Giallo [Dario Argento, 2009]:
Second scene: The killer - at this point, still largely unseen - excites
himself by taking photographs of a bound and tortured victim. Another flash of the camera, this time bright
enough to transform the image into an abstract impression; a body without shape
or definition, just form. Like Dollarhyde
in Manhunter (1986), the act of photographing the victim reveals a hidden
truth; part of the great transformation that his image of death will bring.
Giallo [Dario Argento, 2009]:
Third scene: A return to the location of the first. Celine (Elsa Pataky) on the catwalk,
shimmering in a black transparent dress, caught in the crossfire of the
flashbulbs. Already the next victim, posed
and manipulated, transformed by the glare of the lights and the framing of
Argento's camera into a symbol of beauty; there to counter the ugliness
(both physical and psychological) of this deranged killer.
Giallo [Dario Argento, 2009]:
The connection between these sequences is immediately clear. A group of women - with particular emphasis placed on
the two victims; current and potential - violated by the camera. The image itself, as a weapon, powerful
enough to penetrate deeper than the knives that Argento's own camera lingers
over in excruciating detail, disarms the viewer through its provocation. It finds an ugliness in this scene of fashionable grandeur (exposing the artificiality of the world; the medium itself) and beauty in an act of violence. The power
of the image, or the cross-cutting between it, is evident in the presentation
of this scene, which could almost be called a master-class
in how to use film editing to create a story. The seeds of a story (and its development) suggest by the
associations created between shots.
We know, from the way this sequence is structured - the
intercutting between the locations, the three sets of women - that Celine is
our next victim. It is this notion of the camera as the murderous eye - leering and intrusive; already
watching, observing, penetrating, like the gaze of the killer, the
filmmaker, or the eyes of an audience - that imposes this narrative, this suspenseful chain of events, against the presentation of the actress, the "model", already a performer, already posed and placed for the benefit of the "voyeur." Through this, Argento is once again questioning the nature of these violent movies and his own role as the instigator - the hands and eyes of each respective killer - where the viewer becomes victim.
