sigh It’s the rare film that changes your perception of what cinema is and can be, and that alone justifies the existence of Dario Argento: Panic (now streaming on Shudder). But of course, the influential Italian auteur has a much longer career than just one groundbreaking film: dark red color is hailed as the best giallo ever made, thrilling thriller The bird with the crystal plumage It was a global success Hell and Tenebrae were emblematic films in the fertile terrain of horror in the 80s and not only produced Dawn of the Deadco-wrote Sergio Leone’s masterpiece, once upon a time in the west. This is all covered in Panica documentary retrospective that tries to give us an idea of who Argento is as an artist, father and human being, but does it succeed?
DARIO ARGENTO: PANIC: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: The first face we see is that of Nicolas Winding-Refn, which is a pretty bold start to this documentary. The next? That of Guillermo del Toro. Eventually, we’ll get to Gaspar Noe, and if the movie was just the three of them talking about Argento and his work, it would be fascinating. But, of course, there’s more to the film than that: we meet Argento himself, first in a sequence that mimics the opening of sigh as he is driven to an elegant Italian hotel and then reflects on his life during interviews conducted between writing excursions in his hotel room. And Argento seems, well, a little grumpy. He complains, like a grumpy old man, that he hates fancy hotels like this. But he soon adapts and begins working on his new script and sharing reflections on his life and career.
You could say that Argento’s fame was predestined: his mother was a photographer and his father was a film producer; Her sister Floriano says that “our world was cinema.” Argento loved Hitchcock. He was a teenage film critic, he published in the newspaper, before becoming a screenwriter when he was 20, most notably sharing writing credits with Bernardo Bertolucci for once upon a time in the west, which Argento proudly says was an atypical case in the cinema of the time, for having a complete female protagonist. Shortly after, his father would produce Argento’s directorial debut, The bird with the crystal plumage, and clashed when the production went over budget. The film was a success in Italy and even reached no. 1 place at the US box office.
Launched in 1970, crystal plumage made Argento famous and, over the next decade, he made several well-received thrillers, some ill-fated television projects, the unforgettable giallo dark red color and then sigh, which feels a little underrated here, considering it’s a tonal and aesthetic masterpiece that features one of the greatest film scores of all time (from Goblin, directed by composer Claudio Simonetti, interviewed here). refn da sigh some juice, though: “It will indoctrinate you emotionally and physically” to Argento, he says, and I (and I hope you, too) can attest to that truth. Refn calls it “the definitive cocaine movie,” which is… well, I’ll take his word for it. In one of the most revealing moments of the documentary, Argento shares how, after sighAfter his release, he was occasionally overcome by suicidal impulses. He would fight the inclination to jump out of his hotel window. He consulted a doctor, who told him to push a cabinet in front of the window. You see, the impulses came and went quickly, and when he moved the closet and opened the window, the impulse would pass. And here he is, at 80 years old, talking about it.
Panic It weaves its way through some of the high points of Argento’s life and career, unafraid to celebrate his influence and peer into some of the darkest corners of his psyche. It almost becomes a film-by-film progression, but the moving commentary from her daughter Asia Argento, who starred in several of her ’90s films, including some of the more erotic ones, brings color and a deeply personal vision to the filmography. . . Regarding the title of the documentary, Argento explains in an archive clip that inciting terror is something basic for amateurs; she wanted to raise the temperature to levels that would cause panic. He seems really nervous in the clip. He would bet that he was high on cocaine at the time, but that’s just an educated guess.
What movies will it remind you of?: How did Kevin Smith get almost two hours with his docubio? Clerkbut Panic Does it barely make it past 90 minutes? (As I did with RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCopI watched for several hours the making of sigh only.)
Performance worth seeing: Somehow, Refn never talks about the fetishistic qualities of Argento’s cinema, which seems like a serious mistake. Therefore, the most revealing commentary here is that of Del Toro, whose insights provide a rich and meaningful context and analysis of Argento’s work.
Memorable dialogue: “With Hell You start to realize that these movies are part of a bigger puzzle. And you once again have the feeling that it is not just a house, a victim and a murderer: the universe is crazy.” – Del Toro
Sex and skin: Some short, slightly racy clips and stills from Argento’s films.
Our opinion: Despite the feeling that Argento is not at all someone we would fully know and understand in 97 minutes (and the distractingly bad subtitles that frequently mar the Italian-to-English translation), Panic It is a reasonably revealing documentary. It highlights his best work, delves into his education and personal life, and draws some connections between the two. Bring in luminaries to talk about Argento’s influence and the context of her work. And she’s not afraid to mention some of her less commercially and creatively successful films. He covers all the bases, though he sometimes glosses over what fans and admirers might consider important, whether it’s his collaborations with George Romero or how he established cinematic techniques that helped shape the horror genre for decades.
Does all this contribute to a complete picture of who Argento is? It is debatable. We are left with the feeling that Panic is trying to give us an inside look at the man without fully penetrating his mystique. It’s a safe claim that one can’t have a solid career making strange and disturbing films without fueling an obsession with the darkest fringes of humanity, but why exactly Argento explored such a topic is up in the air. He is clearly attracted to the aesthetics of bright red blood, soft vulnerable flesh, the shine of sharpened steel, and there are archival clips in which he has the appearance and mannerisms of a madman with wide eyes and messy hair.
The film doesn’t seem fully engaged with the question of whether making death-obsessed films that veer between the beautiful and the grotesque is a compulsion or a curated intellectual pursuit. Maybe we can assume the former is true, but we’d prefer to hear Argento argue it in his own words. Simonetti affirms that “Dario Argento is fear”, and it sounds like a superficial comment, an exaggeration without substance. Refn says that few filmmakers were as brazen as Argento has been throughout his career, a statement that finds greater validity in the quest to delineate and define the man and his work. And the film concludes with a faux-deep shot of Argento flashing a demented smile, one last chance to scare us a little. Even if Panic He doesn’t deserve that moment, Argento certainly deserves it.
Our call: Dario Argento: Panic It’s not a completely satisfying profile of the iconic filmmaker, but it at least works as a reminder of his cult-level prestige and as a solid foundation for his strongest work. TRANSMIT IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
