As well versed as I am in the Italian Horror and Thriller movies, the news that Shameless were to release the movie The Designated Victim gave me a bit of a thrill; not only had I not heard of the movie before (at least I think I had not) but from the trailer that popped up on their coming soon section of previous DVD releases, really gave me the need to see the movie. Shameless Screen Entertainment have again outdone themselves with this amazing release of a movie in a highly preserved form, and something that is almost unheard of in the world of Shameless DVD's, a disc with special features.
Known in its native Italian tongue as La Designata Vittimia, The Designated Victim to use a modern term is "A Re-imagining" of Alfred Hitchcocks' Strangers On A Train. Stefano Argenti (Thomas Millian) is a businessman who is looking for an escape, far from owning a struggling business things are in fact booming, a buyer is offering substantially more than the business is worth, at least to Stefano. If he can sell the business he can escape Italy, most importantly with the one he loves Fabienne (Katia Christine); one little issue stands in his way, his wife Luisa (Marisa Bartoli), and she is in no mood to sell the business.
While on a romantic retreat with Fabienne, Stefano has a number of strange encounters with Count Matteo Tiepolo (Pierre Climenti). A strange friendship forms between the two men and after several encounters, Matteo makes Stefano a bizarre offer; if he kills Matteo's brother, then in return he will kill Luisa. While Stefano jokes the situation off, it seems Matteo has no such plans, and when he decides to execute them, Stefano is slowly cornered into fulfilling his end
of an un-agreed deal.
Like so many movies for reasons best known to the movies producers, it seems in the best interest of the audience to go at it with some scissors. This is exactly what happened with The Designated Victim, hacked up like one of Cropsy's (The Burning) victims, the movie then went into a sort of omission from the movie industry. The guys at Shameless with movie historian/author/preservationist/all round movie nut Marc Morris went to the painful detail of restoring this long lost 1971 movie. Sourcing all the missing bits from here there and everywhere, they have created the most preserved release the world has seen for some considerable time. While a sterling job has been done a few short scenes (totalling no more than a minute combined) are of far lesser quality than the rest of movies beautiful print. I'm a firm believer that people want, nay need to see the movie as its director intended you to see it, regardless of the overall cost, anyone who would not want this is not a movie lover, but someone simply passing the time, with this in mind I feel the weaker quality is a sacrifice worth making.
Onto the movie itself, and familiar Shameless viewers will perhaps be underwhelmed by the incredibly low body count of this movie, no abundance of deaths here, for the most part we are talking just one in fact. With The Designated Victim it's all about the story and what a great rollercoaster of a movie this is, although for me it was all about the highs. The movie rocks along really nicely, it's up and down for the duration, with a hell of a lot of character development along the way. A big asset for the movie is that unlike a lot of Italian thrillers, there is no real mystery here; you know who is what and what they do, yet it still manages to keep you glued to the screen.
Italian films get a lot of stick, among people with little vision, but only a fool would dispute that this movie has all the attributes of the big Hollywood offerings. So many movies go straight for the kill, quite literally in some cases, but director Maurizio Lucidi (with a variety of help including the legendary Aldo Lado) is in no hurry to kill his cast giving you the ultimate understanding of the relationships, and the temperament of the initial victim.
Matteo leers up like the most eloquent of predators, lots of smiles and friendly caresses for his new found friend Stefano. As the movie continued and I watched Pierre Clementi deliver this rather interesting role, a strange thought popped into my mind, "I have seen this character before!" but not in the body of Clementi. Matteo is flamboyant with almost an Edwardian gentleman style appearance, with a little punk rocker thrown in. There is this long curly hair, and an heir of femininity that makes you wonder what the true sexual orientation of this character is. Then there are these strange meditational style poses, particularly after in a little tiff where Stefano throws Matteo into a pool of water "I feel cold please take me in the house" before delivering a praying style familiar pose. And then there is this throwaway view of sexual relationships and women in general. I cannot help but wonder if modern day celebrity Russell Brand once stumbled upon this character when deciding on his public image.
Thomas Milian a pretty popular face in the world of Italian cinema does a great job of both endearing and alienating himself with the viewer, one minute you feel sorry for him, and the terrible situation he has got himself in the next you feel total annoyance towards both the actor and the character he plays. There are few Italian actors that can do this well, only Milian and his good friend Ray Lovelock spring to mind.
It's nice to view The Designated Victim alongside Aldo Lado's Who Saw Her Die?, both movies have input from Lado and both are for the most part filmed in Venice. The difference between the movies is that while Who Saw Her Die shows you the aspects of the City that most Italians would not want you to see, perhaps even the true side of Venice; The Designated Victim on the other hand shows you the side that the Italian tourist board would clearly like you to see. Here we see a misty city by early morning and night, while being clear and sunny during the day. In Who Saw Her Die? The city could have been built at any time; in The Designated Victim you get a feel for the history of this unique location.
The movie has a very unique soundtrack by Luis Enriquez Bacalov, it's a great combination of modern (well 70's) and the classical, the movies main theme sticks in your mind and lasts beyond the confounds of the movie, when you think about it how many films do this?
I really enjoyed The Designated Victim, it shoots to a high point in the reputation of Shameless, for these guys to put so much hard work into a movie few of heard of, and worse still if they had heard of it they would not have been able to have seen it (without great expense anyway); is something I think will never truly be appreciated, and this is really sad. The cast perform well in the movie; the director frames everything perfectly, while the story is simply... To die for!
Special Features:
Where to start.... Let's start with the all familiar Shameless trailers, included here are trailers for The Phantom Of Death, New York Ripper, Oasis Of Fear, Strip Nude For Your Killer, Who Saw Her Die, Night Train Murders and of course The Designated Victim.
There are 9 deleted scenes all taken from an Italian video tape, the source of much preservation for the movie.
A great addition is the fact track, put together by Stefan Novak this contains a series of usual facts that appear (rather like VH1's Pop Up Video) in text form throughout the movie. There is a wealth of information on the actors, director, and associated movies.
Baring in mind that this is an Italian movie, typically dubbed into English you can take the option of hearing the movie dubbed, or in its native Italian tongue. You can also choose to see subtitles in English if you're a purist and want to not only hear the Italian soundtrack, but understand it too.
Finally a photo gallery shows different covers and posters for the movie across the passage of time.
The DVD case has a reversible cover, both pretty stylish but I confess I prefer the reverse sleeve.
One thing confuses me about the movie, and that's the 18 certificate imposed by the BBFC, there is little here to warrant a 15 certificate let alone an 18.
The Designated Victim is available from November 3rd for just £12.99.
Spencer Hawken 10/08
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