I've been on a Dario Argento kick lately, and have just recently seen a number of his films for the first time. I watched "Tenebre" yesterday and think it might be my favorite so far, along with "Suspiria". Really fun to watch!
"Mother of tears" is uneven but fun, Argento's last great film is probably "The Stendhal Syndrome" but i also really like "The Card Player", "Do you like Hitchcock?" and his Masters of Horror tv episode "Jenifer".
Great films! The SUSPIRIA remake was quite terrible though, overlong, boring and pretentious...and the visuals weren't as striking as in Argento's film. According to the last news, tt seems that Argento is going to direct a tv series and/or a new thriller in 2020.
Me too.. Great how they make some of not exactly ez to follow or make perfect sense, like most original Argento films. Quite striking visuals.
Deep Red and Suspiria, but also Phenomena for the memorable ending. "Jenifer" is one of my favorite episodes from MoH season 1.
I watched Suspiria the other day at work when I shoulda been working. I wasn’t that impressed. Now I feel guilty.
I selected four, Deep Red, Tenebre, Opera and The Stendhal Syndrome. I would probably list Tenebre as my favourite as it includes some of Argento's best set pieces and the one of the best soundtracks in Italian cinema since the Leone/Morricone Westerns of the late 60's.
I saw "Trauma" the other day for the first time. Lesser Argento to be sure, but it was still fun. I think that was his daughter Asia's first role as an adult. I got a kick out of Piper Laurie vamping it up with the Italian accent.
It's a good film i think, a bit underrated, more character driven than usual for Argento...Asia Argento and Christopher Rydell are very good i think and the widescreen cinematography is nice. And there is the fantastic beautiful song "Ruby rain" playing on the moving lake scene, lit by the moon...: Also on the weird poetic end credits!: Trauma credits
Indeed! The film isn't bloody, gory at all but there is still a visceral, nasty feeling...all the scenes in the hospital, the killings, the scene with the kid playing with the weapon, the reason why the killer is doing all these murders, etc. The last 15/20 minutes (from the "Ruby rain" lake scene to the end credits) are quite stylish, brillant.
A new Dario Argento film this year: New Dario Argento Giallo Film ‘Black Glasses’ Will Film This Year; Asia Argento Set to Star
Thanks for posting the good news. ------------------ Argento also directed the Italian opera by Verdi Macbeth in 2013. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00UVQH1ZK/ He's directed other operas that have been filmed as well.
I've watched a few bits of MACBETH and it looks quite Argento, bloody, with naked witches, etc! BLACK GLASSES his next giallo/thriller will be shot next spring in Roma and its country side, the film will be shot mostly at night and in exteriors...it's an old project/screenplay written in the early 2000's.
Macbeth is essential. Every home should have one. Wouldn't it be nice if Argento directed more operas for blu-ray. They're loaded with over-the-top emotions and bloody violence. Opera is a way of life over there. It's not surprising that so many Italian film directors also direct opera -- notably the late Franco Zeffirelli. No film director is more influenced by opera than Francis Ford Coppola who directed Cavalleria Rusticana and other operas. Godfather 3 is essentially an opera that owes much to Cavalleria Rusticana.
Yes. I saw all his films as they were released in a theater up through the late 1980s except Four Flies On Grey Velvet. That played theaters but I missed it. I saw The Cat O'Nine Tails at the Smithtown Indoor- Outdoor-DriveIn on Long Island, NY three times. Later I caught up with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage when it was re-released as the co-feature to something else. Both films were minor hits and much discussed in their day. By the 1990s the bottom had dropped out of the foreign film genre market and Argento's films had as much difficulty getting widely released as all the other foreign genre films. Bud they did play recut with title changes often as co-features in limited number of cities. You had to watch for them to catch up with them. Even Dracula 3D had a theatrical release. Argento's films didn't get great reviews but he put bodies in theater seats. He had a lot of fans despite a negative press; when critics blasted him for violence and blood-letting it only interested genre film lovers all the more. When the internet came into existence his reputation and popularity among fans took a nosedive. I've never understood why. I've always liked his work. Some films are better than others, but I like them all ... except the bug film.
The lady here is the actress Marta Gastini and think what you want of "Dracula" but her performance in this film was really good i thought, one of the best things this film had with the gothic atmosphere, the 3D and Luciano Tovoli's cinematography...Asia Argento unfortunately wasn't very good in "Dracula" so i hope her lead performance in "Black Glasses" will be better.
The bug film? Which one? PHENOMENA? It's my favorite Dario Argento film!! I agree with you though that i find annoying/grating that many people like to "bash" every new Argento work for decades now...his new works can be great, good, average or weak but each time Argento unfortunately gets lots of derisive/mocking comments from the critics and/or "fans", especially where i live, in France...i mean, many of his films are flawed but even his minor works have their good moments...most of Argento fans want it seems gory scenes and baroque flamboyant style so when Argento doesn't deliver what they want from him they "bash" his works, and i guess "Black Glasses's release won't be very different! Films like "Phenomena" , "Opera", "The Stendhal Syndrome", "Sleepless", "The Card Player", etc got mixed/negative reviews back in the 80's, 90's and 2000's but now they have a better reputation, so wait and see for his last works! Only Argento's films i had the chance to watch in theaters here were "Deep Red", "Suspiria", "Phenomena", "Opera", "Phantom of the opera", "Sleepless" and "Dracula"...all Dario Argento's films were direct to video releases in France after "Phenomena", only "Phantom of the opera", "Sleepless" and "Dracula" had limited theatrical releases...i would have loved to watch "The Stendhal Syndrome", "Trauma", "The Card Player" and "Mother of tears" on the big screen!!
I always loved Suspiria Bird and especially Phenomena. They were stylish innovative and sometimes scary. I really wish his later films held up as well. I remember trading with collectors in the 90's trying to find all the Gallio's I could get my hands on. I could not have dreamed of the access we have today.
