The House of the Yellow Carpet (1983)

The House of the Yellow Carpet is one of those movies where the less you know about, the more you're likely to enjoy it. With this movie, too much plot detail would be a bad thing. I'll just say that a young couple, Franca and Antonio, have a carpet (yellow of course) they'd like to sale. It was a present from Franca's stepfather, but it doesn't work in their small flat. While Antonio is away, Franca answers the door to an old man with an interest in buying the carpet. But is the carpet really all he came for? Anymore detail would seriously be too much. The House of the Yellow Carpet is s small, often claustrophobic, thriller/giallo with only four speaking parts. It's filled with more tension and suspense than many better known movies. I'd compare the felling to something like Wait Until Dark. It's a little slow to get going, but once it does, it's edge of the seat type stuff. The acting is beyond first rate. Erland Josephson as the old man and Béatrice Romand as Franca give some of the best performances I've seen in a while. Just brilliant. And I can't say enough about director Carlo Lizzani. Every twist and turn in the script works flawlessly. This is a fantastic movie that deserves a much wider audience.

Carlo Lizzani's "La Casa del Tappeto Giallo" is based on a play by Aldo Selleri.It's very interesting and quite original psychological giallo about a young couple Antonio and Franca.Franca inherited yellow carpet from her abusive stepfather.Antonio wants to sell yellow carpet and puts an ad in the local newspaper.During the absence of Antonio Franca is visited by a middle-aged man with a paralyzed hand.This mysterious man becomes more threatening and violent as he tells Franca that he killed his wife on the same carpet Franca is selling."The House of the Yellow Carpet" is an atmospheric and theatrical giallo which mostly takes place in a small apartment.The acting is excellent and there are two nasty moments including vicious stabbing and syringe in the eye moment.7 yellow carpets out of 10.

What we have here is another sublime yet criminally neglected giallo-highlight that urgently deserves to be out there on DVD along with the big boys! Once you witness how amazingly compelling and suspenseful this film is, you too will probably wonder why the hell it is still so unknown and incredibly difficult to purchase. "House of the Yellow Carpet" implements a unique and highly creative structure, the convoluted plot-twists are actually plausible for a change and – most of all – director Carlo Lizzani upholds a genuinely unsettling atmosphere throughout the entire film. The script is adapted from a stage play and this really shows, as there's just one main setting and only four characters that gather there. Exactly like in the terrific Audrey Hepburn thriller "Wait Until Dark" (also based on a play), the lack of filming locations increases the tension and, moreover, provides the film with an awkward feel of claustrophobia. Also, the titular yellow carpet might be a hideous piece of interior decoration, but it's definitely a cool gimmick for a movie that falls into the category of "gialli"! The opening sequence immediately sets a sober tone, as a husband overhears his wife talking in her sleep about sex with another man. The next morning, we learn that the couple placed an ad to sell an old inherited yellow carpet that hardly fits in their apartment. When she's alone later that morning, the woman receives a visitor who pretends to be interested in the carpet but the strange & uncanny man promptly ensues to psychologically terrorize Franca about her deepest desires and hidden childhood secrets. I know it's not much of a summary, but it's really all that I can tell about the story without revealing essential elements. And, trust me, this is the type of film for which you don't want to know already how it ends. "House of the Yellow Carpet" is not as violent or sick-spirited as most contemporary giallo-efforts (partly due to the budget?), but the lack of gore is widely compensated by a stylish photography and great dialogues. The acting performances are highly satisfying too, with a splendid role for the Swedish veteran actor Erland Josephson ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being"). Excellent film, truly recommended.

"The House of the Yellow Carpet" is a keen, witty, highly imaginative psychological thriller that has nothing to do with "supernatural rugs" or any such nonsense and is a cut above plenty of Italian horror films I've seen. I stumbled upon mention of this rare film in one of those long, long lists of "My Favorite Horror Films" people love to post on the Internet. The title grabbed me immediately and struck me at first as hilarious. I just had to find out what, if anything, could be so "horrifying" about a yellow carpet that it could provide the basis for a "horror" film.Well, there's nothing much horrifying about a yellow carpet, but there's plenty horrifying about a husband who stays awake all night staring at his sleeping wife and working himself into a fury because in her sleep she's amorously murmuring some other guy's name. I wish I could say more without spoiling the plot. All I can say is, this film features a highly unusual serial killer whose "method acting" is as unsettling as it is, at times, amusing, though the underlying message of "The House of the Yellow Carpet" is dead serious.Erland Josephson, a noted Swedish actor (and collaborator with Ingmar Bergman) who has a huge list of TV, film, stage, and literary credits to his name, is super here as "the man who comes to buy a carpet." You might remember him from "Fanny and Alexander," "The Passion of Anna," "Saving Grace," "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "Hanussen," "Sophie," and "Prospero's Books." Born in 1923, he's still alive and working (he played Franz von Papen in the 2003 Italian made-for-TV movie "Il papa buono" about Pope John the 23rd). See "House of the Yellow Carpet" for him alone, but you might be pleasantly surprised that he's not the only thing about this film worth watching.