Occhi dalle stelle (1978)

User Rating:

3.2/10   

Director:

Mario Gariazzo

Writer:

Mario Gariazzo (writer)

Release Date:

21 February 1978 (Italy)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Inter galactic Sci-Fi terror

Plot:

A photographer and his model are on a photo shoot in a forest when they get the feeling they are being watched...

Plot Keywords:

Model | Alien | Conspiracy | UFO | Men In Black

Cast

Robert Hoffmann	...	Tony Harris
Nathalie Delon	...	Monica Stiles
Martin Balsam	...	Inspector Jim Grant
Sherry Buchanan	...	Karin Hale
Victor Valente	...	Coleman Perry
Sergio Rossi	...	Leader of 'The Silencers'
Mario Novelli	...	The Silencers henchman (as Antony Freeman)
Franco Garofalo	...	Peter Collins
Carlo Hinterman	...	Air Marshal Thompson (as Carlo Hintermann)
Giovanna De Luca
Bruno Di Luia	...	The Silencers henchman
George Ardisson	...	Agent for 'The Silencers'
Franco Beltramme	...	Phillips - Inspector Grant's assistant
Tom Felleghy	...	Commander Smith
Cesare Nizzica	...	Farmer

Also Known As:

Eyes Behind the Stars

Runtime:

UK:90 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Gevacolor)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Norway:16 | Spain:T | Sweden:15

Company:

Midia Cinematografica

Trivia:

For the English language version, another actor dubbed in the voice for Martin Balsam's character.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Incontri molto ravvicinati del quarto tipo (1978)

Unintentianally semi-hilarious

Why do I watch movies like this ? - other than I have some weird misguided masochistic belief that one day I will find a true gem amongst all this dross I can't think one one good reason. This movie was dross from start to finish - but semi-hilarious dross. Where else but in a bad Italian dubbed movie could you find heated exchanges of surreal mangled English like this one between a honest military type and the sinister chief of a secret X-files like organisation dedicated to hiding "The Truth":

Man in Black: Silence is best for us until we are able to prove that the UFOs have no bellicose motives.

Military Type: In any event I find your interference abusive.

Man in Black: Whoever has to impose his will is.

I rewound the DVD (you know what I mean) a good half dozen times and I still can't make those lines mean anything sensible. My other fave line was:

"We can be quite hard on those who contravert our interests."

It's English Jim, but not as we know it.

The other highlights of this dull plonker of a movie for me were the totally spaced out acting of the photographer character at the start. Saddled with the worst haircut EVER in the history of everything, the man just wandered around looking like a stunned fish in a bad wig till kidnapped and forced to look at a piece of Plexiglas by some aliens. The aliens are most effectively not seen as a POV shot - hand held camera with a fish-eye lens - sort of spooky the first time but, used over and over again it lost its power (incidentaly, if it is a Point of View shot, it means the aliens always walk out of rooms backwards for some reason).

The film was set in "England". This meant the Spanish Italian set designers put some British number plates on a couple of English cars and put a Union Jack on our hero's press card... and that was about it. No other attempt to make it look like the UK at all.

Favourite moment? When the Foley artists didn't notice that characters they were foleying (is there such a word?) were no longer walking on gravel but were now on the lawn so their feet kept on making loud "crunch! crunch!" noises. Other than that, another total waste of 90 minutes of my life. I hope they prove those UFOs have no bellicose motives soon...