Footprints on the Moon, 1975.
Directed by Luigi Bazzoni.
Starring Florinda Bolkan, Peter McEnery, Nicoletta Elmi, Caterina Boratto, Klaus Kinski, and Ida Galli.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman visits a secluded seaside town after being haunted by dreams about astronauts, and the people there already seem to know her.
The yellow perils at Shameless Screen Entertainment are having something of a decent run with their Blu-ray releases this year, what with saucy comedy The Nurse and nunsploitation notable Killer Nun both getting an HD upgrade from their back-catalogue, but it is the giallo that they turn to with their latest release, that being Luigi Bazzoni’s 1975 movie Footprints on the Moon, a.k.a. Footprints.
Well, giallo is a bit of a broad term for this movie because, whilst it does certainly share some DNA with other gialli – and the template of the movie is definitely from the book of Bava and Argento – Footprints on the Moon is a bit of a departure from the standard black-gloved-killer-murder-mystery we normally get. Instead, this one is a little more trippy, more dreamlike and very restrained when it comes to sex and violence, which might be a bit of a red flag for the hardcore, but the movie does have some other outstanding qualities.
Florinda Bolkan plays Alice, a translator whose timekeeping is a little out of whack as she can’t seem to remember the last few days, something that comes to light when she goes into work a few days late and is fired because she cannot explain where she has been. Alice has been plagued by dreams of astronauts being abandoned on the moon by a mission controller named Professor Blackmann (Klaus Kinski), although she claims this is a memory of a movie she saw when she was a child, and she also finds a bloodstained dress in her apartment that she cannot explain, although a clue does lead her to the Turkish island town of Garma.
Once there, Alice bumps into several people who seem to recognise her, saying she was there the previous week, but she insists that she has never been to Garma before, so what on earth is going on, and what does the creepy black-and-white movie about astronauts have to do with it?
All does get revealed, but it does take a while to get there, as Footprints on the Moon plays up the psychological aspect of the plot, featuring Florinda Bolkan in near enough every scene that doesn’t involve a flashback to Klaus Kinski yelling at a 1970s sci-fi computer monitor, and she plays it like she in a daze the whole time, which she probably is because Alice is dependant on sleeping pills and could be in the middle of a bizarre dream.
Or it could be real, and she really has been to Garma before, which prompts more questions about what she was doing there. It is all very strange and surreal, but you cannot help but be drawn into the mystery. However, the long, drawn-out scenes of Alice discovering her past – which are beautifully shot and scored appropriately, all helping to create an effective otherworldly atmosphere – do mask the fact that there isn’t very much substance behind what is actually going on; don’t worry, there is a reason why things have been happening, but in true Italian genre cinema style, the story comes second to the gorgeous scenery and the whole vibe in general, resulting in an underwhelming reveal.
This sense of anti-climax is probably not helped by the manic performance of Klaus Kinski, who is doing his usual crazy shouting and looking evil – which he is/was extremely good at – but the intensity he is giving clashes with the more laid-back pacing and overall sense of creeping fear that the movie as a whole gives off. Maybe if the filmmakers had gone a more visceral or violent route then his ranting and raving might have set up something more rewarding, but as it is Footprints on the Moon feels a bit too confusing and disjointed.
But regardless of the movie’s shortcomings, the presentation by Shameless is as impeccable as always. There are three versions of the movie on the disc – the Director’s Integral Cut, the same cut with Italian credits and the slightly shorter US version – so if you are a completist it is all here for you. There are also interviews with actress Ida Galli and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, an introduction by star Florinda Bolkan and an audio commentary by film critic Rachael Nisbet, as well as a fetching slip-case and reversible sleeve with new artwork.
If you watch the integral cut, the quality does dip a little here and there, along with an audio track that switches from English to Italian during the restored inserts, but overall, Footprints on the Moon is a great looking movie that certainly plays to a giallo audience. However, do prepare to lower your expectations accordingly as this is a giallo with a different approach to the traditional murder mystery, and is ultimately not as satisfying.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
