Dario Argento

[Voorhees]

How are his movies? Are they any good? Which one is the best? Suspiria?

[Ritualistic]

I could have sworn there was a thread about this already.. oh fucking well

[avenger00soul]

Just so you don't get any negative opinions, I will be the Argento nay-sayer.

[Voorhees]

Originally posted by Ritualistic
I could have sworn there was a thread about this already.. oh fucking well
Sorry, my bad :/ I will check next time though :) Anyone wish to share their opinions on Dario? I'll go check the other thread now :)

[Ritualistic]

I actually typed a long post about Argento .. BUT for some reason I fucked that when I had edited my post.. Oh well I love argentos movies.. but not everyone likes his stuff. Susupiria is a good gory much.. Argento movies are slow paced but overall good. Goblin does most of the soundtracks for his movies so that is great.. The Church, Suspiria, Deep Red, and The Church are some of my favs....

[Dr.Kelvinstein]

I love Argento. Got all his stuff in either uncut DVD or bootlegs. Even the damn comedy and fashion show he directed and the three spaghetti Westerns he wrote. The man is a cinematic poet, though his later stuff hasn't been up to snuff. Deep Red and Opera are my personal faves, though anything from that period is worth a watch. He's my second favorite Italian, right behind Leone. And I'm a HUGE fan of Italian pot-boilers!!!!!

American Brian DePalma also excels at the same kind of sleazy, artsy slasher--so if you like Argento, check out Body Double, Blow Out, Sisters, or Dressed To Kill.

[buddy]

argento's good, you might have to be a bit patient with him as his pacing is not as quick and 'fast-food' as some newer, u.s.-centric horror (i say this because the ities in horror seem to share that trait) but you can marvel at the beauty of the cinematography and locations. acting's rarely up to snuff but goblin do a hell of a krautrocky job with the score and you've probably never seen such beautiful colors rendered onscreen! his deaths or kills are rather imaginative and brutal too. my favorite's easily 'tenebrae' (released as an edited 'unsane' in the states, try and find the former), it seems the most complete of his movies. suspiria and deep red are worth it but creepers isn't.

[avenger00soul]

I can agree with some of that. His visual style is stunning. The end of Tenebre was utterly astounding. The uber-red blood on the white wall was killer. That and Two Evil Eyes are his best efforts to me. Of course John Saxon and Harvey Keitel make those worth watching too.

Suspiria had its moments, but too few of them. Creepers was awful. And Deep Red was the most boring, shitty-ass movie I've ever sat through. I hate it with a passion. You can say whatever you like about "fast food" horror generation, but that's not why I don't like him. I like a lot of films that are deemed slow. But Argento's are usually very tedious and uninteresting. I can give him credit for his visual presence, but not for giving me characters I don't care about and some non-sensical plots. He's the only "master of horror" I don't care for. Just an opinion.

[mictlan]

Originally posted by Dr.Kelvinstein
He's my second favorite Italian, right behind Leone. And I'm a HUGE fan of Italian pot-boilers!!!!!


For what it's worth, Argento co-wrote Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West.

I like Argento a lot too, the horror stuff more than the giallo (slasher) stuff. Suspiria is, IMO, one of the best horror films ever.

Suspiria and Inferno were the first two parts of a proposed trilogy. Supposedly Argento is now working on the third, details here (http://www.darkdreams.org/trieste_report.html).

[Dr.Kelvinstein]

Besides Once Upon A time, Argento also wrote two other Westerns--Cemeteries Without Crosses and something I can't remember right now (got it on bootleg, though). People who should know say nothing Argento wrote actually made it into Once Upon. Argento claims the Jack Elam fly gag was his, but others say it was Leone's idea from the beginning and was incorporated in the script at his request.

Strangely enough, Francis Ford Coppola sat next to Argento at Leone's funeral. Schlock masters like Deodato and Corbucci were also there. And Argento says he visited the set of Godfater (which was filmed before Leone's death).

I agree with a lot Avenger says, but I love Argento's roaming camera and jarring soundtracks. We'd probably have to thumb-wrestle over the merits of Deep Red.