Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2001)

This is the one hour documentary made by Film Four in 2000 which was originally screened as part of an Argento season. On the plus side, there's plentiful interview footage with Argento, who goes into why he makes the films that he does (in his own Italian too, so none of his broken English), and other assorted and varied interviews with the likes of Michael Brandon, Luigi Cozzi, Alan Jones, Daria Nicolodi (briefly) and even Asia Argento. These interviews are fresh and entertaining, and even Tom Savini gets to talk at length about his various effects shots.However, I think they should have studied and perhaps reviewed Argento's movies a little more closely. Most of them are mentioned but not examined and some aren't even featured - THE STENDHAL SYNDROME for one. The documentary promised exclusive footage from the set of SLEEPLESS, which we get, but again it isn't even mentioned in Mark Kermode's voice-over. Nonetheless this is a watchable little item for fans of the genre, and professionally done.

Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2000) *** (out of 4) Good documentary not only interviews Argento himself but we also get a wide range of people who show up to give their thoughts on the Italian master. These people include John Carpenter, George Romero, Tom Savini, Claudio Simonetti, Daria Nicolodi, Piper Laurie, William Lustig, Jessica Harper, Keith Emerson, Alice Cooper, Claudio Argento, Fiore Argento and Asia Argento. The documentary does a pretty good job at looking at Argento's career from his writing credits on ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST all the way up to SLEEPLESS, which we see when it's in production. Along the way we get to hear some pretty nice stories about the making of DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA, TENEBRE, OPERA, TRAUMA and TWO EVIL EYES. I was a little surprised to see how much is talked about in regards to some of his later work and this includes quite a bit on TWO EVIL EYES where we get a pretty funny story from Savini about Harvey Keitel's lawyers getting in touch with them about something. Another good story comes from Romero who talks about their meetings for DAWN OF THE DEAD. One of the most fascinating parts could make for its own documentary and it's when Asia talks about how uncomfortable she was with the nudity that her father made her do in TRAUMA. She then mentions how Dario had killed her mother in several films, killed her sister in a movie and how she was raped in a couple movies. As she said, this here is quite bizarre. DARIO ARGENTO: AN EYE FOR HORROR certainly isn't detailed enough to be the end all on the director but it's a pretty good tribute with enough famous faces to make it worth viewing.

Decent but hardly a comprehensive documentary on the Italian horror maestro – despite the involvement of the man himself, his closest collaborators (a number of them family members) and admirers (including contemporaneous genre exponents).We're shown Argento at work on his then-current production, SLEEPLESS (2001): being a self-confessed loner, he demonstrates a Hitchcock-like aversion to the actual shooting process; at the same time, though, he shrugs off the epithet of "Italian equivalent to the Master Of Suspense" which is often attached to him – claiming that their individual styles couldn't be more different! However, when it comes to discussing his filmography, it rather skimps on important titles: even his influential debut THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970) merits no more than a nod, whereas the popular TENEBRE (1982; with its famously elaborate Louma crane shot) is by-passed entirely – as is, unsurprisingly, Argento's disastrous version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1998)! That said, both DEEP RED (1975) and SUSPIRIA (1977) – still his most accomplished films – are justly given their due; incidentally, the latter is mentioned as being the first part of an as-yet-uncompleted trilogy: actually, the director has just been showing the now-completed film on the festival circuit (hopefully, "The Three Mothers" will be a decisive step up from the mostly disappointing work he has churned out of late).As I said, interviewees include the likes of Daria Nicolodi (ex-wife, frequent actress, occasional co-writer), Asia Argento (daughter, frequent star), Fiore Argento (daughter from his first marriage, occasional bit-part actress) and Claudio Simonetti (member of the Goblin band, who were responsible for several of the most memorable soundtracks to his films and which represented an integral part in their eventual success). Also on hand are director George A. Romero (with whom Argento collaborated on DAWN OF THE DEAD [1978] and the two-part Poe compendium TWO EVIL EYES [1990], which I just watched), Romero' s regular effects creator and occasional actor Tom Savini (who, alone, worked on Argento's TRAUMA [1993] as well), Piper Laurie (star of TRAUMA) and director John Carpenter (himself perhaps the closest to being Argento's American counterpart, and who admits to being a fan of the Italian's work). One surprising but most welcome speaker is Michael Brandon, star of what is perhaps the director's most requested vintage title – FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971; if only because, due to tangled rights issues, it's yet to receive an official DVD release), which I was lucky enough to watch (albeit via a poor-quality bootleg) while in Hollywood in early '06 and actually consider to be merely average!

After a cheap computer generated 'Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror' title card & a quick selection of brief clips a voice belonging to an author named Maitland McDonagh (who?!) says "The films of Dario Argento are the most boroke, most stylish, most inventively violent, most dream like, most nightmarish & most haunting films that the Italian horror cinema has ever produced", well I'm not sure about that to be honest & the butt kissing doesn't stop there. At first Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror concentrates on his early years citing that his Father was a big influence on him & that he used to read all the time, he eventually found the works of Edgar Allen Poe which apparently was his first introduction into the occult & horror. It describes his first job as a critic & writer when he eventually decided he could do a better job than other directors so became one himself, sounds logical I guess. The documentary progresses with various people spouting lots of analytical nonsense about why he's the best thing since sliced bread. Including the likes of George A. Romero who also recounts his experiences with Dario on Dawn of the Dead (1978), John Carpenter, William Lustig, Tom Savini who talks about making Trauma (1993) & some of the special effects along with actors in Dario's films like Jessica Harper from Suspiria (1977), Piper Laurie from Trauma, Micheal Brandon from Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) & his ex-wife Daria Nicolodi from Deep Red (1975), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982), Phenomena (1985) & Opera (1987). His two daughters Fiore & Asia make an appearance as well. The clips are quite sparse & the makers obviously had rights problems with certain titles like Inferno & Opera. For the last twenty odd minutes it show a fair amount of behind the scenes footage from Sleepless (2001). As a whole it's not overly insightful but there are a few decent anecdote's if you stick it out. Apparently Dario hates actually shooting a film & hates actors as well, not really a great surprise. There is also some brief footage of Dario signing autographs & the like but as a whole he isn't in it enough considering it's all about him. Worth a watch but don't expect any Earth shattering revelations, & Daria what's with the dark sunglasses?!