What Have You Done to Solange?

A Catholic girls' school in London. Enrico, the Italian games teacher, is involved with one of the pupils. Out on the river one day she says she saw something on the bank. A pupil is killed the same day. The murders continue and all are committed the same way. Enrico becomes a suspect and has to run his own investigation. Every trail leads to a girl called Solange who left the school. Massimo Dallamano directs. Fabio Testi plays Enrico, Karin Baal his wife and Cristina Galbó the pupil. It belongs to the Italian giallo; the gloved killer, the razor and the subjective camera are known elements of the form and all are here. What distinguishes it is the subject. The cause of the murders is abortion and the narrative takes it on directly; it was made when abortion was not legal in Italy and the matter is openly argued in the film. Dallamano had worked as a cinematographer; the photography of A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More is his, and the experience shows in the framing. The music is by Ennio Morricone and is among the most cited scores in the genre. The murders are more distressing than the average for the form and its approach to the female body is troubling from here. It is an Italian and German co-production and counts as the first of the sub genre called the schoolgirl series; two further films followed. Who it is for: viewers who like giallo and seventies Italian thrillers. Who it is not for: the violence is explicit, the presentation of the women is troubling, and the plot rests on coincidence.