Deep Red (Director's Cut) (aka Profondo rosso) (1975)

7/10

An excellent giallo by Dario Argento. This version is a restored director's cut (2:06) with additional/extended scenes, some of which were never recorded in English, so there are some forced subtitles. (I bet you didn't know that "bla bla" in Italian is "bla bla". Thus concludes today's language lesson.)

The reporter Gianna is played by Daria Nicolodi ("Phenomena", "Tenebre"). The pianist Marcus is played by David Hemmings.

An English pianist in Rome finishes practice and runs into his drunk friend Carlos in front of his apartment building. After that vibrant exchange, Marcus witnesses the murder of a psychic from the street, runs to the lady's apartment just in time to see that she is in fact dead, and catches a glimpse of the possible murderer out of her window, walking right past his drunk friend . He is drawn into the investigation with a female reporter (what is it with English people in Italy, do they just attract murderous psychopaths?).

The cops are nicely inept right from the start, totally ignoring Marcus's thoughts that something may have been removed from the crime scene. They then disappear until the end of the movie. Gianna latches onto him quickly, even putting his picture on the front page of the paper with the headline "The Witness Declares: 'I've seen the murderer'." Now that is some nice reporting. Ugh, they're acting like a couple after knowing each other for about three minutes. Again with trying to figure out what he is forgetting from the crime scene.

We witness the most awesomely bad car ever appearing in a movie. So Marcus and Gianna start investigating and continue flirting. A good bit of misogyny in this film ("it's a known fact that women are, weaker, and, gentler." Then she beats him in arm wrestling, and he whines. Jackass). Wow, she has some quick fingers with a cigarette!

Marcus visits Carlos to see if he remembers anything from the night of the murder. More of the whole memory bit. Now the TV is reporting that the pianist can identify the murderer, so guess who the murderer goes after? Oh well, he lives for now. More slapdash investigating by the pianist. More stalking of Marcus by the murderer. Other people start getting killed and clues are found, including a nifty and clever one. We meet up with one freaky little girl, who apparently likes getting slapped around by her dad. Whoa, crazy midget robots! Falling glass onto heads! Lost teeth!

The mystery is eventually solved with determination and, wait for it, memory power!

A finely remastered print, it does justice to Argento's accustomed great visuals. The audio is clear and balanced. The music is great, giving a nice freaky ambience. The additional time was not really necessary to enhance the film. It's nice to see the director's vision, but it adds some lag time to the film, which is a bit slow to begin with. The acting was average. A good amount of serious violence, not much outright gore. Lost points for being too long with several dull spells.

Once again, Argento delivers a great film. Recommended.