The giallo is a cinema of leather gloves and razors, of inappropriate pathos, which dignifies murder as an artistic act. It is a guilty pleasure whose concise mannerism represents a unique phenomenon within the history of European film. Mario Bava who conceived the formula with The Evil Eye (1963) provided its first masterpiece with Blood and Black Lace (1964) to inspire very heterogeneous successors. Dario Argento, Massimo Dallamano, Luciano Ercoli, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi and, especially, Sergio Martino are the most influential but only a few of all the directors producing perhaps more than 200 gialli in the 1970s. Through the DVD boom, a new generation of cinephiles has gained access to the popular film cycle, which has been enthusiastically embraced. The conference’s aim is to explore the genre beyond Bava’s and Argento’s well-studied contributions in order to gain more profound insight into the various manifestations of this particular film cycle.

Professor Richard Dyer (King’s College London) is our distinguished keynote speaker. On June 7, the Cinema Trevi will show three films by Sergio Martino. Before the screening of The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, the film’s cast and crew, comprising screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, leading actor George Hilton and director Sergio Martino, will discuss their work. On June 8, director Federica Martino will talk about her new feature film project Girl Hunt. On June 9, Graziano Riccio and Rosario Romeo will present their giallo-inspired web series Granfaro. Subsequently, a second panel discussion with directors Antonio Bido, Ruggero Deodato and Sergio Martino, composer Nora Orlandi and actor George Hilton will take place at the Austrian Historical Institute.

All are welcome. Attendance is free.