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what are the best films by him? Ive only seen Profondo Rosso and it knocked me sideways, one of the best psychological chiller Ive ever seen. there was a trailer on that DVD for a later film by him called Demons, and Demons 2, but they both looked really bad...any opinions on what his best films are?

Demons is fun, but he didn't direct it.  Lamberto Bava directed it, if I'm not mistaken.

As for Argento, I LOVE Suspiria.  That's a hell of a good film.

okay thanks. Ive heard of it, will endeavor to check it out.

These are the Argento flicks that I always recommend to people ranked in order of how I like them:

1) Phenomena
2) Suspiria
3) Opera
4) Tenebrae
5) Profondo Rosso
6) Inferno
7) The Bird with the Cyrstal Plumage.

thanks man, just browsing some amazon reviews of those ones you mentioned.

Definitely Suspiria and Phenomena (but don't get the Creepers cut as it so richly sucks on multiple plateus of suckiness). Also, though I'm probably biased because of Julian Sands's inclusion, I actually enjoyed his version of The Phantom of the Opera... don't hit, I've got a sunburn and it really hurts right now.  :tongueout:

yeah, Im gathering from the amazon reviews that quite a few of these films have been cut... definitely need to see full versions, I hate it when films have scenes cut out like that.

When Laserdiscs (and later DVDs) came out, it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities in regards to finally seeing the stuff that was left on the cutting room floor for some of our favorite movies. Sadly, I've come to learn that much of the stuff being left out of the current crop of features is better left there to begin with... I don't know if that's a good sign of modern film editing practices or a growing waste of disc space...

My favorites are:

* DEEP RED (aka, PROFUNDO RUSSO)
* SUSPIRIA
* THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE
* TENEBRAE (aka UNSANE)

My choices would be Suspiria (to many his best movie, although it is very different from his other stuff) and Phenomena, which is quite uneven but truly fantastic in some places. Opera is another great one.

After Opera Argento entered a period of decadence, but I think both The Stendhal syndrome and Sleepless are worth watching. So is Inferno, the sequel to Suspiria, although it's nowhere as good as the original.

I've only seen three of his films, Suspiria, Deep Red and The Bird with the Crystal Plummage and in that order. My favorite is Deep Red (which I credit with really getting me turned on to the whole giallo genre) then Suspiria.

I've had other films of his in my Netflix queue for ages, but I keep bumping other stuff ahead of them. I know, my bad.

 Am I the only one who finds SUSPIRIA....confusing and...well.dull? I enjoy his other films,but SUSPIRIA just does nothing for me! I love PHENONENA.DEEP RED,TENEBRA,and the BIRD with the CRYSTAL PLUMMAGE,though.

Though I imagine I could see how some people could find Suspiria dull or confusing RC, what did you find confusing about it?

Confusing as in,I really have no idea what was going on...and dull as in it bored me,so I really wasn't really paying attention to it to try to find out what was going on. It just did'nt hold my interest. A yawn fest. Which really is a bummer,because I had heard a lot of good things about it...and I REALLY wanted to like it...but couldn't! The photography was nice...and it had some interesting set pieces ( the maggot -fall). Supposed to be about witchs or something...blah blah blah...geez...I'm fall..ing a......zzzzzzz....

I'm not a huge fan of Suspiria, but I see the appeal.  I've only watched it once, and it's the only Argento film I've seen, but I thought it was interesting and I'm glad I own the DVD.  The hype surrounding it is probably one of the reasons I wasn't totally impressed, but I really want to see more of his work.

Here's a pretty good Argento website:

www.darkdreams.org

Well, serves me right for taking a vacation.  It looks as though just about everything has already been said.  Haha.  But...

Hundreds of years ago I got a bootleg of Suspiria and didn't care for it.  Like RC, I found it rather dull.  However, I picked up the Anchor Bay 3-disc DVD and was pleasantly surprised.  The film's suspense relies heavily on its vibrant colors and nerve-racking Goblin score.  It is definitely worth a watch, but play it loud and turn off the lights!

Phenomena is a lot of fun.  Think DePalma:  It isn't marvelously constructed on a whole, but it has so many neat segments that more than justify its existence.  Razor-wielding helper monkeys?  :teddyr:  What more does a movie need?

From a directorial-style standpoint, Tenebre is probably his best.  There's a three-plus minute tracking shot from the killer's point of view that starts at a window, climbs the building, descends the other side, breaks a window, and enters the house.  Amazing!  I used to show this (along with the subsequent murder) to my film students.

If you find you like the ridiculous, violent Italian slashers, you should check out things like Fulci's New York Ripper, Lamberto Bava's Dèmoni (Demons), Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man).  For a start.  :teddyr:  Oh those crazy Italians!

A really good Argento movie that most people leave out is Trauma. It's one of his later ones, '90 I believe. It suffers from the same pit falls that all of his movies do (bad acting especially by the female leads, incoherent plot, etc), but its one of his better recent films. Like Phenomena, the build up has some to desire, but the ending was well worth the wait. Another pretty decent later Argento was The Card Player. It was in the psyche-thriller vein that Deep Red is in.

Goblin is friggin' awesome. If you like the soundtracks you should check out some of their album stuff.

It also hasn't been mentioned that the hands of the killers in any Argento film are that of Dario's himself.

Some other great Italian horror flicks are Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling, Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve (which I just saw a few days ago. Highly recommended), and if you really just want a bloody mess there is always Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper wherein a beastly character rips a giant fetus out of a woman's womb and eats it. Crazy Italians indeed. :cheers:

"Twitch of the Death Nerve" is a personal favourite, don't forget to check it out, depressed crack addict. Not only it is a great film, but it also spoofs some of the giallo conventions, and that together with the hifg body count make it a lot of fun to watch.

Indeed..and ya gotta love that ending! I really hope this one is re-issued on DVD soon.

 Maybe I just have to rewatch SUSPIRIA....it WAS my first introduction to Argento....and it was a looong time ago. Maybe it's one of those "watch it again" type movies.  :thumbup:

Oh man, that Goblin soundtrack was pretty much all I listened to for the months following that purchase. If the term "f*cking amazing" was created for anything, it would be Goblin.


There's an international poster for Phenomena (which might actually be under the Creepers banner now that I think about it) that features said simian assailant in painted glory. If I ever find that thing, my bank account is in for some pain...


A second on all of those.  :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

BTW, anyone also wanting to really get an in depth history of Argento's films (as well as some interesting facts about his life/upbringing) would do wise picking up the book Broken Mirrors/Broken Dreams.

http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Mirrors-Minds-Dreams-Argento/dp/0806515147/ref=sr_1_1/103-2945600-0075867?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184036029&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Mirrors-Minds-Dreams-Argento/dp/0806515147/ref=sr_1_1/103-2945600-0075867?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184036029&sr=1-1)

thanks for all this info guys, looks like Ive got a stack of films to catch up on regarding italian horror...  :drink:

Some of my other Italian horror favorites are:

* THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM (which is really the movie LISA AND THE DEVIL with some scenes cut out and new scenes added)

* BEYOND THE DOOR

* SHOCK (aka BEYOND THE DOOR II - - it is not a sequel and is a better movie than BEYOND THE DOOR)

* BLACK SABBATH

* BLACK SUNDAY

* BLOOD AND BLACK LACE

Just make sure to stay far away from The Card Player and Phantom of the Opera.   :lookingup:

This reminds me I just saw "Ti piace Hitchcock?", one of his later efforts. For a TV movie it is quite good, but don't expect many of his usual flourishes. It's a giallo, yes, but more a homage to Hitchcock that an attempt to bring back the old magic. It's overall rather decent, but the script just mixes too many homages to Hitchcock to be any plausible.

The only ones I've seen are Opera, Cat O' Nine Tails, and Suspiria.  I like all three, but I have to say Opera is my favorite of the three.  I still want to pick up some of his other flicks as well.

I'm really not too fond of ol' Dario.  However, I do like Phenomena and Inferno.

This thread encouraged me to watch DEEP RED again last night.  The DVD I have is the director's cut and it is strange to watch because some scenes were apparently never dubbed into English (or the English dubbing has been lost).  So, throughout the movie, people will suddenly stop speaking English and start speaking Italian with English subtitles.  Even British star David Hemmings!  Next time, I'll probably just watch the Italian language version with subtitles throughout.