In 1979, a piece of giallo cinema made its rounds on the Italian film circuit and then found its way across the ocean for a brief run in the United States. Less than a year later, a studio fire in Turin, Italy destroyed the master print, sealing its fate for future audiences.
The film was Un assassin silenzioso cadere le mani sui tasti (or A Killer's Hands Fall Quiet on the Keys),
and those who were lucky enough to see it claim it to be a masterpiece of
giallo. Today, all that is left are writer/director Michele Sene's notes
concerning the film, a badly burned copy of the original script, and the
recordings of screen composer Carlo Connetti's emotive and unsettling original
score.
The film itself concerned a string of
serial killings in New York City in the late 70's (carrying on the tradition of
Italian filmmakers finding a fascination with the mythology of violence on
major American cities). Jack, a young concert pianist, (played by a then
unheard of Robert Gold) begins to suspect that he, operating in a state of parasomnia,
may in fact be the killer. Tensions rise as the body count climbs, and
authorities -- especially Detective Simonetti (played by veteran Italian action
star George Paul) -- refuse to believe that Jack is murdering people in his
sleep. However, as Simonetti and Jack's lover Linda (the lovely Angela Melani),
begin to look closer and closer into Jack and his past, it becomes apparent
that no one, not even Jack, are prepared for the answer behind the slayings.
Un
assassin silenzioso cadere le mani sui tasti has almost been forgotten, and it wasn't
until composer Carlo Connetti started a Soundcloud account with some of the
cues from the film that information regarding this complex journey into the
giallo style has begun to surface. Connetti's page, complete with 6 cuts from
the film's score can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/carloconnetti
Connetti's score is comprised of the traditional Italo-electro style one would expect from a giallo in the late 70's and early 80's. Most telling is the heavy use of a single Roland TR-707 drum machine to provide the compressed backing rhythms. Faster cues like the upbeat funk of "Pursued by the Killer" give way to the reverb-washed space of "Jack and Linda" showcasing the versatility of the drum machine while still maintaining a cohesive sound. The electric piano found throughout the score is similar to the sound of a 1977 Rhodes, but is more likely a polyphonic synthesizer built or modified by Connetti himself. His next score, 1982's La luna si accende follia (The Moon Ignites Madness), also directed by Sene, would rely almost entirely on these "homemade" instruments.
Connetti's score is comprised of the traditional Italo-electro style one would expect from a giallo in the late 70's and early 80's. Most telling is the heavy use of a single Roland TR-707 drum machine to provide the compressed backing rhythms. Faster cues like the upbeat funk of "Pursued by the Killer" give way to the reverb-washed space of "Jack and Linda" showcasing the versatility of the drum machine while still maintaining a cohesive sound. The electric piano found throughout the score is similar to the sound of a 1977 Rhodes, but is more likely a polyphonic synthesizer built or modified by Connetti himself. His next score, 1982's La luna si accende follia (The Moon Ignites Madness), also directed by Sene, would rely almost entirely on these "homemade" instruments.
In addition to these breathtaking tracks
from Connetti, we're lucky to have some of the personal notebooks of Michele
Sene in which he writes about the concept for Un assassino silenzioso cadere le mani sui tasti. As we know, when
Sene died in 1998, he destroyed many of his papers for reasons unknown to even
his wife Adalina. Below are some excerpts from these notebooks, as well as a
set of character sketches written by Sene and in the care of DMV Distribuzione
Filmirage.
Michele
Sene's original pitch for Un assassin
silenzioso cadere le mani sui tasti (A
Killers' Hands Fall Quiet on the Keys). Taken from the 1978-1979 notebooks
of Michele Sene, used with permission from Adalina Sene.
New York, 1977. A black gloved killer is on the prowl in the smaller boroughs of the city. Three dead already. The last, a young Avenue A type, was attacked with unflinching savagery. Pathology reports conclude the killer is the same as the one responsible for the first two women, and yet his sudden jump to mutilation and dismemberment have authorities concerned there is a certifiable madman on the loose.
Jack Browning is a prodigy concert pianist. Despite, or maybe because of, his sudden rush to success and fame, he has trouble sleeping, and often stricken with horrific nightmares. Bizarre things have been happening to Jack lately. He believes he's being followed. He keeps playing a strange and yet familiar melody whenever he is alone in the conservatory. And then, there is the blood.
Jack wakes one morning after a particularly stressful performance to find spots of blood on his sheets and clots of blood and hair stuck between the treads of his boots. A knife from the kitchen is missing, and although he uses it regularly, he has no memory of where it might be. It isn't until he sees the article in the Times, about a young woman -- one of four now -- found viciously beaten and stabbed, that he begins to wonder what happens when he falls asleep. The article said the girl's head was stomped until her skull caved in.
Is Jack, by night, the unwilling vehicle for unquenchable blood-lust? Or is the man in the black gloves tormenting Jack for reasons we can't yet see? Will Jack's love interest, Linda, fall prey to the monster who stalks the streets of New York, or will Jack solve the mystery before more blood can be spilled?
Only if he manages to stay awake….
New York, 1977. A black gloved killer is on the prowl in the smaller boroughs of the city. Three dead already. The last, a young Avenue A type, was attacked with unflinching savagery. Pathology reports conclude the killer is the same as the one responsible for the first two women, and yet his sudden jump to mutilation and dismemberment have authorities concerned there is a certifiable madman on the loose.
Jack Browning is a prodigy concert pianist. Despite, or maybe because of, his sudden rush to success and fame, he has trouble sleeping, and often stricken with horrific nightmares. Bizarre things have been happening to Jack lately. He believes he's being followed. He keeps playing a strange and yet familiar melody whenever he is alone in the conservatory. And then, there is the blood.
Jack wakes one morning after a particularly stressful performance to find spots of blood on his sheets and clots of blood and hair stuck between the treads of his boots. A knife from the kitchen is missing, and although he uses it regularly, he has no memory of where it might be. It isn't until he sees the article in the Times, about a young woman -- one of four now -- found viciously beaten and stabbed, that he begins to wonder what happens when he falls asleep. The article said the girl's head was stomped until her skull caved in.
Is Jack, by night, the unwilling vehicle for unquenchable blood-lust? Or is the man in the black gloves tormenting Jack for reasons we can't yet see? Will Jack's love interest, Linda, fall prey to the monster who stalks the streets of New York, or will Jack solve the mystery before more blood can be spilled?
Only if he manages to stay awake….
-Michele Sene, June
1978
Original character sketches by Michele Sene. Used with permission from DMV Distribuzione Filmirage.
Jack Browning: Having grown up in a home where good was never good enough, Jack pushes himself and his talents to the point of physical exhaustion. He often comes home wondering why he plays the piano at all, other than the fact that he's preternaturally talented. Passion seems to elude him. It is only Linda who makes him feel truly human. Jack isn't used to expressing feelings of love and adoration, and can feel stilted at times. He finds that with Linda, his actions come more and more easily each day.
Despite all this he is still essentially a nervous man. He still frets over paying the bills though he makes a more than comfortable living as a well-known concert pianist. We get the sense that Jack is harboring intense feelings of guilt, which take a lot of energy to suppress. His nightmares grow increasingly horrific, and his visions have started to spill over into his waking hours.
Linda Barret: She's been with men before, and they have treated her badly. She's found quiet comfort in Jack, though she senses there is something he isn't telling her. She doesn't believe that Jack is a violent man, and is instead concerned that he may be suffering some kind of mental break. She's had a history with violent men, and has always been able to tell when their veneer of civility and sanity has begun to crack. In Jack, however, she sees something of a different nature happening. Though she becomes, at last, terrified, she is certain Jack is not the killer.
Detective John Simonetti: Simonetti is a hard-nose detective of the tradition of 60's noir, yet with a defeated sense of realism. Much of this comes from his years of working in NYC -- the endless violence, wasted lives. The sudden string of serial killings has awakened something in him. He believes without a doubt that Jack did not murder anyone. He remarks to his former partner that he senses something made from pure evil on the streets, and that some looney kid just doesn't have what it takes to rip a human being apart. Assigned to follow Jack, nonetheless, Simonetti becomes helplessly entwined the murder plot, and plays a key role in the final act of unmasking.
~
Although we'll never be able to see the
forgotten masterpiece that is Un
assassino silenzioso cadere le mani sui tasti, the reputation it leaves in
its place is like an unshakable haunting in the film community. Those who were
lucky enough to catch a screening in 1979-1980 still talk with revolted joy
about the over the top gore of the rib-cage scene, and recall with a kind of
mystified wonder the final shocking reveal and the showdown in an abandoned
concert hall.
And while fans of the giallo style still
mourn the death of Michele Sene, we are speculating with great interest over a
comment made recently by Carlo Connetti in an interview with Gallant Giallo Magazine:
"I
miss Michele greatly. We all do. But he is not completely gone. That is to say,
he had a number of finished and unfinished works which didn't make their way to
the fire before his death. I can't say much about it, but I will say I've been
back in the studio lately, and it suddenly feels like the late 70's all over
again."
-Carlo Connetti,
July 09 2014
