The greatest movie ever!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Disappointing Continuation

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Beginning with a quote from some bloke called Freud that is mainly irrelevant to the film that follows, four people travel to an isolated seaside mansion. It includes the current owner who twenty years before had witnessed his father kill someone in the mansion, his wife, his friend who is also the estate manager and his wife too. Then the plot unravels this way and that to a satisfying conclusion. There are only four characters in the film but even with that number the script manages to keep the viewer guessing. The acting is good enough and Carlo Rustichelli provides a suitable plangent music score. Romy Garron's black and white cinematography is excellent, either within the mansion, along the sunny countryside or above the rocky shoreline. It's an early giallo but it's a good one.

Haunted by a terrible tragedy, a young man brought back to his family's old home by his wife and friends finds his long-held belief in a legacy of family-led mental disorders has come to bear when they succumb to strange happenings and must try to keep him sane in order to leave.This was quite the troubled if enjoyable Giallo effort. What really tends to hold this one down is the fact that a vast majority of the film is based around the idea of his past coming back to haunt him without anything actually happening. It plays like a stodgy Gothic chamber-drama more than an actual horrific effort, filled with long- winded scenes of him monologuing about the past and his fears of its recurrence in his personality followed by their increasingly incessant pleas for him to regain his sanity, leaving this one incredibly dry and long-winded for much of it's running time. Even being distracted by the elaborate Gothic setting or the inviting mystery at hand doesn't really offer up much as it becomes quite obvious early on that little is actually happening with such long stretches of time between action, and the repetition of these events merely reinforces this since that's what happens for a large part of the film. Due to the lack of more traditional Giallo-based elements, that really leaves this one with the seriousness of its set-up to sustain any attention in the first half and that causes this to feel way too drawn-out for way too long throughout this section of the film. Once it becomes more involved with the idea that the father has returned and it starts in on some rather more lively antics there's some likable work at play here as the preponderance of Gothic architecture and settings makes for a suitably chilling scenario to base the kind of psychological torment-style plot that this one hinges on as it does follow the kind of stylistic plot- points needed for that kind of payoff to occur. The walk-throughs of the castle-grounds thinking back on the events he experienced as a child that plays over the whole affair, the sight of the figure off in the distance of the castle grounds who disappears before they can offer any kind of identification of the figure leaving behind only the footprints on the carpet and the later discovery of the dead body in their midst play off quite effectively here. The film really hits its stride, though, in the final half-hour which is where it really starts to get interesting with the revelation of who's behind the whole affair and their intentions which sets up some rather fun action in the house as everyone tends to reveal their true intentions all leading up to the great shock at the finale that makes for a rather nice ending. Still, the overall blandness on display does hurt this one considerably.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence.

If you see this movie to the end, you might want to get admitted to the nearest bedlam. You don't believe in ghosts? Yet they exist, and they do all kind of things in people's houses, they smoke someone's pipe, they use your chair, armchair, lounge or swing, they walk your corridors, etc. Why we find them only in large houses, mansions and castles? In the houses of poor people, never. Neither outdoor in open field, in public squares, in the streets, etc. Only in grandiose interiors, which belong to rich members of the society. And always occurring late after midnight, never in daily time. And if not accompanied by a black cat or creaking door, then they make their presence announced by severe thunder and lightning. OK, I have to confess that I like Italian movies the most. But this is an exception, I waited impatiently to see on the screen the word "Fine"(The End).

This thriller by renowned Italian screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi is a very early Giallo - made just shortly after Mario Bava's first modern Italian thriller SEI DONNE PER L'ASSASSINO (1964) that is considered being the first real Giallo at all. But LIBIDO, shot in black and white, is not only one of the earliest Gialli. It is also one of the most accomplished - even though it was made in less than three weeks according to Gastaldi.Christian (Giancarlo Giannini in his first movie) returns to the house by the sea where he grew up. He's accompanied by his fiancée and a befriended couple. As a child, he witnessed his father killing his mistress before jumping over a cliff. With the return, Christian should finally overcome his childhood trauma that emerged. As soon as he is back in his old home, though, Christian sees strange things that lead him to the assumption his father must still be alive.Only one location (the house and the immediate environment), only four actors for most of the time - plus plenty of thrills and psychological terror make this one a winner. LIBIDO starts with a quote by Sigmund Freud. It can't get much more appropriate than that, because of all Gialli, this is the most Freudian one (and there are quite a bunch). Towards the climax, the plot twists pile up, of course, and they all do not only work, but are also clever and surprising (and try to do that with only a quartet of characters).LIBIDO is a classic of its genre - essential viewing for Giallo fans and thus not to be missed.