What Have You Done to Solange?

What Have You Done to Solange?

Italian film poster for What Have You Done to Solange?
Directed by Massimo Dallamano
Produced by
Screenplay by
  • Bruno Di Geronimo
  • Massimo Dallamano[1]
Starring
Music by Ennio Morricone[1]
Cinematography Joe D'Amato[1]
Edited by
Production
companies
  • Italian International Films S.r.l.
  • Clodio Cinematografica
  • Rialto Film[1]
Distributed by Constantin Film (West Germany)
Release dates
  • March 9, 1972 (1972-03-09) (Italy & West Germany)
Running time
 103 minutes[1]
Country
  • Italy
  • West Germany
Language Italian

What Have You Done to Solange? (Italian: Cosa avete fatto a Solange?) is a 1972 Italian-West German giallo film directed by Massimo Dallamano.

Plot

Italian teacher Enrico Rosseni is having an affair with one of his lovely young students. While on an afternoon outing the two lovers learn that a fellow student is brutally murdered mere yards from them. Now other female students are being targeted by a killer with a sinister vendetta and Rosseni is looking like a suspect. The truth is that Solange was badly injured when her female classmates tried to give her an abortion, and she or someone close to her is looking for revenge.

Cast

[1]

Production

What Have You Done to Solange? was an Italian and West German co-production, and credits itself as being based on The Clue of the New Pin by Edgar Wallace.[1][2] The film bares very little relationship to the novel, with authors and film historians Kim Newman and Michael Mackenzie believing that it was marketed this way to sell the film to a German audience as part of the krimi film genre.[2] The relationship to the genre is enhanced by the appearnce of cast members Joachim Fuchsberger and Karin Baal who appeared in several Edgar Wallace adapataions produced by Rialto Film in the 1960s.[3]

Camille Keaton was cast in the film as Solange.[4] Keaton had originally sent in photos for a casting call for a Franco Zeffirelli film.[4] She was not cast in his film, but received a call from director Massimo Dallamano later to invite her in the for the role.[4] Keaton described working with Dallamano as challenging as she was only learning to speak Italian and he spoke very little English.[4] For her role, Dallamano told her that she was looking for someone who looked frail and ordered her not to tan while filming.[4]

Release

What Have You Done to Solange? was released in both Italy and West Germany on March 9, 1972.[1][5] Fulvio Lucisano stated that the film was the first giallo film to be shown at the Adriano Theater in Rome, which normally did not show films of the genre.[6] In West Germany, it was released under the title Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel where it was distributed by Constantin.[1][7] The film has been released under various English-language titles, including The Secret of the Green Pins, The School That Couldn't Scream, and Who's Next?.[8] It is most commonly known under the title What Have You Done to Solange?.[8] In 2005, the Venice Film Festival had a day in honour of Fulvio Lucisano Day as part of it's "Secret History of Italian Cinema" screenings, which included a screening of a restored version of What Have You Done to Solange?.[6]

What Have You Done to Solange? was first released on DVD by Shriek Show on July 30, 2002.[9] It was released by Arrow Video on Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2015 and in the United States on December 15, 2015.[10] Film Comment placed Arrow Video's release of What Have You Done to Solange? at 15th on their list of top blu-ray releases of 2015.[11]

Reception

In a contemporary review, the German newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt found the film to be "too broad." but stated that quality acting from Karin Baal, Fabio Testi, Joachim Fuchsberger and Günther Stoll enhance the film.[12]

From retrospective reviews, AllMovie called the film a "first-rate thriller," a "creepy mystery", and noted "Massimo Dallamano's direction is assured."[13] Video Librarian stated that the film is "considered a classic of the Italian horror genre known as giallo" but "For all the characteristic sloppiness of the screenplay, this film remains unusual and surprising, with some well-directed murder scenes and startling imagery." and it was "shamelessly salacious in its exploitation of girls as sexual objects and unsavory in that these minors are assaulted in a vicious, sadistic, and hateful manner" and that ultimately "the extreme violence against young women makes it hard to enjoy".[14] Danny Shipka, author of a book on European exploitation films found the film to be "One of the most satisfying gialli of its day" and that it had "the right amount of sleaze and story to carry the audience through all the twists and turns with an emotionally satisfying ending."[15] The review commented that Dallamano took a "serious approach to the subgenre, creating situations that will stay long after you've finished the film."[15] The Herald proclimed the film as "a prime example of “giallo”" and that the film was "better than it sounds" and described it as an influence on Peter Strickand's film The Duke of Burgundy.[16]

Aftermath and influence

What Have You Done to Solange? is the first entry in a loosely linked series of film called The Schoolgirls in Peril trilogy.[17] A series of films based on the sexual exploits of young girls and their reaction to the adults.[17] By 1974, audiences began to grow tired of the giallo genre and began having interest in other European genres such as the poliziotteschi, urban cop thrillers that were influenced by American films such as Dirty Harry and The French Connection.[18] Dallamano next film in the Schoolgirls in Peril trilogy was What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, a film with similar themes to What Have You Done to Solange?.[19] The final part of the series was Red Rings of Fear was released on August 19, 1978.[20] Dallamano is credited as a screenwriter on the film, and was intended to direct the film died before the film began production.[20]

Director Nicolas Winding Refn announced in 2016 that he was seeking a director and screenwriter for a remake of What Have You Done to Solange?.[21] The film will be produced by Refn's Space Rocket Nation banner along with producer Fulvio Lucisano.[21]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel". Filmportal.de. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:07:50. FCD1198.
  3. ↑ Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:08:15. FCD1198.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Ettinger, Art (2015). Camille Keaton: Solange and Beyond (booklet). Arrow Films. p. 18. FCD1198.
  5. ↑ Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:07:30. FCD1198.
  6. 1 2 Vivarelli, Nick (May 13, 2008). "Fulvio Lucisano Still Going Strong". Variety. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  7. ↑ Bergfelder 2005, p. 257.
  8. 1 2 Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:02:38. FCD1198.
  9. ↑ "What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) - Releases". AllMovie. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  10. ↑ "What Have You Done To Solange? Dual Format DVD and Blu-Ray". Arrow Films. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Top 20 Blu-Ray". Film Comment. Vol. 51 no. 6. Film Society of Lincoln Center. November 2015. pp. 74–75. ISSN 0015-119X.
  12. ↑ Bericht, Eigener (10 June 1972). ""Das gibt es selbst in Chikago nicht"" (PDF). Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). p. 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 1, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2016. Ein Edgar-Wallace-Film, in Kammerspielmanier gedreht. […] Leider ist der Film zu breit angelegt. Aber er fesselt trotzdem. Gute Schauspieler, u. a. Karin Baal und Fabio Testi, Joachim Fuchsberger (zieht seine elegante Kommissarmasche ab), und Günther Stoll (bleibt blaß), geben ihm Niveau.
  13. ↑ Firsching, Robert. "What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  14. ↑ Axmaker, S (2016). "What Have You Done to Solange?". Video Librarian. Vol. 31 no. 2. p. 48. ISSN 0887-6851.
  15. 1 2 Shipka, p. 110.
  16. ↑ Didcock, Barry (December 23, 2015). "DVD reviews:The Bridge Trilogy (15); What Have You Done To Solange? (18); The Cobbler (12)". The Herald. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  17. 1 2 Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:07:35. FCD1198.
  18. ↑ Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:18:05. FCD1198.
  19. ↑ Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:19:05. FCD1198.
  20. 1 2 Mackenzie, Michael (2015). Innocence Lost (Blu ray (Disc 1)). Arrow Films. Event occurs at 0:24:00. FCD1198.
  21. 1 2 Hanley, Ken W. (May 23, 2016). "Nicolas Winding Refn Announces 'Remake Trilogy' with Vincent Price, Giallo Classics!". Fangoria. Retrieved October 22, 2016.

Sources

  • Bergfelder, Tim (2005). International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-productions in the 1960s. Berghahn Books. ISBN 1571815384. 
  • Shipka, Danny. Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960–1980. McFarland, 2011. ISBN 0786448881. 
 
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