Madness (1980) (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 29, 2024
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Fernando Di LeoRelease Date(s)
1980 (September 17, 2024)Studio(s)
Midia Cinematografica/Indipendenti Regionali (Raro Video/Kino Lorber)- Film/Program Grade: D
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
Director Fernando Di Leo (1932-2003) is remembered as something of a master of Italian crime films of the 1970s, pictures including Caliber 9, The Italian Connection, Shoot First, Die Later and others, though like his contemporaries Di Leo dabbled as both screenwriter and director in myriad other genre films, including giallo and erotica. Madness (Vacanze per un massacro, or “Vacation for a Massacre”) was made at the tail-end of this cycle, when the genre was dying out and the local theatrical film industry was struggling. Unlike his past work, Di Leo was on Madness little more than a hired hand. The picture was produced on a low-budget, the 89-minute film shot on a very brief 12-day shooting schedule. Di Leo himself was not happy with the results.
On rare occasions, other Italian filmmakers overcame such obstacles, such as Mario Bava’s cheap but almost brilliant Rabid Dogs, but this vaguely similar story is dull, flat and uninteresting.
It starts out with a bit of promise: Inmate Joe (Andy Warhol discovery Joe Dallesandro) escapes from prison, viciously murders two farmers, one with a pitchfork, and steals their car. He heads to a remote vacation house in the country where he’s buried stolen loot under the base of a fireplace. However, Sergio (Gianni Macchia), his wife Lilian (Patricia Behn), and her sister, Paola (Lorraine De Selle), secretly Sergio’s mistress, have gone there for a weekend getaway. Credibility strains early: the two actresses playing sisters look absolutely nothing alike. Joe patiently waits outside all night and into the next morning, peering through windows like a Peeping Tom. He doesn’t eat anything for at least 24 hours, and doesn’t attempt to enter the house until after Sergio makes like Elmer Fudd and goes hunting, and Lilian goes shopping. If he was so unhesitatingly violent with the farmers, why is he so cautious now?
Anyway, alone with Paola, the reluctant Joe makes his move, knocking her unconscious and forcing her to dig for the money once she comes to. She tries seducing him, hoping to escape, but this doesn’t work. Lilian and Sergio, after what seems like forever (endless footage of Lilian wandering around town, Sergio firing his shotgun at nothing in particular), finally come back, and the film heats up a little, but not much.
As much sexploitation as crime thriller, in Madness actress De Selle is fully naked for much, maybe most of the film’s running time, and the other three principals are often seen in various states of undress and in awkwardly-staged sex scenes. De Selle and Behn are undeniably attractive, but after a short time even this becomes hopelessly dull. It’s an 89-minute feature with about 30 minutes of story.
The exteriors around and near the house are moderately interesting, but the interior sets are rudimentary, like for a high school play: sofa, refrigerator, door, chair. Posters of John Travolta and Marlon Brando adorn the walls. These scenes particularly have a hurry-hurry point-and-shoot quality, with no interesting angles, no effective cutting between characters. Even the bloody and violent climax falls flat.
The film’s musical score is mostly recycled stock cues from earlier Italian thrillers, rarely matching the tone of scenes they’re paired with, adding to the film’s cheapness.
Raro Video’s Region-Free Blu-ray of Madness, distributed by Kino, offers a clean, 1920 x 1080p video transfer of this 1.85:1 release. For such a cheap, junky and mostly forgotten work, the image impresses with its good color and detail. The DTS-HD Master Audio (2.0 mono) is also good for what it is, in Italian only with optional English subtitles.
The subtitles are far from perfect, with a number of typographical errors: “He’s sewing a life sentence” and, in one exchange: “But he has a rifle. It can km from up close.” Huh?
Supplements consist of an Italian trailer, also subtitled and in high-def, and a new audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth.
Fernando Di Leo completists might want to add Madness to their collection, but the film has nothing to recommend it, and even Di Leo himself disliked it.
- Stuart Galbraith IV