Movies - Dellamorte Dellamore

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	Movies - Dellamorte Dellamore

Dellamorte Dellamore (named Cemetery Man in the USA and Of Love and Death in Australia) is a 1994 horror/comedy film about zombies. It was directed by Michele Soavi and the screenplay was written by Gianni Romoli. The story itself is based on the novel by Tiziano Sclavi of the same name, published in 1991. The title Dellamorte Dellamore is Italian, dellamorte meaning "of death" and dellamore meaning "of love". Because the protagonist's name is also Dellamorte, the title becomes a bit of word play; a direct translation could be "of death and of love," or it can be interpreted as "Dellamorte of love" or "Dellamorte in love."

Plot

Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the lonely caretaker of Buffalora cemetery. He is a bit of a listless dreamer, although he attends to his duties and has gained the trust and respect of the town elders -- though not enough for them to pay him a living wage or allot additional funds for cemetery improvements. Due to his financial situation, he lives in a shack in the cemetery with Gnaghi, his crude, mentally handicapped assistant who is mute.

Francesco would like nothing better than to leave and seek his fortune elsewhere, but several things hold him back. Despite their shoddy treatment of him, he feels bound by his oath to the town. He pines with unrequited love for the beautiful wife (Anna Falchi) of one of the town's elders, a woman who bears a startling resemblance to every other woman he has ever fallen in love with. This situation is further complicated by Francesco's chronic impotence (and is comically mirrored by Gnaghi's immature obsession with the Mayor's capricious daughter). And Francesco harbors a secret: the dead of the ancient cemetery do not stay dead, but rise on their seventh night to assault the living. Francesco and Gnaghi are the only line of defense between the living and the risen dead.

Francesco and Gnaghi spend their days tending the cemetery grounds, doing their best to counteract the decay of ages. Their nights are spent hunting down the walking corpses and dispatching them with gun and axe. Francesco desires to alert the townspeople to the situation, but fears ridicule and suffers in silence which is only building him to become a homicidal maniac with a gun.

Throughout the film there is the subtle implication that things might not be as they seem. Since only Francesco and Gnaghi ever see the walking dead and Gnaghi is mentally handicapped and mute, is it possible that it really is all a figment of Francesco's overactive imagination? Or is it possible that he is losing his mind? Could it be that he is impotent because -- his whole life being devoted to care and maintenance of the dead -- he is no longer capable of the act of life with a living woman (he later discovers that he is capable of making love to the ghost of a woman who resembles his love object), and that perhaps by remaining in this place he is becoming della morte? These questions are never explicitly answered, although as the film progresses the action becomes increasingly surreal and dreamlike.

Cast

Rupert Everett
.... Francesco Dellamorte
Anna Falchi
.... She
François Hadji-Lazaro .... Gnaghi
Mickey Knox .... Marshall Straniero
Fabiana Formica .... Valentina
Clive Riche .... Doctor Verseci
Katja Anton .... Thin Girl
Barbara Cupisti .... Magda
Anton Alexander .... Franco
Pietro Genuardi .... New Mayor Civardi
Patrizia Punzo .... Claudio's Mother
Stefano Masciarelli .... Mayor Scanarotti
Vito Passeri .... Ghigini
Alessandro Zamattio .... Claudio
Marijn Koopman
Renato Donis .... Husband of 'She'
Claudia Lawrence .... Miss Chiaromondo
Francesca Gamba .... Hospital Nurse
Elio Cesari .... Monk
Maurizio Romoli .... Hospital Doctor
Maddalena Ischiale .... Stanza Franco Nurse
Elena Fresco .... Hospital Sister (as Mariaelena Fresu)
Michele Soavi .... Man in City Square (uncredited)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dellamorte Dellamore ]

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