Diabolik - Who Are You?

Kant Even

Diabolik - Who Are You?
aka Diabolik: Chi sei?
Directed by the Marretti Brothers
Italy/France 2023
RAI Cinema

Warning: Mild spoilers.

Okay… so I’ve been waiting a very long time to see the third part of the modern Diabolik trilogy. When I was waiting for the third one to come out on Italian Blu Ray back in early 2024, Kino Lorber in America announced they had struck a deal to distribute the films in America. Oh no, I thought. I hope that doesn’t mean the Italians will not put an English subtitle track on that third one as part of this deal. And, yep, they didn’t. Which I thought was a total sell out and left a lot of people who had been watching them on the imported Italian Blu Rays (in nice special edition boxes far better than how they’ve been released as in America) up the creek somewhat. And then my mode of thinking ran to… assume Kino Lorber bottle it and don’t give these films the major cinema releases they deserve in both the US and the UK, then I bet they just release them as a single set and I’ll have to buy the first two again just to catch up to the third. And… yes, that’s indeed what’s happened. So now I have a not so good looking three pack of the films with very few extras and nothing like the facsimile comics, etc, which came with my Italian editions. So that’s all a bit rubbish.

And a shame too because, now I’ve finally caught up to Diabolik: Who Are You? It turns out it’s the best of the three modern films (although, of course, nowhere near as good as the one by Mario Bava, reviewed here). Giacomo Gianniotte returns for a second go at the title character (after replacing the actor from the first part of the trilogy in the last movie, both reviewed here and here) and the astonishingly beautiful Miriam Leone returns as her third go at Eva Kant (almost but not quite rivalling Marissa Mell in the Bava version). 

Also back for this third one we have the brilliant Valerio Mastandrea as Inspector Ginko and, continuing as his secret, upper class girlfriend Altea de Vallemberg, we have the incomparable Monica Bellucci. Plus Pier Giorgo Bellocchio as Sergeant Palmer. 

And it’s fantastic, making up for the sluggishness of the last one by opening with a projected heist through the titles, where we see everything go right and Diabolik uses a handy gadget on his car to raise the chassis above the level of some bollards blocking his getaway…. 

But then we get to see what really happens when the plan is set in motion, when a ruthless bunch of murderous armed criminals crash the heist and take everything for themselves. We then see Diabolik and Ginko trying to find the criminals, both independently tracking them back to their lair and simultaneously being captured by them and locked in a cell together. So it’s up to their two women-folk to pool their resources and stage a rescue before Ginko and Diabolik are killed. Which gives us time to hear a little of Ginko’s back story and to get a long series of monochrome flashback sequences telling Diabolik’s origins, with flashes of red to highlight things like rubies and spilled blood… swiping a page from the Sin City movies and comics perhaps?

I loved this one and, once again we see Diabolik’s ruthless streak, ferociously demonstrated in the flashbacks with Andrea Arru and Lorenzo Zurzolo playing younger versions of the feral character… and we learn how a stuffed, black panther comes into play on the origins of Diabolik’s name. 

There are a lot more split screen techniques of different kinds in this one and the Marreti’s seem to be pushing the envelope on just how comic book the movie gets at certain points... plus there’s some especially nice mise en scène featuring an Alfred Hitchcock style overhead shot near the start of the movie. 

Another highlight, for me, was the inclusion of some female nudity in a scene with a stripper. I’ve no idea why they put that in to limit the audience who could see it but it’s the first time in any Diabolik media, it turns out, that nudity has been allowed… which apparently allowed it to survive much longer than it’s more lurid, contemporary comic books of the time. Apparently Diabolik and Eva even sleep in separate beds in the comics… something which Mario Bava wisely ignored, for sure. It’s the chemistry between these two characters which make the movies worth watching, as far as I’m concerned. 

And that’s me done on Diabolik: Who Are You? A long time coming to an English friendly format but worth the wait, I reckon. The best of the new batch, for sure.