Who Saw Her Die? (1972)

I can honestly say that Who Saw Her Die? is the most mature and brilliant giallo of the seventies. Of course there is other giallos of the same quality, but this is the only one that mixes such a serious subject and gets away with it. There's sex and violence, but Aldo Lado's masterpiece never feels like exploitation or a quick cash-in on Nicolas Roeg's amazing Don't Look Now.

This is such a beautiful movie, but still underneath, so full of dread and perversion. All men, except maybe George Lazenby's character, could be pedophiles and their looks are lingering way to long on every little girl in their way. From the rich art-dealer Serafian (my favorite, as usual, Adolfo Celi!) to the catholic priest Father James (Alessandro Haber), and everyone else in between. This is one of those few giallos with interesting and well-written characters, and where you really care for hero and his wife, both played with sensitivity by George Lazenby (in his best role ever) and Anita Strindberg. The chemistry between Lazenby and his ginger daughter Roberta (who other than Nicoletta Elmi?) is sparkling! Lado also chooses to make us see a lot of scenes from the daughters view, with the same curiosity as a child have. A stroke of genius. Just look at the scene where Roberta and her dad visits Sefarian for the first time, and she looks around, studying the animals on the wallpapers or checking the old furniture.

Lado chooses to not let us see how the parents react to their daughters death, but the build up, the love for her, makes us realize how terrible it must have been. Similar to Lars Von Triers Antichrist, guilt is also a factor here. Lazenby leaves his daughter alone for some steamy sex and then work with his art, it's not until late the same evening he realize that she's gone - but then it's of course too late. The interacting between Strindberg and Lazenby feels very real, and for once these characters feels like a real couple and not just two handsome actors tossed together for a couple of weeks in a foggy and moisty Venice. Both are sensational, and it's a pity this isn't the movie that's being mentioned everytime these actors careers are discussed.

It's also a good murder mystery with a lot of suspects and red herrings, and once again an old piece of film is an important lead. You will get a killer with black gloves and a knife (a very fake knife by the way), a couple of murders and people giving each other strange looks. Sexuality, every kinda, is important and weird enough, there's no real blame on sexuality itself in the end - and the pedophilia theme might not be so important after all, or...? Arty and with top-notch direction by Aldo Lado, this could be my favorite giallo ever. But there's one thing that makes it even more fantastic...

... the score by Ennio Morricone. This time he has a lot of girl choirs in the music, using weird voice-samplings and creating something that goes from cute and beautiful to disturbing in just a couple of seconds. The music enhances the poetry of the cinematography and the intelligent storytelling by Lado, and even here I'm convinced this one of Morricone's best scores ever.

There's so much to write about Who Saw Her Die, but only the language barrier in my case stops this. I just don't have English words enough to tell you about how magnificent this movie is. So watch it yourself, and I hope you'll agree with me!