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Casa dalle finestre che ridono, La (1976)
10 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Very Good Italian Rarity, 24 November 2003
Author: Oslo Jargo (osloj@yahoo.com) from FINLAND
*Plot/ending analyzed*
This is a very good film directed by the man who also did "Zeder: Voices of the Dead". Although similar in tone, this film explores a man's quest to solve an illogical mystery and it is more provincial thus regulating us to the ominous and desolate village landscape, such as the canal, the empty houses and the isolated stretches of land. The man in question is an art restorer who is called to the small village of Palerma Southern Italy to restore a fresco painted by a degenerate artist. As he is led by the hunchback dwarf mayor, the man begins to assume a mysterious air about him, namely that people are hiding something in the village. His suspicion is further activated when he finds that the artist who painted the scene in the old church, was a maniac and pervert. More and more he uncovers strange rumors and ghastly pieces of evidence, including a dicto-graph voice tape and a journal from the 1930's. His visit to the old house where the artist lived uncovers peculiar mouths painted on the windows. There are also two eerie sisters who contributed to the artist's suicide and they were followers of a reclusive cult that was situated in South America. Most of the film has a sense of unnerving atmosphere and it is very unusual and pleasant to learn that one does not know what premise will be laid out next. The ending was a surprise because one can only assume what occurred
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Very trite and not worthy of its "critical acclaim.", 6 April 2008
Author: boppy1999 from Toronto
Saw this recently, and I was rather looking forward to doing so--considering all of the positive feedback it has received. Well, v-e-r-y slow giallo which had me rolling my eyes at the tedium several times. The protagonist's maniacal obsession with discovering the "secret" behind the gruesome church frescoe just seemed to come out of nowhere, leaving myself the viewer rather uninvolved. The ending was absurd and there was no "A-ha!" payoff that you usually get when a giallo mystery unravels itself. Fans of this genre should steer clear if they're expecting to see the usual degree of violence or booby-exposure--as you'll be sorely disappointed in that respect with this one...
11 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Are you all on Crack?!!, 26 October 2006
Author: grendel-37
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
"Masterpiece" "Brilliant" "Greatest"?!? IMDb exaggerators do it again. So I had to post my review to hopefully save others from being led astray.
Drumroll please....
THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS- After much hype I got the chance to see Pupi Avati's THE HOUSE WITH WINDOWS THAT LAUGH, the new Euroshock uncut DVD, and put simply the film doesn't live up to the hype.
The movie isn't bad, just rather overlong, and not very engaging. Or more precisely it does engage, it builds some moments of real atmosphere, and tension, but seemingly fails to follow through on the atmosphere.
The ending is equal parts interesting and ridiculous. And I found the protagonist more infuriating and stupid than anything else.
(possible spoiler)
Yes leave your girlfriend alone in a house of killers after she begs you to take her away. He's a scumbag.
(end of spoiler alert. see that wasn't that bad)
A movie almost immediately dismissible. Worth a look if its on, but not worth making any effort to find. save your money. C-.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Oh Sisters, Where Art Thou?, 17 March 2008
Author: goldfishnation from United Kingdom
*Minor plot details, no actual spoilers*
Antonio, recently reacquainted with his friend Stefano who has come to renovate a fresco in the local church depicting the Martyrdom of St Sebastian, has discovered something he shouldn't. Something is rotten in the Italian backwater, but before he can divulge his suspicions he finds himself on the wrong side of a top floor window and plummets to his death while a shadow lurks behind the curtains. So far, so giallo. The gruesome work of art is apparently key to uncovering some secret harboured by the town's residents, so the bulk of the film is then devoted to delving into the bloody back-story of the deceased Artist and his two insane sisters. The main problem here is that the film finds the central mystery much more mysterious than it actually is, and doesn't seem to realise it's given most of the details away. As the Painter's story unfolds - murky as it is - the important stuff (that the gruesome acts depicted in the artist's work might be real) is either implied by the promotional blurb, the opening credits sequence or already anticipated by our over-active imaginations.
What the film sorely needs in the absence of any real action is some clarification as to what it is we're actually supposed to be intrigued by while we wait for the body count to rise. There is a throwaway line later in the film which goes a long way to informing the story as a whole, and cements in our minds the very real danger at hand, but it comes a bit late in the day. Used earlier it would have given Stefano's amateur sleuthing some much needed impetus (Antonio's is too mundane and isolated a death and seems forgotten almost immediately). What lies at the heart of the film then, once the back-story has been told (and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing) is Stefano's failure to deduce the identity of the sisters and the consequences therein. So everything depends on the final reveal. These are obviously characters we've already met - that's how these things work - but a real rapport needed to be established between Stefano and the peripheral players to give the nature of the revelation (which has been sketchily sign-posted) a much greater emotional punch when it comes. As a result the effect is diluted. Ultimately the biggest mystery is why the town is keeping its secrets in the first place.
On the plus side, coupled with the brooding atmospherics, it is lovely to look at. The camera work isn't overly elaborate but understated works in the film's favour. There are some nice shots - one in particular where Stefano walks round the side of a house with his back to it, so we discover, a moment before he does, that the title isn't simply a metaphor. A palette of greys and smoky blues blends with the thin winter light, with sparing splashes of crimson and orange ochre (emulating the look of Hitchcock's Frenzy). The artist's monologue which accompanies a retrospective sepia-tinged slaughter during the opening credits and used again later on is effectively lurid (you'll need a shower afterwards, followed by dinner and flowers) and the full extent of one haunted local's involvement with the murderous trio some thirty-odd years earlier lends the film some much needed emotional resonance. Most of all Avati deserves credit for the St Sebastian reference. It seems a pretty innocuous stylistic choice, but there is a significance here which, though not essential, provides one of the true, subtle revelations of the entire film. Provided you put two and two together and know your saints.
The House with Laughing Windows was for so long the 'lost giallo' and consequently it seems a bit of giallo envy has bolstered its reputation as a forgotten masterpiece. In terms of pure film-making that's short of the mark. There are too many uneven moments. Characters disappear ominously, then reappear without acknowledgement. Things go bump in the night which we discover second hand rather than getting to witness, and there's a curious did they/didn't they? (have it off) tryst between Stefano and the town's departing school teacher (if they did he apparently likes to keep not only his socks on but his entire dapper three-piece). That isn't to say it's a total bomb by any means either. It depends how invested you find yourself in the Painter's story, and to some extent how prepared you are to suspend disbelief. If you approach with expectations suitably tempered it'll probably do the business. Just sit back and soak up the quietly unsettling atmosphere without thinking too much, but be warned, a great time is not assured.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Stick with it until the end., 1 January 2008
Author: Leonard Smalls: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse from Arizona
"The House With Laughing Windows" is a very European film. Unlike the gialli of, say, Argento, this film is not 'Americanized' at all. It reminds me more of films like "Don't Torture a Duckling" in that it takes place out in a small town in the Italian countryside. It adds to the ambiance and I really like that.
The plot is very slow-moving. I'm not even sure if I'd call this film a giallo, but reading other reviews on here, it seems that it is in fact classified as such. It was hard for me to watch this for the first hour or so. I was wondering when it was going to pick up. Not many people get killed. But, I stuck with it and I recommend doing so. If you can stick with it, the ending is freakin' awesome. I was shocked by it; it really delivers. And it gets nice and bloody too. I had no idea who the killer was, and by the time I found out, my head was spinning from the progression of the final few scenes. It ends abruptly and it feels great. It more than made up for the sluggishness of the first 2/3 of the film. It's not unlike many of the newer Asian films in that regard: it moves very slow but the last few minutes are like a twisting train wreck.
In short, I recommend this film to those of you who have patience and enjoy Italian horror.
8 out of 10, kids.
9 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Not your typical Giallo film, 19 September 2006
Author: drdebacle from United States
Pupi Avati's 'The House With Laughing Windows' follows the character of Stefano, a painter who travels to a remote Italian village on a job to restore an unfinished painting depicting the persecution of St. Sebastian (who was a real Saint, by the way, only he was actually killed by arrows being shot into him, not by being stabbed with knives like the painting in the movie portrays). Upon arriving in the village, Stefano discovers that there is a lot more behind the mystery of the painting than he originally thought, and that someone will stop at nothing to make sure that Stefano does not complete the painting, further revealing the true mystery behind the town's bizarre secrets.
The movie opens with graphic, sepia toned imagery of a man being tortured in the exact same way as St. Sebastian is depicted in the painting. The genuinely creepy piano music that plays during the opening just further sets the unsettling mood for the mystery that lies ahead. The opening credits lead one to believe that the film is an all out blood bath, however, this is not the case. In fact, the most violently unsettling part of the film is the opening, that's not to say that the rest of the film doesn't contain violence, it just doesn't exist on the same level or extreme as the opening.
The rest of the film is a rather competent mystery done in true giallo fashion, and will keep you wondering what's going to happen next until the climactic finale. There are a few story elements in this movie that were either unexplained or not elaborated on, but I don't know if going as far as to call these incidents 'plot holes' would be completely correct. For instance, there is a girl Stefano is seeing at the beginning who just leaves town (disappears?) without a word. This had me thinking the whole movie that she was murdered and that her body would turn up at some point, when in fact you find out later in the film that she just simply left town, and was replaced by Stefano's next love interest, Francesca.
The movie is pretty tame in comparison to many giallo flicks like 'Tenebrae' or 'The New York Ripper', but the twists and turns should interest most fans of this sub-genre. Also, unlike most giallos, the film contains only a brief bit of nudity, but there is a scene where a woman is being forcefully molested that seems more exploitative than most scenes depicting nudity.
All in all I must say I was surprised at the quality of movie I saw. Not only was it a surprise that I haven't heard of this movie sooner, but it was also amongst some of the better plot driven giallo films I have personally seen. This movie was well paced, consisted of great camera-work and scenery, had great acting (to a non-speaker of Italian, anyway), and had a truly creepy and original plot. I recommend this film to anyone that is really into the Italian giallo sub-genre, as it may not hold the interest of the casual horror movie fan.
Obscure Masterpiece, 24 July 2008
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria
Pupi Avati's "La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono" aka "The House With The Laughing Windows" of 1976 is a unique and highly obscure masterpiece that no lover of Horror could possibly consider missing. While this is a quite atypical example for Giallo, it is doubtlessly one of the most original films this great sub-genre has ever brought forth. There is no black-gloved killer butchering dozens of beauty-queens in this film, and, compared to other Gialli, the story is very slow-paced. The complex storyline and incredibly obscure atmosphere of this film, however, are simply incomparable. This film is an absolutely brilliant rarity. It is not very easy to find, but looking for this unique and immensely creepy gem of Italian Horror cinema is more than rewarding.
Terriffically set in a rural small-town in northern Italy, "The House With The Laughing Windows", holds a uniquely surreal eeriness from the first minute, and even though the story develops quite slowly, the tension develops constantly, and the immense creepiness is slowly increased to an overwhelming level. Restorer Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) comes to the rural Italian village to work on a fresco of the execution of Saint Sebastiano in an old, ill-conditioned church (This fresco alone is capable of giving you the creeps). The fresco was painted by a local artist, who was known for only painting people dying or in agony... The film's obscure, insane and incredibly convoluted storyline alone makes this one of the most compelling films of the Giallo-genre, and the film has lots of other ingenious elements. The atmosphere is unique and unspeakably creepy, the characters are very complex and their development is just ingenious. The performances are entirely great. Lino Capolicchio is superb in the lead. Francesca Marciano is a stunning beauty and she is great in her role here, I wonder why she only starred in so few movies. All of the performances are great, those of Eugene Walter and Gianni Cavina, who plays the town drunk, are especially praiseworthy. The rural setting is perfect. While the the genre is generally very urban, some of the greatest Giallo-masterpieces are set in rural areas. Particularly brilliant examples for this are Sergio Martino's "Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have A Key", Lucio Fulco's "Don't Torture A Duckling", and this wonderful film. "The House With The Laughing Windows" is a hypnotic film, both mesmerizing and horrifying. As far as I am considered, this film alone makes Pupi Avati a genius. Anybody even remotely interested in Italian Horror cinema has to see this masterpiece! The morbid and extremely unsettling opening sequence alone is creepier than most films get at their climax, and there is much more to come!
Masterpiece, 18 June 2008
Author: danny-418 from Iceland
A remote Italian village harbors unspeakable secrets, as young Stefano ("The Garden of the Finzi-Continis'" Lino Capolicchio) discovers when he arrives to restore a local church's decaying, painted fresco depicting the slaughter of St. Sebastian. Townspeople whisper that the original artist painted directly from real life, with models tortured and murdered all in the name of art. Suddenly a new, terrifying chain of murders begins, and Stefano finds himself caught in a chilling web of madness and unspeakable horror from which he may never escape! This exquisite masterpiece of Italian horror seethes with menacing atmosphere and diabolical plot twists guaranteed to haunt your dreams. Never before released in America, "The House with Laughing Windows" (La Cass Dale finest re Che riding) is the crowning achievement of internationally hailed director Pupi Avati (The Story of Boys and Girls, Zeder) and has been restored to its full Gothic glory from the original camera negative.
1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Creepy, classy slow burn mystery horror, 24 December 2007
Author: t-birkhead from United Kingdom
This one seems to really divide the reviewers here. The pace is undoubtedly slow and there is a relative absence of gore and nudity. Still, contrary to what some people have said, there is definitely some effective gore and a little nudity, so on that front the movie is not entirely lacking. I found this on the whole to be an excellent departure from the usual Italian fare. I had no problems with the slow pace because I found the story very intriguing, the cinematography beautiful to behold and the direction frequently creepy and surreal. This all served to keep me hooked throughout and I found the final twenty minutes or so all the more shocking for the fact that the movie is mostly very restrained. I didn't find this quite perfect, for there are a few plot points that could have been explained better and a few more scares would not have gone amiss, but for the most part I found this to be an impressive outing that gave me a satisfactory case of the creeps. Recommended to the patient and serious minded horror lover.
1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A Gothic horror film made terrifying by a foreboding atmosphere and genuinely surprising revelations in the plot., 20 November 2007
Author: Schwenkstar from United States
The film is not a categorical giallo as it is often suggested as being, but rather it's more of a entry into the Gothic horror canon, with a incredibly strong sense of mystery that keeps the viewer intrigued even when the pacing becomes sluggish. The film is not exploitative (as most giallo films are) but mature, intelligent, and effective. Indeed, there is no nudity and little violence is present as the picture's primary focus is its complex, labyrinthine mystery that truly surprises the viewer with its unexpected turns of the plot. The film is also heavy on atmosphere, artfully directed by the award-winning Pupi Avati (of "The Story of Boys and Girls" and "Incantato" fame), which really intensifies the mystery, making it not only it spellbinding by also horrific and terrifying at times(especially near the end). The debits I perceive is that the narrative is a tad drawn out and some of the characters aren't as developed as one would hope, but the mystery is so good that it's easily to look past all these minor quibbles. Highly recommended to those who liked slow-burning Gothic mysteries such as "Don't look Now".
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