Dario Argento is a recognized classic of horror films and the creator of a whole original subgenre called jallo. Argento had a noticeable influence on modern horror, some of his paintings today have cult status.
early years
Dario Argento was born in 1940 in the family of Roman film producer Salvatore Argento.
Dario began his career in the Italian print edition of Paese Sera. Here he served as a full-time film critic.
In 1968, Dario began to create scripts for films (and these were then fashionable spaghetti westerns). It is known, for example, that he took part in the work on several scenes of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the Wild West.
After that, Dario Argento worked on an ongoing basis with the Italian film company Titanus and wrote twelve scripts for it in two years.
The First Jallo Dario Argento
And in 1970, he debuted as a director. His first film was titled Bird with Crystal Wings. It was based on the book by Screaming Mimi by Frederick Brown. This film combines elements of horror, criminal drama and eroticism (in fact, it is this combination that is the hallmark of jallo as a genre).
The protagonist of Birds with Crystal Wings is the young writer Sam Dalmas. One day he witnesses an attack on a girl in an art gallery in Rome. There is a version that the attack could be the work of a maniac who has already committed several murders in the Italian capital … Soon, Sam begins his own investigation in the hope of finding out who is behind the series of terrible crimes
Interestingly, the soundtrack for this film was written by the famous Italian composer Ennio Morricone. And high-quality music is, of course, one of the important components of the success of “Birds with Crystal Plumage”.
This picture eventually collected about a billion lire at the box office in Italy (then it was an absolute record). In the United States, she was also met with interest by the audience and showed good financial results.
The release of "Birds with Crystal Plumage" made Argento truly famous. And in the next two years, he made two more films in a similar style - "Cat on Nine Tails" and "Four Flies on a Gray Corduroy." They, like the debut film, are characterized by an intriguing plot, the presence of scenes that even today can scare, and a memorable soundtrack.
Further career as a director
In 1973, Dario Argento tried himself in a new form and shot for Italian television a historical drama with elements of black humor "Five Days of Milan." The main role in it was played by Adriano Celentano.
Then the director decided to focus on horror again. In 1975, his next gloomy picture, "Blood-Red, " appeared on the big screens. This work has demonstrated that Argento is still a great master of his craft.
The top of Argento’s work, many critics consider the 1977 film Suspiria with Jessica Harper and Stephanie Casini in the lead roles. Jessica Harper plays the American Susie here, who arrives in a certain German city to study at a local ballet school. But on the night of arrival, for some reason, they did not let her inside. And on that rainy night, she sees a girl who later was killed run out of the building. In the morning, Suzy still settles in a boarding house at this school and begins to attend classes. And soon it becomes clear to the American that something very terrible is happening within the walls of this educational institution …
For this picture, Argento, together with the rock band "Goblin", wrote heartbreaking music. And periodically, he turned it on at full capacity on the set. So he wanted to make the actors really scared in the frame.
By the way, just recently, in 2018, a remake of this film was released, which Argento spoke rather coldly about. He considered that the remake could not keep the spirit of the original.
In the late seventies, Argento also had the opportunity to collaborate with other classic horror George Romero. It is the music of Argento and the already mentioned rock band "Goblin" that sounds in the zombie movie "Dawn of the Dead".
In the eighties, the director continued to create horror films. In 1982, his picture "Shiver" was released, and in 1984 - the picture "Phenomenon". Moreover, "Phenomenon" was the first work of Argento, which he shot immediately in English. Interestingly, the main role in this film was played by the future Hollywood star Jennifer Connelly.
It is also worth noting that in the eighties, Dario, along with his brother Claudio, became the head of his father's film company "DAC Film Company".
In the nineties, Argento directed three more films in the jallo genre - "Trauma" (1993), "Stendhal Syndrome" (1996) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1998). The tape "Phantom of the Opera" was a financial failure, and after it, Dario's career began to decline. Although even in the two thousandths he had vivid works (for example, the film "Mother of Tears", which contains a large number of references and allusions to other Argento tapes).
In 2012, the latest creation of the Italian director was released - the picture "Dracula 3D". In fact, this is another adaptation of the legendary Bram Stoker novel. And the film version is not very successful - on authoritative resources dedicated to the cinema, Dracula 3D has very low ratings.
