From: wildman@athena.mit.edu (Timothy Worsley)
Subject: Re: DARIO ARGENTO
Reply-To: eprice@sql.sybase.com
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 06:18:28 GMT

(Note: I widened distribution to world, from na, for the benefit of
Argento fans everywhere, and who knows, maybe some Italian readers can
provide some help here??)

In article <1992Aug18.042944.3820@oswego.Oswego.EDU>
jprisco@oswego.Oswego.edu () writes:

>Does anyone have any information on director Dario Argento?  I recently
>saw SUSPIRIA, and found it to be one of the most visually stunning films
>I have ever seen, horror or otherwise.  A friend also lent me OPERA,
>but I haven't watched it yet.

I'm no expert, but I recently obtained a book called _Broken
Mirrors/Broken Minds: The dark dreams of Dario Argento_ (by Maitland
McDonagh, ISBN 0 9517012 0 7) which means I can pretend to be an
expert...

But first I would like to relate a small anecdote:

The first Argento film I ever saw was SUSPIRIA.  I walked into a
midnight showing of it at a theater, pretty much by chance, without
ever having heard of the film or of even of Argento (I had never been
into horror).  On the basis of the title, I vaguely suspected some
lame but amusing late-50s black-and-white vampire flick or something.
Man, was I *wrong*!  I was in for quite an experience -- it is a LOUD
movie, both in terms of sound and color.  What a (pleasant) shock, to
randomly encounter such a visually beautiful and original "genre
film".  I've since seen it on video and on laserdisc, letterboxed, but
nothing can compare to having the film assault your senses in a
theater!

OK, I hope you found that amusing.

Argento apparently started out as a film critic and a screenwriter (he
helped write Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, with
Bernardo Bertolucci, for example).  Here's a list of films and stuff
from the book I mentioned above:

1970: L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo
[The Bird With the Crystal Plumage; The Phantom of Terror; The
Gallery Murders; Le sadique aux gants noirs; L'oiseua au plumage de
cristal]

1971: Il gatto a nove code
[The Cat O'Nine Tails; Le chat a neuf queues]

1972: Quattro mosche di velluto grigio
[Four Flies on Grey Velvet; Quatre mouches de velours gris]

1972: "La porta sul buio" [The Door into Darkness]
This is a series of four films for Italian TV.  Two of them --
Testimone oculare [Eyewitness] and Il tram [The Tram] -- were directed
by Argento, under the pseuodyms Roberto Pariente and Sirio Bernadotte,
respectively.  They are in Video Search of Miami's catalog, I believe
(but see below)

1973: Le cinque giornate
[The Five Days of Milan -- but it's never been released in the US]

1976: Profondo Rosso
[Deep Red; The Hatchet Murders; Les frissons de l'angoisse;
Suspiria 2]

1977: Suspiria
"With [Director of Photography Luciano] Tovoli, we used the same
procedures as they did in the fifties with Technicolor, with very
vivid colors.  It's a matter of using three film matrixes for the
three base colors: red, green, and blue, and then superimposing them
while each time stressing the color you want to have stand out.  Kodak
didn't even have more than a few thousand meters of this type of
stock." -- Argento as quoted in the book (page 144).

1980: Inferno

1982: Tenebre
[Tenebrae; Unsane [US title]; Sotto gli occhi dell'assassino; Tenebres]

1985: Phenomena
[Creepers]
Stars Jennifer Connelly (and with Donald Pleasance too).

1987: Opera
[Terror at the Opera]

1987: Fiat Croma
A television car commercial directed by Argento.

1988: Trussardi Action
A fashion show directed by Argento.

1990: Two Evil Eyes
[Due occhi diabolici and Due occhi malocchio]

There is a documentary on Argento called "Dario Argento's World of
Horror" (1985), written and directed by Michele Soavi.  It's available
on video (at least I've seen it at Kim's in NYC).

Argento has also produced DEMONS (1985) and DEMONS 2 (1986) by
Lamberto Bava (son of Mario Bava), and THE CHURCH (1988) and THE SECT
(1990) by Michele Soavi, as well as another series of Italian TV
programs called "Giallo" (this means "yellow", but refers to the
thriller/mystery genre).  He also did music (with the Goblins) and
helped write DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978, George Romero).  His brother
Claudio Argento co-produced it.  Speaking of Argento's family, he has
collaborated with his ex-not-quite-wife Daria Nicolodi, and his
daughters Asia and Fiore have been in some films, his father Salvatore
produced some of Dario's ealier films, and now his brother seems to
have gotten into the act.  (Apologies for the lame quick-and-dirty
summary.)  I think in the book it mentions that Dario's mother was a
Brazilian fashion photographer.

BTW, SUSPIRIA is the first part, and INFERNO is the second part of an
unfinished trilogy, based on "Suspiria de Profundis" [Sighs from the
Depths] by Thomas de Quincy (best known for "Confessions of an English
Opium Eater"), which describes the "Three Mothers" -- the origin of
all sorrow and pain -- Mater Lachrymarum [Mother of Tears], Mater
Suspiriorum [Mother of Sighs], and Mater Tenebrarum [Mother of
Darkness].  No, TENEBRE is not part of the triology despite its title.
Read the book for more info.

Fun fact: Apparently Argento played some of the Goblins' music at high
volume on the set of SUSPIRIA to scare the actors.

Fun fact #2: Argento himself often stands in for the hands of the
killers in his films.

Video: Besides the fact that these films are far more effective on the
Big Screen, the US video releases are often severely cut (and they
give them inane titles, like CREEPERS), sometimes by as much as twenty
minutes or more.  Is this true in the UK?  (Gary?  I seem to remember
you "rambling" about Argento a while back...)  According to Peter
Correnty, DEEP RED is available uncut from places called (if I
remember correctly) Domovideo and Eccentri-cinema.  [And Peter, if
you're listening, could you post or email the addresses, phone
numbers, or even just city & state of these places?  Or anyone else
that knows them, of course!]  Video Search of Miami (email me for the
address and phone number) has PHENOMENA in what they claim is uncut
form; but many people have reservations about the qualityof their
videos.

And finally, I'd like to mention one thing I find amusing.  Obviously
I'm a big fan of Argento now, and also more recently of the Hong Kong
director John Woo (who is to action films what Argento is to horror,
one might say).  Believe it or not, there is a commonality!  After
excesssive viewings of both of the directors' work, I started noticing
that they both love shots of people's heads going through glass
windows, often in slow motion, and often with the camera on the other
side of the glass (ie, the head comes through the glass towards you).
Everytime I see one of these, I always enthusiastically remark "THANK
YOU, DARIO!"  or "THANK YOU, JOHN!"  Has anyone else noticed this??  I
think it's great!  Does anyone else dream of a collaboration? Yikes...

<CCRRRAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHHHHHH!!> (Thank You, Dario!!)
<CCRRRAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHHHHHH!!> (Thank You, John!!)

Ciao,

-Ed Price             (not Tim Worsely) "Bad luck isn't caused by broken
eprice@sql.sybase.com (not wildman@...)  mirrors, but by broken minds."
Newsgroups: alt.cult-movies