If I write more than one, then I’ll make the topic title plural
I have reviewed Barcarolle in Yellow by Victor Ojuel on my blog. I include some appreciation-enhancing information about giallo and non-spoiler play tips that you may want to read before playing, even if you don’t want to read the review until after you’ve played.
EDIT - I woke thinking I got the heroine’s nationality wrong in my review. I was about to change it but
EDIT EDIT - now I can’t find the bit in the transcript that gave me that idea! I’m going to leave it as is.
To be honest, I kind of like your version better than mine, Wade. I made her some flavor of Anglo because I wanted her to be a total outsider in Venice, in the vein of The Girl That Knew Too Much (as you astutely point out). Besides the fact that there were a bunch of British actors playing in gialli for a quick buck, her nationality doesn’t hold a lot of meaning. Similarly, there were a lot of Americans working in spaghetti westerns filmed in the desert of Tabernas (Almería) in southern Spain (e.g. Eastwood, Wallach and Van Cleef in Leone’s so-called Dollar Trilogy), but I can see how the intro might make Eva look Spanish (except for details like not understanding the Spanish boy bringing the telegram). As a Spaniard, she would have had an easier time trying to make herself understood in Italian, but actually I quite like the concept of a 70s Spanish actress. Franco dies in 1975, and following his long-awaited demise, Spanish cinema went through “el destape”, basically a rush of films, usually extremely silly comedies, featuring loads of gratuitous nudity, just because finally it could be done. Spain in the mid-70s to early 80s is an extremely interesting (and tragic) setting I want to explore one day. Hey, maybe Eva is the one.
