LE ORME
(aka FOOTPRINTS) (aka FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON) (aka PRIMAL IMPULSE)
dir. Luigi Bazzoni, 1975
Italy. 96 mins.
In English (dubbed) with a few minutes of Italian.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 – 3 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 21 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30 – 7:30 PM
In Luigi Bazzoni’s uniquely hallucinatory LE ORME, memories of a science fiction film seen in childhood return to haunt Alice (Florinda Bolkan, of LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN). The fragments of the film lodged in her memory concern an astronaut left behind on the moon; as Alice becomes more and more preoccupied with this vision, her life begins to spin out of control.
Shown at Spectacle in its first “Spectober” programme, LE ORME (originally reedited and rereleased in the States and Europe as PRIMAL IMPULSE) is an unsung masterpiece of 70s genre cinema, marrying the sustained ambient dread of gialli with god-tier cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (just after lensing Elizabeth Taylor in the similarly mental IDENTITK and before Bertolucci’s epic folly NOVOCENTO.) Klaus Kinski features in an extended cameo as the head of Mission Control.
“This hallucinatory Italian film resists easy classification, attempting to subjectively portray the fractured, paranoid psyche of a woman suddenly haunted by memories of a bizarre science fiction film seen in childhood. Florinda Balkan drifts through cinematographer Vittorio Storaro‘s strange, beautiful tableaux much like Monica Vitti in RED DESERT. Often mischaracterized as a giallo—I suppose simply because it’s Italian and stars Balkan—this is more of a haunting puzzle film grinding inexorably toward abject hysterics.”
—Screen Slate “Psychedelically haunting… An existentialist adventure that combines the narrative mystery of SOLARIS with the vivid visions of Argento.”
—Electric Sheep Magazine “Seek it out and unravel its mystery…One of the most unique and overlooked Italian films of the ‘70s.”
—Moon In The Gutter