Cinema in Times of Turmoil: the GIALLO!!! section
The GIALLO!!! section at the 3rd edition of Timeless Film Festival Warsaw (April 17–27, 2026) takes audiences on a journey through a decade of cinematic unrest – from Mario Bava’s pioneering visual inventions, through the metaphysical anxieties of Dario Argento, to Lucio Fulci’s visionary “genre terrorism.” It is a world where murder becomes an act of art and where the color red acquires an intensity found nowhere else.
The Italian phenomenon of the 1970s is a space where police thrillers, mysteries, horror and noir merge with unrestrained creativity, eroticism and cruelty. Giallo emerged during the turbulent Years of Lead, a period marked by student protests, workers’ strikes and acts of political violence. The tensions of the time found their reflection in the aggressive language of on-screen brutality. In this world nothing is quite what it seems: fear and helplessness become tools of power, and reality itself – a shard of glass, boiling water from a tap, the sharp edge of a pavement – may conspire to turn into an instrument of murder.
The magnetism of giallo would not exist without its revolutionary soundscapes. The avant- garde spirit of composers such as Ennio Morricone and Riz Ortolani introduced dissonance, jazz-like nervousness and lounge sensuality, permanently reshaping the sonic landscape of cinematic horror.
A special event accompanying the section will be a performance by Gruppo di Improvvisazione Giallo (Hanno Leichtmann, Magda Mayas and Valerio Tricoli). On April 24 at the Mazovian Institute of Culture, the artists will bring this dark imagination to life i a live performance inspired by the idea of spontaneous composition developed by Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, combining it with the aesthetics of genre cinema and the radical language of the avant-garde.
The group also draws inspiration from the monumental early-1970s work by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, Dimensioni Sonore – Musiche Per L’Immagine E L’Immaginazione. Their sound combines sampled percussive textures from giallo films (Leichtmann), prepared piano and clavinet (Mayas), electronics and voice (Persico), and a Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder (Tricoli), used to sample and process the ensemble’s sound in real time.
The section is curated by Stanisław Bardadin.
The partner of the section is the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA).
The full curatorial text is available here.
Films presented in the GIALLO!!! section:
- Black Sabbath (I tre volti della paura, 1963, dir. Mario Bava) – a masterful showcase of genre versatility composed of three horror tales.
- Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l’assassino, 1964, dir. Mario Bava) – a pioneering masterpiece that helped define the visual language of giallo.
- Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto, 1970, dir. Elio Petri) – an Oscar-winning portrait of systemic brutality framed within the conventions of giallo.
- A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, 1971, dir. Lucio Fulci) – a visionary and unsettling work by the “genre terrorist”.
- The Perfume of the Lady in Black (Il profumo della signora in nero, 1974, dir. Francesco Barilli) – a hallucinatory psychological portrait in which nothing is quite what it seems.
- Deep Red (Profondo rosso, 1975, dir. Dario Argento) – Argento’s masterstroke, opening the gates to the metaphysics of fear.
- The House with Laughing Windows (La casa dalle finestre che ridono, 1976, dir. Pupi Avati) – a thriller of meticulous construction and eerie atmosphere.
- The Psychic (Sette note in nero, 1977, dir. Lucio Fulci) – a refined meditation on vision and parapsychological premonition.
- Suspiria (1977, dir. Dario Argento) – a cult classic where everything seems to conspire to bring about murder.
- Tenebrae (1982, dir. Dario Argento) – a sharp self-reflection on the art of crime at the edge of fiction and reality.
Suspiria
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Deep Red
Blood and Black Lace
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
The Psychic
The Perfume of the Lady in Black
The Perfume of the Lady in Black
Suspiria
Suspiria
Festival passes and accreditations are currently on sale. The full program of the upcoming edition of Timeless Film Festival Warsaw will be announced on April 1, and single-ticket sales will begin on April 9.
The festival is co-financed by the City of Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Polish Film Institute.
The festival’s main partner is the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA).
The festival is co-organized by the Documentary and Feature Film Studios (WFDiF) and the Mazovia Institute of Culture.