Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet's LET THE CORPSES TAN

A movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

A road gang hijacks a gold shipment, kills the driver and escorts, then hides out at a picturesque seaside retreat occupied by an artist and her retinue.

More unexpected and unwanted visitors arrive. So do the cops. Much gunfire, double dealing, and bloodshed occur along with weird and surreal erotic dreams interspersed with action.

That’s the movie in a nutshell. What propels it far beyond the blood-and-gore 70s Italian exploitation flicks it seems to emulate is everything else: photography, acting, editing, sound (someone obviously has a fetish for creaking leather clothing), and scenery. 

Ah, the scenery! A crumbling seaside Mediterranean cluster of decrepit interconnected walls and broken down church are so much a part of the action one can almost imagine them taking cues from the director.

It doesn’t always make sense. This is partly due to  sparse subtitling (it’s in French) and partly to the simple fact that at times it’s almost impossible to keep track of who are the “good” guys and who are the “bad” guys. (Not that it makes a difference!)

But cinematically this film is a real hoot especially if you enjoy occasional off-the-wall movie nonsense produced to sound and look like High Art despite the underlying tenuous threads of a plot.

Recommended. Sort of.

Review copyright (c) 2018 by Dennis D. McDonald