The Conspiracy of Torture

Very early directorial effort from Fulci. Contains all of his trademark hatefulness and repugnance but not so much his signature gore yet. Stumbles through most of its running time slowly and confusingly but heats up a bit at the end. This came on a double feature disc with "The Whip & the Body" by Bava and this was definitely the less boring of the 2.

Not a fan of flashback movies but the church intrigue is interesting enough, considering it's based on a true story. Adrienne La Russa is the image of a tragic beauty. Hard to believe she wanted to join a convent. Fav scene: her looking unflinchingly at the murder.

Lucio Fulci #2

A lot of other films represent the Renaissance as a cultural peak. Fulci displays more of an affinity with the savagery, cruelty and ignorance of the time. From a technical standpoint it's possibly one of his best films, beautifully shot with careful attention paid to costume and sets. Still appears to be designed principally to showcase various sadistic means of torture.

Fulci own favorite film. It's visual a very striking movie with great compositions. Because of the flashback structure and the many characters introduced the first half is a bit incomprehensible, especially for non-Italians unfamiliar with the story of Beatrice Cenci. Fulci wouldn't be Fulci and 16th century inquisitors not 16th century inquisitors if there wasn't some torture in this. But Fulci doesn't use that so much as to shock but to depict the violent nature of 16th century society.

Period drama from Fulci. Obviously an important film in shaping his career along with Massacre Time and One on Top of the Other. It's very bleak & brutal and Fulci emphasizes the torture/death scenes which are surprisingly graphic for '69 as is the amount of nudity. I had issues with the non-chronological narrative, but it does make the ending more powerful. I was surprised that it only really becomes Beatrice's story towards the end. Milian was good but his part was smaller than expected.