Cemetery Man (AKA Dellamorte Dellamore)
Dir: Michele Soavi
1994
****
Based on Tiziano Sclavi’s 1991 novel, Dellamorte Dellamore (AKA Cemetery Man) has become something of a cult favourite. Dellamorte Dellamore is Italian word play, as della morte (speeded as two separate words) means ‘of death’ and dell’amore (again spelled seperatly) means ‘of love’. So the title is translated as ‘On the death of love’ or ‘About death, about love’. Also, the film’s protagonist is called Francesco Dellamorte and his mother’s maiden name was Dellamore. It’s probably no surprise that the American distributor changed the title, although I don’t think Cemetery Man quite suits the film. Fans of Sclavi’s comic Dylan Dog will see a lot of it in the film, although it isn’t an adaption, it does carry over many elements. The character Dylan Dog was based on Rupert Everett, after Sclavi saw him in Marek Kanievska’s 1984 film Another Country. I have no idea whether Everett was aware that his likeness had been used but he was approached to star in Dellamorte Dellamore, even though he clearly isn’t Italian, and agreed. Sclavi and director Michele Soavi clearly wanted Everett, so much so that they gave up the opportunity to make the film in America, their country of choice, because the American studios were only interested if Matt Dillon was attached to the main part. Dellamore is a cemetery caretaker in the small Italian town of Buffalora. He lives in a dilapidated house on the premises with only his mentally handicapped assistant Gnaghi (played by François Hadji-Lazaro) for company. The pair look after the grounds, keep it tidy and kill zombies, as newer residents of the grounds tend to rise from their graves after the seventh day of being buried. Dellamore refers to them as ‘returners’ and sees his job as a chosen vocation, something he’d like to be rid of but was somehow chosen to do. The town’s youth constantly mock him and suggest he is impotent, something that may or may not be true. Dellamore is lonely, desperate for love, his days are spent reading outdated telephone directories, in which he crosses out the names of the deceased, and trying to assemble a puzzle shaped like a human skull. Gnaghi on the other hand spends his time eating spaghetti and watching television, with the word "Gna" being the only one in his vocabulary. Dellamorte’s life takes a bizarre turn when he falls in love with a young widow (played by Anna Falchi and only referred to as ‘Her’ in the film) of an elderly but wealthy business man. She falls in love him too, and the pair get amorous in his hidden ossuary until they are disturbed by her undead husband and she is bitten. A heart-broken Dellamorte waits until she returns and kills her like he does with the others, although the temptation to let her live scares him. Things are then never the same, Dellamorte sees his love everywhere and can’t get her out of his mind and descends into madness. Murder, castration, prostitution, suicide, necrophilia and the marriage of a taking severed head stuffed into the shell of an old television set are then explored but life itself is questioned. It’s a dizzying trip of chaos and darkness, with a wonderful sense of poetry about it. The film’s uneven tone would be the death of most movies but somehow it works with Dellamorte Dellamore. It’s almost a combination of three or four stories, each one more absurd than the next but each containing plenty of depth and symbolism. The imagery is influenced by everything from Rene Magritte to Sam Raimi and much of the plot and quotes are a metaphor for fascism, Sclavi keeping the anti-fascist movement alive and well in the world of Italian art and film – it’s no Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom but at least you can watch it more than once. It’s filmed beautifully, like a romantic Giallo with hints of H.P. Lovecraft. It is consistent only in its high entertainment value, Rupert Everett is brilliant and gives the performance his all and I absolutely love the story’s conclusion. Easily one of the best cult films of the 90s that deserves far more credit than it has received. Everett supposedly approached Soavi about producing an American remake a few years later but nothing materialized and most of the crew were spooked anyway after one of the crew members removed one of the bones from the ossuary scene and encountered an angry ghost. The crew member didn’t realise that the ossuary was in fact real and the crew were said to be split on whether they should continue, so they would unlikely return for a remake, which was one of Soavi’s terms. It’s better left the classic cult film that it is.