Dario Argento

[mabuse]

Bart: Phillip Glass piece is in the opening and closing credits of "The Church." Also, I agree, the score for "It's Alive" is amazing, as is his score for "Sisters" (1973) which I have the Criterion edition of, a great DePalma film.

[DrLenera]

Ah,Dario Argento. I LOVE his films,the the exception of Phantom {enjoyable but silly},Sleepless { great opening,otherwise a poor rehash of his early giallos} and The Card Player {OK thriller,but very bland for Dario}. In general his older stuff is better,although I do think The Stendahd Syndrome is a late masterpiece-clever,disturbing and oddly moving,seemed like quite a personal film from him.

Top 5 Argento films,in no order-
Opera {maybe the ultimate Argento film,has everything in it,a great 'sampler' of his work}
Deep Red {the best plotted,most generally enjoyable of his films}
Suspiria {crazy,surreal assault on the senses,stupid plot but who cares}
The Stendahl Syndrome {the most personal,very disturbing but quite moving}
The Cat O Nine Tails-this is not generaly well liked,this one,but I love it,it's like a combination of Argento and Hitchcock}.

Bernard Herrmann=O,don't get me started. At the moment my favuorite score of his is Jason and the Argonauts,but that could change tomorrow. Maybe one day I'll start a 'film music' thread!

[Quorthon]

Opera is funny--classy, elegant, brilliant. And then there's the awful screaming Metal songs playing during the murders that you just can't help laugh at.

At least that music was better than the shit in Trick or Treat...

[slayrrr666]

Time for me to rank his output that I've seen so far (keeping his MoH entries and the 'Two Evil Eyes' segment out as they're not full-length films, which is what I count):

1. Tenebrae
2. The Opera
3. Suspiria
4. Inferno
5. The Bird with the Crystal Plummage
6. Trauma
7. Profondo Rosso
8. The Card Player
9. Phenomena
10. Four Flies on Grey Velvet
11. Do You Like Hitchcock?
12. The Stendhal Syndrome

[slayrrr666]

I've been meaning to update this since I've actually seen some more since that last post and the order is slightly shuffled due to that as well as the more pertinent factor of my viewing one of his last night, The Cat O'Nine Tails.

After inadvertently discovering a clue to a local robbery, a blind crossword-puzzle organizer and a reporter team up to unravel the murderous trail leading from the crime and must stop the killer once they're both targeted in the spree.

Frankly, this one was quite an enjoyable and thoroughly watchable thriller that does suffer from a few minor miscues. One of the better elements within this one is the fact that there's a rather intriguing mystery set-up in here that runs the gamut from a purely coincidental theft all the way to murder and the ensuing witnesses start to become killed off. Taken into account for the fact that the crime was witnessed by a blind man who only remembers the voices of the perpetrators is a clever twist on the usual giallo gimmick of the man not seeing it clearly enough to provide additional help to the case and must try to help solve crime after that indiscretion places him on the killers' hitlist, it gets to that point in a slightly different manner which is all part of the fun. That also comes in handy with several utterly thrilling moments that play off his blindness quite convincingly as a stalking scene in a library and a later one in his home when he knows someone is there with him when there shouldn't be is quite unnerving and the general assistance he needs to get around makes for a completely enjoyable piece to cap all this off on. Plus it's enjoyable enough on it's own with some exciting chases here that give this some rather nice action as the car chase through the city streets at top-speed is quite exciting, as well as the encounter in the museum at the end where the chase includes several intense brawls with the killer and the attempt to get the hostage back safely, and when concluded with a marvelous sequence in the crypt searching for a discarded clue that really makes this more enjoyable than it should be. That still doesn't take into account the few flaws here, the most impactful of which is the utterly lame rationale for the killer's rampage and logic behind his killing spree, done because of a genetic condition that rarely produces such results anyway and had no predisposition to do so until the discovery and the resulting murders to hide it that only further the connection to the condition. It's quite far-fetched and really doesn't do much of anything for the film, and the fact that this one does have such a lame premise behind it's killings does hurt this somewhat. Likewise, the fact that the body count is so low here that it never really has a lot of chances to wow with inventive kills or dynamic stalking scenes that are usually associated here, instead coming across far more bland and pedestrian as well as slowing the pacing down to investigations over slashing to keep this one going which overall lowers this one more than it really should.

So, the new, updated order would actually be as follows:

1. Tenebre
2. Suspiria
3. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
4. Mother of Tears
5. Deep Red
6. Inferno
7. Opera
8. Trauma
9. The Stendhal Syndrome
10. Phenomena
11. Four Flies on Grey Velvet
12. The Cat O'Nine Tails
13. The Card Player
14. Do You Like Hitchcock?
15. Giallo

[Fenril]

Hmm, I really should put up reviews / opinions on his films that I've watched. For now, I think I might as well also list them, from most to least favorite:

1. Suspiria.

2. Deep Red.

3. Tenebrae.

4. Opera.

5. Phenomena.

6. The Bird With The Crystal Plumage.

7. Jennifer (Masters of Horror episode)

8. The black cat (Two Evil Eyes segment)

9. Cat O'Nine Tails.

10. Phantom of the opera.

[slayrrr666]

See, I'd never put that MoH segment or his part of Two Evil Eyes in the list since I wouldn't rank them as part of his feature-film work. Had he made the whole of Two Evil Eyes, though, then it would count but I can't say that as it is because he co-directed an anthology effort with another person. Otherwise, that's a pretty good if fairly standard ranking.

[Fenril]

*shrug* For me, being made for tv and/or a short doesn't make the feature any less than a movie, it's simply a different format. Similarly, for me a novel isn't more important than a short story or a poem. Sure, there's different things to take unto account, but in the end those are merely details. What counts is the work itself, in this case, the feature itself.

[slayrrr666]

I suppose, that is a valid point though I just always go by the difference in the medium providing enough of a reason to separate them altogether. It's just always been the thought "Well, that was good but it was only an hour or so of material, this feature film gives me the same feeling at an hour and a half" so I just never really saw the value in mixing those kinds of attachments together.

[Fenril]

That's a valid argument as well... although, you know, there are made-for-tv movies that last about two hours and there do exist feature-length movies that are about an hour and a half long. Even less, as rare as it is.

Anyway, on with the reviews / comments.

- Suspiria. A young girl joins an exclusive ballet academy only to discover that it is actually a front for a coven of witches. There are arguments as to whether this or "Deep red" is Argento's best movie. I actually think they are both just as good. The reason I prefer this particular one is that it may well be the be-all of Argento's contribution to Horror in general, flashy visuals in service of a slim but in this case serviceable story. It's also probably the feature were certain tricks to the audience all blend in seamlessly: the use of sound to substitute for the witches' presence in the murder scenes, the doorknobs placed at head level to make the already childlike women seem even more like little children, the (extremely) dark fairytale ambience, the casting of, uh, genuinely unsettling people for the sake of atmosphere... everything!

[Fenril]

- Deep red. A pianist witnesses the murder of his neighbor, a psychic who had previously detected an evil presence during a public performance, and is drawn into a deadly game of sleuthing. No one is safe, not himself, not the plucky reporter he starts a romance with, not his best friend and the horrible secret he's kept for years...
Quite possibly THE ultimate "Giallo" movie, with all the essential ingredients --gruesome murders, menace coming from the past (with eerie ties to childhood), a pounding score and of course that staple that Argento managed to make his personal touch, the gloved killer.
The only reason I rank "Suspiria" above this one is because of the latter's fairy tale atmosphere (and there is personal bias here, I admit freely). Between the two they constitute Argento's finest moments as a director, I believe.

- Tenebrae. A writer investigates a series of murders curiously similar to those portrayed in his latest best-seller. Unfortunately not only is life about to imitate fiction: a tortured secret from his past is about to come to light...
Probably Argento's second-best "Giallo" movie (of those I have seen so far, that is), with stunning camera work and several arresting sequences. The script has drawn a lot of discussion for it's strange mix of the good and the baffling. Example, this movie has an enormous body count, and due to this it quickly loses track of just how many characters it's juggling... but at the same tame, each and every single murder scene is notable, even the quicker ones. Then there's the subtle (so subtle very few viewers actually noticed it) detail that "Tenebrae" takes place in the near future (hence the super-modern architecture and the mostly upscale citizens)... mixed with a somewhat snide answer to a real-life criticism. Lead Peter, like Argento in real life is accused of the fact that all the women in his books are victims or cyphers... so all the women in this movie are victims or cyphers (to be fair, the men are pretty much all victims. Still...). Finally, there is that infamous ending...