anyone, but I only intended to watch the first five minutes of this to assess the picture quality in what is a pretty rare film. 90 minutes later, and I've only just finished this excellent thriller/horror/gothic/arty/giallo project starring the mighty Erika Blanc (from 'The Devil's Nightmare' and so many other films) and sweepingly directed by Sauro Scavolini (who also co-wrote).
The picture quality is excellent, in case you were wondering.
The pacing is refreshingly eccentric. We have two story strands, both of which are in no hurry to deliver anything other than atmospheric and moody reflections and (occasionally hallucinogenic) reminiscences. It isn't until about two thirds into the story that the pace intensifies and we move out of desolate melancholy and into more traditional gialli territory.
I have no complaints about this approach, although the ponderous narrative will not appeal to everyone. The attention to visual detail and breath-taking locations are more than enough to arrest the attention for the most part, and the acting is natural and restrained.
The revelations toward the ending are satisfyingly sordid and there are at last moments of gore, proving that, despite the beautiful cinematography, events are just as gloomy as we would wish them to be.
The picture quality is excellent, in case you were wondering.
The pacing is refreshingly eccentric. We have two story strands, both of which are in no hurry to deliver anything other than atmospheric and moody reflections and (occasionally hallucinogenic) reminiscences. It isn't until about two thirds into the story that the pace intensifies and we move out of desolate melancholy and into more traditional gialli territory.
I have no complaints about this approach, although the ponderous narrative will not appeal to everyone. The attention to visual detail and breath-taking locations are more than enough to arrest the attention for the most part, and the acting is natural and restrained.
The revelations toward the ending are satisfyingly sordid and there are at last moments of gore, proving that, despite the beautiful cinematography, events are just as gloomy as we would wish them to be.
Okay Italian psychological thriller.
HumanoidOfFlesh5 December 2010
An ornithologist imprisoned in a villa with a large park finds a tape which features traces that could be traced back to a massacre some time ago.Sauro Scavolini's "Amore e morte nel giardino degli dei" was photographed by Romano Scavolini of "Spirits of Death" and "Nightmare" fame.The film is well-acted and offers a nice amount of nudity.There are traces of giallo and Gothic melodrama in the plot.The finale is especially memorable,because it's violent and bloody.Various characters are killed with a sword or shot to death.Lovely Erica Blanc provides a bit of delicious sleaze and Sauro Scavolini directs with a sure hand.6 out of 10.
beautifully photographed
christopher-underwood28 March 2014
So typically early seventies that when the cropped crochet top appears it is almost as if it is a joke. Many and varied fashions of the time aside this is a languorous film, again very much of the period, with much very pretty photography and much talking. Much talking about brother and sister and husband and brother and sister once more. Yes, of course, incest is more than hinted at and the fleshy scenes, incestuous and other are again beautifully photographed. Its just that it is apparent very early on that this is really not going anywhere and slowly at that. Erika Blanc is as good as ever and truly has to carry most of this film because she is simply the most interesting thing about it. The young male lead, Peter Lee Lawrence, I understand played in a lot of spaghetti westerns so I just trust that he made more effort in them as he seems not to in this. Maybe he just found the ponderous dialogue too much to bother with. For all my harsh words, the look and Erika mean you can't dislike the thing and at least it doesn't outstay its welcome.
rare italian murder movie.
happytrigger-64-39051713 June 2019
Sauro Scavolini directed and wrote that original murder story with inventive flashbacks with a terrific ending, and it was shot in 1972 the great year for italian murder movies. Scavolini was mainly a screenwriter (3 giallos for Sergio Martino). It's his first movie for cinema, he did 3 tv movies and another for cinema, they do not seem available, what a pity when you see the casting. This story is maybe slow but it gets more and more tense and it gets incredibly gripping in the last part, unforgettable. Thanks to the courageous french editor who released it.
Nice style but boring structure
dopefishie6 March 2023
Nice style but boring structure.
The director, Romano Scavolini, has a nice style. The are a number of inspiring shots. The use of color, lighting, and cinematography are all above-average. The acting is good across the board. Peter Lee Lawrence stood out to me as being particularly good.
However, the script and the structure of the story held this one back. It's a story within a story told with multiple flashbacks and shifting in and out of narration with too much exposition. This robs it of a lot of suspense. Plus, it takes like an hour for any murder to happen so it's not much in the way of a thriller or giallo. This had potential, and a better script would have made a big difference.
The director, Romano Scavolini, has a nice style. The are a number of inspiring shots. The use of color, lighting, and cinematography are all above-average. The acting is good across the board. Peter Lee Lawrence stood out to me as being particularly good.
However, the script and the structure of the story held this one back. It's a story within a story told with multiple flashbacks and shifting in and out of narration with too much exposition. This robs it of a lot of suspense. Plus, it takes like an hour for any murder to happen so it's not much in the way of a thriller or giallo. This had potential, and a better script would have made a big difference.
'Wonderfully atmospheric thriller from director Sauro Scavolini'
Weirdling_Wolf23 January 2014
This wonderfully atmospheric, teasingly twisted psychodrama from talented director, Sauro Scavolini is a brooding, elegiac tale of emotional violence, starring two of the most luminescent Euro-starlets, that deliciously intoxicating redhead, Erika Blanc, and the voluptuous, Orchidea 'Devil in The Brain' De Santis! Masterfully exotic cinema that reminded me of the equally skewed neo-Gothic piece 'Anima Persa', whereby an octogenarian professor hires an ostensibly deserted, dilapidated mansion to further his study of rare bird call, and soon discovers, in true-blue, kooky Gialli-style, a stone-cold, hyper-sexualized, obsidian dark tale of incest, infidelity and escalating madness! There is a decidedly decadent whiff of Hitchcockian diabolism about this deadly tale of twisted desire and dreadful deceit; and it is rendered with considerably more moral restraint than cinematic rabble-rouser Umberto Lenzi! I happily discovered that maestro, Suaro Scavolini also wrote 'The Case of The Scorpions Tale', 'Your vice is a locked room, and only I have the key' and 'All the colours of the Dark' - so his pristine Giallo genius credentials are somewhat unimpeachable! The darkly fascinating Giallo, 'Love & Death in The Garden of the Gods' is most certainly worthy of rediscovery, especially in its handsomely restored Blu-ray edition.
I kind of love this
BandSAboutMovies7 January 2023
Warning: Spoilers
There's a scene in this movie where Erika Blanc walks down some steps wearing a white coat and I swear that if I hadn't already been through puberty, I had my second one. I try to be above such things when I write of giallo (and gothic horror and women in prison and nunsploitation and Jess Franco and man, maybe I am scum) but I think I now believe in some form in Divine Spark and I will argue it with you at will.
Anyways, director Sauro Scavolini didn't direct many other movies, but he did write All the Colors of the Dark, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key and American Tiger amongst many others. He also wrote this along with Anna Maria Gelli.
When a professor moves into a new home, he finds a mess of tape in the woods. When he cleans it, he finds himself drawn into the life - and death - of Azzurra (Blanc), just married to Timothy (Rosario Borelli) but in love with her brother Manfredi (Peter Lee Lawrence) and on a one-way ticket to suicide.
It may seem like the only nod to giallo is that the old man teaches ornithology and is only at the house to try to study a rare bird. It's more a journey backward through the tape, as we see the many tragedies that led to greater tragedy. After she slices her wrists - nude in the bathtub so you don't forget that this is a giallo - she's saved by her brother's supernaturally gorgeous new lover Viola (Orchidea de Santis, Seven Murders for Scotland Yard) and then falls for her and vice versa.
It also looks gorgeous, with cinematography by Romano Scavolini, Sauro's brother and the man that would one day make Nightmare In a Damaged Brain. Somehow, a garden fried chicken party becomes a psychedelic freakout and even Blanc simply walking takes on a dreamlike tone.
Some people find this one too strange and too talky and not much happens but look, there are plenty of giallo that have actual killers and stalking and you can go watch those. If you want to be challenged, this one is ready.
Anyways, director Sauro Scavolini didn't direct many other movies, but he did write All the Colors of the Dark, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key and American Tiger amongst many others. He also wrote this along with Anna Maria Gelli.
When a professor moves into a new home, he finds a mess of tape in the woods. When he cleans it, he finds himself drawn into the life - and death - of Azzurra (Blanc), just married to Timothy (Rosario Borelli) but in love with her brother Manfredi (Peter Lee Lawrence) and on a one-way ticket to suicide.
It may seem like the only nod to giallo is that the old man teaches ornithology and is only at the house to try to study a rare bird. It's more a journey backward through the tape, as we see the many tragedies that led to greater tragedy. After she slices her wrists - nude in the bathtub so you don't forget that this is a giallo - she's saved by her brother's supernaturally gorgeous new lover Viola (Orchidea de Santis, Seven Murders for Scotland Yard) and then falls for her and vice versa.
It also looks gorgeous, with cinematography by Romano Scavolini, Sauro's brother and the man that would one day make Nightmare In a Damaged Brain. Somehow, a garden fried chicken party becomes a psychedelic freakout and even Blanc simply walking takes on a dreamlike tone.
Some people find this one too strange and too talky and not much happens but look, there are plenty of giallo that have actual killers and stalking and you can go watch those. If you want to be challenged, this one is ready.
If only the film was as great as the title...
Coventry14 November 2022
The Italian Giallo is, without any doubt or discussion, THE horror/cult subgenre that brings forward the movies with the most sensationally sounding and imaginative titles! Just think of examples like "Your Vice is a Locked Room and only I have the Key", "Forbidden Photos of a Lady above Suspicion", or "What are those strange drops of blood doing on Jennifer's Body?". The downright fantastically titled "Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods" belongs in this list as well, but there's one unfortunate - but major - difference with the rest.
The others are great and massively entertaining horror movies, with awesome titles as a sort of cherry on the cake. "Love and Death etc." has an awesome title but fails to deliver in every other department. Writer/director Sauro Scavoline came up with a detailed and convoluted story, but there's one issue ... it's completely and utterly uninteresting! It's the story of an ornithologist who, via recordings of therapeutic sessions, becomes intrigued by the triangular relationship between the people that previously lived in the villa he's renting. We know straight from the start that the flashbacks will end in tragedy, as the film opens with images of Erika Blanc lying dead in a bathtub, so what's the point?
The first hour is incredibly slow-paced, dull, and extremely difficult to sit through. Too little too late the film turns into a much more enjoyable cocktail full of sex and vicious murders, but the connection with - or the empathy for - the lead characters never comes. Beautiful photography, music, and the ravishing naked bodies of Erica Blanc & Orchidea De Santis (lovely name, by the way) make this nevertheless a collector's item for fans of rare gialli.
The others are great and massively entertaining horror movies, with awesome titles as a sort of cherry on the cake. "Love and Death etc." has an awesome title but fails to deliver in every other department. Writer/director Sauro Scavoline came up with a detailed and convoluted story, but there's one issue ... it's completely and utterly uninteresting! It's the story of an ornithologist who, via recordings of therapeutic sessions, becomes intrigued by the triangular relationship between the people that previously lived in the villa he's renting. We know straight from the start that the flashbacks will end in tragedy, as the film opens with images of Erika Blanc lying dead in a bathtub, so what's the point?
The first hour is incredibly slow-paced, dull, and extremely difficult to sit through. Too little too late the film turns into a much more enjoyable cocktail full of sex and vicious murders, but the connection with - or the empathy for - the lead characters never comes. Beautiful photography, music, and the ravishing naked bodies of Erica Blanc & Orchidea De Santis (lovely name, by the way) make this nevertheless a collector's item for fans of rare gialli.
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