The House with Laughing Windows 4K 1976

Grainy monochrome. In it we see a screaming bound man, around whom two figures in white robes are scurrying, inflicting stab wounds on the helpless man, and behind the scenes a stream of consciousness about the colors flowing in his veins, about Death, its arrival, taking him to Purification....

In a small town comes Stefano, an artist-restorer, a pretty young teacher Francesca, as well as a few faces for the masses. Stefano is met on the shore by the dwarf mayor and taken to the church to inspect a fresco of St. Sebastian, discovered a while ago and painted by a local celebrity of the past, Lignani, a madman and painter of Agony (as the locals remember him). Stefano is summoned to the town to restore this work in order to increase the tourist appeal of the area...

The movie delights in a deserted, sparsely populated place with its own “skeleton in the closet”, eager to use the outsider guests for their own self-interest and spit out in formaldehyde, incidentally F. used in the production of motion picture film. The town is populated by “weirdos”: a friend of Stefano's-Antonio, the last one met here, is a nervous slouching twitchy paranoid; the others: an aging whore-teacher, regretting the passing beauty; a fool at church; a drunken scandalist, drowning the weight of memories and knowledge in a glass of wine; a terminally ill grandmother, chained to a bed in a huge, crumbling house with rustles and creaks; the chief of police - a simpleton; yes many more interesting characters will unfold in front of. One is surprised by the concentration of the mentally disturbed per square meter of the picture.....

Pupi Awati, without superfluous frills and cameraman twists, told a fascinating story with rich colors, shuffled with muddled footage from the past, entangled in a magnetic recording on a wire, and falling mist on the night streets. What night, what day - the town is always dangerous, not by prowling creatures, growling in the dark, and the Mystery behind the shuttered windows ... The actors are good, starting with Lino Cappalicchio in the role of a simple-minded intellectual - village detective and to the last name in the credits, all very bright and memorable, it's a pity that Francesca Marchiano, in speed left the acting path, but did not leave the cinematography, remaining in it, as a fairly high-quality screenwriter.

A great representative of “giallo”, despite the timing, not at all tiresome. Fans of concentrated violence will be extremely disappointed by the quiet flow and movement of the investigation, as well as the bloodlessness of much of the timing. But with this picture accumulates all the forces for the last detective strike ...