THE LAST FASHION SHOW

Model Alexandra, after a night of alcohol and cocaine, is hit by a hit-and-run driver and dies. Inspector Malerba investigates the case and from the clues collected begins to suspect that it was not an accident but a carefully planned murder. Meanwhile, Marinoni, the stylist for whom Alexandra worked, asks his secretary to find him a girl who can replace the murdered model and become the new icon of his atelier. The "replacement" is found in Stockholm, her name is Britt and she is a florist. When a second model linked to Marinoni's atelier is killed and a case of apparent suicide from five years earlier is reopened, Inspector Malerba sets out to search for what is now considered a serial killer. While watching the images of "Under the Dress Nothing – The Last Show," the third film in a series started by the Vanzina brothers and producer Achille Manzotti in 1985, one realizes how the way of making genre cinema in Italy has changed. Once, a time that includes as its last flames the very years contemporary to the first "Under the Dress Nothing," genre cinema predominantly occupied the mainstream ranks of national production. Cinema was seen as an industry, many titles were produced each year with the intention of making just as much money for the producers, and production focused mainly on "genre" in the broadest sense of the term. Popular cinema that included crime films, horror, westerns, spicy comedies, erotica, all primarily coded to be enjoyed by adult audiences. Then things began to change, the genre slowly died, surviving only in comedy—declined in various directions—and very rarely in other sectors, usually carried forward by individual names that automatically coincided with the reference genre (e.g., Dario Argento -> Horror; Tinto Brass -> Erotic, etc.). The reason for this decline is unclear; some say it's the fault of television, others blame politics, and still others blame the poor quality of some films, but it's hard to decree who is telling the truth. The fact is that today the genre is practiced very little and often by independents who invest ridiculous sums compared to world standards to produce films that then often do not find satisfactory distribution and, for the most part, remain unknown to the masses. From an industry, Italian genre cinema has transformed into a craft workshop that at the end of each month sweats cold at the thought of being able to pay the rent of the premises. Here, "Under the Dress Nothing – The Last Show" is the culmination of the whole issue. Carlo Vanzina's new film is undoubtedly a return to the genre of mainstream cinema: big names involved and big sums invested. Yet we are faced with a product that has completely lost all the characteristics that would have allowed it to be annexed to the genre. "Under the Dress Nothing – The Last Show" is a film stripped of classic conventions and tamed to a purely television-oriented conception of the thriller. At this point, one would be inclined to agree with those who blamed television for the death of cinema, even though the 1985 version of "Under the Dress Nothing," which we remember had all the hallmarks of the Genre, was already perfectly integrated into the optics of commercial televisions that were at the height of success at the time. Perhaps it is television itself that has changed, which is highly likely, but in this context, it does not interest us. If the 1985 film was stingy with atrocities but abundant with nudity and scenes of a certain macabre depth, the 2011 film renounces everything. Exploitation no longer lives here. Despite the protagonists being young models (often in real life) and the film delving into situations with morbid implications, there are no concessions to the erotic aspect of the story, which instead delighted the two previous films (hence also and perhaps even more so "Under the Dress Nothing II," directed by Dario Piana in 1988). Despite the fact that it speaks of a serial killer who kills girls in also brutal ways, not a single drop of blood flows and the murders are all off-screen. On the contrary, it delves into aspects of social interest (it talks about adoptions for gay couples, for example) and there is a tendency towards melodrama with lots of good feelings and moralism. All this makes one think of one thing: today's television. "Under the Dress Nothing – The Last Show" is a thriller born of contemporary Italian fiction, and this is evident in every single shot. The rhythms are those of the stretched product typical of television, the protagonist policeman is a good all-around character who, thanks also to the fake-Sicilian accent and the charm, reminds one of Rai's Montalbano and refers to current events even if the film is not contextualized in any precise era (although a Lady Gaga song that accompanies a fashion show screams 2010!). However, if one survives the trauma of a film that completely betrays the target for which it was originally created, "Under the Dress Nothing – The Last Show" is not a bad film; in fact, we can venture that as far as the screenplay and the yellow plot are concerned, it surpasses the prototype. The story, a work of the Vanzina brothers and Franco Ferrini ("Demons"; "No Sleep"), manages to capture and especially does not have a banal solution, as well as a couple of characters who turn out to be spot on and I refer to Inspector Malerba, played by a good Francesco Montanari ("Romanzo Criminale – The Series"), and the stylist Marinoni, to whom the altmanian Richard E. Grant ("The Innocents"; "Dracula of Bram Stoker") gives face. However, one moves with a cut that is too clean from the professionalism of the aforementioned actors to others who convince little or nothing like the inexpressive Vanessa Hessler ("Christmas in Miami"), who plays the model protagonist Britt, and the Vanzinian Virginie Marsan ("Christmas Vacation 2000"; "Life is a Wonderful Thing") who appears little appropriate to impersonate the hysterical model Cris. In short, just as the rebirth of the Italian comedy is being discussed, Carlo Vanzina, one of the leading exponents of the genre from the 1980s to today, decides to go against the current and crafts a thriller with the hope of replicating the success of the 1980s prototype. Even if the film is not malicious, its television caliber makes it accessible only transversally to those who appreciated "Under the Dress Nothing," a third watered-down chapter already ready for the primetime schedule of Canale 5. If the film will be successful, we can expect a new explosion of the genre, let's just hope that it aims at a less slippers target.