[edit]
Early
career
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.
[edit]
Giallo
years
Early
in his directing career, he continued to concentrate largely
on the giallo genre (more
precisely known as "thriller" in Italy, as the word "giallo"--Italian for yellow--
usually refers to generic mystery works).
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).
[edit]
Supernatural
years
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 Mother of Tears
concludes the trilogy.
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
earliest 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, D猫moni (1985)
and D猫moni 2 (1986).
[edit]
From
the late 1980s and through the 1990s
Dario
Argento interviewed by Martin Sauvageau during the Festival
International du Cin茅ma Fantastique de Montr茅al in 1994.
Opera followed in 1987.
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.
His
1996 The Stendhal Syndrome,
in which a policewoman (played by Argento's daughter, Asia)
who suffers from Stendhal syndrome 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.
[edit]
In
the 21st century
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: some 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. Soon afterwards, Argento directed an adaptation
of the F. Paul
Wilson short story "Pelts"
for season 2 of the series.
[edit]
Concluding
his trilogy
Argento
finished the conclusion of his Three Mothers trilogy,
The Mother of Tears.
The
film is set in Rome and centers on the titular third mother,
Mater Lacrimarum. Argento and Jace
Anderson share writing credits for this movie.
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.
[edit]
The
Return of 'Giallo'
On 26
June 2009, Argento's latest movie Giallo premiered at
the Edinburgh Film Festival.
The following month he announced that he had started working
on the 3D
remake of Profondo Rosso,[4]
but also this project failed. Because of the failed screening
of Giallo in Italian cinemas,
he decided to write a new movie. Argento will 2011 produce
the American remake of his cult film Suspiria.[5]
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