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Darío Argento, master of horror cinema: "The atmosphere in Italy is dark"

2022-10-11T16:35:00.899Z


The director premieres 'Occhiali neri' at the age of 82, after a decade away from directing Sitting in a chair on one side of the garden of the hotel where the Sitges festival lives, Darío Argento (Rome, 82 years old) smiles placidly and avoids English to do the interviews in Italian. The master of European horror cinema, the popularizer of the giallo (the Italian horror and suspense genre with sometimes supernatural elements), has returned to direct. A decade ago he released a 3D Dracul


Sitting in a chair on one side of the garden of the hotel where the Sitges festival lives, Darío Argento (Rome, 82 years old) smiles placidly and avoids English to do the interviews in Italian.

The master of European horror cinema, the popularizer of the

giallo

(the Italian horror and suspense genre with sometimes supernatural elements), has returned to direct.

A decade ago he released a

3D Dracula

that seemed like a poor farewell for the author of

Dark Red, Suspiria, Trauma, Phenomena

or

The Bird with Crystal Feathers.

That's why

Occhiali neri premieres

and that he insists that he has projects underway has gladdened the hearts of his fans and of the competitions that adore him: in Sitges, where since 1999 he has already received all possible tributes, a Gold Honor Award has been invented to increase and honor the legend.

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And the legend has benefited from the encouragement of his daughter, actress and director Asia Argento.

Occhiali neri was

written by Darío Argento and Franco Ferrini in 2002, after the success of

Insomnio

.

But the production company went bankrupt ("One day I woke up and found out that the person in charge was in jail," recalls the filmmaker) and the script ended up in a drawer.

Until helping him with the materials for his biography, Asia insisted on looking for him.

And the wheel turned again.

"I took advantage of the confinement to update it," says the filmmaker.

Interestingly, a film starring a woman who goes blind fleeing from a serial killer on the day an eclipse darkens the streets of Rome, that is, a reflection on darkness, brings the viewer closer to the current Italian political times, marked by the triumph of fascism, made painful for Argento, at the other end of the ideological spectrum.

“When I started directing”, recalls someone who has gone through all the ranks of a film crew, “terrorism massacred.

We breathed an atmosphere of violence.

Today the atmosphere is dark, true.

We filmmakers are prophets.”

Argento had never been so long without getting behind the cameras.

“During these years I have written books, including my autobiography, I have acted for Gaspar Noé in

Vortex,

I have not stood still”, she explains.

“But I got to the shoot and discovered that time had not passed.

I feel comfortable there."

Vortex

talked about the advent of illness and death in an elderly couple.

For Argento, facing death as an actor, as well as being a creator who has

killed

so much on screen, did it make you think about his own mortality?

“Well, the truth is that no.

I have never thought too much about it.

First, because

Vortex

It is my first and last appearance as an actor.

Noé came to Rome and convinced me because he told me that we would shoot without a script.

And I, who am a son of neorealism, was moved.

That character of the critic resembles me only in that he wrote a book about cinema and dreams, something that I have also done over the years.

And second, because in my films death is part of the show”.

In my films, death is part of the show”

John Carpenter is dedicated to concerts.

George A. Romero, Wes Craven and Tobe Hopper are dead, like almost all of Argento's fellow travelers in the renewal of horror movies decades ago.

When they describe him as an old teacher, what does he think?

“Bah,

I don't feel anything, it doesn't matter.

I consider myself a lonely guy, I don't need a lot of praise."

An image of 'Occhiali neri', with Ilenia Pastorelli.

But the truth is that the imprint of Italian art has impregnated later generations.

“Recently I was in New York for a long retrospective at Lincoln Center, and I saw that a lot of young people were going to see my films.

I have become a cult”, he explains.

In 2017, an emotional Guillermo del Toro presented the restored version of

Suspiria

in Sitges , and sat next to Argento to watch the screening, in what the Mexican described as one of his childhood dreams fulfilled.

The Italian reciprocates by assuring that now the cinema that interests him is “Mexican, Korean and Japanese”.

And he develops the answer: “The cinema reflects the spirit of the world, it is like a sea with waves that rise and fall, with changing fashions.

Now I'm drawn to those cinematographies.

In Italy the moment is bad, only comedies are shot”.

In the birth of the #MeToo movement, his daughter Asia Argento played a fundamental role by confessing that the producer Harvey Weinstein had raped her in Cannes.

Shortly after, Argento herself was devoured by the tidal wave when actor Jimmy Bennet accused her of having abused him when she was a minor.

How does the filmmaker see #MeToo, who has spent decades reflecting on women in horror movies, showing them as avengers, executors or victims?

“Fortunately, he has finished with the possible erotic games of the producers.

Women are not treated like dolls, but in general there has been little progress.

Asia Argento hugs her father at the presentation of 'Occhiali neri' last February at the Berlinale.Vianney Le Caer (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Argento assures that he watches a lot of cinema, that he continues to go to theaters, "because this art was created to be seen on big screens."

And he adds: “Cinema is not in crisis, it never has been;

the rooms yes, and the platforms are occupying that place”.

Regarding his future, he points out: “I have a French and an English offer, and I will shoot one of them in the spring.

They also offered me a television series, but it didn't work out.

I do what sets my heart”.

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Source: elparis

All life articles on 2022-10-11

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