Director #1: Dario Argento

[Cena's Little Helper]

Dario Argento​

Showcase Description
Dario Argento helped to pioneer the giallo sub-genre and was one of the two most important European horror filmmakers of the 1970s and 1980s. However, Argento's innovative use of color, cinematography, and set design helped him transcend the boundaries of horror to become one of the most significant cinematic stylists ever. Today, he is considered an icon of horror whose place in film history is more than secure.

Selected Filmography
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971)
Deep Red (1975)
Suspiria (1977)
Inferno (1980)
Tenebre (1982)
Phenomena (1985)
Opera (1987)
The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
Mother Of Tears (2007)
Giallo (2009)

Showcase Outline
I. Finishing What Bava Started: Argento As Giallo Master
II. The First Magnum Opus: Deep Red
III. The Second Magnum Opus: Suspiria
IV. The Unappreciated, Part 1: Tenebre
V. The Unappreciated, Part 2: Opera
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[Cena's Little Helper]

If you have ever heard the name Dario Argento, then you have undoubtedly also heard of him being referred to by his most popular moniker, “The Italian Hitchcock.” Although Alfred Hitchcock partly inspired the type of film Argento is most known for (i.e., the giallo), this nickname is nonetheless erroneous (and also quite belittling of Argento’s uniqueness as a director). On the surface of things, both Argento and Hitchcock are similar in that their marquee films are suspenseful murder-mysteries with many twists and turns. But, while Hitchcock’s films are lauded primarily for their substance, Argento’s are lauded mainly for their style. However, before I touch upon Argento’s artistic merits, I would first like to discuss his significance as the preeminent director of the aforementioned giallo, one of three sub-genres that were important in establishing Italy as the premier purveyor of ultra-violent horror in the 1970s and 1980s.

Finishing What Bava Started: Argento As Giallo Master

Opinions on what film marked the beginning of the giallo horror sub-genre somewhat differ. Although some people see Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960) as this sub-genre’s initial entry, a majority see the first giallo as either one of two films directed by Mario Bava: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) or Blood and Black Lace (1964). Personally, while I would argue that the giallo sub-genre did come into existence with the former (given that the protagonist is at one point seen reading one of the “yellow,” cheap crime paperbacks from which giallo films emerged), the giallo as popularized by Argento came into existence with the latter, as it was from Blood and Black Lace that Argento co-opted many of the cinematic tropes/motifs that came to be associated with his films. These cinematic tropes/motifs are as follows:

• A protagonist who is usually involved in the creative/performing arts and who immerses herself in the investigation of the film’s initial murder or assault.
• Beautiful, classy women in tune with (then) current European fashion trends and who usually serve as victims of the film’s murderer.
• A murderer who almost always dons a black trench coat, leather gloves, and a homburg and who kills his victims with a knife (or another sharp, metal object). Furthermore, as with most murder-mysteries, the identity of the murderer is not revealed until the film’s conclusion, although she will more often than not either taunt her pursuers with harassing phone calls or speak to her victims before they are murdered in a distorted, whispering voice.
• The frequent use of Italian baroque landmarks as settings for murder and other significant scenes (all true gialli take place in one of Italy’s many cultural centers, hence why Powell’s Peeping Tom can’t really be considered a giallo even though many thematic similarities exist between it and the films that comprise the giallo sub-genre).
• A fascination with vision and with the eyes in general (more on this in the following post).

Although many well-known Italian horror directors tried their hand at the giallo sub-genre at one point or another, no one excelled at them quite like Argento. As anyone familiar with Italian horror can see, the aforementioned cinematic tropes/motifs largely pertain to Argento’s gialli and Bava’s Blood and Black Lace. Undoubtedly, one or a few of these cinematic tropes/motifs are found in all films classified as gialli, but none of them prove to be as encompassing as Argento’s films precisely because he serves as this sub-genre’s standard setter.

More generally, Argento’s accomplishments in the giallo sub-genre have earned him the status of a horror icon. Ultimately, horror fanatics see him as one of the two most significant Italian horror filmmakers of all time (the other director, the late Lucio Fulci, held a status similar to Argento’s in the zombie sub-genre; neither director ever ventured into the last important Italian horror sub-genre of the 1970s and 1980s, the cannibal film).

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For the phrase "cinematic tropes/motifs," I want to credit Gary Needham's essay "Playing with genre: An introduction to the Italian giallo." The essay can be found here: http://www.kinoeye.org/02/11/needham11.php

 

[Loveless]

My interest in Argento begins and ends with his involvement in Dawn of the Dead. If you're not a fan of horror I don't feel he offers much more.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Deep Red (1975)

Synopsis: Shortly after detecting the presence of a murderer at a parapsychology conference, Lithuanian psychic Helga Ulmann (Macha Méril) is brutally hacked to death in her apartment. After witnessing the end of this murder on his way back from a rehearsal, pianist Marcus Daly (legendary British actor David Hemmings) rushes to Ms. Ulmann's apartment. After calling the police and giving them little in the form of testimony, Daly decides to investigate the murder himself when he realizes that a portrait he saw upon entering Ms. Ulmann's apartment (and which seems to have gone missing) may hold the solution to her murder. Although Daly makes good progress in his investigation with help from an eccentric reporter (Daria Nicolodi), a restaurant pianist (Gabriele Lavia), and two men who served as panelists with Ms. Ulmann at the aforementioned parapsychology conference (Giauco Mauri and Piero Mazzinghi), both he and those who help him must sill contend with a vigilant and willing murderer who wishes to keep their identity a secret at any cost.

Thoughts: Originally, I wasn’t going to cover this film because I never thought it was very good. But, just like a discussion of American war films would not be complete without touching upon Michael Cimino’s Deer Hunter (another film that I did not think very highly of), omitting Deep Red from Argento’s showcase would make for an incomplete and potentially misleading discussion of his career. Because of how integral it is to appreciating his later films, I hope that those who have an interest in seeing Argento’s work will still venture to get a hold of a copy of Deep Red. For purposes of encouragement then, I’ll stress the good just as much as the bad.

The Bad​

• 
  The Screenplay - Writing has always been one of Argento’s weaknesses, and it definitely shows in Deep Red. Throughout this film, significant screen time is given to the playful interaction between Hemmings’ character and that of Daria Nicolodi, and their attempts at witty, flirtatious banter are, at best, just flat-out laughable. Some may say that this is due to the dubbing most American copies of Deep Red are subject to, but, as someone who has watched both dubbed and subtitled versions of this film, I would argue that dubbing does not make the film's actual dialogue seem any less stupid or awkward.

• Pretentious And Pointless Allusions – As in almost everything he has done, David Hemmings serves up a solid performance in Deep Red. But, I would argue that the role would have been better played by someone a bit younger and not so forlorn looking, and that Hemmings was probably cast because of his role in Blowup, Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic suspense-thriller. Argento’s need to show that he is culturally sophisticated also manifests itself in a nighttime tableau of diner patrons that Marcus Daly passes in the beginning of the film. Obviously, this tableau is a reference to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, but, what purpose does it serve, except to gratify the intellects of those who are able to point it out? I, for one, have always believed that allusion in film must serve a purpose, so, if you do not feel the same way, please feel free to express your opinion. Ultimately though, I do not think down upon Argento for these attempts, because, as an Italian filmmaker, he had been preceded by Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini and was a contemporary of not only Antonioni, but also Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Ermanno Olmi (talk about competition!!!).

• An Inappropriate Style – With Deep Red, Argento introduced audiences to the style that would account for the greatness of his subsequent project (and what I consider to be his best film), Suspiria. But, in hindsight and with Argento’s later gialli in mind, the overexposed film and saturated lighting that accorded so well with Suspiria’s supernatural subject matter do not seem to do as much for Deep Red and its more grounded material. In such later gialli as Tenebre and Opera, Argento used much starker lighting. In effect, these films looked much more "antiseptic," and this contributed greatly to their' "highbrow slasher" feel. In my opinion, this is unfortunate, as Deep Red could have greatly benefited from this style Argento adopted for his gialli in the 1980s..

The Good​

• Collaboration With Goblin - For the scores of his first three films, Argento employed the services of renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone. With Deep Red, Argento opted to instead go with Goblin, a elatively unknown Italian electronic group. The eerie, violent synthesized music Goblin provided for Deep Red deeply impressed viewers, and this collaboration only marked the beginning for many more between Argento and the group, Ultimately. by providing his films with an identity beyond the stylistic, it can be argued that Goblin gave Argento the extra distinction he needed to be considered an auteur.

• A Novel Use Of Diegetic Music - There are two ways to identify sound that emanates from a film or television show: if sound is "imposed" onto a film or television show. then it is non-diegetic (e.g., a score or a laugh track); if the sound originates from the fictional world we are observing, then it is diegetic (e.g., a song playing from a character's car radio or the sounds of car horns as a character walks along a busy street). Most horror films use non-diegetic music in the form of a score to signal the coming of terror or destruction. In contrast to most films, however, the killer in Deep Red signals their imminent attack by playing a creepy lullaby on a hand-held tape recorder. In effect, such a use of music increases feelings of fear and dread in the audience as it makes the brutality witnessed seem even more realistic.

• Narrative Complexity - Just like in novels, we, as consumers, are given a point of view in films that are determined by the filmmakers. For a majority of films, viewers are given a third person omniscient perspective. from which they witness the story progress from all of its relevant viewpoints. Throughout Deep Red however, Argento makes transitions from this "God-like" perspective to the first-person perspective of the killer (that is to say, we are watching through the eyes of the killer). Consequently, Deep Red makes for an intellectually stimulating watch, as viewers are compelled to analyze different shots and determine whether they are watching from the all-knowing heavens of from the mind of a cold, calculating, and cautious killer.

Verdict: Deep Red is equal in its strengths and weaknesses. In hindsight, Argento must be commended for this stylistically ambitious film, as it served as the springboard from which his immediately following work would leap into the realm of the sublime.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Suspiria (1977)

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Tenebre (1982)

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[Cena's Little Helper]

Opera (1987)

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