So it's official, I'm obsessed, as if that hasn't happened with other directors before…. But with Dario it's different. The worlds that he creates are creatively intense and otherworldly filled with screaming women, scissors plunging into a heart over and over, childish characters, silly dialogue, and heads smashing through windows.
I would like if I may to take you on a journey through some of Dario's movies (and some inside Dario info!) and convince you that you absolutely need to see every single one of these films. Right now. This instant.
xxfrank
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Suspiria (1979)
Considered the de-facto Argento film, Suspiria revels in it's theatrics, both visually and musically. I could go on and on about facts and trivia about Suspiria, so I'll try to hit most of the big ones and move on! The first in the Three Mothers trilogy (followed by Inferno in 1980 and then later The Mother of Tears in 2007), Suspiria follows the character of Suzy Bannion, a ballet dancer who enrolls at the world famous academy of dance in Freiburg, Germany. As she attends her classes (or rather, faints in her classes) she begins to understand that something is quite wrong at her school. Classmates and piano teachers are horribly murdered and the teachers act as if nothing is wrong. Suzy soon discovers that the school might be a front for a coven of witches!
Now that we've got the simple plot out of the way, let's talk about why this movie is considered the best Italian horror film of all time. The musical score by Goblin (with contributions by Dario Argento) and it's Technicolor 3-Strip Process (deep saturated colors like The Wizard of Oz) made even more colorful from the lighting design by cinematographer Luciano Tovoli are the 2 main technical reasons why this movie is delightful. The soundtrack is loud, harsh, and filled with chills and electronic delights.
The visuals can speak for themselves; it's tacky, bright, and candy colored world sparks the violence that inhabits this film's corridors and sidewalks.
All of these elements combined with a guest cameo by Udo Kier and a gloriously cheesy English dub make Suspiria the best Italian horror film around.
Suspiria is highly recommended as a first foray into any italian horror, regardless of director.
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Inside Dario: Daria Nicolodi - Daria is one of Dario's most frequent collaborators besides Claudio Simonetti and Goblin. A lot of the relationship between Dario and Daria is shrouded in mystery, but what we do know is that they did have a romantic connection at one point in time (1974-1985), and of course that Daria gave birth to Dario's daughter, the now well known (and kick-ass) Asia Argento.
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Phenomena (1985)
After Dario had a brief period of continuing with his Giallo style of movies (which we'll talk about later on) he made a return to the more supernatural side of his style with Phenomena. Using some star power with Jennifer Connely and Donald Pleasence, Dario created a bizarre story with an even more bizarre soundtrack by various artists including his now go-to band, Goblin.
Phenomena takes place in the Swiss countryside where Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connely), the daughter of a famous movie star ("Isn't he so dreamy??" one of Jennifer's schoolmates says of her dad) is away at a Swiss Academy for Girls. Meanwhile Forensic Entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence) is investigating a series of murders by studying how the body is decomposing and what bugs are being attracted to the bodies. Jennifer, we find out, happens to be telepathically linked with insects and one night while having a sleepwalking/vision/trippy nightmare where she sees the killer murdering a girl to the musical harmonies of Iron Maiden she manages to stumble into a large chimpanzee who is the companion of the entomologist who takes her to John where they become friends (whoa that was a lot of info!)…. The rest is history as they say with John enlisting Jennifer to help him find the killer using a fly (as her magic wand!). With hilarious dialog, "That sound that you can hear is a mating call…you're exciting him, and he's doing his best to excite you!" "And to think we only just met!" crazy random soundtrack moments where hard rock blasts when you expect quiet creepy moments, and chimpanzees holding razor blades a la Edgar Allan Poe, Phenomena is a phenomenon in it of itself. Enjoy!
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Inside Dario: Goblin - Goblin was initially named Cherry Five and started their work with Dario on the film Deep Red. The five member band had many changes in their lineup and eventually around the time of Tenebre (1982) Dario had to convince them to get back together to do the score for his film (even then they decided to take credit as separate individuals). Claudio Simonetti is the most well known of the band members because of his continued support of all of the work Dario Argento does. Goblin, besides doing many Dario Argento soundtracks also did a lot of the soundtrack for George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead.
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Tenebrae [Tenebre] (1982)
Alright let's move on to something that Dario Argento is very well known for, Giallo. Wikipedia defines Giallo as a genre that emerged from the Giallo-style novels and began in the 1960s adapting said novels, but soon took on new cinematic techniques and merged horror and psychological thriller genres into a new genre. The masters of this Genre are Dario Argento, Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, and Mario Bava.
Tenebrae was Dario's return to Giallo after the success of Suspiria and Inferno. In the US, audiences wanted more supernatural movies from Dario, but apparently in Italy, the public wanted his return to Giallo, and, much to Daria Nicolodi's frustration at not finishing the Three Mothers trilogy, Dario relented.
Starring Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, and Daria Nicolodi, Tenebrae concerns a series of murders that happen after a mystery murder novel called "Tenebrae" is released in Rome. American novelist Peter Neal (Franciosa) travels to Rome to garner publicity for his new novel, but soon realizes a stalker is taking his fictuous antagonist's morals and applying it to real life. Peter takes it upon himself to find out who the murderer is and become even more famous.
Tenebrae once again features music by Goblin and features gory killings and dark themes throughout. Lesbians! Prostitutes! Teen Whores! Lord of the Flies type childhood! Tenebrae has it all!
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Opera (1987)
Whoa talk about a crazy ass film, Opera or "Terror at the Opera" as it was called in US Distribution follows a young up and coming singer who gets her chance to shine as the current diva gets into a car accident (sound familiar at all?). A famous American movie director decides to come the opera to direct a more blockbuster-ish version of Verdi's Macbeth. Macbeth is known for having many tragic accidents Betty notes before she agrees to star in it. But of course murders start to happen and Betty (with her eyes forced to stay open by the threat of sharp pins taped to her eyelids) has to watch each one! Featuring crows, silly characters, a Bjork style ending, and Daria Nicolodi, Opera is one of Dario's silliest and funnest movies ever.
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Inside Dario: Dubbing - A brief background on Italian films and dubbing. Most italian films you'll see in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and some in the 90s did not use sync sound like most other films did around this time. This wasn't just cheap horror films either, we're talking Pasolini, Fellini, etc. There are many things that contributed to this, but mostly it was because of Italy's desire to not only bring in famous actors from around the world without much hassle, but also the ability to easily sell their film to many different regions. Most of Dario's films use American actors and to make it easier on themselves they just have the actors say their lines in their own language. That's why even Italian tracks on Italian movies isn't really the "original" language.
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Deep Red (1975)
Deep Red is considered Dario's best Giallo style movie in his repertoire and I'd be hard pressed not to agree. Deep Red follows music teacher Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) who witnesses the murder of a Psychic who had previously read the mind of the murderer at a Pschic Convention. Marcus proceeds to investigate the murder with the help of (guess! Come on! You should know this by now!) Daria Nicolodi who plays an uber-flirtatious reporter. Deep Red features creepy kids, a creepy childhood song that the killer plays right before they kill someone, very effeminate gay dudes, and a score by Goblin.
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Inferno (1980)
The 2nd in the Three Mothers Trilogy, Inferno stars Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi, and Alida Valli. Inferno is almost entirely different from Suspiria in many ways. Gone is the Goblin soundtrack (replaced with a score by Keith Emmerson) and gone are the many colored lights and crazy cinematography. Where Suspiria dealt with magic, Dario wanted to explore the concept of alchemy with the sequel. Also Inferno doesn't really have a main character, it keeps switching locations and characters until it finally settles on the character of Mark, who is trying to find out what happened to his sister in her apartment in New York City. Inferno is filled with interesting murders, cool special effects, and some really cheesy dialogue! But Inferno really works even with it's abandonment of "magic".
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Inside Dario: Blond Boys - Dario tends to put semi-cute blond boys into many of his movies. I'm not really too sure why this is, but I'm glad he did it!
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The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
I can't leave this post without discussing Dario's first film. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is very good and you can really see the beginnings of many of Dario's now infamous signature touches. The story follows an american writer living in Rome who witnesses a murder taking place, saving the girl by drawing attention to the situation he becomes obsessed over finding out who the murderer is. With a really cool score by Ennio Morricone, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a must see Dario film after you've seen most of his other ones.
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Demons (1985)
Ok, so I can't leave without talking about the Dario Argento produced and co-written movie Demons. Directed by Lamberto Bava, this movie is basically the Italian version of Evil Dead. A bunch of people are in a movie theatre and while a plot is unfolding on the screen about a group of teens that find the tomb of Nostradamus and turn into demons because one of them put on a mask, that same thing is happening in the movie theatre! Just absolutely gory, shocking, and downright hilarious, Demons is what happens when directors let loose and just have fun. WIth a kick ass score by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin and other metal bands, Demons is one of the funnest movies I've seen in a long time!
"I can't read it, it's in Latin… Oh wait, yes I can!"
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p.s. Hey. Today, the joyous d.l. Frank Jaffe gives this blog the inimitable Dario Argento flavor, and I hope you'll dig in and share your Argento thoughts and faves and opinions, etc. with him. Thanks a lot. And lots and lots of thanks to you, Frank! Barring the unforeseen, I should have the verdict on Yury's visa at some point while I'm doing the p.s., and I guess I'll break in with the news when it arrives, for those of you who are interested. And thank you collectively for your really kind thoughts and hopes yesterday. Oh, and I want to mention that this weekend, d.l. Alan will presenting part of his new and recently finished novel on the blog in hopes of getting your feedback, so please get your mindsets ready for that, if need be. Thank you. ** David Ehrenstein, Thanks much, David. Nice Randy Newman piece, so thanks for the pass along too. And for the Mel Brooks song, yes, ha ha. ** Scunnard, Appreciate it, man, and I hope your dilemma gets sorted out easily and soon. ** Tomkendall, Thanks a lot, Tom! ** Empty Frame, Your magickal intervention is much appreciated, whatever the outcome. That trial does sound super interesting. Hm, maybe I'll google some search terms and see what I can find. Of course I've never heard anything about that before. Your excitement is very cool. ** Allesfliesst, Hey. Thanks, pal. Nice you have the marriage option. Back a while, we looked seriously into Yury getting married to a woman, French or American, but it was just too complicated to pull off in a convincing enough way given all the documents needed to prove the length of the relationship and stuff. That game space book isn't Bachelard or anything, but if you have working knowledge of game play and a real interest in the form, it's really quite interesting and refreshing. Good day, K. ** Toniok, Thank you a lot, my friend! ** Pilgarlic, Thanks a lot for all the crossing. Those three Neil Young albums are incredible, yeah. 'Tonight's the Night' is my favorite Young album. I actually saw one of the 'TtN' tour shows, and, yeah, the audience, all prepped for a 'Harvest' kind of thing, was completely bewildered and not happy at all. Young really should get over himself and allow the (re)release of 'Times Fades Away' on CD, etc. I love that album, and I can't figure why he's so down on it. ** Jax, No animal sacrifice please. Stuffed animal maybe? I'm glad you're back to communing with the werewolf, and obviously I hope whoever has the play in their sights has the brains to see what they've got. ** Alan, Thanks a whole lot, man. Pretty stressed out over here at the moment. ** Jose, Hi, man! Yeah, it's a pretty interesting book, worth a look given your abiding interest in games. Thanks for the finger crossing. Take care. ** James Greer, Hey, J! How cool! Thanks, man, and I hope you'll get to meet the dude if this works out. Still waiting for you to get your ass back to France, don't you know. ** David, Eyes crossed, cool. Or I mean thank you. Well, your nephew gets a pass, although I did have to stop reading when you got to the 'smell' part, ha ha. ** Kiddiepunk, Thanks, M! I'm sweating bullets up here. His appointment started 6 minutes ago, as I type. Talk to you later, yes? Holy shit, those are beautiful photos! Everyone, there are some really gorgeous new photos by the masterful Kiddiepunk featuring Parisian skateboarders that constitute a must-see, and please proceed single file into here. ** Bill, Thank you, Bill. Yeah, I figured it was a case by case thing. Does it make a difference whether you're seeing something in a theater or at home where the length is under your control? ** Sypha, Well, as someone who takes video games 'way too seriously' and who has reaped rewards in my fiction and theater work by doing so, I have to ask you what your exact problem is with people like myself taking that approach? See, I think you're onto something there on the Madonna/Gaga front. Thanks for the good visa thoughts! ** Oscar B, Thanks, O! Yeah, talk and see later. ** Dan, Hey, man! Thanks much. Yeah, if he gets the visa, I'll be able to give you my LA dates as soon as tomorrow! Thanks again, Dan! ** Steevee, Well, it's wonderful that you'll get to at least talk to Kiarostami by phone. That should be so, so interesting! ** Thomas Moronic, I'm really glad you found the book interesting. It is, yeah. I'm getting stuff from it that's going to be helpful with 'Last Spring' for sure. I would really love to get that link to the Texas show if you can find it. Thanks! Sure, it'd be great if you want to come to the art opening, and I'm searching out some other art things to possibly hop between. See you soon, buddy. ** Chris Goode, Chris! How extremely delightful to see you, man! This is great! I've missed you! How cool that you're not only in LA but performing there! Wow! Hold on. Everyone in Los Angeles, listen up: the very great maker of live theater/performance and prized d.l. Chris Goode is in your city performing in Tim Crouch's daring and highly regarded theater work 'The Author' at the Kirk Douglas Theater until February 27th, and this is a both rare and amazing opportunity to see not only an interesting piece but Chris at work, and I highly, highly recommend that you try to see it. There's more info and ticket information here. I so wish I was there to see that, man. Best of all possible luck, although it doesn't sound like you'll need it. Your talk of Jonny and you working on a slaves post-related piece makes me totally giddy, of course, whatever happens. I'm at your disposal, if need be. Man, so great to hear from you, really! Lots and lots of you to you! ** _Black_Acrylic, Thanks so much, Ben! ** Wolf, Such good merde. That's gotta work, right? Gulp. Thank you, my dear pal. Gay marriage is only possible in a handful of US states, and it doesn't mean shit on a national/ federal level, so it wouldn't do any good at all. But thanks for the kind thinking. ** Richard, Hi, Richard! Oh, thank you so much. That's very kind of you. Yeah, I'm just an endless tourist here in Paris, but, even I get a lot more hassled entering the states than whenever I reenter Paris, where basically they just shrug and stamp what's in front of them. Strange. I hope things are going really wonderfully for you! ** James, Hi, James! Oh, thank you, man. Yeah, more than seven years. It's been completely ridiculous and a nightmare, and, I don't know, we'll see if it's ending today or just continuing its horrible way. ** Patrick deWitt, Thank you, P! Chrystel was off yesterday, but I'll see her today. Yep, Grape Nuts. I'm surprised too, ha ha. ** Slatted Light, David! It's so great to see you! How are you? What's going on? I've missed you a lot, man! I hope things are very well with you. I'd love a catch up, obviously. Thank you a lot, D! ** Bernard Welt, Hey. ** Creative Massacre, Thanks a lot, my pal! ** Rigby, Hey. So, you can walk and stuff at least, right? Sorry to hear about that, man. I saw 'Black Swan' last night. I actually think I'm probably going to love 'True Grit' to at least some degree. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Thanks a lot, J! Oh, I'd be very interested if you can find that essay. That topic is a big area of interest at the moment. Lovely day to you. ** Misanthrope, Dude, nervewracking, you got it. My body's so tense I feel like I'm typing while in a full body cast. In a different era, pretty much every contestant on 'AI' whom I've seen or heard would spend their careers singing oldies in a hotel lounge as far as I'm concerned. I don't mind Ke$ha so much. When the crap pop is trashy and fun enough and no one takes it seriously, like with her or Britney, say, I can get a kick out of it. Well, you know sales figures have never had anything to with talent except in fairly rare cases in music, movies, books, etc. forever. It's just the way it goes, and I suspect those bands you mentioned are pretty okay with the level of success they have. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Maybe there wasn't a scene like that in 'The Crow'. I have a hazy memory of one, but it could have come from some other sort of similar source. I did like the 'Wicker Tree' trailer. I think I'll see that, yeah. So, 'Rabbit Hole' is good? I was curious about that. Oh, and what is the deal on 'Winter's Bone'? It's opening here soon, and I know it's up for the Oscar, but I don't know anything about it. Oh, man, your day was rough. It did have this kind of drowsy, interesting quality in the telling, though, not that that helps you at all, I'm afraid. Somehow I hope your mouth is really starting to heal up and leave you more alone today. My day: Yury took the day off to get ready for the visa meeting. He was running around getting documents from his work and official photos and taken and so on for most of the day and then printing out and organizing his documents when he was home. I helped as best I could, and we both were pretty stressed out and trying to be calm and objective and okay about the situation. That was a lot of the day. My editor at HP sent me a possible 'TMS' cover, and I actually like it, so that might be it. Yury wanted to go see 'Black Swan' to chill and take his mind off the visa thing, so we did go see it at the UGC theater in Les Halles. So, okay, I didn't hate it, but, as I suspected I would, I thought it was silly and heavy-handed. Portman was really good in it, yeah. But I thought the hallucination stuff was kind of stupid and clunky and messy and didn't add up at all. It looked good, but I always think Aronofsky's movies look good/ artsy but that they're kind of dumb and too obvious and cliched underneath all that stylization. Same with 'Black Swan'. So, I didn't hate it like I thought I might, but, after about the first twenty minutes or so, which I liked pretty well, I thought it got worse, and, in the end, I didn't think it was very much. Sorry. After that, it was just more visa stuff and worrying until bedtime. Anyway, today will be ... something, and I'll tell you about it. Please tell me how you're doing and feeling today, okay? ** L@rstonovich, Dude, if your magical powers don't do it, nothing will. Oh, the Gram Parsons book. Sid Griffin was living in the same apt. building with me and was a pal. He was massively into Parsons, and so was I, and I was doing Little Caesar magazine and press at the time, so I had book making and organizational skills, so we decided to do the book together, although he ended up doing about 80% of the work in the end. There wasn't a book out on Parsons at the time. The vogue around his work hadn't started up yet. The book had essays on Parsons, including one by me, and lots of photos and interviews with people who'd worked with him: Chris Hillman, Sneaky Pete, Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Emmy Lou Harris, Nudie, and lots more. It was called 'Grievous Angel' and was put out by an independent publisher, and it went out off print pretty quickly. It was o.o.p. for a long, long time, but I think Sid got it reissued maybe ten years ago, although I don't think it was exactly the same book, and I don't think I was credited as co-editor in the reissue. I've never seen a copy of the reissue. That Sun Ra fest of yours sounds really beautiful, of course. ** Andrew, Good, good, I'm glad you're feeling better! Thanks a lot for the luck. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, man. 'Fixin' to', yeah. In the late '60s, there was this super popular song by Country Joe & the Fish called 'I Feel like I'm Fixin' to Die', and the phrase was pretty popular and in use around then. I'm pretty sure the song didn't invent the phrase though. ** Jheorgge, Hi, man! Really nice to see you! And thank you so much! You good? What's going on? ** Math, Thanks a lot, Math! Yeah, I still haven't heard from Yury, and I'm almost finished up here, gulp. Love to you! ** Okay, I just now got the news. The visa was denied. I really thought he was going to get it this time, and I'm quite shocked and feeling pretty crushed by this, and I don't even really know what to say. I'll leave it there for now. So, that's that. Thanks very, very much for your caring and really good thoughts. Now, I know a lot you will be feeling for me and Yury on this situation today, but, really, nothing would please me more than if you give your full attention and comments over to Dario Argento and Frank's efforts on his behalf. So, please do that, okay? I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks again, everybody. Love to you all.
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