Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
Perversion Story
February 18th 2010 07:36
by Matt Shea
How to provide a definitive review of a film for which there is no definitive cut? Parsing the Internet, there seem to be at least three different versions of Perversion Story (Una Sull’altra, or One on Top of the Other, as it is often translated to).
The cut reviewed here is the shortest on offer, and to the best of our knowledge is the French version, featuring extra nudity and sex but a bunch of awkwardly chopped scenes that can make the plot very hard to follow. Still, there’s enough going on in this engagingly odd film that it’s worthy of discussion, if not necessarily a viewing.
In many ways, Perversion Story almost plays like writer-director Lucio Fulci’s homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Set in San Francisco and revolving around a story of obsession and the possible return of a dead woman, the Hitchcockian feel continues through the film’s liberal use of tracking shots and an almost cruel sense of sexuality.
This isn’t quite Vertigo, however, as you sense Fulci might have hoped it to be. Perversion Story – whatever version you might stumble upon – is like a leaky boat when it comes to plot development and features an unsympathetic central character as well a set of frustratingly flat performances.
At the centre of the film is Dr George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel), the owner of a controversial private clinic in San Francisco. Dumurrier runs his clinic with an off-handed confidence that doesn’t extend to his personal life: he’s caught between a sick, unhappy and estranged wife, Susan (Marisa Mell), and his exotic mistress, Jane (the terribly dull Elsa Martinelli), with whom he’s deeply in love.
On an adulterous trip to Reno, Dumurrier and Jane are interrupted by the startling news of Susan’s death. Returning home, Dumurrier discovers that his wife bought a life insurance policy before her demise, bizarrely leaving him a large sum of money. Things get even more confusing for the doctor when an anonymous note to visit a strip club reveals the main act for that evening to be Monica Weston (Mell again), a salacious blonde who bears a striking resemblance to the late Susan.
It’s an intriguing idea delivered to the audience in a strangely botched fashion.
The first mistake made by Fulci and his cowriters, Roberto Gianviti and Jose Luis Martinez Molla, is to not imbue Dumurrier with enough sympathy. It’s hard to get onboard with a man who’s planning on leaving his sick wife for greener pastures, particularly when those pastures involve a relationship with Jane that is totally bereft of chemistry. Thankfully, Sorel is a likeable if rather flat performer, and his apparently terminal look of confusion means you can’t help but eventually feel sorry for the initially smarmy Dumurrier.
Unfortunately, the editing in the initial scenes makes things very hard to follow, and it’s here that you suspect the shorter cut of the film is standing in the way of a coherent story. Conversations seem lopped off, there are some hilarious continuity errors and one short conversation is actually missing audio. The audience is thus left one step behind the action, desperately trying to play catch-up with the major characters’ motivations.
And by the time you have caught up you’ll no doubt be mired in the very slow moving middle section of Perversion Story. Fulci’s films have often suffered from pacing problems and this is no different, the director’s insistence on an extended scene of seduction and sex between Monica and Dumurrier not helping matters.
Thankfully, for all its weaknesses, Perversion Story is still in possession of a clutch of engaging virtues that might make it worthy of a dedicated Fulchi fan.
The photography in the film is frequently spectacular, courtesy of renowned Spanish DOP Alejandro Ulloa, and its 97 minutes go down much easier in the accompaniment of Riz Ortolani’s pulsating jazz score. Dominating everything, however, is the setting, the filmmakers having the good fortune of capturing one of the world’s most beautiful cities during one of its most beautiful periods – you could very well find yourself buying a ticket to San Francisco before you know it.
Still, this particular version of Perversion Story suffers when it comes effectively delivering its story: There are a bunch of problems inherent in the way the film was originally written, but one can’t help but feel the liberal cutting of about seven minutes of action hasn’t helped things either. It makes it a hard one to recommend to anyone beyond Lucio Fulci fans or Marisa Mell raincoaters, even if we should just be thankful that such a curio is now available on DVD.
I say: An interesting film, but one that suffers from an unsympathetic central character, disengaged acting and strange leaps in logic.
See it for: Forget the largely damp sex scenes – the very classy visual credits are what make this film tick.
For a close comparison of the different versions of 'Perversion Story', take a look at this very thorough DVD Times article.
*This image is from Quixotando
How to provide a definitive review of a film for which there is no definitive cut? Parsing the Internet, there seem to be at least three different versions of Perversion Story (Una Sull’altra, or One on Top of the Other, as it is often translated to).
The cut reviewed here is the shortest on offer, and to the best of our knowledge is the French version, featuring extra nudity and sex but a bunch of awkwardly chopped scenes that can make the plot very hard to follow. Still, there’s enough going on in this engagingly odd film that it’s worthy of discussion, if not necessarily a viewing.
In many ways, Perversion Story almost plays like writer-director Lucio Fulci’s homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Set in San Francisco and revolving around a story of obsession and the possible return of a dead woman, the Hitchcockian feel continues through the film’s liberal use of tracking shots and an almost cruel sense of sexuality.
This isn’t quite Vertigo, however, as you sense Fulci might have hoped it to be. Perversion Story – whatever version you might stumble upon – is like a leaky boat when it comes to plot development and features an unsympathetic central character as well a set of frustratingly flat performances.
At the centre of the film is Dr George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel), the owner of a controversial private clinic in San Francisco. Dumurrier runs his clinic with an off-handed confidence that doesn’t extend to his personal life: he’s caught between a sick, unhappy and estranged wife, Susan (Marisa Mell), and his exotic mistress, Jane (the terribly dull Elsa Martinelli), with whom he’s deeply in love.
On an adulterous trip to Reno, Dumurrier and Jane are interrupted by the startling news of Susan’s death. Returning home, Dumurrier discovers that his wife bought a life insurance policy before her demise, bizarrely leaving him a large sum of money. Things get even more confusing for the doctor when an anonymous note to visit a strip club reveals the main act for that evening to be Monica Weston (Mell again), a salacious blonde who bears a striking resemblance to the late Susan.
It’s an intriguing idea delivered to the audience in a strangely botched fashion.
The first mistake made by Fulci and his cowriters, Roberto Gianviti and Jose Luis Martinez Molla, is to not imbue Dumurrier with enough sympathy. It’s hard to get onboard with a man who’s planning on leaving his sick wife for greener pastures, particularly when those pastures involve a relationship with Jane that is totally bereft of chemistry. Thankfully, Sorel is a likeable if rather flat performer, and his apparently terminal look of confusion means you can’t help but eventually feel sorry for the initially smarmy Dumurrier.
Unfortunately, the editing in the initial scenes makes things very hard to follow, and it’s here that you suspect the shorter cut of the film is standing in the way of a coherent story. Conversations seem lopped off, there are some hilarious continuity errors and one short conversation is actually missing audio. The audience is thus left one step behind the action, desperately trying to play catch-up with the major characters’ motivations.
And by the time you have caught up you’ll no doubt be mired in the very slow moving middle section of Perversion Story. Fulci’s films have often suffered from pacing problems and this is no different, the director’s insistence on an extended scene of seduction and sex between Monica and Dumurrier not helping matters.
Thankfully, for all its weaknesses, Perversion Story is still in possession of a clutch of engaging virtues that might make it worthy of a dedicated Fulchi fan.
The photography in the film is frequently spectacular, courtesy of renowned Spanish DOP Alejandro Ulloa, and its 97 minutes go down much easier in the accompaniment of Riz Ortolani’s pulsating jazz score. Dominating everything, however, is the setting, the filmmakers having the good fortune of capturing one of the world’s most beautiful cities during one of its most beautiful periods – you could very well find yourself buying a ticket to San Francisco before you know it.
Still, this particular version of Perversion Story suffers when it comes effectively delivering its story: There are a bunch of problems inherent in the way the film was originally written, but one can’t help but feel the liberal cutting of about seven minutes of action hasn’t helped things either. It makes it a hard one to recommend to anyone beyond Lucio Fulci fans or Marisa Mell raincoaters, even if we should just be thankful that such a curio is now available on DVD.
I say: An interesting film, but one that suffers from an unsympathetic central character, disengaged acting and strange leaps in logic.
See it for: Forget the largely damp sex scenes – the very classy visual credits are what make this film tick.
For a close comparison of the different versions of 'Perversion Story', take a look at this very thorough DVD Times article.
*This image is from Quixotando
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Ortolani has written quite a few good-bad scores! Wouldn't mind hearing this one.
Comment by Mountain Fog
In case you did not know, adult theatrettes really did exist, Sydney, Melbourne not sure about anywhere else. The State Theatre's own theatrette, in Sydney CBD, used to show provocative films; as a teenaged school boy in the 70's, I was dragged along by fellow mates to see The Age of Consent, at the State.
After it ended, WE RAN!! We were surrounded by dirty old men, who were actually wearing overcoats!
I digress, I don't think I would go out of my way to see this flick, but, an interesting review anyway.
cheers
fog
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Dave - Yeah, I'm sure Fulci's zombie work has him very much in the realm of Bryn's expertise. Ortolani's score is largely excellent in this - if you stumble across it for a dime then pick it up.
Foggy - if there's one thing the internet has done it's slowly strangle the adult theatrette. I wouldn't rush to see this one - perhaps it might be a worth a look-see once the extended version is released, but even then it's really Hitchcock-lite.