A terrificly executed period piece from the Godfather of Gore, Beatrice Cenci(1969) is a masterpiece of tragic beauty. This movie is a contradiction to the accusation of Fulci as a misogynist from his later films. Adrienne LaRussa does a nice job in conveying the almost gentle nature of the female protagonist. George Wilson as the father does a good job in portraying someone truly evil. Cries of death to the director were shouted in a theatre due to the film's anti-catholic nature.

The Catholic church is presented in the film with absolute disdain. In fact, they are seen as greedy and hypocritical. Beatrice Cenci(1969), along with The Witchfinder General(1968) are probably the best films dealing with the late middle ages. The direction is nearly perfect, and the story is well done. The film revolves around a labyrinth of flashbacks in the style of Reservoir Dogs(1992). The main source of influence seems to been The play version of The Cenci by Artoud, Antonin as well as the five act play by Percelly Shelly.

The apparently true story of Beatrice Cenci has inspired many artists, including stage works by Shelley, Antonin Artuad and Berthold Goldschmidt, and a film by Riccardo Freda. Lucio Fulci's Beatrice Cenci, possibly his best film, follows Artaud's conception more closely than Shelley's. The violence of the subject matter is conveyed not with explicit gore, as in Fulci's later films, but mostly through editing and through the deliberately fragmented time-line. For instance, we go directly from Count Cenci's imprisonment of Beatrice in the dungeons to Cenci's funeral, and then to implications that his demise was not an accident; we are catapulted from a cruel scene of torture to an idyllic love scene (representing the first part of the tortured man's confession); and, because it comes as a flash-back within a flash-back, the reason for the crime isn't made explicit until the end of the movie.

VIDEO: [XVID] 352x272 24bpp 29,970 fps 872,4 kbps (106,5 kbyte/s)
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AUDIO: MP3 48000 Hz, 2 ch, 16 bit (0x10), ratio: 16000->192000 (128,0 kbit)
LANGUAGE: English

But what's the length of the movie? And is it sure uncut?

Is this any good? since it's Fulci's non*horror movie? :beerchug: