What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This film has many strengths, it's well photographed and has a very good score by Morricone. The plot twists get a little to twisty--though that's part of the fun of giallo's and the final answer as to what happened to Solange is memorably nasty. It's also well produced, the dubbing is pretty good and much of it looks or at least feels like it's really taking place in England--though the cast doesn't look very British.So what's wrong with this picture? Well the lead character is a lecherous teacher and the movie itself seems to wallow a bit in scenes of naked school girls in the shower. Though you can get a exploitation thrill from this you don't really identify with any of the characters. The detective gets more screen time but isn't interesting and doesn't have any emotional involvement in solving the crimes.So you'd expect our lech lead "wrong man" character to learn or get more involved in solving all this--and he sort of does but mostly doesn't. Some of this can be actor Testi's though he's less stiff here than in other films.The film also doesn't build as well as it should and as it starts to explain what's going on it slows down and gets convoluted--in other words it has a slow middle.There is one silly scene with an over the top witness to a crime and lot's of Catholic hatred and confusion to liven things up.Film has some style, helped by the music, but the style neither overcomes nor expresses all the elements of the film. It's an interesting film that isn't all that compelling.

"What Have You Done to Solange?" revolves around a remote Catholic girls' school where teachers have relationships with students, girls engage in sex parties, and a killer on the loose carves them to pieces.The title of the film alone is enough to pique audience intrigue, and "What Have You Done to Solange?" delivers on most all accounts. Oft-credited as one of the pioneering giallo films, it operates nicely on that register, but also as a straightforward seventies suspense thriller punctuated by grim death scenes and sleaze. The content buried within the plot is disturbing and nuanced, making for several curves along the way.In spite of the film's more lurid elements, it is actually a very artistically-minded and dare I say, classy picture. The cinematography is gorgeous and the film is richly atmospheric. Its shining moment is undoubtedly the surreal black-and-white flashback scene that unravels the plot twist, which is hands-down one of the greatest scenes in any giallo film I can recall, even outdoing Argento in some respects. Comparisons to Argento are inevitable here, although "Solange?" is far more understated and less visually ostentatious, as well as marginally more coherent than much of Argento's work. The acting in the film is surprisingly good; Fabio Testi gives a solid performance as the hunky schoolteacher, while Camille Keaton (pre-"I Spit on Your Grave") is angelic, terrifying, and haunting in the title role.Overall, "What Have You Done to Solange?" is a remarkably creepy and intricately-mapped giallo thriller. The atmospheric and lush European setting sets a gorgeous backdrop against which schoolgirls engage in illicit activities, teachers transgress moral boundaries, and back-alley abortionists succumb to machetes in-between the legs. 9/10.

What Have You Done to Solange? is a first-rate murder mystery based on an Edgar Wallace novel. Set in and around London, it features Fabio Testi as a college professor who sleeps with one of his students. When out on a date together, the girl witnesses a murder in the woods. Immediately thereafter a series of gruesome killings are committed, the victims all being girls from the same school. This is the first of director Massimo Dallamano's two 'schoolgirls in peril' gialli, the second being the possibly even better What Have They Done to Your Daughters (1974). There was a third movie in this loose thematic series - Alberto Negrin's Trauma (1978) - which was less impressive but more sleazy and good fun in a trashy way. These schoolgirl gialli were a little different from most others in the genre. Unlike the later American slashers, giallo movies didn't much focus on teenagers being killed, it was almost always rich and glamorous adults getting picked off in these flicks. So the schoolgirl gialli do pre-date ideas used extensively by their slasher offspring.Solange benefits from a very solid mystery narrative that pretty much makes sense - not always a given for the genre - and has a pretty satisfying conclusion with a very effective and haunting final flashback. The story has a good mixture of suspense and intrigue. While it contains many of the other typical ingredients of the giallo such as a bit of sex, a host of shady characters, a distinctly amoral 'hero' and a string of nasty murders. With the exception of the bathtub strangulation, the latter are noticeably less explicit than is normally the case in these types of movies but when you learn the killer's method of murder you should be glad of this.The structure of the story is such that in the first half we focus on Testi's character and the mess his adulterous affair has got him into, so there is some melodrama mixed into this earlier section of the film. In the second half once Testi's personal situation has been fixed, he and his wife effectively take the roles of amateur sleuths and they unravel the mystery piece by piece. For these reasons, the second half of the film is faster paced than the first. Overall, Solange isn't quite as heavily stylised as many other gialli are. But it's still a handsome enough looking movie and it does also benefit a lot from having great music by Ennio Morricone. Of especial note are his dark jazzy compositions that accompany the suspenseful moments. And finally, of course, this movie has a great title. Like many in the genre it's left until late in the film before we even have the slightest clue what it even means. These crazy titles are yet another reason to love the giallo.In the final analysis this is a very good mystery-thriller. I guess this one is perfect for folks who like their gialli to have strong central mysteries. It's certainly among the upper tier of what the genre has to offer and certainly comes recommended.

First off just to say i didn't get the edition I thought I would - I chose the Italian version over the R2, but what actually arrived was a UK release from 1998 - claiming to be a special edition - i never knew there WAS a UK DVD release - but the promised biogs were not actually on the disc - just a couple of duff trailers. Anyway - as to the film itself - just as I was recovering from "Night TRain Murders" my second genital mutilation thriller turns up in the same month - this time in (an Italian) UK nubile schoolgirls are being offed and Teacher Fabio Testi - (unhappily) married but nailing one of his students - becomes the main suspect. Joachim Fuchsberger is the detective on the case. Sorry to say I was less than entranced. It was watchable but more than equally miss able,and aside from the aforementioned gruesome nature of the crime, the "surprise" killing of Cristina Galbo which was actually "spoilt" by the DVD cover telling me about it - Grrrrrr!!!! and a surprise twist that cast the "victims" in a new light - i thought this was very routine. Itwont put me off the two "sequels" though. with Karin (Hannibal Brooks)Baal and Camille (I Spit on your grave") Keaton.