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The Whip and the Body Blu- ray. Shades of the Dark. Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, December 2. Kino- Lorber has slowly been expanding their Mario Bava Collection line of Blu- ray releases, and this week they're giving us one of the giallo. The Whip and the Body, with its Marquis de Sade- ish title, drafty castle. Bava midway between two modes.
It draws on the gothic horror and fantasy of Black Sunday and Black. Sabbath, while also anticipating the proto- slasher kink and bloodletting of later films like Blood and Black Lace, Five Dolls for an August. Moon, and Twitch of the Death Nerve, which would come to cement Bava's influence on the American horror boom of the early 1. The vivid. cinematography.
The ill- at- ease sexuality. The familial drama and revenge- driven violence. There's a reasonable case to be made here that The Whip. Body is the most Bava- esque of Bava's entire filmography, a central point where all of his major filmmaking concerns collide. It. detractors. His youngest son, Christian (Tony Kendall), and daughter- in- law. Nevenka (Daliah Lavi), live there with him, along with the maid (Harriet Medin), her daughter Katia (Ida Galli), and a bumbling groundskeeper named.
Losat (Luciano Pigozzi). None are too pleased with the unexpected return of Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee), the count's sadistic eldest son, who fled. The maid, Giorgia, keeps the blade used for the self- slaying inside a glass bell jar, where it functions like Chekhov's pistol; that is, we know it's.
- Read the The Whip and the Body movie synopsis, view the movie trailer, get cast and crew information, see movie photos, and more on Movies.com. Synopsis Marred by controversy at the time of its release, this horror fantasy from Italy's legendary horror.
- The Whip and the Body (Italian: La frusta e il corpo) is a 1963 Italian-French gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava. The film is about Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) who is ostracized by his father for his relationship with a servant girl. He later returns, but falls madly.
- Amazon.com: Whip and the Body: Daliah Lavi, Christopher Lee, Tony Kendall, Ida Galli, Harriet Medin, Gustavo De Nardo, Jacques Herlin, Luciano Pigozzi, Mario Bava, Ubaldo Terzano, Renato Cinquini, Elio Scardamaglia, Federico Magnaghi, Ferdinando Baldi.
- The Whip and the Body is a gothic horror fantasy that finds Bava at the peak of his visual prowess. Though the giallo genre is often known for its reliance on graphic violence, Bava's film is noticeably tame. What with its captivating lighting schemes, ghostly.
We. quickly gather that she and Kurt have a history together. When they finally meet alone, by the seaside, he pulls out a bull- whip and.
But this only the beginning of the film's psychological and romantic malaise. There are subtle hints that. Nevenka may also be involved with the count in some physical capacity, while her husband is secretly embroiled in an affair with Katia.
Nevenka's alternating attraction and repulsion to Kurt is the film's dramatic impetus, and when the sadist is found murdered, slashed across the throat. Tania. How closely linked are terror and arousal? Working from a screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi. Ugo Guerra, and Luciano Martino. The. creeping walks down darkened hallways. The dead hand emerging from the shadows.
The crack of a bullwhip and the resulting cry of pleasure. Made on an exceptionally small budget, the film is nonetheless alive with Bava's attentive detail to color, set design, and cinematography. The attempt. here was clearly to emulate Hammer Horror's Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee films and Roger Corman's series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, but Bava's. Casting Christopher Lee was a brilliant stroke, and though it's unfortunate that Lee. Israeli model/actress/singer Daliah Lavi is something of a stand- in for Black Sunday's Barbara Steel, who.
Lavi handles the role's emotional complexities well, trembling with anxiety and burning with attraction. That said, Kino's hands- off. AVC- encoded transfer that's naturally filmic and free from excessive noise reduction, edge enhancement, or other forms of. The encode is solid too, with no blatant compression artifacts.
Not surprisingly given the film's budget and genre, the image is a. Lines are tighter, textures finer, fine detail better resolved. Much of the. film takes place at night, in dark corridors and bedrooms, and while some shadows look a bit . Bava's characteristically lurid colors come through just fine. Kino- Lorber has included not one, not two, but three audio tracks. Considering the way the film was meant to be internationally distributed, there really is no .
Steeped in sadomasochism and lushly photographed in the vivid hues for which the director is known, Mario Bava's THE WHIP AND THE BODY is a Gothic thriller that far surpasses the API Edgar Allan Poe films that it was intended to emulate. Christopher Lee (Dracula: Prince of Darkness) stars as Kurt.
The English dub is really awkward for the first act but gets better as the film goes on, while. Italian and French tracks seem a little more natural altogether. Sound quality across the three doesn't differ too much. Carlo Rustichelli's score, with its melodramatic minor- key main theme, is one of the most memorable in Bava's filmography, and!
The music sounds as good as can be expected, reasonably. Optional English subtitles are available in easy- to- read white lettering.
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SYNOPSIS: Set in the 1. Kurt Menliff and his sister- in- law Nevenka, his previous lover. Christian. He approaches her, and reminds her of. Initially she appears to be a victim, yet she. She genuinely loves.
Kurt, and the pain he inflicts is definitely arousing to her. In a way. she uses Kurt to fulfill her deepest, darkest fantasies.
Once again. Bava avoids heroic characters, and concentrates on a group of people who. These issues are pretty well resolved by the end of the film. Bava is tantalizingly obscure. In the case of. Nevenka, Bava creates a poignant, multi- layered image of what can happen.