ETOILE
1989, Happinet Pictures, DD-2.0/ 16:9/LB, 96m 51s, ¥3800, DVD-2 By Miles Wood
Original one-sheet poster.
creatives—but surprisingly no trailers, though early listings suggest they were to be in- cluded. DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS and THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD also get single-disc releases (£14.99 ea.), which explains the repeti- tion of bios between discs; the other three titles are, at the moment, only available in this set, though there are best- avoided R2 DVDs from Vipco of ASYLUM and SCREAMING in
straight lifts of old video mas- ters (they also have a similarly- worthless issue of Amicus’ VAULT OF HORROR). In his DR. TERROR’S commentary, Bryce floats the possibility of a further set—and we too look forward to similar treatment of THE SKULL, THE PSYCHO- PATH, TORTURE GARDEN, TALES FROM THE CRYPT and FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, even THE DEADLY BEES and I, MONSTER.
Arriving in Rome for an audi- tion, the nerves of American bal- let student Claire Hamilton (Jennifer Connelly) fail her when a previous dancer’s try-out ends in tears, and she decides to spend the day instead wander- ing the city with fellow hotel guest Jason (THE CHAIR’s Gary McLeery) who’s on an antique clock buying trip with his uncle (Charles Durning). By the end of the day, Claire has summoned enough courage to give it an- other go, providing Jason will attend the audition with her, but when he goes to collect her the following morning, he finds only a note informing him that Claire has returned to New York. Mean- while at the airport check-in, Claire unconsciously signs in as Nathalie Horvath—the name of a prima ballerina whose aban- doned house she was drawn to the previous afternoon, and whose performance of SWAN LAKE ended in tragedy nearly a century earlier—and, when an announcer informs the disorien- tated Claire that Nathalie’s car is waiting for her, she succumbs to the spell of the past. Etoile is the kind of “ghost story” genre critics pine for— understated, atmospheric (aided by a haunting Jürgen Knieper score) and largely restrained— but it has received surprisingly little attention over the years for an Italian horror film, likely due to its lack of gore and unfamiliar director. Co-scripted by regular Argento collaborator Franco Ferrini, this is very much direc- tor Peter Del Monte’s film, shar- ing themes and preoccupations with his previous JULIA AND JULIA (1988), both centering around an American staying in
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