Reviews (4)

The American Dream--Italian Style
Il Testimone Dello Sposo offers a three-way sampling of an Italian town at the turn-of-the-century. This fable-like tale shows not only the story of a woman coming into her own, but also the customs and expectations of the time period and the impact of the "American Dream" on other societies. Although at times the film seemed a little too idealistic and unrealistic at moments, it manages to take a variety of themes and bring them to closure with an enjoyable and thought-provoking. My favorite scenes are when the "best man" shows slides of America and, later, when he tells the "bride" how his fortune was made. If you like Italy and Italian culture, this is a must-see film!

Everything about this movie is a surprise.
The beautiful bride, the indulgent parents, the eager (and arrogant) groom, the reluctant hero, all wonderfully portrayed and affectingly acted. And this does not even touch on the secondary characters - each a gem. The sets, the costumes, the culture - all dreamy and scrumptuous. Do yourself a favor and get this video, you won't be disappointed.

You must view this film
I just finished watching this film about one hour ago. I am exultant about it. It is a beautifully crafted movie in terms of the story, the acting, the atmosphere, wardrobes etc. Moreover, the cinematography is superb. It is an intimate work. I truly loved seeing it and felt uplifted afterwards. This is the first time ever that I write a review for a movie or book here. I highly recomend it. It is a film imbued with nostalgia, illusion, innocence, humour. It is very entertaining while delivering a poignant message and portraying a way of life, long gone, at the turn of the century and before the War. I loved it and if you are a hopeless romantic will too!

Thoroughly entertaining romantic comedy which captivates.
This film has it all. The setting is the last day of the last century.The drama of a potential marital mismatch,the mysteries of attraction, the arrival of the dark stranger. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The American Dream--Italian Style
Il Testimone Dello Sposo offers a three-way sampling of an Italian town at the turn-of-the-century. This fable-like tale shows not only the story of a woman coming into her own, but also the customs and expectations of the time period and the impact of the "American Dream" on other societies. Although at times the film seemed a little too idealistic and unrealistic at moments, it manages to take a variety of themes and bring them to closure with an enjoyable and thought-provoking. My favorite scenes are when the "best man" shows slides of America and, later, when he tells the "bride" how his fortune was made. If you like Italy and Italian culture, this is a must-see film!

Everything about this movie is a surprise.
The beautiful bride, the indulgent parents, the eager (and arrogant) groom, the reluctant hero, all wonderfully portrayed and affectingly acted. And this does not even touch on the secondary characters - each a gem. The sets, the costumes, the culture - all dreamy and scrumptuous. Do yourself a favor and get this video, you won't be disappointed.

You must view this film
I just finished watching this film about one hour ago. I am exultant about it. It is a beautifully crafted movie in terms of the story, the acting, the atmosphere, wardrobes etc. Moreover, the cinematography is superb. It is an intimate work. I truly loved seeing it and felt uplifted afterwards. This is the first time ever that I write a review for a movie or book here. I highly recomend it. It is a film imbued with nostalgia, illusion, innocence, humour. It is very entertaining while delivering a poignant message and portraying a way of life, long gone, at the turn of the century and before the War. I loved it and if you are a hopeless romantic will too!

Thoroughly entertaining romantic comedy which captivates.
This film has it all. The setting is the last day of the last century.The drama of a potential marital mismatch,the mysteries of attraction, the arrival of the dark stranger. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

As the storm clouds gather...
A rustic wedding feast with a dozen courses. This might be compared to Belle Époque (The Age of Beauty) (1992) and/or Como Agua Para Chocolate (1992). And bring your lunch. This is one huge gastronomic feast. Country boy marries city girl. Flirtations. Infidelities. Family secrets exposed; prejudices expressed. Cute little kids. Sumptuous food. Italy in the thirties in the shadow of Mussolini.

You don't really need to know Italian to follow "The Story of Boys and Girls," but it would help since there are so many characters talking practically at once, which tends to make the subtitles annoying and distracting. Director Pupi Avati has everybody flying about to give us the mood of anticipation, and then the energy continues because there are so many personalities to be expressed. A lot of sexual pleasure taken on the run here, with the men as quick little rabbits; the women responsive, once aroused. Warm, charming, with just a hint of fascist values, and the disaster to come. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Bix
Considering the complexities of the Bix Beiderbecke story and the time allowed within the confines of a feature film, I think that this is a reasonable attempt to educate and entertain anyone with an interest in the music of the period. It contains factual errors and a fair amount of poetic license but is also full of great recreations of musical performancies and the flavour of the 20's really does come across.
The flashback style used to tell the story is, at times, confusing but once accepted, does not spoil the enjoyment of a film that deserved a much wider release.
This is a must for Bix fans

not good biography flim
i am a fan of bix music so i was expecting a much better movie.however this flim jumps confusily around in time. alot of fictional stuff is added.plus the actor cast to play bix does not look anything like the real bix did. my someday a bix movie can be made that protrays him much better. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Pupi Avati's bizarre zombie film combines science fiction conspiracy and supernatural investigations with elements of Night of the Living Dead and Pet Semetary to create one of the most unusual horror films of the 1970s. Writer Gabriele Lavia discovers a strange story imprinted on the ribbon of a used typewriter and his investigations dig up the supposedly dead scientist Paolo Zeder (who appears very much alive) and a shadowy corporation monitoring graveyard caskets with video equipment, a twisted science project of the dead. Avati kicks the film off with a lively Exorcist-like sequence, where a priest channels the dead through a young girl and the house undulates as if coming to life, and concludes the film with an action-packed undead chase through a veritable necropolis, with hands stretching up through the earth and corpses bursting through floors. In between those poles the film takes a moodier approach, winding through the complicated, sometimes confusing story with a measured pace and ominous tone more suggestive than horrific. It periodically falters, due in part to Lavia's bland performance (his perpetual look of worried intensity appears to stand in for every emotion), but Avati overcomes his shortcomings with astrange plot that becomes increasing surreal the closer we get to the true secret of Zeder. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (8)

K-Zones and zombies
Italian director Pupi Avati's "Zeder" has received significant criticism from many horror film aficionados who thought that a picture about reanimated corpses should resemble Lucio Fulci's "Zombie" or the George Romero undead trilogy. A more attentive viewer adequately schooled in the subtleties of Italian horror films should quickly recognize that "Zeder" is a cerebral look at the living dead, a movie that moves beyond splatter effects and shambling creatures in an attempt to scare the socks off its viewers. Steeped in oppressive atmosphere and weird science, Avati's film achieves a measure of uniqueness even as it uses plot elements found in such diverse movies as "Pet Semetary" and "The Exorcist." Personally, I think Avati's "The House with the Laughing Windows" is light years ahead of "Zeder," but that doesn't mean this film lacks interesting ideas and, even if they do not always work, a few attempts to craft very scary scenes. In short, you should probably look elsewhere if your interest lies in exploding heads or crude tracheotomies performed by lumbering, undead brutes. If you want to think a little bit, check out "Zeder."

The film opens in 1950s France, where a grim discovery made in the basement of a ostensibly haunted mansion turns out to be the body of the long missing Paolo Zeder. Although we don't learn much about this man's work until later in the film, the discovery of this scientist's corpse is of great interest to many people. How Zeder got here and why a young girl encountered a supernatural emanation over the exact spot where the police discovered the corpse initially begs explanation. Avati uses the opening sequences of the film to set the tone for the film, and what a tone it is! The house rumbles and bangs ominously as though haunted by a thousand ghosts. The basement where Zeder and the young girl turn up is a ghastly place heavy with menace. You know after just a few minutes that this film has the potential to be a very fearsome adventure.

Flash forward into early 1980s Italy where Stefano, an aspiring writer, and his sexy girlfriend Alessandra live. In order to celebrate an anniversary, Alessandra gives Stefano a nifty electric typewriter. Her boyfriend is quite happy with the gift and sets out to start writing when he discovers an anomaly on the ribbon cartridge that came with the gift. A quick investigation of this ribbon reveals that someone, probably the last person who owned the typewriter, wrote a most unusual report about some weird thing called K-zones and how the barriers of death will be broken down forever. Intrigued, Stefano quickly launches a wider inquiry into the origins of the strange message. His sleuthing takes him and his girlfriend into a world few could imagine. It turns out that Paolo Zeder discovered specific places on the planet where the dead can rise from their graves. Elated, Stefano further learns that the typewriter belonged to a priest who once lived in Italy. Dragging along the increasingly reluctant Alessandra, Stefano digs into this man's background and soon learns that a group of researchers from France are working in the same region where this priest lived. Stefano witnesses first hand how the K-zones work, and when an act of treachery takes the life of his beloved Alessandra, our hero resorts to the sort of behavior exhibited in a Stephen King novel with the same horrific results.

"Zeder" is definitely a cut above your typical Italian horror film. The soundtrack, done by none other than "Cannibal Holocaust" composer Riz Ortolani, throbs and bangs away with a sense of desperate abandon. The acting, mainly from Gabriele Lavia as Stefano and Anne Canovas as the beautiful Alessandra, works about as well as you could expect from an Italian film. I probably wouldn't have cast Lavia in the lead role, as he is a rather bland figure for such a big part. The biggest drawback with "Zeder" is the lousy DVD transfer, which often obscures scenes in a slight haze of grain and gives the movie a cheap look. Moreover, I thought the pacing lagged in a few places, especially during Stefano's lengthy investigations into the priest who owned the typewriter. Overall, however, I liked "Zeder" and thought the idea of K-zones an intriguing one. I even laughed in a few places, like the scene where Stefano watches the laughing corpse on the monitor. A slap in the face to Fulci and Lenzi fans, perhaps, but Pupi Avati's film should find a few stalwart souls who will see something in it despite its absence of over the top gore.

Five stars for the film, but, oh, the DVD...ugh!!!
This film is also released under the cheesily named title of "Revenge of the Dead," and the quality of that DVD release is apparently just as lousy.

This is a wondeful film by Pupi Avati. Apparently there is a crystal clear copy available in Europe in the PAL format, Region 2, letterboxed, uncut, and all.

What needs to happen is someone with brains needs to release this film in its proper format on DVD in the States. Yes, "Pet Semetary" is very similar and was perhaps inspired by "Zeder," but otherwise, this is a truly original film.

One man's search for an ancient secret...
ZEDER is a slow moving thoughtful horror film and not for viewers who are looking for instant thrills and chills. Reviewer Tim Lucas called ZEDER "an unflinching adult meditation on death and separation." And I completely agree! Although there are some chilling moments in ZEDER, especially towards the end, it really is a thinking person's horror film and deals with many complex issues besides death and separation, such as perception and assumptions versus reality and coincidence. In other words, what we think we know or want to believe is not always the truth...or is it?

Director Pupi Avati (HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS) does a great job of creating an unnerving and creepy atmosphere of mystery in his films and ZEDER is no exception. Although the movie is slow moving, I didn't find it dull and I think Avati's style had a lot to do with why I enjoyed the movie so much. Like David Lynch, Avati can make a small village populated by unusual people suddenly seem like one of the creepiest places you've ever visited.

It stars Italian actor and Argento favorite Gabriele Lavia (DEEP RED, INFERNO, SLEEPLESS, etc.) as the writer Stephano. He plays a good "every man", but lacks that certain charisma that helps lead actors carry a whole film. Still, he is not bad in his role and that "every man" quality makes him watchable. You will dig his fashionable early 80s Euro look!

The DVD quality is not very good and the movie would really benefit from a better quality widescreen release. Hopefully that will happen, but in the meantime I still think ZEDER is worth seeking out.

Fans of Stephen King's PET SEMETARY might also enjoy this film since there are a few similarities. I thought it was amusing that Avati's film and King's book were released the same year. There must have been something in the air in 1983 that effected them both.

The Barriers of Death
France, 1956: In the cathedral city of Chartres, a young girl is tormented by poltergeist-like activities. She descends to the cellars beneath her house, and is attacked by a spectral shape. She is found there later, unconscious, badly injured. Beneath the ground where the mysterious attack occurred, the girl's rescuers uncover the body of a man named Paolo Zeder. . . .

Italy, 1983: In the university city of Bologna, Stefano, a writer, receives an anniversary present from his wife, Alexandra. She has purchased an electric typewriter for him, which she found at an auction. Stefano begins using the typewriter, but has to change the ribbon first. By chance, his gaze falls on certain words imprinted on the old ribbon. He transcribes these words, which seem to comprise a letter and notes for a report. The words include the suggestive phrase: "The barriers of death shall at last be destroyed."

Stefano takes his transcriptions to Professor Quesia, one of his college instructors. Quesia believes the letter and notes refer to the strange theories of Paolo Zeder, an occult researcher who disappeared decades before. According to Quesia, Zeder believed in the existence of K-Zones, certain sites where the normal laws of time, death, and decay are suspended. Zeder felt that it was possible to bring the dead back to life in K-Zones.

Stefano determines that the typewriter formerly belonged to a priest named Luigi Costa. Attempting to learn more about Costa, Stefano and Alexandra travel to the small town of Spina. Here they discover an old Etruscan cemetery and an abandoned building that was formerly a school where Costa had taught once. Stefano suspects that the cemetery and school may be the sites of K-Zones, which Costa learned about somehow.

Unknown to Stefano, a French group, centered at Chartres, has been pursuing research on Zeder's theories in the Spina area. Stefano slips into the former school building and discovers scientific equipment and video materials used by the French group there. He takes one of the video cassettes with him, and then asks Alexandra to return to Bologna and show the tape to Professor Quesia.

Unfortunately, Quesia himself is an agent of the French group, whose members are determined to keep their knowledge and experiments secret at all costs. Alexandra is killed, and her body is returned to the hotel room in Spina where Stefano is staying.

Overcome by grief, Stefano takes Alexandra's body into the nearby K-Zone and buries her there. Later, she returns-but the resurrection process has changed her into a thing of soulless evil. . . .

Zeder offers more in the way of plot and less in the way of gratuitous gore and sex than is common in Italian horror movies from this period. The K-Zone concept is an intriguing one, although it's not quite clear what happens to those who are revived in this fashion. (They seem to retain little of their former humanity.) Stefano is not a particularly engaging protagonist, and the French group seems too omnipresent, but still, Zeder shows some originality and occasionally evokes a strong atmosphere of supernatural dread and menace.

An absolute masterpiece
Despite the grainy picture and noisy sound :( the movie is a masterpiece. The script and acting are superb, you'll have to keep breath till the last scene. The scene of the dead body that open eyes and laughs, taken by a cam inside his grave is scaring!!!!!! ... Read more