Filmbar70's video: Filmbar70 presents Edwige Fenech - Giallo Queen

Following the first ever UK release on DVD of 'The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh', Filmbar70 is proud to celebrate the queen of giallo herself - Edwige Fenech - and the sextet of films released between 1970 and 1975 that brought her international acclaim. Her immaculate beauty, uninhibited approach to erotica and a willingness to plummet unrestrained into the abyss made her the natural choice for a sensual, beleaguered heroine, constantly pursued by many a maniac sporting the de rigour black leather gloves. And so her luminosity burned brightly in the tenebrous world of perverted desires and psychopathic misdeeds of many a giallo classic. She made her first foray into the genre under the guidance of the acknowledged maestro and giallo propagator Mario Bava in 1970, breathing life into the slight but stylish pop-art extravaganza '5 Dolls for an August Moon'. Playing a gyrating party girl with attitude, she was disappointingly dispatched far too early in the proceedings. Her next engagement elevated her to deserving star status, and Fenech seized the opportunity, immersing herself completely in the fraught, romantic and emotionally challenging 'The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh' ('71) to create one of her most iconic characters. It was here that she would form an alliance with the producer and director sibling team of Luciano and Sergio Martino -- an alliance that would guide her throughout the majority of her acting career. Returning to the screen soon after the birth of her son, Fenech resumed her association with the Martinos in 1972 to give her most shattered and paranoid performance in the occult laced, London bound 'All the Colors of the Dark', a gothic giallo that pushed the level of psychotic delirium to breaking point, fracturing the narrative and thrusting the neurotic heroine into a schizodelic nightmare. The same year saw Fenech play another English woman with a bout of urban paranoia in the Carmino Giuilano helmed 'The Case of the Bloody Iris' ('72). Recycling the motifs of the earlier Sergio offerings with a somewhat lighter touch, 'Iris' is the shallowest and breeziest of Fenech's thrillers, who nevertheless looked utterly resplendent in the most stylish attire of her career. Reuniting with Sergio later in the year, she was offered more to engage with in 'Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key' ('72), transforming her deep, empathic gaze into the cold, steely stare of a predator. This fetid and claustrophobic uber-chamber giallo could adequately be described as 'Sartre through a sexploitation lense', and Fenech's superb turn as a manipulative and super sexy femme fatale makes one wish that she had been cast as the bad girl more often. After the enormous financial success of 1972s decamerotic 'Ubalda, All Naked and Warm' (no prizes for guessing the reason for the films success), Fenech and the Martinos would concentrate on the lucrative mine of the sex-comedy. It was here that Fenech really hit her stride -- her combination of unfettered sexuality and a mercurial gift for comedy gave rise to some of her greatest and memorable performances. She would return for an unabashed wallow in the giallo's salacious extremes in 1975 with Andrea Bianchi's notoriously entitled 'Strip Nude For Your Killer'. Bianchi's blood 'n' boobs bonanza is not quite as irresponsible as the name would suggest, and, with excessive intentions tempered by knowing humour, the film sky-rockets into a deliciously camp orbit. After her retirement from acting in 1984, Fenech returned briefly for Deodato's 'Phantom of Death' ('88) and in 1994 produced and starred in a TV Mini Series with giallo overtones - 'Private Crimes', where she got to hire Sergio Martino. But it is her appearances in the 6 features presented here that Fenechphiles truly cherish. Sexy, stylish and suspenseful, they prove that there is only one ennobled enough to bear the crown -- the elegant, incredible Edwige Fenech.