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.

Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco!

I Kant Ginko, Satisfaction

Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco!
aka Diabolik - Ginko Attacks!
Italy 2022 Eagle Pictures
Directed by Antonio & Marco Manetti
Blu Ray Zone B/DVD Region 2 set

Warning: Spoilers alluded to throughout.

Okay, so Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco! is the sequel to the previous year’s reboot of Diabolik (reviewed by me here) and the second of the new trilogy directed by the Manetti Brothers. Once again I got the the limited edition deluxe dual DVD/Blu Ray set imported over from Italy (with English subtitles on the movie... sadly not on the extras) because I’m just not sure when, if ever, these movies will get any kind of cinematic or home video release on these shores. The set also includes a facsimile edition of the particular fumetto that this second movie was based on, Diabolik Issue 16 from 10th April 1964 - Ginko All'attacco! but, just as in the deluxe edition of the prior movie, the comic is in Italian so, I am unable to read it myself. Two months ago it was announced that Kino Lorber have acquired the rights to release the new trilogy on a home video format in the US but, I suspect they’ll wait until the third film gets released (in Italian cinemas in November 2023 if the release pattern of these previous two are anything to go by) before they let these loose on the American public.

I’m also not sure if the modern US or UK audiences would rake in the cash for these movies either, to be fair, since they’re not the kind of action-heavy oriented movies that are generally attended multiple times over by teenage audiences. A cursory glance over the nine (at time of writing) user reviews on the IMDB suggests that many of the reviewers might well be in that age group because, yeah, the verdict is not good on this one. And I’d have to say that, of the Diabolik movies, the original 1960s version, Danger Diabolik (reviewed here), as directed by the late, great Mario Bava, is still pretty much the most fun and best of the batch, although I found the first of the Manetti Brothers’ movies to be pretty solid, for the most part. Again, Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco! is a bit of a mixed bag but with a heck of a lot of positives... offset by the huge negative of the progressing story.

Okay... so one of the positives can be found in the quite good performances by the three leads... none of them quite so iconic as in Bava’s version but still, pretty strong for modern day movies. We have Miriam Leone returning to the role of Diabolik’s girlfriend/accomplice Eva Kant and she’s pretty great. We also have Valerio Mastandrea returning to the role of Inspector Ginko, the arch nemesis of super criminal Diabolik and, yeah, he’s got a pretty strong presence in this which is just as well because his ‘love interest’/rich jewellery criminal bait, the Duchess, is played by none other than Monica Bellucci, who does a brilliant job and looks absolutely stunning, it has to be said.

And then there’s Diabolik himself. Due to scheduling difficulties created when the Covid pandemic stalled production of the second and third movies, Luca Marinelli was not able to reprise his role as the titular supervillain in this one. Instead, he’s been replaced by Canadian actor Giacomo Gianniotti but, yeah, he does an okay job in this, filling in Diabolik’s shoes very nicely.

Once again, the other big positive is the design and look of the film. It has beautiful cinematography and captures the stylistic milieu of the 1960s period when it’s set in a beautifully flamboyant way. The directors choose to use things like moving, hidden wipes as people move past the camera to transition from some scenes and there’s even a nice penchant to slip in and segue between split screen sequences with double wipes on double splits throwing us back into a single shot, for example. This, coupled by a nice score by Aldo De Scalzi really makes the film shine and dazzle where it might seem duller in the hands of another director. And, following a pre-credits heist scene, there’s an absolutely wonderful sequence where a choreographed show put on for an audience becomes an integrated part of a Bond-like title sequence for the movie which, wow, wish I’d had the opportunity to see this one at the cinema.

So all well and good and it’s another fun romp turned caper, which sees Diabolik under attack with Ginko almost capturing him but, certainly, discovering his hideouts and depriving him of all his wealth and main hideaways. He even has to abandon Eva who, spends the rest of the movie aiding Ginko as revenge... or does she?

Okay then, this leads us all nicely into the really big negative of the film which is... there are absolutely no surprises in this one. We were already prepared by the previous movie that, due to the nature of Diabolik’s Mission Impossible style mask technology, he and Eva can be anybody else at any point of the film and this, coupled with some really obviously writing, means the audience doesn’t miss a single trick... even when the so called ‘plot twists’ don’t hinge on the use of swapped identities. For instance, when the dancers from the credits are kidnapped by Diabolik and forced to abandon the jewellery it seemed pretty obvious to me that the whole thing was an elaborate set up by Ginko to trap Diabolik. Specifically, it turns out, to plant radioactive jewellery that could be picked up by the super criminal and tracked by Geiger counter... so it was no surprise when the dancers turned out to be from a division of trained police officers.

Similarly, the direction for the performances made it so obvious who Diabolik was impersonating for the majority of the film that, I even doubted myself for a little while as it just seemed too obvious and I thought the directors were toying with me. It’s just so unsurprising as to what’s going on. And even the woman who Eva Kant is posing as is obvious. I said to my dad, who was watching with me, that character is really Eva Kant in disguise and he argued with me saying the shape of the face is wrong. But that’s entirely the point with those magical masks... it’s supposed to confuse you and, therefore and alas, it doesn’t.

So, yeah, Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco! is not the best plotted affair and I suspect the reveals in the original fumetto were much less telegraphed than what we have in this movie. So I can kinda see why all the negative reviews but, honestly, this didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie as a nice piece of ‘1960s retro homage’ cinema... in other words, I loved it. I wouldn’t recommend this one to everybody, for sure but, fans of the Diabolik character and his long legacy will no doubt be grateful of his current presence on cinema screens for sure (even if those cinemas are only in Italy, alas). Looking forward to the third part.

Diabolik

Kant Buy
Me Love

Diabolik
Italy 2021
Directed by Antonio & Marco Manetti
RAI Italian Ltd Edition
Blu Ray Zone B/DVD Region 2 set

Warning: Very light spoilers.

So, after both the 1968 Mario Bava movie known in the UK as Danger Diabolik and an animated series, Diabolik returned to Italian cinema screens at the end of last year. Alas, it’s still not found an English distributor for either a UK cinema or home video release (or possibly even streaming, at time of writing) but I wanted to do this right so, rather than just watch a free HD copy online, I managed to acquire the new limited edition Italian Blu Ray/DVD set, which also comes with a replica copy of the third issue of the original fumetti, The Arrest Of Diabolik (on which this film is based, along with also taking material from a 2012 remake comic book of the same story) but, since I can’t read Italian to get the one detail about a certain jewel I wanted to know, I can’t work out whether a specific reference was put there by the Manetti Bros or if it was in the original version of the comic... or, indeed, if it’s just a coincidence (I’ll get to that possible reference in a minute).

The new film starts off with a very similar style opening to the Mario Bava version (reviewed by me here), to which the first time viewer will obviously compare it to, at least for a while. So the film is set in the late 1960s and we have Diabolik in his black Jaguar evading the police after a heist. It’s one of very few action sequences in the movie, actually and, I suspect, those who are not intrigued by the story and the absolutely wonderful performances of Luca Marinelli as Diabolik, Miriam Leone as Eva Kant and Valerio Mastandrea as Inspector Ginko... may find the lack of stunts and explosions etc a little disappointing. However, because the story is so strong... it’s an origin tale, of sorts, for the way that Diabolik and his future girlfriend Eve Kant first met... I found it absolutely absorbing from start to finish and didn’t notice the 2 hour 15 minute running time.

Okay, so I won’t say all that much about the plot but two things that caught my attention were the diamond and a section of the story involving an execution by guillotine. Okay, so the jewel that Diabolik is after from Eva Kant, which brings him to her door, is a very special pink diamond. So my first thought was obviously the specific diamond named The Pink Panther, which was the plot device of the 1963 film and which birthed the animated title sequence using a literal pink panther, thus giving kids all over the world a new hero when the title sequence character got his own cartoon show (which used to feature an Inspector Clouseau cartoon as its second half each week, if I remember correctly, both segments utilising Henry Mancini’s themes from The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark respectively). It’s a nice touch but I’ve no idea now if it was a deliberate reference or not, due to the dates being fairly close (if it did appear in that original fumetti).

The other thing I noticed which, judging from my look at the replica fumetti... since the first two thirds of this movie seem to follow it fairly closely (and so don’t blame the Manetti Brothers for eschewing action sequences, it looks like they are trying to do it fairly straight to the source material)... deals with the mistaken execution by guillotine of one of the characters who has been switched out at the eleventh hour, allowing Diabolik to escape justice. Now, I’ve read the first Fantomas novel from 1911, years ago and, honestly, it’s an absolute steal from that inaugural story but, of course, it’s not rocket science to figure out that the original character of Diabolik was blatantly inspired by the French master criminal.

So, okay, I had two slight problems with the movie. One is.... and I suspect this is endemic of the current state of Italian film production in general... that, although I’m sure a lot of money was spent on this new movie, there’s something about it that makes it look really cheap. Like it’s a TV movie or something. It all looks like it’s just been shot on a high res video camera and so doesn’t have that cinematic feel I was expecting from it (and no, I didn’t have the stupid motion smoothing setting on, thanks very much). However, once I got  used to it I managed to forget about it.

The other thing is... there are no real surprises in the film. Even though the narrative structure is deliberately built to hide information until certain things happen, I could pretty much second guess the entire movie. For example, during the first meeting between Ginko and Eva Kant, I realised that this was probably not Ginko at all... in which case, the same kind of fictionally heightened style masks used in the Mission: Impossible series and films was probably being used here and, yep, indeed it was.

However, when a film is put together this well, the lack of unpredictability is not that distracting... there are lot of other good things to grab your attention. Some of the frame designs, for example, are nicely done with the directors sometimes emphasising vertical patterns to echo the frames of a comic book... something which they do big time in the last third of the movie, which is basically a heist, much of which is made of dynamic, split screen compositions. I found it odd that they saved the use of split screen for only the last third of the movie but it works effectively for the sequence and was as good a solution as any other. There are also some sets of camera movements that are a little reminiscent of some modern horror movies, in that they’re designed to conceal rather than reveal elements of a scene before a particular story point is reached.

The comic strip style is further enhanced by details which you wouldn’t necessarily get away with in other forms of fiction in a credible manner. For example, the fact that Diabolik has managed to have a raising ramp built right into the middle of a street so he can take that route to evade the police, after making sure he gets boxed into the correct location. Hmm... yeah... don’t know how he would have managed to install that one without being seen. Also, the ears of the character protruding from either side of his mask (either that or his ears are also very tightly covered in latex) which would look really silly if not for the fact that they’re lit so well to hide any colour or texture change in the scenes where they are prominent. Also, Diabolik has a very strong widows peak, which echoes the open eyes section of his mask to remind you who he is when he’s not wearing his criminal costume (Ginko has a widow’s peak too).

The structure of the piece is good also. Like I said, no real surprises but there are a few sequences where conversations are cross cut with other conversations (often with one of the same characters) so the present of a character can be at counterpoint with a reveal needed to make more sense of a scene when it comes up later. Again, even though I’d figured out most of those reveals on this one way before they happen... mostly due to just thinking logically about the way what I was watching was unfolding... it’s a nice way of presenting the information and the two or three times where this is done in the movie adds to an overall ‘corporate style’ to the film.

I really liked the sexual chemistry between Marinelli  and Leone as Diabolik and Eva too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nowhere near as evident or blatantly expressive as the version of the relationship between John Philip Law and Marissa Mell’s versions of the characters in Bava’s movie but, the camera does still linger on the strength of their attraction to each other here as the glue which holds their relationship together... so that’s nice. I was worried they were going to shy away from that element here.

So it’s a shame, then, that due to the film’s release schedule being delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic, Marinelli is unable to reprise his role as the title character for the two sequels which are just winding up back to back production in Italy as I write this review. I hope the new guy they’ve got is able to at least match his, mostly emotionless and chilled performance here.

And that’s me done with the new Diabolik. I hope this one manages to find someone to give it a UK and US release because, frankly, our cinemas need more ‘shades of grey’ characters like this. This is a pretty good adaptation of the comics is my best guess, not to be compared to the Bava movie (which will always have the number one spot in terms of this character) but still doing something of its own with the material. And also... I love it whenever Diabolik throws his knife and the camera follows it at the same speed by keeping it in centre frame before we see who it killed (and, yes, I know it probably wasn’t captured like that but, that’s the impression it’s trying to create and it works really well, I think). Diabolik doesn’t need ‘bullet time’ when he has ‘dynamic dagger duration’ moments like this.