Jan 31, 2023
Diamanti sporchi di sangue (Blood and Diamonds, 1978)
"That guy had plenty of guts. I felt bad killing him, because I realised what it feels like killing a man worth his salt. It makes your heart ache."
#diamanti sporchi di sangue#blood and diamonds#italian cinema#fernando di leo#claudio cassinelli#martin balsam#barbara bouchet#pier paolo capponi#olga karlatos#carmelo reale#vittorio caprioli#alberto squillante#fernando cerulli#raul lovecchio#sandro la barbera#fulvio mingozzi#camillo chiara#luis bacalov#crime film#1978#glum and moody kind of spiritual successor to di leo's earlier masterpiece Milano calibro 9 (thematically similar but with the morality#inverted). this hasn't quite as much style‚ punch or wit as that earlier film‚ but it's still a solid spaghetti crime thriller in the#fatalistic mode. starts slow and steady‚ and fits a familiar mode for most of its run‚ but in the final 30 minutes this gears up and gets#closer to being something really special; finally di leo is taking chances‚ finally the plot is moving in surprising and unexpected ways#even pier paolo capponi's hotheaded henchman (a performance I'll admit grated on me a little at first: he goes so loud and so obnoxious#with) even he finally starts to seem real and complicated and heartfelt as the film wraps up. and then it ends‚ kind of perfectly. very#very good in its later stages but a little formulaic in the journey getting there. Bacalov's minimalist discordant score is also#noteworthy; it blends into the background a lot but then suddenly a jangling chord will strike at just the right moment to snap you alert#this was near the beginning of Cassinelli's most productive era as a genre star and leading man (cut short by his tragic death in 85)#and he's as moody and magnificent as he always was; Bouchet holds her own against him in an intriguing and mercurial role
