I recall watching this in the cinema and enjoying it but a re-watch seemed to catch me unawares. Maybe it was the mood I was in but this time instead of being an interesting backroom take on my beloved gallo films it seemed a much more sinister affair. How could I not have noticed the first time how unpleasant it is, how nasty everyone seems to be and how alienating it all is? A powerful film, set almost exclusively in a sound studio, purportedly in Italy, though actually the nearby Three Mills Island set up. Almost everything I remember finding intriguing, this time took on a much more malevolent tone. The screaming ladies who can't get the right scream, the smashing of the vegetables, the switching between languages, the unfriendly 'friendly' intimacies, and the undertones of there being something rotten (apart from the decaying vegetables) within Italian society, at the time. A unique film but an uncomfortable watch.
