(SPOILERS) The introductions and the climaxes of his films
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Dario Argento
LynchianNightmare — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 08:41 PM)
Kubrick once said that movies should hold the attention of the audience within the first twenty minutes, or something along those lines. Well, Argento's movies usually hold my attention within the first two minutes.
The introductions are almost always among the most remarkable moments of his films. The murderer planning another crime in The Bird With the Crystal Plumage; the intercut between the drummer in the studio and the pulsating brain (?) in Four Flies on Grey Velvet; the intercalation between Goblin's masterful soundtrack and the child song playing while a murder occurs in Deep Red; Suzy's wonderful introduction, to the sound of the main theme, followed by the most famous murder scene from the movie in Suspiria; the passage of Varelli's book and Rose's adventure in a shadowy, colorful New York in Inferno; the murderer reading the passage from the book and then throwing it in the fire before the awesome theme song starts in Tenebrae; the murder by the waterfall in Phenomena; Asia's character lost among the works of art in The Stendhal Syndrome.
In contrast, the climax in a lot of his movies are very campy and sometimes laughable. The moment in Suspiria when Sara's corpse enters the room carrying a knife and laughing hysterically is simply a terrible letdown. The same thing to the witch turning into a hallowing costume in Inferno, the poorly executed scene where Betty convinces the killer that she is "like her mom" in Opera, the hero monkey (!!!) in Phenomena (that would be pretty cool in a dark comedy, but here it was totally out of place) and the list goes on.
I think that in conventional storytelling, a bad climax would usually destroy great part of the experience. In the case of Argento's movies it doesn't happen simply because every scene is almost independent of the general context and so strong in its own that a bad climax don't affect the rest that much and sometimes can even be forgiven. -
guigui-paul — 9 years ago(July 26, 2016 02:28 PM)
I mostly agree with what you're writing about Argento's introductions and climaxed but i really like the very last, ultimate shots of most of his movies:
think of the last shots of "The Stendhal Syndrome", "The Card Player", "Trauma", "Opera", "Deep Red", "Tenebre", the end credits of "Sleepless", etc. Argento's endings tend to be ambiguous and i like that.
I will add also among his others brillant openings the opening scenes of "Opera", "Sleepless", "The Card Player" and "Mother of Tears". Even more minor Argento films like "Giallo" and "Dracula" have decent opening 10/15 first minutes. -
LynchianNightmare — 9 years ago(July 29, 2016 10:41 PM)
Yeah, I loved the first sequence of Sleepless, though I thought the rest of the movie was kinda lame with exception of some brilliant shots (the camera tracking across the floor just before the murder of the ballerina, for example).
I agree about the ending shots. He knows how to end a movie in a chilling way. I'm not sure if that's true, but according to what I've read somewhere, Asia stated that the scene in the ending of Tenebrae where
Daria's character screams in panic after having accidentally killed Peter Neal
was one of the things that most inspired her to be become an actress. -
guigui-paul — 9 years ago(July 30, 2016 12:48 AM)
"I loved the first sequence of Sleepless, though I thought the rest of the movie was kinda lame with exception of some brilliant shots (the camera tracking across the floor just before the murder of the ballerina, for example)."
I LOVE this "carpet shot"! Wonderful, one of my fav Argento shots ever, even if overall "Sleepless" is one of Argento's lesser films in my opinion (i still like most of the murders scenes, Goblin and Max Von Sydow"s performance)
How do you rank Argento's films, from the best to the worst? -
LynchianNightmare — 9 years ago(July 30, 2016 01:09 PM)
It's hard to rank his films since I remember some better than others. Still, it'd be something like this, in descending order:
Suspria
Inferno
Deep Red
Opera
Tenebrae
Cat o' Nine Tails
Phenomena
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
Stendhal Syndrome
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Sleepless
Mother of Tears
I haven't watched his other films yet. The trailers of Dracula and Giallo don't inspire trust. Do You Like Hitchcock and Trauma look fine though. Guess I'm going on with these two.