Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life?

It's a fair question when it comes to Antonio Bido's second feature which is also his second giallo, the first being the thoroughly entertaining Watch Me When I Kill / Il gatto dagli occhi di giada (1977). The Bloodstained Shadow, or Solamente Nero as it's known by native tongue, is a giallo that's heavy on atmosphere with a kinda lowkey drip-fed plot; enough is teased out every so often as to keep one's interest firmly piqued, and eschews excessive gore, shock tactics, and sex/nuditiy that's frequently employed by other directors in order to pull the viewer into a murky world of brooding peril and confusion. I say that in spite of some unfortunate sod who winds-up going head first into a roaring fire.

Starring: Lino Capolicchio, Stefania Casini, Craig Hill, Massimo Serato and Juliette Mayniel.

I wrote about this all the way back in 2007 when I started Bloody Italiana with a chap called Herman (if you know, you know), it may have been the second or third film I ever wrote about as I struggle to remember if the first was Aldo Lado's debut Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) or Armando Crispino's Autopsy / Macchie solari (1975). In any event, both got copy & pasted over to 42nd Street Cinema in March 2010, prior to the abolition of Bloody Italiana. I revisited The Bloodstained Shadow this weekend after not seeing it for at least 17 years and figured I'd update my review for it. Similarly, many other reviews that were ported over from Bloody Italiana from that period are arguably in dire need of being revisited and updated.



As is the case with most gialli The Bloodstained Shadow kicks off with the murder of a teenage girl, shot in agonisingly-slow motion, in a sequence which contains our first major clue and by major clue, I mean one can guess the killer straight-away if one only pays attention to what they see. Not unlike the hidden, so quick and you'll miss it, reveal at the beginning of Argento's Deep Red / Profondo Rosso (1975). Don't worry though, there’s plenty of giallo playbook moments of intrigue and mystery such as the quick rundown from Stefano’s brother of the duplicitous denizens of the town, which immediately sets-up a shortlist of potential suspects, all relatively prominent members of the town, and all of whom later wind-up deceased.

The plot sees tormented college professor Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) return to his childhood hometown to visit his brother Don Paolo (Craig Hill), hoping to relax and chase a bit of skirt in the form of the alluring Sandra Sellani (Stefania Casini), a girl he meets on the journey home and then again into town. Instead, Stefano arrives right on time to get wrapped up in a string of murders plaguing the town with an apparent link to the unsolved murder of a teenage girl 20 years prior. Shortly after Stefano's arrival, Don Paolo witnesses a murder from his window during a torrential rainstorm, as a consequence he begins to receive letters and death threats from the killer. Stefano and his bit of skirt try to help Paolo uncover the killer and their motives - all pretty standard giallo stuff, right?



There’s a lengthy stalking sequence in which Sandra (Casini) is tailed by an unseen individual; lots of POV shots with Sandra being spied from afar and not so far. The sequence begins on a boat and gradually moves through claustrophobia-inducing passageways. Humorously and with an air of relief, the whole sequence culminates in a brief accordion jump-scare!

The Bloodstained Shadow is gorgeous to look at. The cinematography is stunning, the locations are fabulous, and there’s a whole lotta chiaroscuro and given that the English translation of Solamente Nero is Only Blackness, and that art & paintings in-particular play an essential part in the development of the plot, it’s an ingenious way of weaving all those components together. The momentary shots of misty Venetian canals and graveyards are to die for, bravo Mario Vulpiani graze!



Stelvio Cipriani's soundtrack is fantastic too, not to mention the fact it's performed by legendary Italian prog-rockers Goblin. It's equal parts Italio-funk and menacing synth, personally, I think the synth stuff works the best given the subject matter as at times the more upbeat funk stuff feels a tad out-of-place, but by no means is it bad.

The finale comes together quite well with all the brief fragments scattered throughout out the narrative linking together without any of it feeling forced or clumsy. The cast are great, believable, though I have to opine that Craig Hill steals the show as Don Paolo. The murders, though far from extravagant or special effects masterclasses in bodily destruction, offer a sense of realism, grounding the piece as something believable, I could imagine reading about a story like this in a true crime mag. A truly great piece of Italian filmmaking and an outstanding entry into the giallo cycle.