Manetti Bros.
Diabolik

LA RECENSIONE

DIOBOLIK.
Or: the fake version of the movie “Diabolik” which is itself a fake of the Giussani sisters' comic book.

Let me start by saying that Marinelli and Mastandrea with their pointy wigs are one of the most nauseating things about the film. Furthermore, Marinelli is too subdued and whispers throughout the OVER 2 hours of the film (way too much, for heaven's sake).

Marinelli isn't directed by a director; he's simply on sedatives. But even sedated, Marinelli manages to be almost believable, anyway.

This little film opens with the worst chase scene in the history of cinema. Only Piero Vivarelli in "Satanik" from 1967 (another dark heroine, is it fate?) managed to do worse.

Here, a police car follows Diobolik's Jaguar along the boulevards of Bologna; at a certain point, the road rises, the Jaguar jumps Hazzard-style, then plummets back onto the road. The policemen's eyes widen like Tex Avery. Another police car arrives, and Diabolik throws gas at them. The policemen die coughing, escaping the danger of a sequel that was assumed. The end.
And obviously, from A to B without even crossing a passerby: a homeless man, a bloody john returning to his wife, a Iside dead drunk.
Nothing.
ZE-RO.

Then other stuff: the actors all bring on depression, even those good ones like Antonino Iuorio or Piergiorgio Bellocchio (Oh, the usual daddy’s boy… okay, let's stay on topic and not engage in sterile polemics, come on). Occasionally, there's a northern Italian accent so marked it becomes annoying, but it's clear that Giussani's Clerville is a photocopy of 1960s Milan. It didn’t take an erudite discourse of Odradek to figure it out…
The actors flaunting the above accent also sport a pair of conspicuously fake mustaches. Let's draw a veil over that.
I don’t know why, but it is the case. Claudia Gerini attempts the ultimate synthesis between Franca Valeri and Daniela Santanché, fatally leaning towards the latter.

Poor photography, insipid and uncertain directing; the first part seems like a Kojak lieutenant drama (but surely the Manetti brothers will say it’s intentional, that's clear), while the second part seems like a Brian De Palma script shot by Roberto Faenza (he had to be involved, come on).

More on the actors: the children in kindergarten engaged in symbolic play, by comparison, seem as fake as a statement from Salvini claiming he got the third dose of Astrazeneca.
Miriam Leone is a gorgeous woman, and her resemblance to her comic counterpart is surely impressive. Her Eva Kant is sexier than the original, but it doesn't take much here, either… A truly stunning woman can be forgiven anything. Let’s admit it.

The only cute idea: the fake period summer tune.
And anyway, know that the most “from Diobolik” thing I did was manage to enter a cinema to see this movie without Super GP.
And I don't know if the real Diobolik (I mean the one from the Giussani sisters) would have managed that!

Punisher 1 – Diobolik 0.