* (restored)
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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.
Trailer
The opening
The Technicolor Nightmares of Suspiria
Dario Argento Suspiria making of
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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!
Trailer
Wonder kid from Phenomena
murder scene
Watch ‘B roll: Behind the scenes footage of ‘Phenomena’ here
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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.
GOBLIN “PROFONDO ROSSO” (DEEP RED) on Italian tv
Goblin “Suspiria” [Live in 1977]
Dario Argento y Goblin en Stracultsat Giallo & Horror Segments
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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!
Trailer
HOUSE CRAWL
The Making of ‘Tenebrae’
VERONICA LARIO…TAGLIATA!
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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.
Trailer
Giulia’s Death
Eye shot
Full film
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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.
Trailer
Tallow doll
Ending Scene
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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”.
Trailer
All of the deaths
Final scene
Full film
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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.
Trailer
Intro
Window scene
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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!”
Trailer
Legendary scene
Interview with Bettina Ciampolini (Nina) from “Demons”
Full film
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*
p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Thanks for the link, I’ll go listen. I wondered if you might like Shawescape Renegade. His playing off of the 90s Detroit minimal techno sound really pleased me, at least. ** Tosh Berman, Okay, a strong thumbs up for ‘Digger’. More incentive. Thanks, Tosh. It just seems curiouser and curiouser. ** ⋆˚꩜｡darbbzz⋆˚꩜｡, Awesome, thanks! Will do about the post’s build once I see it. Vangelis does seem like a solid unwinder. Thanks for the ‘Closer’ revisit, duh. Kerouac readers are philosophical deep thinking meditators? I always wondered. I got my mind slightly wet in him and then returned to the shore. Yay, more external confirmation of the real you! It was bound to happen. xo. ** Adem Berbic, Foreign mechanics, yum. The whole autofiction boom has kind of hit the first person with bug spray for me. Maybe the ‘RT’ home haunt will be some kind of way in, but remember that it’s well-meaning and kind of crappy. Tuesday just kind of snuck by a bit noisily. ** Steve, I met Jean Rollin when I first moved here. He and I share the same French publisher. He was unexpectedly suave and not unexpectedly pretty witty. Happy that some things yesterday found a home in you. No, that ‘Saw’ haunt is definitely not official. I think because home haunts are mostly free of charge, the studios turn a blind eye. Danny Thompson was an excellent bassist, for sure. That whole British folk-prog period in the early 70s was so nice: Pentangle, Fairport Convention, ISB, Strawbs, Dr. Strangely Strange, early T. Rex, etc. ** Carsten, No, there’s no funds to bring us to Magaluf, and we can’t afford the trip right now. Okay, and now a huge thumbs down on ‘Digger’. More intrigue. The Roy Andersson comparison did make me curious, of course. Ultimately, its adventurousness is enough to get me to check it out. These days that’s enough to tickle my taste buds. I suspect I’ll think it’s admirable but doesn’t work. We’ll see.. ** laura w., Hi. Not even the third Buzzcocks album? I like trying to find ways to make the first person uncomfortably distant, but, like I said somewhere above, the autofiction takeover of contemporary. lit. is making me a little allergic. The third person’s charisma is eternal. No worries. We’re just in a period of lionising the spilling of one’s guts. Social media has a lot to answer for. I’m way too impatient to knit. Unless typing is like knitting, which I suppose it kind of is? ** HaRpEr //, The kind of advancement in the new Um, Jennifer? EP is exciting for sure. In a different era or whatever, I think ‘Bury’ would have been a total hit. I like the new Durutti Column, it’s beautiful. But I’ve always liked Vini Reilly’s stuff. Claire Rousay, nice, she’s great. And Klara Lewis! Zac and I hung out with her when we showed ‘RT’ in Stockholm. She’s terrific. And I love her collaborative work with Nik Colk Void. I saw them live a couple of years ago, and they were incredible. Yes, I saw that Bradford has returned. I haven’t heard the new stuff he played at that festival yet. But, yes, great news! ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Condolences about the extension. Hang more than in there, man. ** Okay. It being Halloween, I thought I would restore this old guest-post made for the blog years ago by Frank Jaffe, nowadays best known as the honcho behind the great film distribution company Altered Innocence. Here’s hoping his passion is contagious. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Yes! Thank you Frank for this day. Mr Argento has a Horror memorabilia shop in Rome named Profondo Rosso, and back in 2008 my folks and I happened to be on a family holiday to the Eternal City. I got this pic on a sun-dappled afternoon of me stood outside the place.
The Shawescape Renegade tune is definitely one that’s on my radar. I do keep a regular “Sunday morning listening” post on Instagram and if I choose to invest in the the 12″, then it will be enjoyed with a coffee and chocolate croissant.
I saw a bunch of Argentos when I was on a giallo kick last year, but I’ve still never seen ‘Suspiria,’ curiously or not. I remember being baffled by his physique when he was in the shower in ‘Vortex’ –perfectly smooth and hairless but bloated torso with twinky, stick-figure arms.
I chomped about two thirds of ‘The Marbled Swarm’ last night. I’d tried it a couple of times before but it held up a big stop sign, which rarely happens that way with books, least of all yours. Maybe it was waiting for the right moment, given it interrogates the first person more than most other books put together. In a quasi-recent P.S., I think you told someone that no one’s really figured out its structure yet. Did you mean that in the sense of there being some overall organising principle no one’s twigged, or a more concrete and puzzle-like ‘A links to B which mirrors X which causes Y’ thing? I guess it can be both, actually. Also, this must be in the running for funniest sentence you’ve ever written: “he had bargained with his sons, trading time-outs in their nightly molestations…”
Argento’s fun. I think I’ve only seen “Inferno” & “Suspiria”, but the latter especially is a feast. The spooky opening at the airport is a pretty good representation of what it feels like to land in Germany for me, haha.
But I will say that the greatest thing Dario & Daria ever produced is Asia. My obsession with that woman shows no signs of abating. Which reminds me, did you ever cross paths with her? I ask because of the whole JT LeRoy thing.
Curious that RT landed Magaluf of all places. It’s a very touristy spot.
Re. “Digger”: did I remember correctly, that spoilers don’t bother you?
I’m with you, the reason I got interested was the film’s seeming unconventionality. Believe me, it gives me no pleasure to agree with the critical consensus. If it even had a whiff of genuine inspiration or bold stylings I’d be championing it as a welcome relief from the standard fare. I like a messy, uneven folly—”Southland Tales” for instance. In a way that’s what I was hoping for. But it’s not that. There’s really nothing experimental about it, or unique, playful or wild. It’s just utterly misguided. Curious what you’ll think. Are you going to see it in a theater or waiting till it streams?
hi! there’s also a certain shift towards first person, to the point where it’s now the default basically. definitely not helped by the autofiction obsession, which demands an almost suffocating lack of distance between the narrator and the author and the reader. i’ve said this before but i’ve always been impressed by the way you force distance between your own narrators and the stories they find themselves in, even when they’re fundamentally twisted together. guide is a great example, the narrator setting things in motion and then immediately removing himself.
i also think autofiction mildly killed the whole “the narrator assuming the identity of the author” thing, because readers are much more primed to take everything that narrator does as biographic fact. i miss the disorientation of some threads of truth and biography mixed with fiction, like your work or the novel crash which has been semi on my mind lately. and, much pettier, the use of initials instead of either fake names or real names. have you ever run into issues using real names? i remember i wished has a fairly unique disclaimer from the publisher about how “real names are used fictiously in this novel” or whatever, which i haven’t seen anywhere else.
also: the only buzzcocks song i like is “ever fallen in love with somebody”. for whatever reason, they’ve bounced off me. i also feel that way about depeche mode, which is an opinion that would get me stoned in some circles. i love new order and don’t mind the pet shop boys, but depeche mode does nothing for me. any bands like that for you?
Hey Dennis.
Things have been a bit rough lately, but it’s not something I’m gonna elaborate on here in public. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I met Ryan Trecartin last Friday, and he was very sweet. He told me to say hi to you, and he also invited me over to his theme park if I ever get the time to go to Ohio. I have his email for it and everything. Ok I wish you a better week than me byeee
I think a lot of people on the margins, me included, think Deerhunter are one of the most special and important rock bands of recent years. It’s honestly pretty rare to have a band who have no songs about relationships as well. Though of course, love songs are just conduits a lot of the time—using the second person to bring the audience directly into the subject, but that’s just my theory.
I never got obsessed with Argento but I still like some of his films a lot, and he and Herschell Gordon Lewis have my favourite onscreen blood. Syrupy and strawberry coloured. He’s a very rhythmic director, so very hypnotic to watch with all of the repetition and snappy editing and flashing lights. Argento is like a sophisticated edgelord. He’s not HGL or Russ Meyer, but he’s certainly not Kubrick either, so maybe that’s why I never got fully into him.
Thanks for the support, Dennis. Many things are day-to-day, so we’ll see.
Funny, I’ve seen the Altered Innocence logo on my screen many times, but never connected it with Frank! Great work they’re doing, and I do remember this encyclopedic Argento day.
Bill
Hi Dennis, been a busy bit but I promised that no matter how sleepy I was I would take the time to comment tonight. Grad school is really intense so I feel like everything else (catching up with friends, reading, sex, cooking) is kinda pushed off to after hours so it’s this weird almost-24 hour cycle where even sleep feels proprietary. The only time I have off is the shower, which is not conducive to using my laptop. And then I try not to be on a screen late at night and even if I were there’s a good chance that by the time I can comment you’re already on the next post. So it’s a matter of finding a new comment time. Maybe the bus in the morning? Attended a Fran Lebowitz event recently and she was excessively gracious while I rambled on about how much I adored her. Does that sort of thing get awkward to navigate on the other end? I’d also ask about getting repetitive, dull questions but I think your audience is probably more self-selected and hopefully more interested in your work. Hope you’ve been doing well. For real. I’m always telling people how cool you are and how this or that book recommendation I gave them actually came from the blog. I really mean that I hope you’re doing well, not just a formality.
It makes so much sense, now that I’ve connected him to movies I’ve watched, especially the sort of DIY-y early 2000s gay movies that I’m oddly fond of, that Mr Jaffe would make a post like this. Suspiria is a good movie if you’re trying to do a serious movie night during this season, I’ll bear that in mind; thanks.
Hey Dennis!
Just making a quick nightcall here before dawn. Laura says she misses you. She’s still itching to get writing, but has to take it slow, so she’s been doing some tweaks and edits. Me, I’m already addicted to the 600+ pages of her book that she wrote so far, even if she keeps being exasperated with it and saying she has to rewrite the whole thing from scratch (nuh-uh).
Me, I keep using tiny wee windows of time to do tiny little bits of chipping away at music stuff. Kinda surprised it’s not sounding totally disjointed.
Here’s a 50 second bit of it and ok yeah that’s my voice.
Uh, oh yeah, Argento!
I had a Dario phase in the early 90’s, so I plundered the limited reserves of all the Waalre/Eindhoven videostores for whatever I could get. (Weirdly took longer to find Suspiria than “lesser” gods like Tenebrae and Trauma.)
It’s not bad that I remember the aesthetic more than the plots, is it? Maybe I was just hormonally distracted by Jennifer and Asia. Should probably revisit to make sure. <3
Take love and care,
VK (& L)