Sette note in nero
Sette note in nero is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, co-written by Fulci with Roberto Gianviti and Dardano Sacchetti, and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Gianni Garko, Marc Porel, and Ida Galli. The film involves a woman who begins experiencing psychic visions that lead her to discover a murder; her husband is charged with the killing. The psychic must embark on an investigation with a paranormal researcher to clear her husband's name of the crime.
In English-speaking countries, the film was popularly released under the alternative titles The Psychic, as well as Murder to the Tune of Seven Black Notes and Death Tolls Seven Times.
Plot
In 1959, a mother in Dover kills herself by leaping from a cliff; at the same time, her daughter, Virginia, living in Florence, witnesses the death in a vision. Eighteen years later, Virginia is a socialite married to rich Italian businessman Francesco Ducci. After Francesco leaves on a business trip, Virginia experiences new visions consisting of seemingly unrelated people and objects, including a murdered old woman. Virginia plans to renovate an abandoned mansion owned by her husband but realises that it resembles a building she has seen in her visions. After noticing a crack in the plaster, she hacks a hole into the wall of a room, finding a skeleton inside it. Assuming the skeleton is that of the dead woman, Virginia contacts the police. However, they do not believe her story and charge Francesco with the killing.Examination of the body reveals it not to be an old woman, but one in her twenties; killed about five years earlier. The skeleton is identified as Francesco's ex-girlfriend, Agneta Bignardi, who vanished several years ago. Virginia is determined to exonerate her husband, and contacts her friend Luca Fattori, a researcher of psychic phenomena. Luca's investigation eventually leads to the wealthy Emilio Rospini, who may be the true culprit.
When Francesco returns from his business trip, he urges Virginia to dismiss the matter from her mind. Instead, she grows more and more obsessed with solving the mystery. Virginia discusses the case with Francesco's sister Gloria, and Melli, a lawyer friend of Gloria's. Gloria says that her brother left for a business trip to America in April 1972, and that she was the one who changed the furniture of the place. The room with the walled-in corpse had been Franceso's bedroom, but it was Gloria who had bought the furniture that Virginia saw in her vision, after Francesco's departure.
A few days later, Virginia buys a magazine which runs a picture of the murdered woman on the front cover, exactly the same magazine from Virginia's vision. When Luca notices that the magazine has only existed for a year, it becomes apparent to him that Virginia has experienced a premonition, not a vision of past crimes. Virginia and Luca find more evidence that appears to clear Francesco, allowing him to get released on bail. Gloria, in the meantime, gives Virginia a wristwatch as a gift, one that plays a haunting tune on the hour.
Details from the premonitions start to occur in front of Virginia with greater and greater frequency. Virginia takes a yellow taxi, with a blinking CB radio light, from Luca's office to her home. The mysterious old woman phones Virginia, leaving a message on her answering machine, offering information about the case. When Virginia arrives at her house, she finds her dead. Rospini appears and Virginia flees in panic. Grabbing a vital letter featured on a coffee table in her vision, Virginia escapes down the road to a neighboring church that is undergoing repairs. Virginia's hiding place is given away when her wristwatch chimes go off. Rospini tries to reach her on a wooden scaffold, but the scaffold breaks and he falls to the marble floor, many feet below.
Virginia runs back to her husband's old villa nearby, and phones him at his office to come see her right away. When he arrives, Virginia is alarmed by his limp, for which he claims to have twisted his ankle just a few hours before. They go inside to the fateful room. Francesco puts down a copy of the magazine with Agneta on the cover, right on the table as described in the vision. Growing more nervous, Virginia starts smoking one of Gloria's yellow cigarettes, and places it in an ashtray also featured in the vision.
At the hospital, the police talk to the badly injured Rospini, who can barely gasp out his explanation of the events. Back in 1972, the old woman, Signora Casati, had an illicit buyer for a valuable painting in a nearby gallery. Francesco, Rospini, and Agneta Bignardi had all been involved in stealing it. Rospini killed a guard, a fact mentioned in a letter Agneta wrote to Casati. Rospini was not trying to kill Virginia, but only trying to retrieve the letter. Casati was already dead when he arrived, having been killed by Francesco, who sustained a twisted ankle after jumping out of a window. It was Francesco who murdered Agneta five years ago after she enraged him by trying to make off with the painting alone.
Alone with her husband, Virginia becomes more and more frightened by the gradual confluences of elements from her vision. The last crucial link in the chain occurs when Francesco sees the incriminating letter on the dresser. Virginia claims that she hasn't read it, but he refuses to believe her. He suddenly attacks his wife with a fireplace poker. His first blow misses as she ducks and it smashes a mirror. The next blow strikes her on the head. As Virginia lies on the floor, bleeding profusely, he prepares to entomb her into the excavated hole in the wall. Finally, all the details of room fit with the vision: Virginia realizes that she was the victim all along. Francesco covers up the freshly-finished wall with a large cabinet.
A little later, Luca figures out from the magazine cover that it was actually possible for Francesco to have murdered Agneta Bignardi. He then races over to the Ducci villa, chased by two motorcycle cops who are trying to arrest him for speeding. He manages to keep them from arresting him long enough to elaborate his suspicions. Francesco invites them all into his house and into the room, expressing concern at his wife's disappearance. Despite the policemen's questions and Luca's remarks, they cannot find any evidence of foul play nor break Francesco's collected demeanor. As Luca turns to leave, escorted by the police, Virginia's wristwatch chime starts playing from the wall behind the cabinet—exposing Francesco and saving Virginia.
Cast
Production
Development
According to director Lucio Fulci, Sette note in nero gestated over several years in development hell because producer Luigi De Laurentiis was unsure about what type of film could be made out of it. Ernesto Gastaldi stated that he had written a twelve-page outline of the film with director/producer Alberto Pugliese, titled Pentagramma in nero or Sinfonia in nero. The story dealt with a woman who dreams of a murder, and believes it will happen in real life. Film critic and historian Roberto Curti has noted that there exists a script kept at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia library, titled Incubus , which is credited to Gastaldi, Sergio Corbucci and Mahnamen Velasco and is dated March 1972, but states that this was, in fact, an early title for La morte accarezza a mezzanotte ; however, Curti notes that both La morte accarezza a mezzanotte and Sette note in nero share near-identical premises of women having premonitions of murder.Sette note in nero was written by Roberto Gianviti and Dardano Sacchetti. Fulci and Gianviti had collaborated on several films together, including Operazione San Pietro, One on Top of the Other, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Don't Torture a Duckling, White Fang and Challenge to White Fang. Sacchetti would later collaborate with Fulci on Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery, and The New York Ripper.
Fulci and Gianviti had been put under contract by De Laurentiis and his son Aurelio based on the success of their earlier gialli; given creative freedom to conceive a project in the same genre, they chose to adapt writer Vieri Razzini's 1972 mystery novel Terapia mortale. Described by Curti as "a banal and rather poorly written whodunnit", the novel follows parapsychologist Patrick Delli as he investigates the death of his friend Mark, which he discovers to have been an act of murder through the use of psychic powers, and that Mark's wife Veronica is another potential target. Barbara Bouchet was originally intended as one of the film's leads; in a July 1974 interview, she revealed that filming was intended to take place in İzmir. However, the De Laurentiises were not satisfied with Fulci and Gianviti's material, and Sacchetti was brought on board to work with the pair in summer 1975. Sacchetti noted that Fulci and Gianviti had little to show for half a year's work on the project, largely because the former misinterpreted the novel's portrayal of parapsychology as a type of magic instead of psychoanalysis. Fulci initially resented Sacchetti due to the success of his collaborations with Dario Argento and referred to him as "De Laurentiis' spy", but eventually warmed to him after Gianviti approved of his additions to the script, which served to "unblock" difficulties that Fulci and Gianviti had originally encountered, while remaining true to the spirit of the novel.
After Fulci, Gianviti and Sacchetti's initial draft was rejected by the De Laurentiises, Sacchetti suggested that they work on a new story from scratch, and asked Fulci what his biggest obsession was. When Fulci informed him that this obsession was "fate", he returned the next day with an entirely new outline that met with Fulci and Gianviti's approval. Fulci impulsively devised the title Sette note in nero after Sacchetti informed him that a carillon would serve as a key plot device in the story. Sacchetti attributes "70%" of the resulting script to Gianviti, and described his contributions as "a touch of Argento to a traditional mystery plot. The 'touch of Argento' were the suspenseful situations in general, the modalities of the deaths, especially the victim's point of view". Although an announcement that production of the film, then bearing the novel's title, would begin in November 1975 was deposited at the Ministry of Spectacle, the film was shelved again by the De Laurentiises, as their company was in financial trouble due to political and social unrest in Italy. Within several months, Fulci was able to make a deal with a smaller production company, Cinecompany, and distributor Cineriz to make the film.
Aside from sharing a theme of psychic powers and the character of Luca Fattori being a parapsychologist who harbors romantic feelings for the married Virginia, the resulting film bares little resemblance to Razzini's novel. Curti notes that Sette note in nero features several scenes and themes influenced by Fulci's earlier films, including the potentially unjust imprisonment of a man for the murder of his wife, precognition and a character who falls to their death on a cliffside ; other possible influences on the narrative include the novel Night has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich and the films Don't Look Now and Death Rite.