Fabio Frizzi’s Frizzi 2 Fulci, Contraband (1980) and more!
Back in the fall of 2013 I interviewed maestro Fabio Frizzi regarding Frizzi to Fulci, his first concert in London, celebrating his friendship with and scores for director Lucio Fulci, and a year later we touched upon the significance of that performance at Union Chapel, and the imminent concert (branded Frizzi 2 Fulci) at London’s Barbican.
Naturally the topics included scores for Fulci’s most famous films – Zombi (1979) and The Beyond (1981), the latter recently given a deluxe release by Grindhouse Films – but we also talked about two early works: Oscar Brazzi’s “sexy” film Giro girotondo… con il sesso è bello il mondo (1975) and Fulci’s Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniaco, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza (1975).
I tried to track down the films to review, and while they (obviously) exist in Italian, there’s no subtitled version, so we’ll have to wait a bit, and rely on Frizzi’s bemused recollections of these films in the podcast.
Also touched upon is the restoration of Contraband (1980), which makes its soundtrack album debut via Beat Records, the venerable Italian label who also released a 2-CD set of Frizzi’s 2013 Union Chapel concert. (I still have to track down those CDs, but expect eventual reviews.) I’ve added a review of Blue Underground’s DVD which features the uncut Italian edit with all the face burning, cranial trauma, and other meanness that’s more intense than a standard gangster drama.
The roughly 38 min. podcast – available on iTunes, Libsyn, and YouTube – features the full interview which was the basis for a shorter profile in Rue Morgue magazine, and Frizzi’s hugely gregarious personality which undoubtedly tickled audiences who attended his prior 2014 and 2013 concerts.
The podcast was edited a few days before Frizzi announced a Toronto date for Frizzi 2 Fulci (Thursday Oct. 8 at The Opera House, where Goblin performed in 2013), so where you hear ‘rumours of a date in the intro,’ just replace with ‘He’s coming!!!’ As some have pondered in recent Facebook posts, hopefully the concert will include the orchestra as well.
As I state at the end of the podcast, coming next is a lengthy interview with composer Terence P. Minogue, who discusses his entry into film scoring with Roar! (1981), the ‘ferocious comedy’ that cost $17 million and 11 years to make. I’ll pair the podcast with a review of the original U.S. soundtrack LP which I bought a decade ago during an extended phase of LP binge buying.
I’m finishing up on another blog at Big Head Amusements on the filming / editing of Marilla Wex’s Lost and Found, videotaped with a vintage 1986 ENG tube camera at the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. The blog’s augmented with a plethora of sexy camera and lens stills + two making-of featurettes, but coming next at KQEK.com are reviews of documentaries on a trippy device known as a dream machine: William S. Burroughs in the Dreamachine (2014) from Cult Epics + FLickeR (2008) made by the NFB.
Cheers,
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG, INTERVIEWS
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