Posts Tagged ‘Alfonso Brescia’


Battaglie negli Spazi Stellari (Battle in Stellar Space)

June 27th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Prefiguring the post-Dawn of the Dead European zombie craze by several years, Alfonso Brescia’s looney Star Wars-inspired space epic features a race of wormy, undead good-for-nothings out to conquer at the behest of the evil robotic ruler of an asteroid. Filmed simultaneously with the better known Cosmos: War of the Planets (Anno Zero: Guerra nello Spazio), the film stars Yanti Somer and John Richardson.

Aside from a bunch of groovy futuristic stuff, the opening credits also showcase Marcello Giombini’s show-stopping musical oddity ‘We Are Not Alone Here in Space’, which served as the theme song for Anno Zero: Guerra nello Spazio as well.  A full Wtf-Film review of the film can be read here.


Battaglie negli Spazi Stellari

November 15th, 2009 | article by | 3 Comments »
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postera.k.a. Cosmo 2000
companies: Nais Film and
La Cinematografie Internazionali Associate
year: 1977
runtime: 92′
country: Italy
director: Alfonso Brescia
cast: John Richardson, Yanti Somer,
Walter Maestosi, Massimo de Cecco,
Gisela Hahn, West Buchanan, Malisa Longo
writers: Giacomo Mazzocchi
and Massimo Lo Jacono
not on home video in the USA

Plot: The giant robot ruler of a distant asteroid attempts to conquer the Earth with a fleet of flying saucers and an army of human-duplicating space zombies.

This is either the first or second of Alfonso Brescia’s pentalogy of STAR WARS-inspired space adventures, and I’m not sure it really matters which.  Brescia seems to have filmed it side by side with ANNO ZERO: GUERRA NELLO SPAZIO / COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS, with which it is often confused (including at the IMDB), and the two share not only special effects, costumes, and props, but a good deal of cast and crew as well.  Like LA BESTIA NELLO SPAZIO / THE BEAST IN SPACE three years later, BATTAGLIE NEGLI SPAZI STELLARI was never picked up for any sort of distribution in the United States and has since become the most obscure entry in the series.

A shame really, as BATTAGLIE is one of the better of Brescia’s tightly budgeted inepics.  The screenplay by Giacomo Mazzocchi and Massimo Lo Jacono [STAR ODYSSEY] has more in common with one of Antonio Margheriti’s hip Gamma I films than with George Lucas’ budding franchise, and focuses less on fantastical interstellar combat and more on Earthbound dramatics.  Brescia’s budget simply wouldn’t allow for anything approaching Lucas’ brand of special effects action, though he and his effects team do pull out all the stops in the end and allow for a final, brief flying saucer invasion of Earth.

The story concerns a space captain named Mike, played by COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS star John Richardson [BLACK SUNDAY], who is called into service, along with his girlfriend (Yanti Somer), after a ship is destroyed by flying saucers while investigating an asteroid rich in rare elements.  Mike joins forces with mysterious yet friendly alien visitor Irk (Walter Maestosi) and his child companion (who carries and, more importantly, uses a silver ball capable of disintigrating people) against the huge robotic ruler of the asteroid and his collection of mummy-wrapped and maggot-ridden space zombies.  Things become more complicated when it is discovered that some of those zombies have been made to look, sound, and act like important members of Earth’s space force!

It’s odd to think that Brescia may have, for once, been ahead of the curve with this film, considering that the walking dead wouldn’t become a fixture of contemporary Italian genre cinema until George Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD and Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBI 2 were released there two years later.  The zombies in this case only reveal their true form sporadically and are seen either wearing masks or imitating the living for most of their time on screen.  In the rare instances that we do see them for what they are they’re pretty nasty, their pulsing faces wriggling with fly larvae and covered in a bloody mush.  They may never eat people in the tradition of their more famous counterparts, but these space zombie manage to kill plenty of hapless Earthlings all the same.

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From a production standpoint BATTAGLIE NEGLI SPAZI STELLARI is a few steps ahead of the rest of the entries in the series, and benefits from a few outdoor location shoots and some fine costume design by Elena de Cupis.  Marcello Giombini’s electronic score makes for fine accompaniment throughout, particularly when the bizarrely catchy theme song We are not Alone here in Space kicks in over the opening and closing credits.  Filled with loopy lyrics about “new UFOs” and “super human men” and sung by a chorus of men for whom English is obviously not a first language, the song (recycled for COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS) must be heard to be believed.

Also moderately impressive are the special effects, handled by a variety of people and organizations (including animation house Studio H and Biamonte Cinegroup).  Many of them, especially vistas of Earth ships sailing through the stars, already look off color and duped here, while some look positively pristine.  Original to this production are a number of angles showing UFOs tracking along in groups of various sizes, most of which would be recycled in LA GUERRA DEI ROBOT / THE WAR OF THE ROBOTS and SETTE UOMINI D’ORO NELLO SPAZIO / STAR ODYSSEY.  Fun as the effects can be, we see far too much of them.  Shots are repeated over and over again, often multiple times in a single scene, and then looped through again on the view screens seen in sets for spaceship interiors and the Earth control center.

Brescia’s direction is as inept as ever here, though that’s really part of the fun.  It’s certainly reasonable enough for the material at hand, with its weird drama (Richardson and Somer are introduced via a comedic fishing trip) and pages of ludicrous techno-babble.  Editor Carlo Reali makes the most of the footage available to him, repeating some takes three and four times to stretch the length of scenes for which additional footage was obviously never shot.

004It’s a minor miracle that BATTAGLIE NEGLI SPAZI STELLARI is as entertaining as it is with all of its technical and budgetary shortcomings.  It’s a far cry from the Antonio Margheriti science fantasies that came before and will look dated even when compared to its contemporaries from elsewhere in the world, but it’s great fun all the same.  I can only hope that someone like Mya Communications or Severin Films will take to giving this a proper English friendly release at some point in the future, but for now it remains unavailable on home video.  Available or not, this one gets my recommendation.


The Beast in Space

November 9th, 2009 | article by | 3 Comments »
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poster

This locandina for THE BEAST IN SPACE is, in accordance with the film itself, rather derivative. Not only does the artwork rip-off that commissioned for the release of John Boorman's ZARDOZ, but the still images included are from the earlier Brescia space film STAR ODYSSEY.

a.k.a. La Bestia nello Spazio
companies: LU. MA. FIN and S.I.G.M.A. E. CO.
year: 1980
runtime: 92′
country: Italy
director: Alfonso Brescia
cast: Sirpa Lane, Vassili Karis,
Venantino Venantini, Lucio Rosato,
Robert Hundar, Marina Hedman
dvd company: Severin Films
release date: April 29, 2008
retail price: $29.95
disc details: Region 1 / Single Layer
order this film from Amazon.com:
unrated version | xxx version
reviewed from a screener provided
by Severin Films, LLC

Plot: A group of astronauts are sent deep into space to a planet rich in the rare metal Antalium.  Once there they discover a world ruled by a megalomaniacal robot sex fiend, his groovy beast-man servant and an army of blond android warriors.

The first STAR WARS revolutionized the sci-fi fantasy genre in any number of ways, namely by placing a renewed emphasis on action and expensive special effects.  It’s runaway success ensured that imitators would be riffing on its formula for decades to come, and none of these imitators seem to have been so prolific as the low-end Italian exploitation director Alfonso Brescia.  In the span of three years between 1977 and 1980, Brescia managed to co-write and direct a tersely connected pentalogy of such knock-offs (along with a host of unrelated efforts).

His production ethic was simple and cost effective – create a single laundry list of props, sets, and special effects takes, and then write scripts for which they could be utilized time and time again.  After three serious efforts (BATTAGLIE NEGLI SPAZI STELLARI,  ANNO ZERO: GUERRA NELLO SPAZIO / COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS and LA GUERRA DEI ROBOT / THE WAR OF THE ROBOTS) and one outright spoof  (1979′s SETTE UOMINI D’ORO NELLO SPAZIO /  STAR ODYSSEY), the well was running quite dry.  What were money-hungry Italian producers to do?

Why, rip off another popular film from the time period, steal its star, and dust off those props, sets, and effects for one more go.  One has to give the film makers credit for shear absurdity in this department as they found that inspiration in, of all places, Walerian Borowczyk’s bizarre erotic opus LA BETE from five years earlier.  Simply adding graphic sexual content to their space picture was obviously deemed too mundane, and THE BEAST IN SPACE opts to focus instead on the Borowczyk film’s most infamous moment – the rape of a young and prudish aristocrat by a randy and hugely endowed anthropomorphic beast.  A family friendly space adventure this was certainly not to be.

70′s sex icon Sirpa Lane (THE SECRET NIGHTS OF LUCREZIA BORGIA) was attached to be BEAST’s star attraction and doomed to a far less glamourous fate than in the Borowczyk production – falling victim to the lustful intentions of a lascivious man-beast and a world-dominating super-robot and a cocky starship captain named Larry who likes to compare the wonders of space to animal asses.  Needless to say, Lane’s professional career had seen better days, and its a pity to see her used here as nothing but an admissions booster.  Director Brescia approaches her (as well as the other) erotic moments with the same aesthetic barbary that renders the drama that surrounds them so lifeless and ineffectual.  There is certainly sex to be had here, though it’ll prove of little interest to even the most devoted of skin aficianados.

Aside from its adults-only classification and a handful of sleazy and salacious moments, THE BEAST IN SPACE is par for the course as far as Brescia’s science fiction efforts are concerned.  Characters sit around spouting all manner of ludicrous dialogue (“Sector two damaged.  The bastard hit the module!”) while the editor unspools reems of stock effects in a ramshackle fashion about them.  Many of these effects shots are rather well accomplished, with considerable attention paid in making them as believable as the budget would allow, though their presence in three previous films has exponentially lessened their novelty value.

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Those trademarks of the previous Nais Film produced Brescia space pictures are all present and accounted for, including hordes of blond-wigged silver-suited android fighting men with clunky glowing swords, though that company’s name is nowhere to be found in the credits scroll.  Scripting (by Brescia and Aldo Crudo) is at least as convoluted and incoherent as in the rest of those films, and the effort is rendered even harder to follow by one of the most incongruous Itailian overdubs I’ve yet encountered.  That’s not to say that this low-tech patchwork of disparate genres is without its bizarre charms (the sight of women in space suits becoming hot and bothered by anamorphic stock footage of horses copulating is perversely hilarious), but you’ll need an unflinching adoration for cinematic awfulness to appreciate them.

The shaky distribution rights to Brescia’s previous space operas have fallen by the wayside, leaving us with nothing but shoddy bargain-bin releases of them to choose from.  Not so with the previously unreleased THE BEAST IN SPACE, which only recently received its stateside debut thanks to the due diligence and possible insanity of cult DVD distributor Severin Films.  The company has shown a remarkable dedication to the title, presenting audiences with not one but two separate releases of it – including one of the obscure hardcore cut of the picture.

The feature presentations for both discs, triple-x inserts and gigantic rubber man-beast penis aside, are pretty much identical.  BEAST is presented in 16:9 enhanced and progressive scan widescreen transfer that, in spite of frequent speckling and other damage, puts the digital representations of Brescia’s other space films to shame.  Colors and contrast are both well represented and the grainy image presents with good detail when the cinematography (frequently intentionally blurry and diffused) allows for it.  Audio is represented by a suitable Dolby Digital monophonic Italian track, augmented with English subtitles that, barring a few typos, are well translated.  An interview with actor and artist Venantino Venantini is included on the unrated disc, while the xxx edition gets just over two minutes of hardcore outtakes.  Both discs come with a  trailer, the sexual explicitness of which varies in accordance with which cut of the film is represented.

Severin Films is to be commended for finally giving this, undoubtedly the strangest of Italy’s science fiction offerings, a proper release on digital, though the high retail price will probably deter most casual buyers.  In this case that’s probably not so bad a thing, as THE BEAST IN SPACE is definitely not for everyone.  Its off-kilter blend of outer space antics and sleazy sex was enough to keep the Wtf-filmer in me casually entertained, but your mileage will definitely vary.