FM
Francesco Mirabelli
•A fourteen-year-old girl named Ceryl runs away from home, first from her parents' house and then from a friend's, to take refuge in a strange motel belonging to her aunt Martha. In the hotel, there are strange movements, even more sinister characters, and the first murders begin. Ceryl's room is between a closet and the bathroom, and someone spies on her from both rooms through holes in the walls. It is a photographer who seems linked to the disappearance of another girl in the same hotel. His photos are disturbing: couples surprised in the park without clothes, models killed pierced by an awl... Made in 1972, the plot is practically identical to that of "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock. The protagonist "Ceryl" steals the friend's wallet with the money, a theft similar to that of the fleeing employee in Hitchcock's masterpiece. The film has nothing original and often falls into ridicule, for example, in one scene of the film, a photographer is seen flirting with an inflatable doll filled with water on which he places a photo of Ceryl's face. He reaches orgasm by extracting blood with a large syringe, then injecting it into the doll's groin. A bad cinematic product; the director Bartel, indecisive between black comedy or thriller, ends up directing a resounding example of cinematic error. Bambole e sangue shows a squalor of the setting (dirty and poorly furnished rooms, kitsch green-fuchsia outfits, a domestic rat, sex shop, gay priests, trash, etc.). It would deserve less than it is due, so you understand no? Avoid it absolutely.