What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This film has many strengths, it's well photographed and has a very good score by Morricone. The plot twists get a little to twisty--though that's part of the fun of giallo's and the final answer as to what happened to Solange is memorably nasty. It's also well produced, the dubbing is pretty good and much of it looks or at least feels like it's really taking place in England--though the cast doesn't look very British.So what's wrong with this picture? Well the lead character is a lecherous teacher and the movie itself seems to wallow a bit in scenes of naked school girls in the shower. Though you can get a exploitation thrill from this you don't really identify with any of the characters. The detective gets more screen time but isn't interesting and doesn't have any emotional involvement in solving the crimes.So you'd expect our lech lead "wrong man" character to learn or get more involved in solving all this--and he sort of does but mostly doesn't. Some of this can be actor Testi's though he's less stiff here than in other films.The film also doesn't build as well as it should and as it starts to explain what's going on it slows down and gets convoluted--in other words it has a slow middle.There is one silly scene with an over the top witness to a crime and lot's of Catholic hatred and confusion to liven things up.Film has some style, helped by the music, but the style neither overcomes nor expresses all the elements of the film. It's an interesting film that isn't all that compelling.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? is one of the masterworks of the giallo genre, a truly beautiful film that comes across as something of a masterpiece thanks to a strong and literate script, excellent cinematography and music, and a good cast being put through their paces. The only thing I'm surprised about is that I haven't got around to seeing it before now, because this viewing was long overdue.The film is set in London and features Italian crime film regular Fabio Testi as an Italian teacher at a girl's school. He's married but having an affair with one of his students, but one day the pair are interrupted by a brutal murder taking place just feet away. Testi finds himself suspected by the police while at the same time trying to investigate the crime himself so that he can bring the killer to justice.Sometimes a film seems so perfect that it's impossible to criticise it and that's the case here. This is a classy affair that deals with some explicit subject matter, but it's never sleazy or trashy, despite interludes in the showers and the like. Joe D'Amato's cinematography and the evocative piano music really keep it looking and acting like an art-house film rather than your usual gory giallo outing. The emphasis is on the suspense and the murder mystery aspects more than gruesome deaths and stalk and slash sequences.The script is tightly written and keeps you guessing throughout with many red herrings and the like. The twists and turns that arise are genuinely involving and there are some real shocks here; it's also a movie that gets better and better as it goes on and the ending is really stellar. Testi is fine as the lead and THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE's Cristina Galbo effective as his love interest. I particularly liked Joachim Fuchsberger as the dogged detective determined to get to the bottom of it. There's even a minor but important role for Camille Keaton (I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE). WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? is truly a masterpiece of film-making and a film that even beats Dario Argento at his own game.

Whilst enjoying an afternoon on the river, married teacher Enrico (Fabio Testi) is stoically attempting to coerce one of his young students Elizabeth (Christina Galbo) into having sex with him, when she notices on the bank, the glint of a knife in the sunshine. Dismissing this as an excuse not to give into his demands, Enrico is therefore stunned to later hear on the radio of a murder of a young girl in the area that very afternoon.Selfishly, Enrico initially forbids Elizabeth to report her suspicions to the police, for fear his liaison will be exposed. However, sympathies with Enrico begin to materialise when it seems his affair with Elizabeth isn't a whim. His wife Herta (Karin Baal) is cold hearted and unloving, and what Enrico and Elizabeth share might well be true love. As the murders continue, the film enters into proper horror territory, with nightmares and growing graphic atrocities conspiring to tighten the proverbial noose around Enrico's neck, as he appears to be the main suspect.In a further shock, Elizabeth herself is murdered, and this appears to bring Enrico and Herta closer – it is interesting that in softening her character, Herta takes to wearing make-up, as opposed to the harsh 'freshly scrubbed' appearance she had adopted earlier.(Spoiler) Solange, when at last she appears, is the character around whom the murders all centre. Her father posed as a Priest in order to obtain confessions from Solange's school-friends who arranged an illegal abortion for her against her will. The brutality destroyed her mind. The final frame of the film has her sobbing gently as her father shoots himself having at last been discovered.This has been billed as 'giallo' film, that is what Wikipedia describes as a '20th-century Italian slasher genre of literature and film, usually with mystery elements and often with either supernatural horror or crime fiction elements.' As such, it fits the description well. The flawed nature of Enrico fuels the story – he is far from perfect and a ready-made scapegoat for the murders. He is not given to passionately protesting his innocence, and it may well be that un-emotive nature that robbed his wife of her love for him; darkly poetic then, that such a harrowing tragedy should bring them back together.

'What Have They Done To Solange?' can be seen sitting in the top ten list of many a giallo aficionado, and it's easy to see why: it offers fans of the genre almost everything they could possibly ask for, including, of course, the obligatory gloved killer, a ridiculously complex narrative with umpteen likely suspects, lovely cinematography and deft direction, plus a cool jazzy score (from the great Ennio Morricone). In addition to these 'essentials', there's also one hell of an unexpected death that packs quite a punch, and the application of a particularly unpleasant modus-operandi by the murderer—one that you certainly won't forget in a hurry!Set in an exclusive London girls' college (where every student is gorgeous, of course), the film sees a homicidal lunatic working his way through a group of pretty young things, all of whom are harbouring a dark secret from the past. As the police investigate the murders, student Elizabeth Seccles (Cristina Galbó)—who glimpsed the first murder whilst romping in a rowboat with handsome, married Italian professor Enrico Rosseni (Fabio Testi)—struggles to recall a vital visual clue that could help identify the maniac.Of course, this being a giallo, the plot doesn't always make perfect sense (it's a rare giallo that allows logic to get in the way of style) and the second half of the film definitely requires the suspension of disbelief: Enrico's estranged wife forgives her husband's affair on discovering that he hasn't made love to 18-year-old Elizabeth, and having reconciled their differences, the pair proceed to track down the killer. I don't know what is harder to believe: the fact that she forgives Enrico his infidelity so quickly, or that the Italian lothario wasn't banging a beauty like Elizabeth 24/7.Fortunately, these lapses in reason do little to mar one's enjoyment of the film as a whole: director Massimo Dallamano provides just enough clues as the story unfolds to keep us guessing until the very last moment; the clever script ties up all the loose ends with a satisfyingly sick motive for the murderer; and those of us who like the sleazier aspects of the genre will get a kick out of the constant female nudity (including a totally unnecessary, but very welcome shower scene), and several shocking glimpses of the victims' mutilated bodies.