Weak Spot — Weak Spot( Blu Ray)
Weak Spot is a rewardingly twisting ‘n’ turning 70’s thriller set in a dystopian Greece, where a middle-aged man is arrested on bizarre/jumped-up charges. It’s a film that hooks you in from the off, then holds you in its tense WTH will happen next unfold, with a nicely edgy-to-moody Ennio Morricone score. Here from Radiance Films- both in the UK and Stateside- is a new blu ray, with a new 4k scan, and a few extras.
Weak Spot (aka La Faille ) is a 1975 joint production between France, Italy, and West Germany. It was directed by Zweibrücken, Germany-born Peter Fleischmann. Between the late 50’s and early 2000’s he had eleven feature credits- these go from documentary Herbst der Gammler (1967) which looked at the German equivalent of Beatniks. Onto dark comedy Havoc (1972), obsessive cop drama Frevel (1983), and set on another planet in medieval times sci-fi Hard To Be A God (1989). So an interesting film-maker.
As mentioned in my introduction you get pulled in by the great opening. It's a set shot of a town centre apartment block- two cars pull up, with the occupants rushing up to the top floor. We hear a woman shout/ scream in distress, and a man saying he hasn’t done anything. Next one of the balcony doors opens- with a man rushing out, and crashing down to the street below- he’s checked if he’s dead, before being scooped off the pavement & taken away.
Fairly soon we meet our lead- ladies' man/ travel agent Georgis(Ugo Tognazzi) who is in bed- putting cake powder on his girlfriend's breasts- the pair get up and dressed- we find out his room looks out onto the street. He crosses the road to a nearby café/ bar- orders a double cognac- and sits down sipping his drink, then a man appears out of the toilet door behind him- knocking into his foot, he complains saying he hurt the corn on his foot- then the next thing he’s been arrested and bungled in the back of a car by secret service agents. He’s taken in, and told to strip, giving other clothes, and shoes- before getting accused of several wild/ bizarre things by the snappy/ authoritative bespeckled Police superintendent (Dimos Starenios).
He's then told he is going to be shipped off to 'central' to be interrogated- he’s crammed in a car with two agents, and they set off- fairly soon the car dies, so Georgis and always wearing a smart blue suit agent (Michel Piccol) land up been stuck in a small, and at times subtle strange coastal town. Where the pair get up to all manner of things- going from the taut action bound to the plain odd- a hotel room fight, someone mowed down by a motorcycle, and a joint barber shave, etc.
Throughout there is great tense, at points, quirky edge to the film's unfold. As these two miss-matched characters try to get on/ get by, as we ponder whose truth is real.
Tognazzi is most effective as the slightly tubby everyman, and Piccol is believable as the sharp shooting/always-on-duty agent. The rest of the small surrounding cast is good too. As mentioned earlier the film features a Morricone score- it takes in a taut and tough horn/ orchestration/ bounding keys main cue, as well as more moody cues. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Weak Spot – as I was expecting more of a straight 70’s euro thriller, but there is much more to the film than that- with effective moments of the unexpected, edge, and action throughout.
The region-free disc features a new 4k restoration- this looks and sounds good, with a well-defined- if often grey-focused colour pallet, and a punchy sound mix. We get two new extras on the disc- The first is a commentary track from critic Travis Woods- this is certainly well researched and observed, though at points it comes off a tad too wordy and pretentious. He opens up by talking about the film's flat grey brutalism- which he feels mirrors present times. He talks about how the film transcends genre filmmaking- moving into fable and art (see what I mean about pretentious!). He touches on lead actor Ugo Tognazzi- who he says has earthy charm and wit about him. We find out he had an impressive one hundred and fifty acting credits to his name, with his most notable role being in 1978’s Birds Of A Feather. He points out notable appearances of both flowers and flower print clothes throughout the film, and discusses their possible meanings. He chats about how the film is suffocated with possibilities and double meanings. We find out the film was based 1964 novel The Flaw by Antones Samarakes- going on to discuss the book and touching on the themes that appear in all of the author's work. He talks about how the film is obsessed with masculinity, and how our lead character plays into this. Later on, he points out his favourite lines in the picture. Talks about the film's nibble structure, and much more. It’s a decent/ interesting track- I just wish Woods had been less showy/trying to sound profound.
Otherwise, on the new side, we find Soundtrack expert Lovely Jon (26.20) discussing the film's score by Ennio Morricone. We find out that the composer scored an impressive nineteen films in the year 1975. He talks about the key players in the score's creation- as well as mentioning other notable albums by them worth checking out. He chats about how the score was made up of unused cues from other films, and goes on to discuss each of the film's cues. He talks about the soundtracks released over the years- finishing off by summing up his thoughts on the score. An excellent featurette.
On the archive side, we have a 1975 TV interview with actor Michel Piccoli discussing Weak Spot
The finished release comes with a twenty-page inlay booklet. This comes with a new write-up about the film from the always-worth genre expert/ writer Kat Eilinger. A good selection of colour stills from the film, as well as full credits.
Weak Spot truly is an excellent taut ‘n’ tense example of the paranoia-fuelled thriller form. This new release from Radiance features a well-defined 4k scan, and some most interesting/ worthy extras.