Mediocre italian giallo, based on a novel by Niccolò ammaniti and directed by Infascelli, this movie has only a couple of excellent scenes (like the death of the comedian Rocco)on a too derivative script, that tries to make fun in a corrosive way on the power of television talk shows (the target of the writer is a notorious italian talk show), but the plot is contrived, full of holes as big as houses (while the assassin did not check the demise of the police woman, for example?), the acting is always really poor with very few exceptions (and this is a shame as most of the actors and actresses involved are normally really good). All in all, this is another example of the abysmal level of the new wave of Italian giallos, best exemplified by the terrible Il Cartaio. This one is definetily better, but only slightly so.
6 Reviews
Critique
BandSAboutMovies18 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Directed by Alex Infascelli (Almost Blue) and written by Niccolò Ammaniti and Antonio Manzini, Il siero della vanità (The Vanity Syndrome) begins with a riot on a TV show called The Sonia Norton Show. As the show's psychologist leaves the studio, he is knocked out and disappears. He's not the last Italian TV celebrity to go missing and Sonia Norton (Francecsa Neri) declares that whoever is taking them is in the midst of "an unprecedented attack on the heart of the nation."
Police detectives Lucia Allasco (Margherita Buy) and Franco Berardi (Valerio Mastandrea) are assigned the case. Allasco is barely recovered from a past investigation in which a colleague was killed and she nearly lost the ability to walk, surviving with a limp.
Those who have been kidnapped - psychologist Michele Benda (Marco Giallini), a fallen Miss Italy named Azzurra Rispoli (Barbora Bobulova), transsexual Rocco Piccolo (Luis Molteni), the singer of the one-hit wonder "Il cuore in soffitt" ("The Heart In the Attic") Ester Bonanni (Maddalena Maggi), ostrich breeder Domenico Calaciura and a magician named Daniel (Rosario J. Gnolo) who claims to be the son of Houdini - were all on the same episode of The Sonia Norton Show ten years ago.
It turns out that Daniel had taken all of these people hostage and staged an entirely repeated episode of the show so that he can perform Houdini's Torture of the Chinese Pagoda without a mistake. Somehow, Rocco escapes but is hit by a subway train, which shows Lucia where Daniel is hiding. She barely escapes with her life when he drugs her.
When he does succeed in the performance, he's caught by Franco, who is followed by Sonia Norton and crew who are doing the show live. They start a whole new episode with the survivors of Daniel's revenge, all except for Lucia, who limps away from the spotlight.
Sonia's show is based on one of Italy's most popular - and trashiest - TV shows, Uomini e Donne (Men and Women). Like The Bachelor, contestants try to find their true love over a three month process. Contestants are called tronistas and the competitions for their love must put on extravagant demonstrations of their character. They are graded and then selected or denied a private date with the tronista. After a series of private dates, each date is played back for the men and women to confront each other in front of a live studio audience, mediated by host Maria De Fillipi.
As much an indictment of Italian pop culture as a giallo, this second effort finds Infascelli moving away from the wild visuals of Almost Blue and working to tell a more understandable story. It's interesting, but I miss the strangeness of his first effort.
Police detectives Lucia Allasco (Margherita Buy) and Franco Berardi (Valerio Mastandrea) are assigned the case. Allasco is barely recovered from a past investigation in which a colleague was killed and she nearly lost the ability to walk, surviving with a limp.
Those who have been kidnapped - psychologist Michele Benda (Marco Giallini), a fallen Miss Italy named Azzurra Rispoli (Barbora Bobulova), transsexual Rocco Piccolo (Luis Molteni), the singer of the one-hit wonder "Il cuore in soffitt" ("The Heart In the Attic") Ester Bonanni (Maddalena Maggi), ostrich breeder Domenico Calaciura and a magician named Daniel (Rosario J. Gnolo) who claims to be the son of Houdini - were all on the same episode of The Sonia Norton Show ten years ago.
It turns out that Daniel had taken all of these people hostage and staged an entirely repeated episode of the show so that he can perform Houdini's Torture of the Chinese Pagoda without a mistake. Somehow, Rocco escapes but is hit by a subway train, which shows Lucia where Daniel is hiding. She barely escapes with her life when he drugs her.
When he does succeed in the performance, he's caught by Franco, who is followed by Sonia Norton and crew who are doing the show live. They start a whole new episode with the survivors of Daniel's revenge, all except for Lucia, who limps away from the spotlight.
Sonia's show is based on one of Italy's most popular - and trashiest - TV shows, Uomini e Donne (Men and Women). Like The Bachelor, contestants try to find their true love over a three month process. Contestants are called tronistas and the competitions for their love must put on extravagant demonstrations of their character. They are graded and then selected or denied a private date with the tronista. After a series of private dates, each date is played back for the men and women to confront each other in front of a live studio audience, mediated by host Maria De Fillipi.
As much an indictment of Italian pop culture as a giallo, this second effort finds Infascelli moving away from the wild visuals of Almost Blue and working to tell a more understandable story. It's interesting, but I miss the strangeness of his first effort.
Style wins!
marco-d-17 September 2005
Oh my god! After watching that much average stuff I cannot believe I found this DVD in their middle. It is absolutely another level. I just saw it and still feel this special crawling after a good horror film
Might be some kind of an underestimated director that wanted to show that he has got power, and he showed. It is sort of an awesome crime and mystery driven horror production. Also if the story is not always logical or explained, you get this fascinating feeling when a film and a story go step by step in a right felt way. You get to think that the whole film is really near to you. You cannot avoid that it ends, but if there is nobody left alive
Charming that it's from Italy.
Finally new hope for the Italian horror!
dermarcod6 September 2005
This film is full of great ideas in it's genre. Looks like there were people who just love this genre and had fun doing it. Well, for sure it is a bit rough, but you can see that finally the director is not, like always, some kind of a friend of Berlusconi or his gang, this is some really creative work on this genre. It is not a revolution, but it is good work and talent. I am looking forward to his next film. And if you know something about the Italian television and it's faces(it is maybe the worst television in the world) you just join the disappearing of these so called VIPs. With this one I spend an absolutely great horror night!
A stunning cast for an original script
nearer7710 September 2005
I'm a big Margherita Buy's fan and I can say that she perfectly fits her detective character, anyway everyone of the cast does his job very well (you can say that there are the best young Italian actors). The subject is absolutely topical and relevant: the television's world and what lies beneath that. As a matter of fact I think the script is the best thing of the movie, maybe because is based upon a nice novel by Niccolò Ammaniti, one of the most famous writer in Italy. I wrote this novel and you can say that the film has got the same intriguing and fascinating mood. I can't see how u can criticize a movie like this, maybe because sometimes here in Italy we're to hairsplitting, most of all with our own directors and movie.
The best stuff since long time.
marco-dreysse7 September 2005
Maybe others missed a more logic story, but well this is not literature! Here we have passionate movie from passionate filmmakers. They know what's the reason why their audience watches their movies: We want hard stuff! Deaths and fears! The joy here is to see the fall of TV-Stars. That is real justice! A not even average script has been filmed and directed to a fresh, young and powerful punch in your face! Love this movie or hate it -but well: We will definitely see these filmmakers again, no doubt on that. Lots of suspense and violence filmed in great pictures. Just take some more looks at the story, and we will be testimonials of great horror and thriller stuff!
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