Too Beautiful To Die (1988)

Too Beautiful To Die (Sotto il vestito niente II) is a 1988 giallo which is a kind of sequel to Carlo Vanzina’s 1985 Nothing Underneath (AKA The Last Shot).

Nothing Underneath had been a huge hit. It was hardly surprising that that movie’s producer, Achille Manzotti, was keen to do a follow-up. Too Beautiful To Die is not actually a sequel, but it is a movie in much the same style with a similar setting, the same modelling world background and lots of thematic similarities.

Manzotti hired Dario Piana to direct, a bold but appropriate choice. Piana has made only a tiny handful of feature films but he has been an immensely successful director of TV commercials. He was the right man to achieve the kind of look that the movie needed. Manzotti, Piana and Claudio Mancini wrote the screenplay.

This belongs to a particular sub-genre, the giallo set in the world of fashion modelling. In fact the world of of fashion modelling, TV commercials and music videos. A world of sleaze, but the kind of sleaze that the rich and famous enjoy.

The setting is Milan, and Milan in the 80s had a reputation for being a very rich very decadent city that was a major hub in the worlds of art, entertainment, music and fashion.

Alex Conti (Giovanni Tamberi) runs a very high-priced modelling agency. He’s a bit creepy (in a very 80s way) and he sometimes procures girls for very rich men, who require more than modelling from the girls. So he’s a kind of very high-class pimp on the side.

This time it’s all gone horribly wrong. A private party ends in a rape. A model disappears. There’s a car crash. There’s a corpse. And there’s a cop asking questions.

Police Lieutenant Brandam (François Marthouret) isn’t entirely happy about that car crash. The timing seems all wrong. His cop instinct tells him that it smells wrong.

Lieutenant Brandam is a very quiet, easy-going kind of guy, just a regular guy really. The kind of guy you feel you can talk to. Which of course makes him an effective policeman.

David (François-Eric Gendron) is very unhappy. That missing model was supposed to be the centrepiece in his latest music video.

Pretty soon he’s not the only one who’s unhappy. There’s a murder that takes place right in the middle of the shooting of the music video but in such a way that nobody sees it.

This won’t be the last murder.

All the models who were at that unlucky party are feeling nervous.

The plot is reasonably well-constructed with some decent misdirection. We know, and Lieutenant Brandam knows, that the events at that party were the catalyst for all the murders but that doesn’t help at all in indicating the murderer’s identity.

One thing I like about this movie is that Piana doesn’t rely on gore. The murders are not that bloody. They are however cleverly set up and very nicely shot. The murder during the music video shoot is particularly ingenious. Piana pulls off some very impressive visual set-pieces.

The setting in the world of fashion photography and music videos obviously suggests that voyeurism will be a bit of a theme here. There are several photographic clues, including a photograph of one of the murders. One of the key characters has an apartment loaded with cameras keeping his guests under surveillance. The often unsuccessful attempts by the police to keep suspects under surveillance are crucial. Lots of things get observed in this movie but the observation does not always lead to results.

Too Beautiful To Die has a very 80s aesthetic. It’s an aesthetic that has often been sneered at (even in the 80s) although in recent years cult movie fans seem to have learnt to appreciate its distinctive coke-fuelled excessive decadent glamour.

This movie is obviously drawing on the traditions of the giallo (a genre that had by this time been around for twenty years), and perhaps particularly on the late 60s giallos which were often set amongst what was known at the time as the Jet Set. I think it’s reasonable also to see a bit of a Miami Vice influence.

There are also some fetishistic touches. There are the bizarre and elaborate knives used as props in the music video, knives that also get used as murder weapons. These are knives that can be used for play, or for killing. The costumes in the music video definitely have fetishistic overtones. They are slightly reminiscent of some of the costumes used in Just Jaeckin’s wonderful 1984 movie Gwendoline (and it’s interesting to note that Jaeckin had been a fashion photographer). And Jaeckin’s Gwendoline had been inspired by The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline, the fetish comic strip created by John Willie in the 1930s.

It hardly needs to be added that the mention of fetishism is very relevant in discussing a movie that deals with the worlds of fashion modelling and music videos which are very much about fetishism.

This film has been criticised for a lack of psychological depth. I think this misses the point. These people are supposed to be shallow. And the movie is more interested in the ethical vacuum and emotional emptiness of their lives than in individual personality quirks.

It’s also appropriate that a movie about models should be stylish, and Too Beautiful To Die is very stylish indeed. I love the over-the-top 80s aesthetic. And it’s very decadent. It’s also well paced and it has plenty of suspense. It was underrated at the time and it remains underrated. Highly recommended.

The Nucleus Films Blu-Ray looks gorgeous and has plenty of extras.

I reviewed the excellent Nothing Underneath not too long ago.