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Released by: N/A
Released on: N/A
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Cast: Philippe Caroit, Ilaria Borelli, Katarzyna Figura, Barbara Ricci, Laurence Regnier, Claudia Pozzi
Year: 1992
The Movie:
In this made for Italian TV Giallo, a police detective named Inspector Alexander Stracev (Philippe Caroit) is called in to investigate the claim of an alcoholic woman named Ludmilla (Barbara Ricci) who says that she's seen a dead body in her washing machine. She claims the man was a pimp named Yuri Petkov (Yorgo Voyagis) who had a relationship with one of her sisters, Vida. (Katarzyna Figura, who recently popped up in a small role in Roman Polanski's The Pianist).
The more that Alexander investigates Vida and her two sisters, the more he becomes enthralled with each of them. Over the course of the film, his investigation sucks him in deeper and he finds himself seduced by them. Trying not to let it effect his relationship with his girlfriend, Irina (Claudia Pozzi) proves to be more and more difficult and as he begins to uncover more facts about the case, he realizes that there may be more to it than what appears on the surface and that the three sisters may have more up their sleeves than he at first suspected.
Directed by Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, Cut And Run), Washing Machine is a stylishly constructed film that plays out at a quick pace without, for the most part at least, feeling too rushed. Aided by a distinctive score by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin fame, it's rare that more than five minutes go by without some new plot twist or detail being unraveled, and when that does occur, Deodato uses the old stand by of naked Euro-babes to keep us interested.
The film is not perfect though - there are a few plot holes that show up that are hard to ignore, and the resolution, while interesting and somewhat surprising, could have been handled a little better than it was (the last few minutes seem just a tad hurried).
Overall though, Washing Machine is worth hunting down. It captures a nice sleazy mood quite effectively, plays with some interesting themes of sex and violence, gets into some bizarre mind games territory and should easily keep you interested for it's eighty five minute running time.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The picture is presented in a non-Anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen transfer of average quality. Some of the darker scenes are grainy and a little difficult to make out in a few spots, but overall it's no problem following the onscreen action. Colors are strong and print damage is minimal. With this being a made for TV film, it's possible that this was meant to be seen at 1.33.1, and some of the shots do look to be overmatted a little bit, but there aren't any seriously cropped scenes that suffer from it.
There are two audio tracks on the DVD - an English Dolby Digital 5.1 and a Thai Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional Thai subtitles are also included. Neither remix particularly suites the film at all. They both sound very forced and at times, almost canned. There is a faint echo noticeable in a few scenes as well that probably shouldn't be there. Dialogue is clear though, and there isn't much in the way of audible defects to report.
Aside from the mandatory scene selection option, there are no other features on this DVD.
The Final Word:
Washing Machine is a surprisingly decent later day giallo. Deodato directs the film with style and despite some shortcomings, the film delivers. The Thai DVD is currently the only English friendly way to see the film on DVD.