The Giallo Canvas: Art, Excess and Horror Cinema

by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Beloved among cult horror devotees for its signature excesses of sex and violence, Italian giallo cinema is marked by switchblades, mysterious killers, whisky bottles and poetically overinflated titles. A growing field of English-language giallo studies has focused on aspects of production, distribution and reception. This volume explores an overlooked yet prevalent element in some of the best known gialli--an obsession with art and artists in creative production, with a particular focus on painting. The author explores the appearance and significance of art objects across the masterworks of such filmmakers as Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi, Michele Soavi, Mario Bava and his son Lamberto.

Genres: Film, Horror, Art, Nonfiction

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 22, 2021

About the author

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is a film critic, research academic and the author of seven books on cult, horror, and exploitation cinema with an emphasis on gender politics. She has recently co-edited the book ReFocus: The Films of Elaine May for Edinburgh University Press, and her forthcoming book 1000 Women in Horror has been optioned for a documentary series. Alexandra is also a programming consultant for Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, the largest genre film festival in the United States.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art, especially the painting and photography kind, shows up alot in giallo. Its only fair there is now a book about it. By going through many relevant examples of of this usage in film, Heller-Nicholas shows just how well this motif works with a film subgenre all about visual excesses as its key point.