TCM tonight... Touch of Evil: extended cut and Witness for the Prosecution... back to back, it's gonna be a good night!

Pretty much agree with this. It did have a couple of memorable scenes, the most notable of which was the scene inside the beached boat. Man was that intense.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

I hadn't seen a Dario Argento movie so I thought I might as well start with one of the first. The suspense, atmosphere, editing, and even the point of view twist are good, but to me it had the problem that some thrillers have where when you look back at the movie it feels like things were purposefully put in to throw you off that, on reflection, aren't very plausible when you take the whole story into account.

Argento is an acquired taste... if you can't stand suspiria then you're not going to like any other Argento movie.

Personally, he's not for me but he does have a very loyal following. I do however like some of the other films he's associated with that he didn't direct.

John Cole made me watch Suspiria in an aborted movie club thing we tried back a few years here. The psychological scars remain! Jk, it was very cool and scary but in a stylish way I appreciated. I wouldn't mind watching another Argento movie, but I probably won't make it a high priority.

Try Suspiria and The Stendhal Syndrome.

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I bet that his Stendhal Syndrome is a lot more red than black. Red as in blood!

A Stendhal pun from kioshk.

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Yeah I probably shoulda clarified more clearly re Hardy, my bad.
Re Nolan, I'm kinda hearing you as while he's hit & miss for me, I certainly wouldn't consider him a bad director & think he's actually very talented, so wouldn't agree with those who think he's substandard in a technical sense.

In response to another comment I still haven't seen The Prestige yet & despite my taking or leaving Nolan, have been meaning to check this particular one out.

Not a fan of this one actually although many swear by it. I would recommend Deep Red & Tenebre though, in purely critical terms Deep Red is probably his best film although Tenebre is my personal fave of his. As was said he's an acquired taste but when he's good he's very good indeed imho.

I see where you're coming from, but dunno about that actually, re Suspiria. I personally love it, but totally get why it wouldn't work for some, but Suspiria, along with Inferno is actually Argento in his more experimental phase imo & his three Mothers trilogy isn't like his earlier giallo films- it's pretty much a set piece film where plot takes a back & almost incidental seat with Argento experimenting more with tone and particularly colour, which he clearly got from Bava & is expanding on, so to speak.
But I think those who might dislike Suspiria, could nonetheless appreciate his gialli such as Deep Red, Tenebre, Opera, Fourt Flies etc as they're different in tone & style & while somewhat convoluted in parts like many Gialli, they're more standard straightforward mystery horrors than either Suspiria or (even more so) Inferno, imo.

But as you said he's definitely an acquired taste & I flat out disliked Inferno for example the first time I seen it & it actually took several viewings to really appreciate it, especially when I caught it on blu ray.

Spoilers re some scenes here but there's a great montage of his on youtube & I think it shows why he does indeed have a cult following.



My favourite Italian horror director at present is actually Lucio Fulci as I think he's had consistently more satisfying (for me personally) films, as from 1971-82 his output is hard to top in terms of consistency, but that said I still think Argento did some of the very best Italian horrors of all time, when in his prime.

Icwudt

Went to see Upgrade at the threatre last night.

I thought it was going to be a semi mindless, super violent
sci-fi revenge flick

It ended up being so much more, very deep concepts.
Was violent and brutal at times but never felt gratuitous to me,
just part of the overall essence of film.

Kinda like exmachina meets black mirror in the grindhouse

Speaking of Italian cinema, I watched new newly released remaster (just released this week) of Sergio Corbucci's "The Great Silence" (1968) staring Klaus Kinski and Jean Trintignat and a very familiar young Vonetta McGee who was in the Original Repoman movie... of course this movie is all tied up with a magnificent Morricone score.

It is the story of a mute avenging Angel for those of whom who were hunted and killed by godless bounty hunters. This is in direct contrast to Sergio Leones bounty hunters which were usually all good guys out to get the bad men that were deemed undesirable by society. Never told were that these bounty men also loved and had a back stories that involved being loved.

Corbucci's great silence is a direct influence for much of Tarantinos Hateful Eight and this includes some direct homages by Tarantino to this original. Frankly, Corbucci does it a little better, but I still love the hateful eight.

In the great silence the mute Hunter seems out and kills bounty hunters until he eventually finds Klaus Kinski who himself was responsible for killing the silences loved ones. During the trip thru gorgeous snow filled mountain scenery, the silence meets a widow (vonette Mcgee) who's husband was killed by a bounty man and wants silence to avenge his death. The silence and the widow eventually fall in love and the movie come to a peak at the end when kinski and the silence go head to head for a final duel.

Like real life, most Italian movies, and many peckinpah movies, things don't follow the westernized idea of film making and storyline trajectories... so be prepared for a depressing ending.

This is a fantastic movie available on Amazon Prime for free.

So remember a few years ago when Tom Cruise really scaled Burj Khalifa in Dubai for that MI movie? And then hung off the side of a plane taking off for another MI movie?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Here he is doing a ****ing HALO jump for the next MI movie:

yes, a real HALO jump

The guy is nuts.

The Great Silence looks awesome, MSchu. I'm sold. Luckily I'm still in my Prime!

TC's the man!

Awesome... remember though, this is not your westernized feel good movie.

hereditary is getting insane reviews, like 'once in a generation horror movie' comments. far too scary for me i feel, will likely pass. this will be the movie half of you made 'a quiet place' out to be.

I thought a quiet place was fantastic. Most people said it wasn't particularly scary, just suspenseful which I think is accurate.

Speakng of Suspiria and Argento... did you folks know that there is a Suspiria 2018?

suspira 2018 gained attention cause some journalist dude tweeted it was the most gorish thing he ever saw (a dance scene were the dancer kinda loses her skin and guts?!)

re: crystal plumage/argento.
1st of all, argento is all style follows content. 2nd, i think back in 1970 (dom, kioshk?) the twist of crystal plumage really was a thing. 3rd, the goriness from back than mostly looks ridiculous today. this makes a lot of argentos/giallos look out-dated (at first sight, if you only come for the gore). 4th, the camera-shot outside of the house/into the room in tenebre is pretty great cinema, even for today standrads (dom?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eDtzdKktTw

(not sure if this is the one i.m thinking about, but you get a clou what i mean)
(beware: boobs).

I haven’t seen any Argento in 30 years, but I was never a big fan...guess I should revisit some time.

This from The Stendhal Syndrome:



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Thanks for the Stendahl Syndrome (1996) tip. Watched it on youtube. I thought it was a fantastic psychosexual suspense and horror film that was beautifully made. Grade A. That may be Argento's best since it has such depth and mystery. He loves that deep red color, doesn't he?
I've seen Suspira (Grade A) several times before.