Dario Argento
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the
first-born son of famed Italian producer
Salvatore Argento and Brazilian
fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for
filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by
his parents and other family members, including an aunt who told him
frighting bedtime stories. Argento based most of his thriller movies on
childhood trauma, yet his own--according to him--was a normal one.
Along with tales spun by his aunt, Argento was impressed by stories
from The Grimm Brothers,
Hans Christian Andersen and
Edgar Allan Poe. Argento started his
career writing for various film journal magazines while still in his
teens attending a Catholic high school. After graduation, instead of
going to college, Argento took a job as a columnist for the Rome daily
newspaper "Paese Sera". Inspired by the movies, he later found work as
a screenwriter and wrote several screenplays for a number of films, but
the most important were his western collaborations, which included
Cemetery Without Crosses (1969)
and the Sergio Leone masterpiece
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
After its release Argento wrote and directed his first movie,
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970),
which starred Tony Musante and and British
actress Suzy Kendall. It's a loose
adoption on Fredric Brown's novel "The
Screaming Mimi", which was made for his father's film company. Argento
wanted to direct the movie himself because he did not want any other
director messing up the production and his screenplay.
After "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" became an international hit,
Argento followed up with two more thrillers,
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971),
starring
'Karl Madlen' (qv" and 'James Fransiscus',
and
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
("Four Flies On Black Velvet"), both backed by his father Salvatore.
Argento then directed the TV drama
Testimone oculare (1973)
and the historical TV drama
The Five Days (1973). He
then went back to directing so-called "giallo" thrillers, starting with
Deep Red (1975), a violent
mystery-thriller starring
David Hemmings that inspired a
number of international directors in the thriller-horror genre. His
next work was Suspiria (1977), a surreal
horror film about a witch's coven that was inspired by the Gothic fairy
tales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which he also
wrote in collaboration with his girlfriend, screenwriter/actress
Daria Nicolodi, who acted in "Profondo
Rosso" ("Deep Red") and most of Argento's films from then to the late
1980s. Argento advanced the unfinished trilogy with
Inferno (1980), before returning to the
"giallo" genre with the gory
Tenebrae (1982), and then with the
haunting Phenomena (1985).
The lukewarm reviews for his films, however, caused Argento to slip
away from directing to producing and co-writing two
Lamberto Bava horror flicks,
Demons (1985) and
Demons 2 (1986).
Argento returned to directing with the "giallo" thriller
Opera (1987), which according to him was "a
very unpleasant experience", and no wonder: a rash of technical
problems delayed production, the lead actress
Vanessa Redgrave dropped out
before filming was to begin, Argento's father Salvatore died during
filming and his long-term girlfriend Daria broke off their
relationship. After the commercial box-office failure of "Opera",
Argento temporarily settled in the US, where he collaborated with
director George A. Romero on
the two-part horror-thriller
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
(he had previously collaborated with Romero on the horror action
thriller
Dawn of the Dead (1978)). While
still living in America, Argento appeared in small roles in several
films and directed another violent mystery thriller,
Trauma (1993), which starred his youngest
daughter Asia Argento from his long-term
relationship with Nicolodi.
Argento returned to Italy in 1995, where he made a comeback in the
horror genre with
The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
and then with another version of "The Phantom of the Opera",
The Phantom of the Opera (1998),
both of which starred Asia. Most recently, Argento directed a number of
"giallo" mystery thrillers such as
Sleepless (2001),
The Card Player (2003) and
Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005),
as well as two gory, supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable
anthology series
Masters of Horror (2005).
Having always wanted to make a third chapter to his "Three Mothers"
horror films, Argento finally completed the trilogy in 2007 with the
release of Mother of Tears (2007),
which starred Asia Argento as a young woman trying to identify and stop
the last surviving evil witch from taking over the world. In addition
to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling, "La terza madre" has
many references to two of his previous films, "Suspiria" (1997) and
"Inferno" (1980), which is a must for fans of the trilogy.
His movies may be regarded by some critics and opponents as cheap and
overly violent, but second or third viewings show him to be a talented
writer/director with a penchant for original ideas and creative
directing.
first-born son of famed Italian producer
Salvatore Argento and Brazilian
fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for
filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by
his parents and other family members, including an aunt who told him
frighting bedtime stories. Argento based most of his thriller movies on
childhood trauma, yet his own--according to him--was a normal one.
Along with tales spun by his aunt, Argento was impressed by stories
from The Grimm Brothers,
Hans Christian Andersen and
Edgar Allan Poe. Argento started his
career writing for various film journal magazines while still in his
teens attending a Catholic high school. After graduation, instead of
going to college, Argento took a job as a columnist for the Rome daily
newspaper "Paese Sera". Inspired by the movies, he later found work as
a screenwriter and wrote several screenplays for a number of films, but
the most important were his western collaborations, which included
Cemetery Without Crosses (1969)
and the Sergio Leone masterpiece
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
After its release Argento wrote and directed his first movie,
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970),
which starred Tony Musante and and British
actress Suzy Kendall. It's a loose
adoption on Fredric Brown's novel "The
Screaming Mimi", which was made for his father's film company. Argento
wanted to direct the movie himself because he did not want any other
director messing up the production and his screenplay.
After "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" became an international hit,
Argento followed up with two more thrillers,
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971),
starring
'Karl Madlen' (qv" and 'James Fransiscus',
and
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
("Four Flies On Black Velvet"), both backed by his father Salvatore.
Argento then directed the TV drama
Testimone oculare (1973)
and the historical TV drama
The Five Days (1973). He
then went back to directing so-called "giallo" thrillers, starting with
Deep Red (1975), a violent
mystery-thriller starring
David Hemmings that inspired a
number of international directors in the thriller-horror genre. His
next work was Suspiria (1977), a surreal
horror film about a witch's coven that was inspired by the Gothic fairy
tales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which he also
wrote in collaboration with his girlfriend, screenwriter/actress
Daria Nicolodi, who acted in "Profondo
Rosso" ("Deep Red") and most of Argento's films from then to the late
1980s. Argento advanced the unfinished trilogy with
Inferno (1980), before returning to the
"giallo" genre with the gory
Tenebrae (1982), and then with the
haunting Phenomena (1985).
The lukewarm reviews for his films, however, caused Argento to slip
away from directing to producing and co-writing two
Lamberto Bava horror flicks,
Demons (1985) and
Demons 2 (1986).
Argento returned to directing with the "giallo" thriller
Opera (1987), which according to him was "a
very unpleasant experience", and no wonder: a rash of technical
problems delayed production, the lead actress
Vanessa Redgrave dropped out
before filming was to begin, Argento's father Salvatore died during
filming and his long-term girlfriend Daria broke off their
relationship. After the commercial box-office failure of "Opera",
Argento temporarily settled in the US, where he collaborated with
director George A. Romero on
the two-part horror-thriller
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
(he had previously collaborated with Romero on the horror action
thriller
Dawn of the Dead (1978)). While
still living in America, Argento appeared in small roles in several
films and directed another violent mystery thriller,
Trauma (1993), which starred his youngest
daughter Asia Argento from his long-term
relationship with Nicolodi.
Argento returned to Italy in 1995, where he made a comeback in the
horror genre with
The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
and then with another version of "The Phantom of the Opera",
The Phantom of the Opera (1998),
both of which starred Asia. Most recently, Argento directed a number of
"giallo" mystery thrillers such as
Sleepless (2001),
The Card Player (2003) and
Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005),
as well as two gory, supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable
anthology series
Masters of Horror (2005).
Having always wanted to make a third chapter to his "Three Mothers"
horror films, Argento finally completed the trilogy in 2007 with the
release of Mother of Tears (2007),
which starred Asia Argento as a young woman trying to identify and stop
the last surviving evil witch from taking over the world. In addition
to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling, "La terza madre" has
many references to two of his previous films, "Suspiria" (1997) and
"Inferno" (1980), which is a must for fans of the trilogy.
His movies may be regarded by some critics and opponents as cheap and
overly violent, but second or third viewings show him to be a talented
writer/director with a penchant for original ideas and creative
directing.