Movies

Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) Directed by Paolo Cavara, who got his start in film as a shockumentarian with Mondo Cane. The gimmick this time is that the black-clad gloved fiend murders naked women by paralyzing them with a needle in the back of the brain and cuts their bellies open while they are paralyzed and fully conscious, as explained by a scientist in a white lab coat and stock footage of a fight between a spider and a Tarantula Hawk Wasp. This seems more a transitional phase between the Giallo and Eurocrime forms since the protagonist is not the woman in peril but the disillusioned police detective, played by Giancarlo Giannini. This is not a very strong story, rather baroque - lots of little offshoots spiraling into dead ends which were never made to seem important in the first place. There were some interesting scenes and settings, such as a room full of mannequins in the back of a furrier's shop, but nothing super-great.In fact the most interesting part of it for me was seeing mod decorative props re-used from Seven Bloodstained Orchids. Kept my interest but wasn't really enthralling. 5/10

Rectilinear b/w stereophonograph and abstract paintings in

Black Belly of the Tarantula

... and in Seven Bloodstained Orchids