World Famous Comics: Renato Donis Cemetery Man [VHS]
Renato Donis Cemetery Man [VHS]
Starring: Anton Alexander, Katja Anton, Elio Cesari, Barbara Cupisti, Renato Donis Average Rating: Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC Label: Fox Home Entertainment Number of Items: 1 Release Date: September 23, 1996 Running Time: 105 minutes Theatrical Release Date: April 26, 1996
Amazon.com: If you think you hate your job, think again. Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett), the titular Cemetery Man, lives a lonely life with a dead-end career. He works and resides in a cemetery that holds a dark, hidden secret. You see, those who are buried in Dellamorte's cemetery have the tendency to rise from the dead. Francesco's job is to make sure the dead remain dead. When they rise, he must hunt them down and ensure they get their eternal rest. Since his strange career takes up most of his time, there is no room in his life for romance or friendship. His sole companion is his mute, Igor-like assistant Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro). Not surprisingly, Francesco has grown weary of the dull drum and repetitive routine his job and life have become. It is not until he meets the girl of his dreams (Anna Falchi), who happens to be a widow attending her husband's funeral, that Francesco realizes that there may be more to life than this. Sound a bit odd? Well, it is. But fans of the zombie and the "twentysomething disgruntled worker" genres will feel right at home with this Michele Soavi cult favorite. At its center, Cemetery Man is a black comedy/existential mediation on loneliness and career disappointment. But where Fight Club is entrenched in an action/buddy-flick setting and Office Space is a strict black comedy, Cemetery Man is staged deep in the Italian zombie genre, giving it extra points for originality. --Rob Bracco
"Gna!" In `Cemetery Man', better known in Europe as `Dellamorte Dellamore', poor old Rupert Everett (before he was famous), has to deal with a pesky plague of corpses that return to life on the seventh night of their burial in the graveyard of a small "Italian" town of Buffalora. Although there isn't a single word of Italian spoken in the film, apart from the words "Dellamorte" & "Dellamore", the Italian setting is unmistakable. At first, the premise sounds great. It promised a return (or at least a nod) to the good old days of 70's Italian gore classics, like `Zombie Flesh Eaters' or `Zombie Creeping Flesh', but unfortunately, after the first 25 minutes or so, it descends into a mish-mash of the unintelligible and the aimless.
Honestly, I do understand why this movie would have a decent following, but the film really doesn't know which direction it's going in. It continually wanders off down blind alleys and gets itself lost. Even the basic premise that the film is hung on is never fully fleshed out...so to speak and is completely abandoned half way through the running time. Likewise, the side story of Everett's hopeless infatuations with several women (all of whom are Anna Falchi) never seems to know what to do with itself and therefore one is left with an unsatisfying taste in the mouth, when the end credits roll.
Unfortunately, the film's characters don't save the day either. Everett comes across as an annoying foppish Englishman (totally out of place in the Italian setting), with an inbuilt detachment from the whole project. Falchi is, of course very striking, but couldn't act her way out of a paper bag and every other character is there to make up the numbers it seems. Except for Everett's monosyllabic friend and work colleague Gnaghi, who's played greatly by Francois Hadji-Lazaro and is easily the best thing about the movie.
"Gna!"
But, while `Cemetery Man' fails to deliver on its promises, it does hold a certain spell over the viewer. It's atmosphere is not without merit and in fact it's a far more interesting movie than a large percentage of the dross that gets the green light every year and in a way, its aimlessness is one of its charms, in that you truly never know where the film is going to go next. The problem is though, is that you get the feeling that the director Michele Soavi wasn't 100% sure either. I haven't read the book that the film was based on, but I'd wager that there are a number of departures from the novel's narrative. Either way the film veers from the superbly weird `Mr. Vampire' like atmosphere one minute, to absurd, inane and extremely annoying idiocy the next.
It also difficult to know just who Soavi was thrusting his picture to. As a bizarre pudding of zombie horror, comedy, romance & eurotrash, the film promises everything on the one hand and delivers nothing with the other. Simply because none of the themes are expanded on and are discarded willy-nilly. The zombies are few and far between (and are completely forgotten about), the comedy is not funny, the romance has no chemistry and is aborted all the time and the eurotrash is just not trashy enough.
`Cemetery Man' is, in no way, a complete failure though due largely to the previously mentioned atmosphere and I'd recommend it for that (and Gnaghi) alone. But it is certainly not in the same stable as weird euro horror of the 1970's / 80's and is sure to disappoint many who will come at it from that angle.
Either way, it's probably a movie that I will revisit sometime in the future, but I'll almost surely come away from it feeling the same way. Confused, unsatisfied and a little short changed.
Severed Heads In Love Anyone who likes macabre humor and views life as being somewhat repetitive, will love this odd little Zombie film. This movie is very strange and I will warn you, the movie ends pretty openly. Some of what happens in the film despite being shovenistic happens in such a bizarre way where you can't help but laugh. The main character by the end has killed many of the living as well as the dead. The characters within this film are out of one or two Dylan Dog comic books.
One thing that I felt was missing Everything you have read about this film is spot on but I haven't heard anyone mention that there is no Italian audio. You do get the Italian trailer and I want the option to listen to the film in Italian. that's all. Good movie still, do not let this miniscule complaint detour you from purchasing and experiencing this film.
Death, Sex & Love: In That Order Please... In this campy, cheesy, and often times weird and senseless film, acclaimed Italian horror director Michele Soavi's strange antics in the life of Buffalora's nightwatchman of the cemetery will either make you laugh, throw your brows up in confusion, or roll your eyes. Maybe all of the above at times.
As the caretaker of the only cemetery in a quiet little Italian town, Francesco Dellamorte (nee Dellamore) makes sure that what's dead stays dead. With his 'gna' saying assistant Gnaghi at his side (who falls in love with the Mayor's daughter Valentina and develops an unnatural love affair with her head after her death--yeah, you heard me), Francesco wanders through existence, lonely but always busy. All that is overturned when a young widow begins to visit the graveside of her elderly husband, to whom Francesco becomes increasingly infatuated with and eventually falls in love with this mysterious woman. The strange relationship, once found, is quickly lost, as her zombie returning husband (whilst making love with Francesco by the gave) attacks and wounds the widow (known only as 'She'). What Francesco doesn't realize is that the woman doesn't die from the bite, and as he is anxiously and woefully waiting for her to rise so that he can shoot her, he does so with his eyes shut, accidentally killing her, only to have her rise again. Upon realizing that he'd taken a human life, and the only woman he'd ever loved, Francesco begins to contend with the quixotic tangle of life, death and love. In answer to the increasing craziness of his thoughts and torments, he argues with Death itself as to how to stop zombies from rising by going on random killing sprees yet finding no solace as he continually re-encounters phantom 'Shes' and finds his not so big world quickly spiraling out of control. When Francesco tries to leave town, he finds that the main road ends suddenly, and comes to the awesome realization, that there is no world, nothing beyond what and who he is, whatever that may be, and to which, he cannot escape.
Based on the 1991 book, Dellamorte Dellamore, by Tiziano Sclavi, to which the character Francesco is shadowed in Soavi's other horror driven film, Dylan Dog (based on the Italian comic by T. Sclavi who also wrote the book DD), Dellamorte Dellamore came out in 1994 in Italy, to some success, while it was repackaged as Cemetery Man in a more classic horror film noir campiness to which American audiences know it as since 1996. This was universally panned by critics but eventually engendered a cult following, much like The Rocky Picture Horror Show. Rupert Everett as the soulful caretaker balances the often times bizarre and what-the-heck-is-going-on scenes and story plot that tend to veer off toward an actual story-telling and into rambling and just random scenes and dialog. The story is something you have to infuse on your own part, because trying to understand what is being said is ambiguous at best, and completely chaotic at worse.
The bio-pic on the director, Soavi, sheds a great deal of light in the actual process--which began years ago--of deciding to make the film, and then the eventual production of it. While interesting, it will require some focus on the audience's part but it gives a good insight into the film itself, which I didn't always understand while watching it.
This is a hit or miss. Some of the scenes were actually well shot, the acting mediocre, and a few concepts which may offend you--like necrophilia. For fans of classic horror and zomibie movies, you'll be in heaven. For those of us just passing by, like me, you might just be scratching your head afterwards, and never watch it again, but you'll think about it long after--that, I'll guarantee you. So go ahead, take a looksy. Laugh, wince, cheer Francesco through the wilds of love before and after death, and life itself, because you never know, you just might find something, you weren't expecting to find.
A fave of mine This is truly one of my favorite Zombie flicks. If you like zombie movies, this is one you should try out.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
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