Dario Argento

[mabuse]

;D I disagree with just about anyone on this guy. The films that are supposed to be his worst--I generally like.
They aren't his best, but what is bad for Argento is still gold to me. The rest? Besides DePalma, nobody does a thriller as-well, or better. Both Italian, natch. Do you like Hitchcock? Yep.

[twogunbob]

Argento? Man, I feel the guy is still trying to remake the same movie over and over. Ever since he started putting his daughter into his films they haven't been quite up to par. And the damn giallo genre is so hit or miss it's not even funny. His version of Phantom was awful in my opinion and Trauma was mediocre. Not that Trauma differed muchly from Tenebrae but it just didn't fly well for me.

[mabuse]

Like I said--hey, coold Tombs of the Blind Dead artwork!! Cannot wait for the box-set.

[twogunbob]

This year I love Amando de Ossorio what can I say? Hopefully the box set is done right rather than the Anchor Bay feck it treatment the first two installments got. Sorry to derail off Argento.

[Bartwald]

Tombs Of The Blind Dead haunts me these days: not long ago I haven't even heard the title and now it's one of the films I'm most impatient to get.

Argento: my favourite so far is... Trauma. Like with Fulci, I seem to be picking his less respected works as my favourites. Suspiria, for instance, definitely is a fine movie, but far from being the masterpiece others proclaim it to be: the silly ooh-there's-witches ending spoils the magic a bit, doesn't it?

[slayrrr666]

I don't know. Argento is certainly a master of setting up great shots for scenes that most would never even think of doing. I use the murder of the woman in "Tenebrae" as the example. As she goes up the stairs, the camera backs out of the room and follows the design of the house all up to the second level, where we see the woman enter the room at the same time the camera arrives. I love shots like that, and his work always seems to have that flair. As for my favorites, I tend to like the following four the most:

Tenebrae
Suspiria
Profondo Rosso
The Opera

I know it's no where near the list many of you like, but this is still a great list of movies. Should we add the great Inferno to this list as great examples for others who are just getting into Argento or those that want to? Let me know.

P.S. Putting in Asia into his films isn't a bad thing.

[twogunbob]

You pretty much named my favorites, slayrrr666. I'd say Opera is my favorite of the bunch... I might be due for some rewatching, though. I last watched Suspiria about a two months ago and it's been well over a year since I dusted off Opera. The less said of Phenomena I think the better. That one just... Well I liked the cinematography as I always do with Argento but the story was lukewarm. He smoked Romero is Two Evil Eyes. For some reason I just despise his daughter, though. She grates on my nerves like a white hot poker with feces baked on it thrust right into my left eye.

[frankenjohn]

BTW, if someone could PM me the twists at the end of "Tenebrae" and "Opera," that'd be helpful.

[mabuse]

;D
Yeah, I generally agree with you guys, he has had his "slip-ups," no-doubt. Here's my favorites from 1-whatevah:

1. Deep Red
2. Inferno
3. Suspiria
4. Trauma
5. Tenebre
666. Opera
777. Cat-O'-Nine-Tails (pretty cool!)
8. "The Black Cat" segment of
"Two Evil Eyes" Romero's is
equally-good to me, I hate the
greedy-rich.
Phenomena is pretty flawed, epsecially the placement of the music. Sorry, but metal kills atmosphere, and I like metal.

[Bartwald]

What did you think of the use of metal/rock in Argento & Bava's Demons, mabuse? I know for some people this is one of the reasons to like it so much.

[mabuse]

For that one, it works, especially for the scenes where there is a lot of basic action. But when you are trying to create atmosphere, it doesn't work at-all.
Some of Simonetti's electronic-scores are the same in this way--Goblin too. Too melodic for scenes that should have very almost ambient-like music. Throw-in rock-drums, bass, guitar...it all falls-away and becomes too rooted in normality.
You have to have something abstract. And this is from someone who LOVES Goblin. Oddly, Simonetti did some good work on "The Church" that was melodic--especially the Phillip GLass piece--but maybe that's because a lot of it sounded like Cathedral Organ pieces, which fits. But he didn't do all the musical-cues, which was wise. Scoring is very-very tricky and has to be done with-care. Bernard Hermann will always be the best to me.

[Bartwald]

Hats off to Herrmann indeed! What's your favourite of his scores, mabuse? I re-watched It's Alive recently and for the first time discovered how great its soundtrack is.

As for Demons: I liked Simonetti's intro music (the train scene) but thought that all those rock tracks inside (Motley Crue and all) did spoil it a bit; and it comes from a fan of Motley, you know. It's kind of forgiven in this case, though, cause the film wasn't trying to be oh-so-serious after all.

PS: What do you mean by "the Phillip Glass piece" in your previous post?

[Fenril]

mabuse said:

;D
Yeah, I generally agree with you guys, he has had his "slip-ups," no-doubt. Here's my favorites from 1-whatevah:

1. Deep Red
2. Inferno
3. Suspiria
4. Trauma
5. Tenebre
666. Opera
777. Cat-O'-Nine-Tails (pretty cool!)
8. "The Black Cat" segment of
"Two Evil Eyes" Romero's is
equally-good to me, I hate the
greedy-rich.
/quote]

That's pretty much my list, except that Inferno and Tenebrae switch places.

Let's see: the ghiallo beind so hit and miss... so what, at least they tend to be much more creative than derivative american slashers. Then there's movies with bits of both like Haute Tension and Deep in the woods, that are quite the treat to watch.

Back on Dario: I liked Two evil eyes a lot, don't know why many people don't seem to like it.

I have yet to see Phenomena, but I'm getting a sense I will enjoy it, if only for the whole "talking to insects" things. I love weird movies.

Trauma was okay, I thought. Opera rules [BTW, mabuse, how do you feel about this one's soundtrack, with its mix of opera / arthouse and heavy metal?]

Non ho sonno was pretty good, IMHO.

His Phantom of the opera... boy, it this one controversial. One minut I was loving it, the next I hated it. But I give it credit for one thing: this and De Palma's "Phantom of the paradise" are by far the most unique adaptations of the Phantom of the Opera you'll ever see.

Everybody seems to hate The card player, his latest. Anyone here liked it?

Oh, his original animal trilogy {Bird with cristal plummage; Cat o nine tails; Four flies on grey velvet} rocked, then Deep Red was his first mega-sucess.

[Fenril]

...Forgot to mention The stendhal syndrome, another bizarre but worth a look movie.

Anyone ever seen The five days of Milan?

[mabuse]

;D
Bart: Finest Bernard Hermann score? Boy, that's a hard-call! All of them are so damned good!!!! I would have to say Citizen Kane, then Psycho, then Vertigo, then Taxi Driver, and-so-on. The Phillip Glass piece is used several-times, it's very fast arpeggios on an organ, played-by Simonetti. Good-stuff. I actually LIKE the mixture of Metal and Opera in "Opera," it is one exception where it kinda works. As for "Demons," it's just meant to be fun, which it definitely is!

Fenril: Yeah, I gotta agree on all of your comments about Dario. Still have not seen Stendhal Syndrome, but it looks great. Phenomena is OK, but is undermined by some truly silly moments, some musical. They're obvious. I liked "Phantom of the Opera" alot, but there are a couple scenes that are really stupid: the scene with the motorized-cart with the deformed stage-hand is truly stupid, and looked like Argento was trying to copy Hollywood. Otherwise, I also thought it was a fresh-approach to the story, and I even have the restored 1929 re-release on-DVD. It looks astonishing. You cannot beat ANY of Lon Chaney's performances. Check "The Penalty" (1920), it is a revelation.