Top 5 Argento's underrated/maligned works…
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symbioticfunction — 12 years ago(February 08, 2014 04:28 AM)
Cat O' Nine Tails
Five Days of Milan
Trauma
The Stendhal Syndrome
The Card Player
Blu-ray collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=78799 -
franzkabuki — 12 years ago(February 08, 2014 06:06 AM)
The best acting performances in an Argento movie I`ve seen so far, have been barely passable, so I seriously doubt that stuff about how this or other actor/actress has given a "fine" or a "great sensitive" performance in a film of his. Especially in a film largely considered inferior.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan -
guigui-paul — 12 years ago(February 09, 2014 01:28 AM)
"barely passable"?
IMO David Hemmings, Jessica Harper, Asia Argento (in "the Stendhal syndrome" and "Trauma"), Mb68ax Von Sydow, Karl Malden, Anthony Franciosa, Jennifer Connelly and Stefania Rocca, all of them delivered solid performances for Argento!
http://www.myspace.com/guillaumep
http://darioargentofr.blogspot.com/ -
PoppyTransfusion — 12 years ago(February 09, 2014 04:05 AM)
OP: I haven't seen Dracula, Do You Like Hitchcock? or Giallo yet, so can't comment on them.
The Card Player my least favourite Argento because it lacked the aesthetic flair that I've come to expect from him. It was a mediocre story and one of the main characters gets killed quite early on and that character's death scene was the best bit of the film.
Mother of Tears as the third in his Mothers trilogy it felt out of place because the aesthetic style was quite different but have style it does, unlike The Card Player. However it's16d0 sleazy and cliched in some of its styling, which lets it down. Good points are Asia Argento, some excellent death scenes especially the first one which is one of my favourite ones from all his films and the soundtrack particularly the song during the end credits. I think this film is less under rated and more maligned and for good reason I'm afraid.
The ones I think are under rated:
Four Flies on Grey Velvet - funny and suspenseful with one of the best reveals after Deep Red. It's very evocative of the period and I thought Michael Brandon and Mimsy Farmer were very good.
Cat O' Nine Tails - one of the best acted of his films and again very funny. Incredibly stylish and a suspenseful tale is made out of quite a mundane story. The Card Player should take note!
Trauma - this doesn't seem to have a high profile. I thought it was a very interesting story with some playful humour. What stays in my mind mostly is the footage of his step-daughter dancing as the credits roll and learning later that she died from anorexia. Asia was good in this.
The Stendhal Syndrome - really clever story and I thought Kretschmann was excellent and
disppeared too quickly from the story
. Some very beautiful scenes.
Non Ho Sonno/Sleepless - this is one of my favourite Argento films because I found it funny, brash and gaudy and with his characteristic aesthetic. The opening scene on the train was superb.
Conversely two of his films I find over rated are Tenebrae and Inferno. Both beautiful to look at but lacking in substance of story and characters.
Movement ends, intent continues;
Intent ends, spirit continues -
Mother_Of_Two — 12 years ago(February 11, 2014 01:57 AM)
Hi,
Poppy
.
Thank you for your interesting post.
However you are mistaken about Dario Argento's stepdaughter Anna who appeared during the end credits in TRAUMA. She didn't die from anorexia - she died in a scooter accident in 1994.
'Stupid fing white man!'
DEAD MAN (1995) -
George_Mason — 11 years ago(September 20, 2014 04:21 PM)
Sleepless is definitely his most underrated movie. It's one of my favourites, I just don't understand what's people problem with it, people complain about things that were already an issue in his earlier movies, sometimes even worse. Generally I think even some of his worst movies have some redeeming qualities, or at least are mildly fun to watch, but Sleepless is genuinely entertaining.
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MisterWhiplash — 10 years ago(October 03, 2015 08:02 PM)
- Four Flies on Grey Velvet (unless this is considered a classic, I wasn't sure)
- Mother of Tears (underrated for sure)
- The Stendhal Syndrome
- Do You Like Hitchcock
uh thats it.
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alucardvenom — 10 years ago(December 31, 2015 05:18 PM)
The Stendhal Syndrome is definitively his most underrated. It's was a great personal movies. The only time Argento actually made something personal. If you're familiar with his work and life, you'll notice that he had lot of self-reflections in that movie.
Mother of Tears too. Yeah, it sorta felt like TV movie and it's for sure not his best work, but I think conceptually he got it right. The fact that in "Mothers Trilogy" you start in high class (Suspiria, ballet school, everything is high style), then you go to middle class (suburban setting, commercial buildings, etc), and in Mother of Tears you go to the underground, in almost caves where cannibals live, and entire movie looks kinda dry, almost brown-ish. So you got from high style, high class setting where main characters are ballerinas to dirty brownish underground where cannibals live.
The huge leap in cinematography and style is obviously due to him not being young anymore and the fact that lot of people who he use to work with are either dead or retired. If you look at his 70s and 80s movies, he always had top Italian crew working on his movies. I mean, screenwriter for Deep Red was Felini's screenwriter. On Inferno he had none other then Mario Bava. Need I say more?