The Howl

Director: Tinto Brass Tinto Brass

Overview

"One of the more obscure items in Tinto Brass' filmography (at least in the United States), The Howl (aka L'Urlo) has finally been given a North American DVD release in this edition from Cult Epics. The Howl has been transferred to disc in widescreen format, letterboxed on conventional televisions at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and enhanced for anamorphic play on 16:9 monitors. According to the liner notes, The Howl was transferred from Brass' own personal print, which doesn't appear to have been especially well cared for; there are plenty of scratches and visible splices, and while the color balance is generally good, the image often appears a bit soft and grainy, suggesting this may have come from a 16 mm reduction print. The dialogue is in Italian (with a few passages in English), with optional English subtitles but no multiple language options. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo retaining the original monophonic sound mix, and the quality is on a par with the images -- not bad, but showing some obvious flaws. As a bonus, this release includes an alternate audio commentary track, in which Brass talks at length (in English) about his cast, his collaborators, and the ideas behind the film. The disc also features trailers for two other Tinto Brass titles released by Cult Epics. This release of The Howl is a long way from perfect, but it's certainly watchable, and given its rarity U.S. fans of stylish Eurotrash will probably want to check it out."

Product Details

Release Date:	07/28/2009
UPC:	0881190007297
Original Release:	1970
Source:	Cult Epics
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:35:00
Sales rank:	45,682

Special Features

English audio commentary by Tinto Brass; Photo gallery; Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gigi Proietti	Coso
Tino Scotti	Padell
Tina Aumont	Anita
Edorado Florio	Actor
Attilio Corsini	Suonatore Di Basso{ita}
Osiride Pevarello	Cannibal philosopher
Giorgio Gruden	Night watchman
Antonio Segurini	Berto
Germano Longo	Direttore del manicomio{ita}
Fiorenzo Carpi	Composer

Technical Credits

Tinto Brass

Tinto Brass	Director,Screenwriter
Dino De Laurentiis	Producer

Editorial Reviews

In a commentary Tinto Brass recorded for the DVD release of his film L'Urlo (aka The Howl), the director described it as "a film not about 1968, but of 1968." While Brass was referring to the fact that this movie was shot during that year of international tumult, L'Urlo is very much a product of its time, which in this case doesn't work to its favor. Brass's notions of political and social satire may seem reasonably sincere in this movie, but they're also bludgeoningly obvious, and pretty much any time he can find a way to throw nudity or sex into his anti-authoritarian slapstick he does, which makes the movie look more like a faux-psychedelic soft core porn effort than a pointed commentary on contemporary mores. (Given Brass's later body of work, that shouldn't surprise anyone.) L'Urlo can be seen as a companion piece to Brass's Nerosubianco (aka Attraction and Black On White) -- both films have no real narrative and simply toss one playful visual outrage after another at the audience. But while Nerosubianco was incoherent and obvious but an entertaining guilty pleasure, L'Urlo meanders a lot more as it rambles along, and while the racial subtext of Nerosubianco gave that picture some sort of consistent thread, L'Urlo is far more scattershot and fewer of its arrows hit the target. The camera clearly loves Tina Aumont as Anita, but she doesn't have much to offer besides her beauty, and while Gigi Proietti (here billed as Luigi Proietti) demonstrates why he became one of Italy's favorite screen comics, he often seems to be mugging simply because there isn't much else for him to do. L'Urlo is a movie about a society in upheaval made by someone who doesn't seem to care about politics as much as sex and rude comedy, and while Tinto Brass does better by the counterculture than, say, Benny Hill, that doesn't mean he set the bar very high with this effort.