Dario Argento (born September 7, 1940) is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies. Argento and former partner Daria Nicolodi are the parents of actress Asia Argento.
Argento was born in Rome, the son of film producer/executive Salvatore Argento and Brazilian-born photographer Elda Luxardo. He started his career in film as a critic, writing for various magazines while still attending high school.
Argento did not attend college, electing rather to take a job as a columnist at the newspaper Paese Sera. While working at the newspaper, Argento also began to work as a screenwriter. His most notable work was for Sergio Leone; he and Bernardo Bertolucci collaborated on the story for the spaghetti western classic Once Upon a Time in the West. Soon after that film's release in 1969, Argento began work on his directorial debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, which was released in 1970 and was a major hit in Italy. His directing style was influenced by Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Sergio Leone, Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini.
Early in his directing career, he continued to concentrate largely on the giallo genre (more precisely known as "thrilling" in Italy, as the word "giallo" (Italian for yellow) usually refers to generic mystery works). The films, like the lurid yellow-covered murder-mystery novels they were inspired by, followed the suspense tradition of hardboiled American detective fiction while incorporating baroque scenes of violence and excess. Director Mario Bava is credited with inventing the giallo film; Argento's passion in developing the genre has earned him widespread recognition as the key influence in popularising giallo cinema outside of Italy, and his unique vision has earned him acclaim as an 'auteur' director.
Argento directed two further successful thrillers, The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972). Alongside The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, these initial three films are frequently referred to as Argento's "animal trilogy". The director then turned his attention away from giallo movies, filming two Italian TV dramas and a period comedy (Five Days in Milan) in 1973 before returning to thrillers with 1975's Deep Red, frequently cited by many critics as the best giallo ever made. The film made Argento famous internationally, and inspired a number of other directors to work in the genre (John Carpenter has frequently referred to the influence Argento's early work had on Halloween). It also marked the start of Argento's long creative relationship with composer Claudio Simonetti and his Italian progressive rock group Goblin which was highly influenced by the mythical cult french band Magma.
In all of Argento's giallo films, Argento casts himself as the killers' gloved hands. However, in recent releases, he has stopped this practice.
Poster for Suspiria.
Argento's next movie, Suspiria (1977), an extremely violent supernatural thriller, is considered by many fans to be his best work, alongside Deep Red. Freed from the constraints of the more conventional giallo format, Suspiria is a semi-surreal work of art, where plot and character become secondary to sound and vision. Argento planned for Suspiria to be the first of a trilogy about "The Three Mothers", three ancient witches residing in three different modern cities. The second movie of the trilogy was 1980's Inferno. The third movie in the trilogy has recently wrapped production and release date in America is pending.
In between the two "mothers", in 1978 Argento collaborated with George Romero on Dawn of the Dead, earning a producer credit on the zombie classic. Argento oversaw the European release of the film (where it was titled Zombi) which was much shorter and featured much more of the score written and performed by Goblin.
After Inferno, Argento returned to more conventional giallo with Tenebrae (1982). He then attempted to combine giallo and supernatural fantasy in Phenomena, also known as Creepers (1985), which was one of Jennifer Connelly's first movies. Phenomena also showed Argento's predilection for using new technology, with its many prowling Steadicam shots. Both of these movies received a lukewarm reception upon release (although each has been re-appraised retrospectively).
Argento subsequently took a break from directing to write two screenplays for Mario Bava's son Lamberto Bava, Dèmoni (1985) and Dèmoni 2 (1986).
Dario Argento interviewed by Martin Sauvageau during the Festival International du Cinéma Fantastique de Montréal in 1994.
Opera followed in 1987, and was, according to Argento, a "very unpleasant experience". Set in Parma's Regio Theatre during a production of Verdi's Macbeth, the movie was beset in real life by misfortunes that Argento suspected were caused by the traditional "curse" on Macbeth. Argento's father died during the production, Vanessa Redgrave dropped out of the project before filming began, he had problems working with his former long-time girlfriend and collaborator Daria Nicolodi on-set, and the cast and crew were plagued by minor accidents and mishaps. The movie was again not particularly well received by fans or critics, despite showcasing Argento's skill with color and composition, and featuring some technically impressive camera movements (the ravens' descent in the Parma opera house is considered to be one of the director's most famous set pieces).
It is widely accepted that his 1990s career and onwards has failed to live up to his golden period between Deep Red and Opera. A collaboration with George A. Romero on an Edgar Allan Poe anthology titled Two Evil Eyes (1990), a stab at a mainstream Hollywood production (Trauma of 1993) and a version of Phantom of the Opera (1998) lost him many fans, but he continued to innovate. For example, his 1996 The Stendhal Syndrome, in which a policewoman (played by Argento's daughter, Asia) who suffers from a dramatized version of the illness is trapped by a serial killer in an abandoned warehouse, was the first Italian film to use computer-generated imagery (CGI). Furthermore, the opening of The Stendhal Syndrome was shot in Florence, at Italy's famed Uffizi Gallery. Argento is the only director ever granted permission to shoot there. The Stendhal Syndrome was distributed in the U.S. by cult B-movie distribution company Troma Entertainment.
Dario Argento discusses his film Pelts at the Torino Film Festival in 2006.
Many saw 2001's Sleepless, deliberately designed as a "comeback movie" with its strong giallo theme and numerous references to his earlier work, as a step back in the right direction. However, Argento's follow-up, 2004's The Card Player, a giallo about a killer whose murders are conducted during Internet poker matches with the Rome police, earned a mixed reception: fans appreciated the techno music score composed by ex-Goblin member Claudio Simonetti, but felt the film was too mainstream, with little of Argento's usual flourish.
2005 saw the TV broadcast of Argento's Do You Like Hitchcock?, in which the Italian horror-meister paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock after decades of being compared to him by critics. Later that year, he directed a segment of Masters of Horror, a Showtime television series. The story, "Jenifer", based on an old Eerie comics tale by Bruce Jones, was a departure for Argento, but provided him with some of his best critical notices in several years. Soon afterwards, Argento directed an adaptation of the F. Paul Wilson short story "Pelts" for season 2 of the series.
Argento has finished shooting his newest film, the conclusion of his Three Mothers trilogy, The Mother of Tears. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6 2007.
The film is set in Rome and centers around the titular third mother, Mater Lachrymarum. Argento and Jace Anderson share writing credits for this movie. A joint effort between the Italian Studio, Medusa, and the American Studio, Myriad Pictures (which made Jeepers Creepers) financed the production of the film, allowing Argento one of the largest, if not the largest, budgets he has ever worked with.
Argento's daughter Asia was cast in the lead, along with Daria Nicolodi in a supporting role. Udo Kier, who appeared in Argento's Suspiria, and Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, who appeared in three of his previous films, both have pivotal roles in the final Mothers chapter.
Poster for Tenebrae.
Argento's works always include a profusion of allusions (both obscure and obvious) to other films, literature ranging from the Greek classics to current popular novels, politics, film/literary theory, as well as his own films. This dense network of allusions, combined with his negligence of plot, his bizarrely detailed mise-en-scenes, his obsession with gore-filled death scenes, and his unpredictable and roaming camera angles, has proven particularly resistant to critical interpretation. Two notable initial publications about Argento were Maitland McDonagh's well-received auteur study, Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (1991), and, Art of Darkness, a collection of promotional stills, poster art and critical essays edited by Chris Gallant. British journalist Alan Jones later published Profondo Argento, a compendium of set reports, interviews and biographical detail.
In the documentary Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror, Argento was interviewed on set of Sleepless. In it, he is seen trying to field questions from the crew members while walking around. He notes that he is a natural loner, and that he often doesn't enjoy the production process because of the hours upon hours of social interaction that is required to make a film.
The director has acquired a cult fan base throughout the world; film reviews and interviews are regular subjects of interest in fanzines and Internet discussion groups.
He is involved in a horror memorabilia store located at Via dei Gracchi 260 in Rome named Profondo Rosso, after his classic giallo movie. In the cellar is a collection from his movies. The store is managed by his long time collaborator and friend Luigi Cozzi.
