Il Pavone Nero / Voodoo Sexy Erotico

Now THIS is the way I like to start the new year.  Obscure trash, fansubbed and ready to be consumed!  It's freaky, it's foreshadowing the Dominican Republic Island Mania of Joe D'Amato and it's kinda awesome, it's IL PAVONE NERO!

Osvaldo Civirani isn't exactly a name that gets me going, especially since I equate him not with the minor Eurospy films or Peplum on his resume, but the boring The Devil Has Seven Faces.  That has changed!  IL PAVONE NERO is an obscure 1974 film that takes Karin Schubert (excellent), voodoo (cool), female topless vacationing which leads into nymphomania (never done it, but it looks like fun in the movies) and even a bit of intrigue.  It's a bit hard to speak about the intrigue since big chunks of the version I viewed are hardcore inserts and it definitely feels a little light on the storytelling.  But, I have to cop to not caring at all, because even though the hardcore are inserts it probably keeps things from bogging down and the ending isn't exactly a world beater. Basically, after an Italian ends up working on a project in Santo Domingo (oh oh) his wife finds voodoo dolls, masturbates, hallucinates and gets it on with every stiff (and not so stiff) big headed symbol of fertility, flesh or otherwise! 
Storytelling is not the strong point, and what is more interesting was that the film itself wasn't exactly the strong point. What is neat is that this feels like a blueprint for the Joe D'Amato films shot in the Dominican Republic...to an almost astonishing degree.  Look at a few images and think lovingly, as I do, of the D'Amato films. 

It's that trees shot!  It really is amazing at times.  The film is aided by a really great score by Lallo Gori that mixes some funk in the trunk with voodoo drums and when Civirani gets really WEIRD the soundtrack is sonic perfection.  Here, check it out!

Now, in a perfect world I'll watch the softcore cut to find out more about poor Laura and her possession by the dark side of voodoo, but until then I'm feeling pretty satisfied.  Karin Schubert is great in this film, she definitely gets some fun scenes to play through, reacting to...nothing... and even getting tied up for a sacrifice. Her drunken exploration of a voodoo doll is a highlight, and as she would carry on to do later, she knows her screensturbation techniques!  There is a crazy and awkward lesbian scene that doesn't show off her best work, but the score makes up for that as it tries to make the viewers hips sway as the ladies lay, lady...lay!

Also of note, the hardcore inserts also seem to influence the D'Amato films as there are some insanely flacid members on show.  It looked like one afternoon just had a complete fail and we get awesome music being played as two very long noodles seem to attack a woman's thighs with all the vigor and vim of a snail seeking salt!  

Trash cinema fans will undoubtedly find things to enjoy here, I certainly did.  Far from essential, but very long (and not limp) on interest, I'm glad that the community of fansubbers and tape preservationists have kept this alive.
And now, I can forgive Osvaldo Civirani!