Danger: Diabolics!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Danger: Diabolics! |
| Original title | Diabolics |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1968 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mario Bava |
| script |
Dino Maiuri Brian Degas Tudor Gates |
| production | Dino De Laurentiis |
| music | Ennio Morricone |
| camera | Antonio Rinaldi |
| cut | Romana Fortini |
| occupation | |
| |
Danger: Diabolics! is a 1967 turned action film by Mario Bava, who on 24. January 1968 was premiered in Italy (German film Start: 25. April 1968). The director, who was long despised by film critics as a trash filmmaker, is now seen as a pioneer of Pop Art in the cinema and was one of the first comic books to appear on the screen. Some members of the film crew were taken over directly from the set of Barbarella by producer Dino De Laurentiis , another comic book adaptation that he produced at the time and which has now become a cult.
template
The character of the super criminal Diabolik was invented in 1962 by the Milanese sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. The lurid, black and white printed comic books, called Fumetti in Italy , were published monthly by Astorina Verlag. The name of the title hero is derived from the Greek name of the devil , Διάβολος . Similar to the comparable French super criminal Fantômas , Diabolik ultimately has no other intention than to make the police look ridiculous and is criminal primarily out of the pleasure of danger and risk. Together with his partner Eva Kant, he lives in a gigantic underground hiding place, into which he takes refuge after every raid.
action
Diabolik ( John Phillip Law ) and his lover Eva Kant ( Marisa Mell ) manage to ambush an armored money transporter with a load of ten million dollars and escape with the money. They hide the prey in their underground domicile and attend the police chief's press conference, which they completely confuse with the help of laughing gas. Because crime has gotten out of hand, the death penalty is being reintroduced. The police start a large manhunt, which also affects the Mafia boss Ralph Valmont ( Adolfo Celi ) and his cronies. Thereupon Valmont makes a pact with Detective Inspector Ginko ( Michel Piccoli ) and promises to take part in the manhunt for Diabolik. Meanwhile, Diabolik is having fun with his playmate in a huge bed littered with dollar bills. They both decide to steal the famous aksand - emerald necklace , which is kept at Saint Just Castle. Eva dreams of wearing the piece of jewelry on her birthday. Although the castle is inaccessible and heavily guarded by the police, Diabolik makes little effort to carry out his criminal plan. He climbs up a steep wall with the help of suction cups , tricked the video surveillance system with the help of an instant photo and misled the police with a doll.
Valmont has had a mug shot made of Eva and takes her into his power because a gas station attendant recognizes her. Diabolik poses to save her. He gets on the plane from Valmont with a ten million dollar ransom and the emeralds . He throws Diabolik from the machine, which explodes a little later, but both land safely on a parachute. Diabolik is able to free Eva, but has an exchange of fire with Valmont and kills him, using the individual emeralds as ammunition. As the police approach, Diabolik swallows a pill that puts him into a death-like sleep. He is being taken to the hospital. While the police are calling another press conference, the criminal is to be autopsied. Just before the coroner sets his knife, Diabolik opens his eyes and claims to have learned his absolute self-control from Tibetan monks.
Eva has snuck into the hospital as a nurse and pushes Diabolik, who is covered by a shroud, down the hall. Together they break into the cold store with the bodies, where Valmont's remains have just been cremated. Diabolik steals the emeralds from the ashes. The police increase the reward for capturing Diabolik to one million dollars. This then blows up the Ministry of Finance. The state has too little income and has to sell gold in order to get foreign currency. The finance minister begs the population in vain to pay taxes voluntarily because all documents have been destroyed. Twenty tons of gold are poured into a huge ingot to make theft impossible, and sent on the journey by train under massive police surveillance. Diabolik diverts him to the bridge of a branch line and blows it up so that the wagons fall into the sea. The villain and his girlfriend use underwater propellers and air cushions to transport the gold to their fortress. But the police have attached a tracking device to the steel container and can locate Diabolik. While he is busy pouring the gigantic gold nugget into smaller bars, the system overheats, explodes and coats everything with the precious metal. Diabolik seems dead, cast in gold. The police sealed the entire refuge. Eva Kant wants to say goodbye to Diabolik's corpse. When she looks at him through his glass face mask, he winks at her.
production
prehistory
Inspired by André Hunebelles highly accomplished Fantomas film version (1964), decided the Italian producer Tonino Cervi , Diabolik to bring to the screen. Originally intended was a popular flick in the elaborate Flash Gordon - or James Bond style , but Cervi was aware that it was not affordable on the European market. With the income from the Diabolik project, he wanted to realize a demanding film series with directors such as Federico Fellini , Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa . Cervis Italy -Filmproduktion acquired the rights to Diabolik for 20 million lire and hired Dino De Laurentiis for worldwide distribution. The money was to come from an international co-production between Italy , Spain ( AS Film Produccion y Impala ) and France ( Les Films Marceau-Cocinor ). The British Seth Holt was hired as director , celebrities such as Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale were asked for the leading roles, and the press was made curious with extensive test recordings. Eventually, French actors Jean Sorel and Elsa Martinelli were cast as Eva Kant. Filming began in Málaga on September 20, 1965 , was interrupted due to an actor's illness and was completed on November 13 . But when De Laurentiis saw the raw material, he was so shocked by the artistic and optical level that he urgently recommended that the project be abandoned in order to avoid embarrassment. The co-producers then quit, the French canceled the contract, and the Spanish even confiscated the entire equipment.
Revision of the concept
With a budget cut in half of 200 million lire (around three million dollars at the time), De Laurentiis dared to try again, this time with the help of Paramount Pictures and the experienced action director Mario Bava, who visually resembles the James Bond film Fireball (1965) reportedly completed the project for only $ 400,000. Due to the concept change and a completely new script, the part of famous actors like Michel Piccoli and Adolfo Celi was suddenly limited to supporting roles. The not very talented but very good-looking John Phillip Law, a male sex idol of the sixties, was freely available because the parallel Barbarella production had to take a break before filming due to technical problems. The scriptwriters Brian Degas and Tudor Gates were also withdrawn from there. For the role of lover, Roger Vadim is said to have suggested his ex-partner Catherine Deneuve , who is said to have refused to shoot a nude scene and then had to leave the production after a week under pressure from the exasperated Bava. The director had previously dealt with an unknown American photo model who had not even stayed in the cast until the shooting phase. The action now followed three Diabolik issue numbers: Sepolto vivo! (Buried alive), Lotta Disperata (Desperate Struggle) and L'ombra nella notte (Shadow of the Night).
Filming
Filming began again on April 11, 1967 and took place in the Fiat factory in Turin , in Anzio south of Rome (where the Tor Caldara castle served as the backdrop for Saint Just ) and in the Blue Grotto on Capri . Mario Bava later described the work as "nightmarish" because De Laurentiis interfered heavily and insisted on softening violent scenes in order to lower the age rating . On 18th June 1967 the last flap fell. Work for Barbarella began immediately afterwards, which is why some sets, such as Valmont's nightclub, again served as a backdrop.
effect
There was danger at the box office : Diabolic! not a great success to De Laurentiis' disappointment. The revenue in Italy, where the film launch was eagerly awaited because of the popularity of the comics, was 265 million lire. The film was shown in the rest of Europe in April and in the USA in December. The Italian film evaluation board had only ordered five smaller cuts before the approval. Typically of the time, the film was anarchic, which was expressed in the egocentric behavior of the main character as well as in the destruction of the financial administration and the satire on the finance minister, who is now just a ridiculous figure, as well as the entire security authority including the investigating detective Ridiculed is given. Both Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik! showed sadomasochistic sex scenes and put corresponding fetish clothing in the limelight, which was then copied by some other filmmakers such as Bruno Corbucci ( Ms. Stiletto , 1969) and Piero Vivarelli ( Satanik , 1968). John Phillip Law could be seen in skin-tight latex outfits and often with a mask, Marisa Mell in extremely tight mini skirts and extremely revealing tops. Sleeping under a mountain of cash is one of the most iconic film episodes of all time. The trendy and trashy sixties look fired the imagination of many designers and had an influence on directors and others. a. Edgar Wright , from danger: Diabolik! to his film Scott Pilgrim vs. saw the world excited.
criticism
Initially disregarded as trash and panned by the New York Times and the industry journal Variety , there is danger: Diabolics! as a Zeitgeist film has meanwhile been praised with hymns. In TimeOut is a "wonderfully wacky comic strip" with "wonderfully bizarre images" the speech, even to the fantasy worlds of Jean Cocteau remember. Moviebreak judges: "What comes out is for a long time a ludicrous, wonderfully creative, uninhibited-psychedelic, cheeky and young B-variant of James Bond (...)." The film critic Olivier Père speaks of an "unabashed anarchist film with strong sexual symbolism" and an "unsurpassed model for transferring a comic onto the screen" to this day. It is a "fetish film" of the sixties, like The Phantom in Paradise by Brian de Palma corresponds to the seventies. Other film buffs expressed themselves equally enthusiastically from a distance of decades: "Because hardly any other film from this time is likely to be as colorful, crazy and fast as this wonderful James Bond imitation." The critic Roger Ebert wrote, Danger: Diabolic! is overall too long and confused, but exactly the film that Barbarella should have been.
DVD release
Paramount drives away danger: Diabolik! on DVD since June 14, 2005 , supplemented by an audio commentary by John Phillip Law and the biographer of Mario Bava, Tim Lucas.
Quote
Diabolik is not going to do what we think is logical with the $ 10 million. He will do something that no normal person can do.
music
The original music by Ennio Morricone is praised by critics as impressively weird, dynamic and typical for the time around 1968 ("fumbles a nice score that suddenly gets an oriental flair"). The title melody Deep Deep Down is considered "crazy catchy". The soundtrack reminded experts of the Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and Andy Warhol's band Velvet Underground and praised Morricone's musical ingenuity, who used acid-pop elements and signal trumpets as well as howling electric guitars, and a soprano for the underwater scenes ecstatically sung about.
literature
- Lorenzo Altariva: Diabolik - cronistoria di un film , Sassuolo (MO) 2008 (published by the Diabolik Club)
Web links
- Danger: Diabolics! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Danger: Diabolik in the IMDB
- ^ André Schneider (ed.): Die Feuerblume: About Marisa Mell and her films , BoD 2013, p. 125
- ^ Howard Hughes: Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult , London 2011, p. 114
- ↑ a b "Danger: Diabolics!" by Mario Bava , arte.tv
- ^ André Schneider (Ed.): Die Feuerblume: About Marisa Mell and her films , BoD 2013, p. 126
- ↑ Danger: Diabolik , timeout.com (English)
- ↑ a b c Danger: Diabolics! , moviebreak.de
- ↑ Trash of the 60s (19): Danger: Diabolik (1968) , filmundbuch.wordpress.com
- ↑ DANGER: DIABOLIK , rogerebert.com (English)
- ↑ DANGER: DIABOLIK: TWO SIDES OF DEEP DEEP DOWN , dangerousminds.net (English)
- ^ Howard Hughes: Cinema Italiano: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult , London 2011, p. 114
- ↑ Diabolik Club (Italian)