Il medaglione insanguinato - Malocchio - Voci dal profondo

The common denominator of this new Digitmovies production, besides M° Stelvio Cipriani, the composer of all three scores, is Horror. The horror generated through the obsessive jealousy a daughter has of her father distinguishes the plot of the movie "Il medaglione insanguinato" (aka "Perché?! - "The Night Child") directed by Massimo Dallamano ("Cosa avete fatto a Solange?") in 1975: The TV journalist Michael Williams, played by Richard Johnson ("Zombi 2"), leaves London and sets out for Italy with his daughter Emily (Nicoletta Elmi, already a perverse little girl "Profondo rosso") and his housekeeper Jill Perkins (Joanna Cassidy),to realize a documentary in Spoleto about the presence of the devil in painting. In a '700 villa, which has already been the scene of a dramatic event, the scholar is fascinated by a painting which is said to be made by Satan. The man also gives his daughter a medallion whose mysterious powers will unleash an inevitable tragedy. Thanks to a suggestive setting and a plot halfway between the supernatural horror and the psychological drama this Dallamano movie is considered by many as one of the best horror movies produced in Italy. In fact the audience will remain in doubt whether the tragic events are unleashed by mysterious powers or by a mind blinded by jealousy. The horror of the manipulation of the mind is present in "Malocchio" directed in 1975 by Mario Siciliano and re-released in Italy in 1976 with the title "Eroticofollia". The movie which stars Jorge Rivero ,Anthony Steffen, Pilar Velasquez and Richard Conte tells the story of a young playboy (Jorge Rivero), who, plagued by mysterious "nightmares", commits atrocious murders. "Malocchio" is also a fine mix of satanic horror and thriller. The protagonist's nightmare is particularly distressing because of the obsessive presence of a man with red eyes and naked people of a sect which calls to mind the black masses in the Sergio Martino thriller "Tutti i colori del buio". The horror of death and homicide is presented with impressive realism in "Voci dal profondo" (aka "Voices from the deep") of 1990, the penultimate movie of the late and lamented Lucio Fulci ("L'aldila', "Sette note in nero"). After the death of her father (Duilio Del Prete), an avid and perverse man, Rosy Mainardi (Karin Huff) suffers from sudden and unexplainable visions. During her dreams a man confides her that he is not dead by natural causes, but that he has been killed by one of his relatives. While the girl investigates, the soul of Mainardi appears in a dream the relatives have, causing them horrible nightmares. In "Voci dal profondo" there is the entire film universe of Fulci, the ferocity of the human nature, the flow of time and, especially, the relatives' nightmares of the killed man are staged with horrible killings, living dead,etc. The obsession with death, in the last years of Fulci's life, is represented by a single, but penetrating element:the various phases of the man's decomposition in the grave while the plot reaches its epilogue.To realize this CD we have used all which has survived. In fact in the case of "Il medaglione insanguinato (Perche?!)" the only master tape still available was the one used for the 45 rpm single (MDF 074) issued at the time of the film's release with the two tracks "Baby death" and "Emily's studio". They were released for the very first time as part of the now out of print CD "Fantafestival Volume 4" (CD-CIA 5098) in 1993, but as the sessions master tapes have been totally lost it was never possible to release a CD with the complete OST. Finally our perserverance in finding the elements has paid off to us and the fate wanted that only very recently a stereo ¼ master tape could be discovered which contained 13 takes (about 22') from the OST! "Emily's studio", the romantic and magic main theme for guitar, female choir and strings is introduced in (Tr.1) and then reprised with slow variations with drums (Tr.5), without drums (Tr.10), in a pop vein (Tr.3) and in the single version (Tr.14) which was in fact an edit of two tracks ( here Tr.1 and Tr.3). This motif is alternated with a baroque theme called "Baby death" which we can hear with the solo piano - as in all his OSTs played by Stelvio Cipriani himself - in Tr.2,Tr.11, with fast tempo (Tr.6), in a harpsichord version (Tr.8) and in the pop version of the 45 rpm single (Tr.13). Two elegant lounge pieces for solo piano complete the OST (Tr.4 and Tr.9) which together with the single tracks has a total time of 30:04.Unfortunately, for "Malocchio" we were not able to find the master tapes which actually are a case worthy of the X-Files, but the hunt continues because the score (as the movie itself) is really interesting. For this CD we have used the stereo master tape (5:31), properly restored in digital form, of the original 45 rpm single (MDF 064) with the tracks "Astaroth"(Tr.15), a really groovy lounge theme with the perfect Cipriani sound (it accompanies the scene of the orgy-party in an house), and "Bloody love" (Tr.16) which is used in the love sequence under the shower, an often recurring motif in the movie with different variations. These two tracks had previously appeared in CD format only on Japanese compilations (Rambling Records RBCS-1046 and RBCS-1049 , Avanz Records SP/CR-00006). This Horror music triptych is completed by the electronic OST composed by Cipriani for "Voci dal profondo" directed by Lucio Fulci in 1990 and we have used the complete stereo master tapes (37:39) preserved in the RCA archives. The composer has written a tense music prologue for the scene of the protagonist's nightmare which precedes the Main Titles, an ancient lullaby with children's choir (Tr.17) and suspenseful and magic music (Tr.18) which is alternated with dramatic, dark and mysterious themes (Tr.21,Tr.23,Tr.27), a sentimental motif with a pop flavour (Tr.27) and a recurrent rock theme with liturgical organ (Tr.28) which also appears in the End Titles.