Poll: favourite Dario Argento film(s)?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Rocker, Aug 24, 2015.

  1. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    I find it a little odd that Argento was able to do such great work with his two Masters of Horror episodes, and yet most of his film work during the surrounding years was pretty sub-par. Mother of Tears was particularly disappointing, since fans had been waiting 27 years for the final part of that trilogy.
     
  2. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    After watching two Mario Brava films I was about ready to give up on Italian horror films once and for all, but then I found this thread, so I'm about to watch "Deep Red." Hopefully it will prove itself a good film. I thought I'd look for general critical consensus before I invested time in it and now I'm a little afraid to watch it based on what Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times regarding the film, referring to Dario Argento as "a director of incomparable incompetence."

    Bwah!
     
  3. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    After you watch Deep Red, I would suggest that you give Suspiria and Tenebre a look as well.... those are arguably Argento's three best films.
     
  4. Halfwit

    Halfwit Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    Who voted for Dracula?!
     
  5. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    Which Bava did you watch?
     
  6. Barnabas Collins

    Barnabas Collins Senior Member

    Location:
    NH
    Man, Argento's Dracula was one of his worst. I like seeing female nudity as much as the next guy, but why does Argento seem to like to film nude scenes of his daughter so much?!
     
  7. michaelscrutchin

    michaelscrutchin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX (USA)
    My favorite Argento films are the one-word titles from 1977 to 1987 -- Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebrae, Phenomena, and Opera.

    The limited-edition Blu-ray of Tenebrae from Synapse Films is fantastic, so I can't wait for their upcoming Suspiria and Phenomena Blu-rays. I have no doubt that Synapse's releases will be the best these films have ever looked on home video. Synapse does outstanding work.
     
  8. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    Dario did the killing POV in almost all his films, it was his hands.
     
  9. jawaka1000

    jawaka1000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    I have most of Dario Argento's films on dvd, and Mario Bava as well.
    I really love Italian horror movies, and Italian westerns as well.
    I was amazed when I found out that Dario Argento together with the great Bernardo Bertolucci wrote the story for Sergio Leone's masterpiece "once upon a time in the west".
    What a hero!
     
    ilistentoallkinds likes this.
  10. progrocker71

    progrocker71 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Argento films are all about style. They are surreal masterpieces...but if you're looking for coherent plots you're barking up the wrong tree. Beautiful insanity.

    As for watching 2 Bava films and wanting to give up...that tells me a lot more about the person watching than the films.
     
    ilistentoallkinds and moops like this.
  11. Johnny66

    Johnny66 Laird of Boleskine

    Location:
    Australia.
    Well, that depends. If any of those films were Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack or Hatchet for the Honeymoon (not to mention Bava's peplum films), then that's thoroughly understandable. :)
     
  12. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    I'm 52 minutes into "Deep Red." It's been a chore. Right now as the story stands, I think any normal director could have condensed the story at this point into the first 15 or 20 minutes, however they were endless "character driven" scenes, pointless really, of relationships that do nothing and are headache inducingly bad. It's like he's trying to do the "light" scenes of Hitchcock, with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, but the characters are so unlikeable and the dialogue so bad, you just wish they'd shut up. It's so obvious Argento had recently watched "Psycho" and "Blow Up" (the casting of David Hemmings nails that down) and had a go at "his version". Psychologist appearing out of no where babbling about schizophrenics (Psycho) and drunken conversations about seeing things (Blow Up). I think it's just the awful dialogue, bad pacing, and generally awkwardness of the film that is keeping me at arms length. The only saving grace is really nice photography. I'll give the film that, but the mise-en-scene is awful and the tension -- non-existent. I do like "Suspiria" however. That's a good horror film. Probably the best Italian horror film I've seen. The rest. Eh. Last week I watched "Lisa and the Devil" with Telly Savalas and Elke Sommer. That was another I've-fallen-into-a-pit of Italian cheesyiness that I wanted badly to drag myself out of. I'm trying to expand my horizons in the horror genre, but it's not happening with great Italian directors. Maybe it's mascara on the women or the effeminate, plastic looks of the young heart-throbs, but it's just all so bad.

    I did however watch an interesting one today "God Told Me Do" a NYC-set 70s film written and directed by Larry Cohen. It was weird and awkwardly constructed, too, but the acting and dialogue were first rate. It's like if someone made an X-Files episode in the 70s: Religious fanaticism, alien conspiracies -- wild stuff. I actually enjoyed that film quite a bit. It's also nostalgic with some nice blaxsploitation thrown in for a chuckle. A big cast of character actors from the period who are all excellent. And I almost fell over to see Andy Kaufman show up! I never realized he was in any films! Someone should do a study of the works of Larry Cohen. I remember seeing his film Q: The Winged Serpent and liking that, too. I guess he wrote a lot for TV, like "Columbo." He's a good writer.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2016
  13. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    I'm adding "Demons" in here also. He may not have directed it but he cowrote the screenplay and produced it. Definitely a fun film to watch.
     
  14. moops

    moops Senior Member

    Location:
    Geebung, Australia
    There's no denying Dario is a frustrating director.
    He's more a master of set pieces than entire films. It's like he films these brilliant sequences and then tries to string them all together to form some kind of plot that makes sense.
    I still think Suspiria is his best movie ( with Inferno underrated ) ... Suspiria is all about atmosphere, and yeah you could say it's style over substance .... but what style ! .......
    Yes it does seem weird and disjointed and even clumsy at times, but there was nothing else like it in horror at the time.
    And if there is now, they owe a tip of the hat to Dario.

    If I can suggest a couple of Mario Bava ....... Kill Baby Kill and The Whip and The Body.

    Please look past what you think is cheesy and clumsy and soak up the mood, the atmosphere, the overall feel and look that these guys went for.
    Their use of lighting, colors, angles and music isn't amateur hour.
     
    Guillaume P and Barnabas Collins like this.
  15. Barnabas Collins

    Barnabas Collins Senior Member

    Location:
    NH
    Not a fan of Hatchet for the Honeymoon? I love that film. It's no Blood and Black Lace or Black Sunday but I think it's a very effective dark comedy. I think I've bought it at least three times on DVD and blu-ray!
     
  16. Thwacko

    Thwacko Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peacham, Vermont
    I've seen Deep Red, Suspiria, Phenomena, and Opera. Suspiria is great, didn't care for any of the rest.
     
  17. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Which version are you watching? The 104-minute English edit or the full 126-minute Italian director's cut?

    I saw God Told Me To many years ago, but I don't really remember too much about it, aside from the fact that it didn't impress me very much. Some of Cohen's other films stand out in my mind a little stronger, such as Q the Winged Serpent, The Stuff, and the It's Alive trilogy.
     
  18. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Two hour version. I finished the film today. Cutting 20 minutes would have been a godsend. There was one scene where he's exploring some old house that went on forever. It was ridiculous. He sees a bit of painting on a wall and peels away plaster to uncover it. You can clearly see what it is. Even so, he goes downstairs and gets water to wash it clearer and does so. Then he goes outside and gets a flashlight to come back and look at it again. I was like WTF! Enough with the stupid painting! It was a real "wow, that was terrible" experience. I can see why the giallo portion of these films are so cherished, because the killings are the only thing that keep you from shutting off the tv. Otherwise, it was just boring. A really weak thriller. Threadbare predictable plot. One woman got killed and I couldn't figure out who the hell she was or why she even was killed. The only creative part was a myna bird flying into a knitting needle. I guess he like "The Birds" too. :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2016
  19. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    If the pacing of the film was one of your main gripes, then yeah, maybe the 104-minute version might have been a better choice. I agree that the "house exploration" scene does go on for a bit longer than necessary, but otherwise the 126-minute version is always my preferred cut. I can barely even watch the shorter version because it feels like such a butcher job to me... the edits create too many awkward jumps in the narrative, and they strip the film of much of its character development.

    What about the film's fantastic score by Goblin? You didn't like that, either?
     
  20. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    I had that score as part of my Goblin collection. Somehow the "child's theme" got duplicated in itunes and it played like four times in a row. My head almost exploded. Even the dog was looking at me. The minute the movie started, I almost shrieked. I like the music by itself, but I think it's lousy music as it's used in the movie. Way too cutesy to fit the film. Add a Bernard Herman score (who was just about to write the score for "God Told Me To" when he died, I've read.) and that might have added 20 points to "Deep Red." Excellent photography, though. Nice set design with the color motifs. As soon as he said "I think a painting was moved". I had remembered seeing a real face in the hallway and reversed the DVD to see that frame, so I knew it was a woman. Of course, there were like three dark haired women in the film who I could barely tell apart. Like the drowned lady and the killer. The very first 7 second opening with the shadow and shoes was the best part of the film.
     
    Rocker likes this.
  21. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    I noticed the weirdest thing in that movie, I don't know how he got away with it. During the final encounter in "God Told Me So," there's a fast cut, a colorized closeup of an eyeball. I was sure I recognized it and I immediately compared images. The irises were a perfect match. Cohen cut in frames of David Poole's eye directly from "2001: A Space Odyssey." I guess Kubrick never saw the film!
     
    Rocker likes this.
  22. I have "Deep Red" from Blue Underground and also from Arrow.
    Have "Tenebrae"from Arrow and Synapse limited edition steelbook.

    So yeah, I like those two Argento films quite a bit.
     
  23. jimbags

    jimbags Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds
    Love Giant of Marathon me
     
  24. Sordel

    Sordel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    Although I would count myself as an Argento "fan" I struggled to choose a fourth after the first three. Suspiria and Profundo Rosso are an absolutely lock: from time to time one or other of the two is my favourite of his films but they're both must-sees. Third was also clear: Opera is a wonderful film, both for its stunning set pieces and for the musical integration. (I believe I've rewatched all of that trio this year.)

    With the fourth, although Inferno has a great soundtrack I don't find myself going to it all that frequently (mainly because it's so obviously inferior to Suspiria), and just as strong a case could be made for Phenomena or The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, both of which have the advantage of those signature Giallo reveals. In the event though I went for The Stendhal Syndrome, which I haven't seen for a few years but which made a big impression when I first saw it. It was touted at the time as something of a return to form at the time and - while I have to admit that the denouement is rather overcooked - I still think it was. It helps with that one that I got Dario & Asia's autographs at the time it came out!
     
  25. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    I like La Setta(1991) though Dario Argento only wrote it.
     

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