Spotlight Release: All the Colours of Sergio Martino

All the Colours of Sergio Martino 
By Kat Ellinger 
Publisher Arrow Films
Release Year: 2018

Opening Thoughts: I've been collecting films since I was a kid on VHS and Laserdisc. I am always looking for those films that leave me on awe wanting more. By 2016, I had amassed a collection of films that few can rival, but still feel like the best is yet to come.

In 2016, at a BS Movies screening I was introduced to the distributor Arrow Video USA. I wasn't unfamiliar with them because I had a few UK releases like Who Dares Wins on BluRay, but this was the first time I got a US release given to me. Blood Rage was the film and that film was bad on a legendary level cheesy, terrible acting, and special effects that left me on the floor laughing I wanted to see more this distributor had to offer.

What I discovered Arrow is a line of cult classics, underappreciated, foriegn, and exploitation films that really deserved another look at. They are films chosen maybe they are not the best in the world like Criterion, but they are films that have a lot of rewatch fun value with friends or by yourself.

In 2017, again BS Movies peaked my interest again during an all night Scream Fest when they chose Stage Fright. That film opened up my world to Giallo. A style of horror with a murderer on the loose that can go in almost any direction with no rhyme or reason with a black glove usually involved. In this case it was a killer with a bird mask on terrorizing the cast of a theater production. The film was simply bonkers and I wanted more. I just didn't know where to start looking other than Arrow Video and through Cinephile guides.

The Author: In my search for more Giallo, my paths crossed with Samm Dieghan and Kat Ellinger. Kat the latter because she is partners with Samm Dieghan on a podcast called Daughters of Darkness. Samm wrote the book Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin. A fantastic book about the horror films of Jean Rollin. My favorite director in the genre of horror.

I started listening to their podcast after I fell in love with Samm's book. What I noticed when listening to Kat, she seemed to echo alot of my thoughts and gave a perspective to certain films why should women love certain horror films and why certain films shouldn't be looked at negatively just because there are sex scenes in the film. Whether the scene is looked at negatively should depend on how the sex is displayed. I finally heard someone who echoed my thoughts. That is when I started following Kat Ellinger on a regular basis.

 Kat is the editor of Diabolique Magazine and a regular contributor to small specialized Home Media labels retrospective looks at older films like a commentary on a BluRay release. If you own alot of Giallo you probably have Kat somewhere in your collection. The nice thing is Kat is a fresh perspective compared to some the more established horror historians like Kim Newman. I like fresh perspectives of people closer to my age and from both genders.

So when I saw Arrow released the book of All the Colours of Sergio Martino by Kat Ellinger. I got excited because she is already on a few of my releases and her suggestions on Giallo never led me wrong plus I can use more input in that area beyond Massimo Dallamano and Dario Argento.

The Book: What can I say if you follow Italian Cinema enough, you might notice a certain trend. The Italians tend to take a popular new fad in American cinema and create their own genre out of that fad then beat that new genre into the ground until their is nothing left to make or the genre is dead. Mix that in with weird what the stories?, outlandish  scenarios, and unexpected endings they sure know how to make some of the most fun yet weirdest movies you will ever see. I'm actually surprised we haven't seen Django in Space yet.

The director Sergio Martino maybe the best director that crossed multiple Italian genres of films with an almost endless catalog of films to watch. So a book that focuses on his work is a great idea. There was two ways you could go with this book one being  the retrospective of Clint Eastwood's career by Richard Schenkel that did a large in depth look at each and every film Clint ever made. The other option is a smaller look on each film, but more of a Cliff Notes guide or Home Media guide to a director. Kat went with the Cliff Notes version. Each has their advantages and disadvantages.

If you are expecting a large super in depth guide to Sergio Martino this book may not be your cup of tea, but if you are a novice looking for suggestions in a certain genre of Italian film and want a more condensed version of Martino then this book is perfect for you.

I fell in love with certain stories where Kat used actual quotes from Martino and her background knowledge of the director to bring you in and get you hooked. In the first few pages Kat brilliantly described Martino's youth. I actually felt I was in that room surrounded by smoke as a kid looking up at the greatest filmmakers of Italian cinema like Martino was exposed to as a child. I couldn't put down the book.

Then Kat split the book into various parts mostly keeping certain genres together without having them mixed and a home media guide. Splitting the book into multiple parts is brilliant because if all I wanted to focus on is comedy then I can read that section and if I wanted to focus on Giallo I can read that section without having to read to the others.

The nice thing about each section when describing the film Kat would compare films to other directors' films and gave names. So when looking for suggestions and maybe more of a background if I had seen the other material that helped decide whether I wanted to see Martino's film or in some cases I love Martino's film so much I want to see the other directors' film mentioned.

That is what film guides should do make you want to explore more films and give you some background knowledge. The other thing nice was the home media releases guide. Kat lists all the films that have a home media release on BluRay and DVD in what country you get those releases in. So while a film may not be available in the United States if you have a region free player you can import his films to watch them.

Closing Thoughts: I am not going to go out and call this the perfect book by any means. Sorry Kat if you read this. Yet I will say this book is a good gateway drug into the world perfect for the novice or medium level person who has some knowledge on Sergio Martino, just not enough info to make a decision on which films to watch from him. All the Colours of Sergio Martino would be a great purchase to guide you.

If you are that expert on Martino and want super in depth info on him then again this may not be your cup of tea. Where it may be a good for the expert is handing the book to a friend who expresses interest in him.

I found the book quite enjoyable myself. Will be using it more as a reference guide from here on out specifically the home media section. Though I will see if I really enjoy a film what other films compare to it in the sections.

As I write this post some of the home media options are already out of date with new and better releases coming out like All the Colours of the Dark with a brand new Kat Ellinger commentary. So do your research before you buy a release.