Since then, The Card Player, The Mother of Tears, and Giallo all came and spectacularly went, and I must confess it's getting harder and harder to defend this once great film maker...
Saturday 23 April 2011
An angry Argento fan writes to Total Film...
I was moving a huge pile of movie magazines this morning when I came across the October 2002 issue of Total Film (#69), the highly distinguished October 2002 issue I might add, as the Letters page included an angry missive from your humble narrator about the magazine labelling Dario Argento as an Italian schlock director...
Since then, The Card Player, The Mother of Tears, and Giallo all came and spectacularly went, and I must confess it's getting harder and harder to defend this once great film maker...
Since then, The Card Player, The Mother of Tears, and Giallo all came and spectacularly went, and I must confess it's getting harder and harder to defend this once great film maker...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Clag, eh? I'd still take Argento's flotsam over most other miserable output from the past 20 years... But, yeah, it's a bad situation when Argento's recent movies' artistic redundancy seem to threaten the legitimacy of his past achievements.
ReplyDelete"I'd still take Argento's flotsam over most other miserable output from the past 20 years." I concur. Most horror filmmakers would probably kill to have some of Argento's past titles on their own CVs. The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebrae, Phenomena and Opera? All pretty much classics in my own humble opinion. Even stuff like Trauma, The Stendhal Syndrome, Sleepless and The Card Player were fascinating if flawed films.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also commend your defence of Argento, Wes! :)
Thanks James, I'm normally not a letter-to-the-editor type guy, but in this case I was compelled to write ! I think Horror and Exploitation Cinema has benefitted the most from the emergence of laserdisc and DVD – with director cuts, restorations and so on, I think it’s been hugely important in terms legitimizing the genre at least in the eyes of mainstream film mags like Empire and Total Film (and I would include books like your Argento study which bravely battle the tide against Golden Turkey style nit-picking). Having said all that, take a look at my post re: Empire’s 500 Greatest Films List which I think makes for depressing reading...
ReplyDeleteYou Stick to your guns Wes! The quality of the films you mentioned will never be diminished by Argento's undoubted dip in form in recent years. Is 'The Godfather' made any the less great by the hideousness that is Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula? And another thing - if the people at Total Film bothered to watch the unedited version of 'Creepers' (which we all know is called 'Phenomena')then they would have seen a film of twisted greatness rather than a bland load of nothing.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for writing Richard, much appreciated. I thought it was real lazy journalism out of Total Film. Empire too. I remember reading a DVD review of The Insider in Empire back in 2001 (I still have the issue) and the review complimented Michael Mann on an "excellent" commentary track... amazing really, considering he never recorded one.
ReplyDeleteWow, such a rotten attitude from the editor. He also seems to be mixing demons 2 up with films he actually directed... yet no mention of the fact that he penned the incredible Once Upon A Time in the West. Talk about picking and choosing what classifies as 'schlock'.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree John, shocking stuff ! I used to regularly buy Empire and Total Film but both mags have slipped over the years - with integrity elbowed out of the way by commercialism, both mags doing big spreads on crap like Van Helsing, and Terminator 4, films you just knew sight unseen, were going to be terrible...
ReplyDeleteOpera and "Creepers" are perfectly fine in my eyes! Opera being slightly more polished like his early gialli.
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too... I think the only thing that bothers me about those films are the blasts of metal on the soundtrack !
ReplyDeleteAdd my voice in support here! Regardless of a slip in quality in the last few years - Argento has made CLASSIC horror films. No, let me amend that. CLASSIC films. Period. Take your "schlock" and suck it, Total Film!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Total Film, SUCK IT ! Ha, ha !!
ReplyDelete