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The Howl
[Cult Epics]
1969; color
Directed by Tinto Brass
Starring: Tina Aumont, Luigi Prioetti, Nino Segurini, German Longo, Edoardo Florio, Giorgio Gruden, Osiride Pevarello, & Attilio Corsini
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The Howl is a near-perfect example of the kind of late-'60s cinema that's in some ways designed more to shock and provoke than it is to entertain. There's an allusion at the very beginning to it being a documentary, but it's more a document of the mood of the era than a record of any specific event. And while it's definitely more linear than Attraction, the movie Tinto Brass made immediately following this one, it still borders on the surreal and experimental in virtually every scene. The premise that sets everything up is a girl who bails out of her wedding and literally takes off running, when she and her fiancee are in front of the preacher. She ends up meeting a guy who's a buffoon-like free spirit, yet also has a vaguely philosophical streak, and they go on a series of adventures that awaken their minds. (And are no doubt designed to broaden the perspectives of the viewing audience.) After a brief scene on a double-decker bus that gets torched to the tune of some pseudo-psychedelic Italian garage rock (the lyrics are subtitled, as is the whole movie, just with musical notes bracketing each line so we know they're lyrics not dialogue), the pair end up at a bizarre hotel along with a Keystone Cop-like character (who'd been pursuing them since the bus incident). As they move from room to room, they witness increasingly lurid scenes of weirdness and depravity, including the unfortunate beheading of a live swan. Eventually they leave the hotel and find themselves lost in a forest. There, they encounter a self-described philosopher who turns out to be a cannibal and tries to hold them captive to feed his tree-dwelling family. Somehow they escape (leaving the cop behind) and end up at what's either a prison or an asylum (it might be both but it's hard to tell), where they instigate a riot that leaves the inmates in charge. All of this is underscored by rambling, frequently non-sensical dialogue that I'm sure made more sense and had more relevance to Italian audiences 40 years ago. Their next two encounters set up the most direct political thrust of the film, as they're first pursued by an army unit (who rape the girl and kill the guy - but he comes back to life because "everyone gets resurrected these days"), and then they fight and overthrow a midget dictator. Once they're 'in power' they start giving the commands over the omnipresent PA system and the soldiers still blindly obey whoever's voice they hear. Tiring of this rather quickly (and, to be honest, I was getting pretty tired of all of it by this point), they steal a boat, which blows up. They're rescued and, once on dry land, the girl (who's somehow once again wearing her bridal veil) takes off in a car and promptly crashes it. Finally, despite being obviously dead, she's escorted down the aisle by her betrothed again and the movie ends. Oy. In all fairness, I'm pretty sure that had I seen this in 1968 - particularly had I been Italian or at least fluent in the language - I would have walked away with a completely different take on it than I've got now. From my 2009 American perspective, The Howl flirts with the fringes of kitsch and borders on forced surrealism. I'm not sure if I could recommend this to anyone beyond Brass completists and fans of '60s experimental filmmaking.
—the Kommandant
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