L‘Imbalsamatore

Peppino (Ernesto Mahieux) and Valerio (male model Valerio Foglia Manzillo) meet at the Naples zoo and bond over an African vulture; the fiftyish taxidermist offers young Valerio a job as his assistant; Valerio moves in with his new boss, and soon this Mutt and Jeff odd couple are embarking on foursomes with Roman hookers. Taxidermy is one of the more sinister professions that one can practice in the movies, and not surprisingly, affable Peppino has his creepy dark side. Summoned by his Mafia padrone, he‘s dispatched to Cremona to sew a shipment of drugs into a corpse ... Inspired by a recent police case, The Embalmer is skillfully directed and adroitly acted. It definitely benefits from its restraint. As the saturated colors are keyed to a wintry lowering sky, so the grotesque relationships seem to arise out of some abandoned fairground. The Embalmer has the look of naturalized Fellini and, in its nearly unblinking analysis of human power relations, a story worthy of Fassbinder. (J. Hoberman)