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WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?

A KILLER FINDS HIS PREY AT A CATHOLIC SCHOOL



★★★★★ (A Must-See)

Director: Massimo Dallamano

1972



The best giallo filmmakers don’t rely on the required ingredients of sensationalism or beautiful gore. They put a majority of their effort in crafting an indestructible mystery, and the slick, stylish thriller What Have You Done to Solange? is a perfect example. This is not just any story about a psychopath killing teenage girls in the most gruesome way possible. The revelations are shocking, we get whiplash from clues we never saw coming, and we have our loyalties tested by a complicated protagonist. The police target him early on, but if he gives away his alibi, he could be in just as much trouble as the murderer. Watching this man try to keep track of his stories while we slightly hope he does get caught, is us being manipulated by a very talented director.



Right off the bat, Henry Rosseni is scum; the first scene is him trying to bully a teenager named Elizabeth into doing the deed in a rowboat. As they move along the lonely river, arguing and making out, Elizabeth glances at the water’s edge and sees a girl running from someone and then later, the girl being viciously stabbed. By the time Elizabeth screams and jerks up, the boat has moved them away from these scenes, but Henry doesn’t believe her, chalking up this story as an excuse not to be intimate. It isn’t until the next morning, when he hears about the killing on the radio, that he finally accepts the girl was a witness to the horror. I cannot stress enough what an awful person he is. While Elizabeth is haunted by nightmares, and more girls fall prey, his biggest concern is buying a bachelor pad so he and his lady love can be alone. As someone who does what he wants and takes what he wants, life is easy for Henry until that fateful day on the river…when a pen falls out of his pocket and into the grass without him noticing.


This pen is one of the pieces of evidence Inspector Barth uses to try to smoke Henry out as the body count rises. This middle-aged man shouldn’t have been with young Elizabeth, so now he must choose between being arrested for murder or losing his job and cozy life. It’s enjoyable to watch Henry squirm under questioning, but the most satisfying thing about the film is how many culprits we have to pick from. I’ve complained about movies with small casts and low stakes, like I, Madman, but What Have You Done to Solange? has a large number of suspects, and just as many motives. The game changes on us with every terrifying kill. There’s a pattern here, and it’s our job to figure it out.


“WATCHING THIS MAN TRY TO KEEP TRACK OF HIS STORIES WHILE WE SLIGHTLY HOPE HE DOES GET CAUGHT, IS US BEING MANIPULATED BY A VERY TALENTED DIRECTOR.”


Henry is boorish and arrogant, and believes he is above all moral standards, much like the male staff at the all-girl’s Catholic school at the center of the murder mystery. The main theme of the film is religious hypocrisy and what lack of autonomy can do to women—the repression of their church makes some students in the film go wild, putting them in the way of dangerous people. Meanwhile, the men in charge spy on their pupils in the locker room with no repercussions…while preaching the virtues of a virtuous girl. I worked with a woman who was homeschooled, and she said the second she left home, she slept with anyone and everyone, and got a whole back tattoo. Not that I find this particularly scandalous, but you can tell she was overcompensating for an authoritarian upbringing. The clock pendulum always swings back.


This fantastic film will keep you guessing until the shocking finale, when we learn just how far a girl will go to not upset the Catholic church. And how ironic is it that we can only trust a character like Henry? If he were not on that boat with Elizabeth, he would be my first suspect, but going by the holy rulebook of extremes, every man in What Have You Done to Solange? is guilty.






GENRES: Giallo, Serial Killer, Teens in Peril


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