In Italy, during the 70's, it was called "thrilling" and it's great to have it back after a long time. The genre, internationally known as Italian giallo, was a particular formula of suspense-filled psychological thriller, often flirting with the supernatural: it might contain elements of ghost story (like Daniele D'Anza 1971 tv miniseries Il segno del comando) or just play with ghostly suggestions before reaching a completely rational solution (like Domenico Campana's 1976 tv miniseries La mia vita con Daniela).
Il corpo (2024), screenplay by director Vincenzo Alfieri and Giuseppe Stasi, is the Italian remake of the Spanish 2012 thriller El cuerpo (written and directed by Oriol Paulo) which was clearly inspired by the work of French authors Boileau & Narcejac (on whose novels H. G. Clouzot's Les Diaboliques and A. Hitchcock's Vertigo were based in the 50's) and had a strong flavour of Italian giallo. Alfieri recreates the plot with a few more details and gives actor Giuseppe Battiston the chance to develop fully and beautifully the character of the detective, with a performance rich of nuances.
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| Cappi with Battiston e Alfieri (Fotogiaco) |
Rebecca Zuin (Claudia Gerini) is the fascinating and powerful heiress of an Italian pharmaceutical industry. Bruno Furlan (Andrea Di Luigi), a former precarious university professor of chemistry, is her much younger husband; his marriage granted him a top manager position in the company, a life of luxury and a collections of sports car, but living with the selfish, manipulating Rebecca is much harder than expected. After a brief, risky relationship with his wife's sister and company lawyer (Rebecca Sisti) Bruno falls in love with student Diana Bettini (Amanda Campana); he would leave his wife, but he'd lose everything and face Rebecca's revenge.
Until she dies, suddenly, of a heart attack.
Hours later, the night watchman of the morgue is struck by a car while fleeing in terror. Inspector Cosser (Giuseppe Battiston), called to investigate, is informed that one corpse has disappeared: Rebecca Zuin's, whose autopsy was due in the morning. Under the pouring rain, Bruno - who is spending his first night as a widower with his lover Diana - is summoned to the morgue... and a nightmare starts for him. The cop, still recovering himself from his own wife's loss and hiding his pain behind his harsh sense of humour, starts making questions. Why is Bruno apparently not shocked by Rebecca's death? Where was he when the police tried to call him several times? Has he murdered his wife and stolen her body to avoid the autopsy, in order to hide his crime?
Meanwhile, Bruno wonders if Rebecca is really dead... Or is she undead? During a blackout at the morgue someone opened the locker with her personal belongings and took her cell phone. It's october, but a calendar shows the date of March 20th, which has some particular meaning for Rebecca. Bruno finds an ambiguous message and a cell phone playing her favourite song (Mia Martini's Piccolo uomo) which for some reasons he has come to hate. Someone or something is playing a dangerous game with him and even Diana, at her home, might be in danger... Only in the final chapter of the story every mystery will be solved, during an extraordinary monologue performed by Battiston as inspector Cosser.
Twelve years ago in Spain I saw and loved the original version, El cuerpo, starring Belén Rueda (whom I couldn't forget since J. A. Bayona's horror The Orphanage, 2007) as the rich and selfish heiress, and José Coronado as the cop. The story, which mostly takes place during one whole night at the morgue, expanded with flashbacks revealing the characters' past, really felt like writer-director Oriol Paulo had rediscovered Italian giallo.
The Italian remake has been filmed one year ago in seven weeks and three days in Rome (though the city is not mentioned in the story). When I read about the new casting, it looked perfect. But the big surprise of Il corpo is the deeper approach to the inspector. While meeting the audience last night in Milan, along with Giuseppe Battiston, the director confessed that the actor himself suggested a few lines and the way they should be delivered, making the character more intense than in Coronado's performance. But that's what a remake should do: adding something to the previous version. There have been other remakes of El cuerpo and more are in the making, but some of the next ones - says Battiston - will be based on Alfieri's screenplay.
Trivia: Belén Rueda also starred in Alex De la Iglesia's Perfectos desconocidos, 2017 Spanish remake of Paolo Genovese's Perfetti sconosciuti (2016) which featured Giuseppe Battiston in the original version. Claudia Gerini (whom audiences around the world probably remember in John Wick 2) appeared as Eva Kant in the music video of the song Amore impossibile by Tiromancino (2004); in the Diabolik film trilogy by Manetti bros. (2021-2023) both Claudia Gerini and Amanda Campana appear as masked aliases of Eva Kant.
Back to Il corpo: a long time ago you could enter in Italian movie theatres at any moment, but for some thrillers it was "forbidden entering during the last fifteen minutes", a rule that should apply in this case. But I'd add the same suggestion that appeared in the final credits of Clouzot's Le Diaboliques: if you liked this movie, tell your friends... but don't be devilish, don't tell anyone the ending.
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