The Whip and the Body
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.36 You Save: $7.63 (51%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.37 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Whip and the Body
Movie Review: Brooding and Erotic, Chris Lee's Best Performance!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are darn few films that really scare me. In fact, I can only think of three, and all of them come from the early 60's. The Haunting (the original, not the remake), the Innocents, and, of course, Whip and the Body, the subject of this review.These three films mix ghostly goings on with psychopathology and erotic obsession in a way that is not only dramatically valid but PLAUSABLE - hence their continued ability to unnerve and disturb, even after multiple viewings. All three films succeed in creating and, what is more difficult, sustaining a mood that is dark and eerie, a mood which lingers long after the last fade-out.
The Haunting and The Innocents are both filmed in marrow-chilling black and white, but Whip and the Body is lush and succulent as an overripe and poisonous fruit in TECHNICOLOR. Bava's films are incredibly lovely to look at, but nowhere moreso than here. For Whip and the Body,he chose a pallete of sombre hues which wouldn't be out of place in a nightmare. At the same time we are responding viscerally to the horror, we are paradoxically aware of the great beauty which underlies it and supports it. Formal beauty in a horror film is a rare commodity. One finds it in some of the Universal horror classics of the 30's, in some of Hitchcock's works, and in the films of Mario Bava.
Christopher Lee has said that this is one of his favorite films -- it's easy to see why. It contains what may be his best performance, understated and chillingly effective. He becomes a romantic, doomed figure - not unlike Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. He manages to mix menace with romance in exactly the right proportions.
His costar, Miss Lavi, is not only a beauty in the classic mold (she reminds me a lot of Barbara Steele)but a very effective actress as well, adroitly portraying some very difficult passages with ease and grace. She is unforgettable.
Watch With: Theatre of Death; Blood and Black Lace; Blood and Roses; Black Sabbath (1960- Bava), Flesh for Frankenstein, The Haunting (original vers.), The Innocents.
Movie Review: Sumptuous gothic melodrama
Summary: 5 Stars
Following the critical success of the influential 'Black Sunday';a film that seamlessly joined the stylistic traits of gothic cinema with Bava's own unique visual sensibilities ,the director further developed his painterly and atmospheric mise en scene in his subsequent work.The results are some of the most striking examples of European cinema in the sixties.
Bava provided a fascinating contribution to the often derided peplum genre with 'Hercules in the haunted world' as well as producing the archetypal horror anthology in 'Black Sabbath'.Earlier examples of Bava's work also included 'The girl who knew too much' ,a film that laid down the ground rules for the 'Giallo'(convoluted and lurid thrillers that drew influence from the work of Hitchcock as well as Edgar Wallace and the German 'krimi' crime thrillers ).Whip and the body ,which incorporates elements from these sub-genre, however, proved to be one of the most progressive and distinct film's in Mario Bava's oeurve.
The central relationship between Nevanka(Lavi) and Kurt(Lee,in one of his most atypical roles)creates an intensity that ably drives this personal and heartfelt film.More than that,though,the requirements of the narrative allow Bava free reign to produce some of his most sumptuous,intoxicating and provocative imagery,not only in his use of mist-like primary hues that appear whenever Lee is on screen ,or the deep shadows that conceal as much as they reveal,but the exquisite full frame shot's of Lavi's eyes as she begins to slip between her percieved reality and hallucination.And it is in this stylised and unreal enviroment of Bava's films that the viewer willingly does the same.
Although largely ignored in mainstream film criticism,and frequently described in negative terms for his film's keen visual sense at the expense of well written character studies,Bava challenges this opinion with 'Whip and the body' by framing an absorbing narrative with a visually striking slice of gothic melodrama.Highly recommended.
Movie Review: PAIN AND PLEASURE
Summary: 5 Stars
Another Mario Bava masterpiece - THE WHIP AND THE BODY - has royally entered the DVD market thanks to an admirable treatment from VCI. If you are not aware that, under the pseudonym of John M. Old, is hiding Mario Bava and that 90% of the initial credits are also english pseudonyms of well (or less -) known italian actors or technicians, you could mistake THE WHIP AND THE BODY for a Hammer production. At least during the first 10 minutes. Then, you would have certainly recognized the maestro touch ; who else could have filmed in 1963 a sadistic Christopher - Kurt - Lee whipping the delicate Daliah - Nevenka - Lavi who asks for more after each strike. I doubt Terence Fisher would have dared to shoot such scenes. Think also of the delirious travelling of Tony Kendall whose face has a different colour each time he appears in the light of the corridor. Thank you once more VCI to let us appreciate all the subtleties of Mario Bava's work on light.
Once again, the surprisingly rational Bava leaves room for a psychologic explanation at the end of THE WHIP AND THE BODY. Until his last movie - SHOCK - , the italian director will remind us that Cinema is a tremendous liar and that reality is so simple to explain. This theme will be treated masterfully by Bavain in his last genial movie RABID DOGS.
In short, a DVD for your library.
Movie Review: The Whip and the Body
Summary: 5 Stars
The ghost of a nobleman's sadistic son returns from the grave to haunt his former mistress, whip in hand, after he is brutally murdered out of revenge for his misdeeds. Italian master Mario Bava continues to prove his dominance as the leader in visual storytelling, drowning the ornate sets in more of his signature colors as he effortlessly glides through them with the camera. THE WHIP AND THE BODY earns its place alongside KILL BABY, KILL and A Drop Of Water as being one of Bava's most technically proficient films, melding picture, color, and sound in an intricately woven tapestry of suspense. As painful as it is to watch some of the torture scenes, they create a sense of mystery and intrigue in to the taboo sexual desires of the sadist and masochist. Christopher Lee delivers one of his cruelest and most unforgiving roles as the domineering Kurt. He is played alongside the equally talented and beautiful Daliah Lavi, as well as a stellar assembly of internationally-acclaimed actors in one of Bava's more memorable casts. THE WHIP AND THE BODY is a perfect Gothic ghost tale of murder, lust, and betrayal as only the master of Horror, himself, could provide.
-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies
Movie Review: Bava at his best
Summary: 5 Stars
They certainly don't make pictures like this anymore. This is an unique combination of ghost story and SM-romance, capturing the sensibility of the gothic novel, unmatched by any other cinematic attempt that I'm aware of. Christopher Lee is the mystical brother who returns to the family mansion, where everybody despices him, making him responsible for the suicide of a servant girl - the knife is kept in a showcase as a holy relic. Only Nevenka (Daliah Lavi), once his fiancé, now his sister-in-law seems confused about her feelings towards him. He is soon found murdered and the movie becomes a kind of whodunit, since everybody would have perfectly adequate reasons to get rid of him (the lumbering servant even looks like Peter Lorre). Soon he comes back from the grave to haunt Nevenkas bedchamber. Daliah Lavi has the same kind of fragile, pale beauty as Barbara Steele (who was initially offered the part), which makes her well suited for this kind of aesthetic. This is how one could imagine what Poe's Ligeia would look like. This is really not to be missed by any lover of the gothic genre and the restored DVD looks quite good.