The Howl AKA L’urlo (1970)
Berto (Nino Segurini) shows up to a shabby-looking prison to spring his fiancé Anita (Tina Aumont). She was arrested during a student protest and has been tortured mercilessly at the hands of her keepers. At their wedding, Anita runs off with Coso (Gigi Proietti) to escape the tedious existence that marriage to Berto will bring about. Her choice is not an easy one and the road that lies ahead of the two rebellious souls is fraught with everything from warring armies to a cannibal shaman. And naked hippies! Don’t forget them dang naked hippies!
Wait a second, let me check and see if I still can’t stand artsy movies. Yep, I still can’t stand them but there is hope for me yet. My first encounter with one of Tinto Brass’s art assaults did not go so well. Nerosubianco really put me out so I wasn’t exactly psyched about checking out The Howl. What I liked about his other effort, the insane editing and the wild imagery, didn’t make up for what I hated about it, the gibberish dialogue and the sluggish pace. Thankfully, The Howl has a wild energy to it and a sense of purpose that Nerosubianco does not.
This flick is one anarchic, comedic and dirty art movie. War, sex, government, police, marriage, and organized religion are sneered at, skewered, and then gleefully kicked in their collective nuts. There are a couple of dips in the energy here and there but overall this is a fantastic experience for the adventurous viewer. This film is violently absurd and gruesomely grim in its mad take on the world.
Composer Fiorenzo Carpi gives The Howl an unpredictable feel with some circus-like and outlandish pieces of music. The editing (by the director himself) is fast and furious with a mix of color and black and white footage flying by with some stock footage bits thrown in sporadically for good measure. There is even a clip from Deadly Sweet, Tinto Brass’s pop giallo, mixed in and sped up for some reason.
Tina Aumont (of Sergio Martino’s classic giallo Torso) rocks my pants off with her performance. She is utterly fearless and wildly sexy in every way. When Anita approaches the podium in one scene and gives a powerful vehement anti-war protest speech, Aumont’s face twists into mad expressions of rage that are just captivating to behold. Gigi Proietti is also excellent as her goofy companion through all kinds of insane adventures. Nino Segurini (of Amuck! and Nerosubianco) is stupendously bland (not a flaw) as the man Anita left at the altar but who is quite persistent in his attempts to get her back and/or destroy her.
The Howl is about as punk rock as a film can be. It’s very, very angry and chock full of ghastly surrealism, bizarre sexual imagery and ironic moments that are sometimes funny but usually just sad. If art flicks aren’t your thing then you may want to pass on this one but I found more than enough beauty (some accidental, some intentional) to get me through this relentlessly weird film. And just so you know I am NOT a PATIENT and OPEN-MINDED person who can appreciate CHALLENGING films that make me THINK. Okay?
“Why should I give a damn about the war if I continue to have difficulty reaching the climax?”