Embalmer (Region 1 Import DVD)

THE EMBALMER, directed by Matteo Garrone, is the story of unrequited love and repressed homosexuality gone awry. Peppino (Ernesto Mahieux) is a diminutive taxidermist who secretly courts an unsuspecting Greek god named Valerio (Valerio Foglia Manzillo) by grossly overpaying him to work as his assistant. Hungry for direction and purpose in life, Valerio chooses to ignore the romantic yearnings of the older, much homelier man's attentions, throws himself into the work, and pals around with Peppino in spite of their differences. Peppino orchestrates debauched nights on the town with prostitutes in an effort to gain false intimacy with Valerio. There is no denying that the younger man is a willing party, and he even looks the other way when Peppino is employed by the mob to stash drugs in corpses. When Valerio falls in love with the tempestuous Deborah (Elisabetta Rochetti), Peppino is outraged to find that she is stubborn and shrewd, and cannot be manipulated for his own ends. The seemingly gentle path of Matteo Garrone's naturalistic film gives way to darker undercurrents and a creeping suspense that is irresistibly absorbing and quietly nerve-wracking. Director of photography Marco Onorato provides deep and dark wide-angle shots. And the littered beaches and abandoned streets of Cremona and locations outside Naples create a beautifully bereft backdrop that enhances this tale of three lost souls.