Giallo

For the Italian wine grape that is also known as Giallo, see Verdicchio.

Giallo (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒallo], plural gialli) is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism. The word giallo is Italian for "yellow" and stems from the origin of the genre as a series of cheap paperback mystery novels with trademark yellow covers.

Contents

Literature

The term giallo derives from a series of mystery/crime pulp novels entitled Il Giallo Mondadori, first published by the Mondadori publishing house, starting from 1929, and taking its name from the trademark yellow cover background. The series almost exclusively consisted of Italian translations of mystery novels by British and American writers, such as Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Ed McBain, Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler etc.

Published as cheapish paperbacks, the success of the “giallo” novels soon began attracting the attention of other publishing houses, who began releasing their own versions, retaining the traditional yellow cover. The Giallo Mondadori popularity then established the word giallo in Italian as the widespread translation of the English “mystery.”

Film

For Italian audiences, the term 'giallo' is used to refer to any kind of thriller, regardless of where it was made. Thus American or British thrillers by directors such as Alfred Hitchcock (eg, Psycho, Vertigo) or Basil Dearden (eg, The Blue Lamp, Sapphire) are, for Italian-speaking audiences, examples of gialli. For English-speaking audiences, the term has over time come to refer to a very specific type of Italian-produced thriller. Italian audiences have historically referred to these films as, rather than gialli, 'thrilling all'italiana' (in other words, thrillers in an Italian style/Italian-style thrillers) or, sometimes, 'spaghetti thrillers'. So, for Italian audiences, the term 'giallo' denotes a broad genre (the thriller), and the term 'thrilling all'italiana' denotes the specific subgroup of films (a subgenre) that have come to be known by English-speaking viewers as gialli.

The film subgenre that emerged from these novels in the 1960s began as literal adaptations of the books, but soon began taking advantage of modern cinematic techniques to create a unique genre which veered into horror and psychological thrillers.

Characteristics

“Giallo” films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and unusual musical arrangements. The literary whodunit element is retained, but combined with modern slasher horror, while being filtered through Italy’s longstanding tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. They also generally include liberal amounts of nudity and sex.

Gialli typically introduce strong psychological themes of madness, alienation, and paranoia. For example, Sergio Martino’s Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (also known as Eye of the Black Cat) was explicitly based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat.”

They remain notable in part for their expressive use of music, most notably by Dario Argento’s collaborations with Ennio Morricone and his musical director Bruno Nicolai, and later with the band Goblin.

Development

As well as the literary giallo tradition, the films were also initially influenced by the German “krimi” phenomenon—originally black and white films of the 1960s that were based on Edgar Wallace stories. The Swedish director Arne Mattsson has also been pointed out as an influence, in particular his film Mannequin in Red (1958).

The first film that created the giallo as an Italian cinema genre is La ragazza che sapeva troppo/The Girl Who Knew Too Much (A.K.A. Evil Eye) (1963), from Mario Bava. Its title referred to Alfred Hitchcock’s famous The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), again establishing strong links with Anglo-American culture. In Mario Bava’s 1964 film, Blood and Black Lace (A.K.A. Six Women for the Murderer), the emblematic element of the giallo was introduced: the masked murderer with a shiny weapon in his black-leather-gloved hand.[1]

Soon the giallo became a genre of its own, with its own rules and with a typical Italian flavour: adding additional layers of intense colour and style. The term giallo finally became synonymous with a heavy, theatrical, and stylised visual element.

The genre had its heyday in the 1970s, with dozens of Italian giallo films released. Among the directors represented with notable works in this genre are Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Aldo Lado, Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi, and Pupi Avati.

Avati went as far as satirizing the genre in 1977 with a slapstick giallo titled Tutti defunti... tranne i morti (All Deceased but the Dead).

Although often based around crime and detective work, Gialli should not be confused with the other popular Italian crime genre of the 1970s, the poliziotteschi, which refers to “tough-cop,” action-oriented films (many of them Dirty Harry/ Godfather/ French Connection swipes). Directors and stars often moved between both genres, and some films could be considered under either banner, such as Massimo Dallamano’s 1974 film What Have They Done to Your Daughters?

Giallo Filmography

(Title/ director/ release date/ alternate titles)

Giallo influences on other films or neo-giallo

References

Notes

  1. ^ A. Rockoff, Going to Pieces, p. 30.

Sources

External links

Media
Novels · Anime and manga · Comics  · Films (list) · Television · Games · Magazines · Giallo  · Grand Guignol
Subgenres
Body · C-Horror · Comedy (list · Zombie comedy) · Dark fantasy · Dark romanticism · Ero guro · Erotic · Ghost · Gothic · J-Horror · K-Horror · Lovecraftian · Monsters (Frankenstein · Vampire · Werewolf) · Occult detective · Psychological · Religion (film) · Sci-fi (film) · Slasher (film) · Splatter/gore (film) · Supernatural · Survival · Weird menace · Weird West · Zombie apocalypse · Space Goth
Related genres
Others
Writers · Awards · Conventions · LGBT
Category · Portal