The Howl

Tinto Brass

Cult Epics

R0 NTSC

The Howl aka L’Urlo (1968) is a startling and original work directed by Tinto Brass and produced by Dino De Laurentis. Cult Epics have restored the print to the uncensored version which represents the director’s original vision and this offers a wild and surreal ride into the anarchism which was the Sixties. Sex, violence, anarchy and rebellion, it is all here in spades presented in a non linear storyline which reminds me of Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain and El Topo). Tinto Brass later become celebrated for his erotic work, in this film there is certainly an abundance of all manner of sex, but it is juxtaposed with violence, images of oppression and a bizarre semi-poetic commentary and hence is very different from his later films.

The Howl was shot without a script and represents a true “stream of consciousness” approach to filmmaking where one idea is simply allowed to follow another and create a cinematic experience made of images and sensations rather than of logic. Brass as offered to direct A Clockwork Orange but instead decided to create his own Sixties film and The Howl is the result.

According to Brass, the financers of the film were horrified when they held what was in production so Brass and crew completed the film in London. The film caused such a furor with the Italian censors that it was banned for eight years.

Berto Bertuccioli is an important man; he works for a significant government department called the PPP though we are never told what the initials mean. He shows up at a police station to use his influence to get his girlfriend, Anita Annigoni, out of jail where she has been raped and beaten since her arrest at a demonstration. The police inspector hides in a strange white box with bubble windows with a detached finger and photo spreads of murder, Bertuccioli pays him off with drugs and Anita is released. Bertuccioli proposes to Anita while she re-enacts the rape she experienced by the police, strangely she seems to have enjoyed it and may have even provoked her arrest for the experience. The wedding is planned for Sunday but during the surreal ceremony with some very eccentric characters Anita catches the eye of Coso, a rather strange character who carries a workman’s box with him wherever he goes. Soon she has abandoned the marriage and begins a road trip with Coso.

The road trip seems to be a symbolic journey through the madness of the world as perceived through the eyes of a Sixties anarchist. There are violent and oppressive authorities who slaughter everyone in sight, a priest who kills and rapes a woman in a train and a bourgeoisie couple out for a drive who treat the couple so bad they end up urinating on their windshield. But this is not all, not by a long short, there is a cannibalistic philosopher ruling over an empire in the woods who might live like a noble savage but will eat you for telling him so. There is a truly superb sex hotel where every possible perversion (and even a few you may not have thought of) is on display and readily available. Shall I continue ? A woman who has been crying for a hundred years, an insane asylum on an isolated and deserted island and let’s not forget the field of hippies!

Brass creates a strange and wonderful road trip through a landscape which is both inner and outer. While we see an obvious critique of the establishment in all its forms; church, state, police and military, at the same time Brass intersperses an exploration of an internal psychological reality. This switching between dreams and reality, the world outside and the world of dreams, sex and desire creates a disorientating visual experience. This is accentuated by the use of all manner of stock footage, news broadcasts and extraneous images. The film was Brass' second collaboration with cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti and is always visually intriguing, if not at times, challenging.

The Howl is an unusual experience, overflowing with images, bereft of a traditional plot and yet fascinating and seductive. It is well worth the experience.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.5 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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