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Released by: Raro Video
Released on: April 29th, 2014.
Director: Lucio Marcaccini
Cast: Bud Cort, Marcel Bozzuffi, Guido Alberti
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
1975's HALLUCINATION STRIP is a bit of an oddity in the Italian 70's exploitation film cycle. The sole film of director Lucio Marcaccini, it begins as some sort of police procedural but winds up being a muddled statement on the counterculture, the mafia and "square" society.
Petty thief and recreational drug enthusiast Massimo Monaldi (Bud Cort) is a naively politically minded university student ne'er do well. In between filching stuff to sell to keep him stocked with hallucinogens he also spends a great deal of time at various protests and meetings. Unlike the hilarious female free spirits of Fernando De Leo's TO BE TWENTY however, Massimo (who has a politically simpatico lady friend) is a more overtly complicated character. Some of his and his friends' grievances at the upper classes come off as silly whining but the overall anti-materialist sentiment is noble enough. Massimo and his cute girlfriend Cinzia (Annarita Grapputo) are an appealing couple and the performances of both are fine. When Massimo steals a very valuable box he inadvertently triggers off a massive police hunt led by inspector De Stefani (FRENCH CONNECTION icon Marcel Bozzuffi) who, for reasons of his own, badly wants possession of that box. As does the mafia.
The traditional framework of the police procedural takes a turn into the bizarre when HALLUCINATION STRIP veers into its many "drug picture" sections. The narrative of a figure outside the law being hunted by both "the man" and the "underworld" goes all the way back to Peter Lorre and M but this film dives feet first into the kind of material that defined films like THE TRIP and a lot of Warhol related work. Massimo's drug trips pop up with more regularity than the sequences propelling the plot forward and by the climax we have a full twenty minutes devoted to his lysergic meltdown. One could say that the film is more about Massimo's grip on his sanity than it is about crime.
The main flaw with HALLUCINATION STRIP is it really doesn't know what it is. The plotting and especially pacing are a minor mess. At its heart thus is really a mildly experimental drug picture. But being forced into the confines of a crime film doesn't really work. The drug party at the end of the picture is really the centerpiece of the film. And unlike the previously mentioned Di Leo film TO BE TWENTY, the script and direction here aren't strong enough to effectively balance these two competing narrative strands. HALLUCINATION STRIP is magnificently shot and scored however so that helps alleviate the film's weaknesses.
Video/Audio/Extras:
HALLUCINATION STRIP lands somewhere between the near-disastrous DNR of MEET HIM AND DIE and the generally pleasing results of DEATH OCCURRED LAST NIGHT and GANG WAR IN MILAN in the Raro HD pool. The 1080p and 1.85.1 framed transfer for the film is best described as erratic but never truly heinous visually. Detail suffers at the hands of the devil's paintbrush (DNR) a little too often for comfort but it isn't on the slathering level of some other Raro titles. Black levels are consistently strong but the dreaded wax face condition and soft detail syndrome make regular appearances here. The print itself is free from major damage but the crawling grain that mars some Italian transfers of late is unfortunately here. In total it's a mixed bag with the flaws being mostly related to overzealous DNR. As always your mileage may vary according to screen size.
The audio is handled by two LPCM mono tracks - one in Italian and the other in English. Both are perfectly serviceable and adequately balanced in relation to dialog, music and ambient environmental sounds. Range is slightly limited due to the period constraints of when these tracks were recorded. The Italian track has well-rendered English subtitles.
The sole real extra consists of a roughly 20 minute interview with editor Giulio Berruti. It's a moderately informative piece mostly focusing on Berruti's interactions with the director. Beyond that, the theatrical trailer is present and accounted for and the booklet contains two written essays, with the one focusing on the psychedelic drugs of the era being the oddly more interesting.
The Final Word:
With its oddly muddled plotting and overall identity crisis HALLUCINATION STRIP's merits reside mostly in the interesting period detail. The amount of appeal this has to the potential viewer has mostly to do with whether European 70's drug culture focused films interest you. HALLUCINATION STRIP simply isn't much of a crime movie despite its surface trappings. Combined with Raro's less than stellar transfer this one is a bit of a hard sell despite the strong acting.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
