V. The Masks of Villains

Tom Gunning’s lecture ‘The Colour of Nothingness: costumes of invisibility and transformation in early detective films and literature’, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace, Elio Petri’s The Tenth Victim and Richard Fleischer’s Follow Me Quietly.

Follow Me Quietly

Wed 21 & Sat 31 May, 18:20 / 20:30 | BFI Southbank | Duration: 60'

A faceless dummy of a serial killer haunts a police department in this atmospheric noir thriller directed by Richard Fleischer. The dummy is created to represent an elusive strangler who calls himself “The Judge” and whom the frustrated detective Harry Grant attempts to reconstruct from a handful of clues, such as body size and suit fabric.

The Tenth Victim

Wednesday 28 May, 20:45 | ICA Cinema | Duration: 93'

In a distant 21st century where the world lusts for violence, an international organisation called “The Big Hunt” has legalised murder. Things get heated when the game’s top players become Victim and Hunter.

The Colour of Nothingness

Saturday 24 May, 15:50 | BFI Southbank

The influential film scholar Tom Gunning will trace early film criminals’ visual identity, focusing on their acts of disappearance and transformation that owe much to the realms of magic and early trick film. Under special scrutiny will be the black costume, the body suit and masks worn by such nemeses of the law as Fantômas and Irma Vep of the Vampire gang in popular French crime serials of the 1910s.

With live musical accompaniment.

Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l'assassino)

Thursday 29 May, 20:00 | The Horse Hospital | Duration: 84'

Camp as its title may sound, this creation from the Italian horror maverick Mario Bava is considered a quintessential giallo thriller and a masterpiece, and has a cult following among the likes of Quentin Tarantino. Filmed under the working title “The Fashion House of Death”, it revolves around dubious secrets involving a group of nerve-wracked fashion models, and a certain red diary.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo)

Friday 30 May, 18:30 | BFI Southbank | Duration: 98'

With his sharp directorial debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the ex-film critic Dario Argento paid homage to director Mario Bava, reviving interest in Italian horror internationally. Here he fashions a mysterious figure clad in a shiny black PVC raincoat and black leather gloves who slashes beautiful young women. Argento’s highly stylised pursuit of the killer is accompanied by a haunting score by Ennio Morricone.

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