Is Dario Argento the best director for the last 30 years ?

[Jason13thh]

I think yes. Of course I am an Argento fan.
He has been strongly influenced by Bava and his father was producer, sure it helps but who cares ?
Inferno ( 1980 )
Suspiria ( 1977 )
Opera ( 1987 )
Deep Reed ( 1974 )
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage etc ( 1969 ) ...
For me he is the best director ( along with Carpenter )
He is always honest and he keeps his roots ( well forget about Trauma )
What do you think ?

[pedro]

He is one of my fav. directors too jason. My favorite horror flic of his being Tenebre.

[Jewbo]

i have always leaned more towards the Fulci corner.

[SteveSzyk]

He is one of my favorite horror directors ever. He never failed me until last year with Sleepless. He has a great style, and you'll always know when you see one of his films. Great stories, great gore, and great atmosphere are in all his films and that makes him so great.

[bulletproof]

Argento is one of the best.he always makes horror movies,and never makes some big-ass big budget comedy or drama that loses money and has to return to horror like its an ugly stepchild like alot of directors do.

Deep red is my favorite,with Phenomena 2nd,and then Tenebrae.

Trauma is not as bad as everybody makes it out to be,and Sleepless only suffers from poor dubbing.

And what other directors do we know that always play the killers hands?

His one bomb of a movie is a misguided version of Phantom of the opera.

Long live Argento1

[EvilAsh]

Yes he very well could be. All of his movies are pieces of art except Phenomea(Creepers) which I thought was a piece of something else. He is far superior to Fulci in every aspect. I really liked Sleeplesss it was a return to his giallo roots and I loved Stendhal(Asia is so beutiful)

[JDog83]

Once again it seems everyone failed to rent "Phantom of the Opera"....one of Argento's worst films.

[bowieee]

Argento was a genius but lately it seems like he has gotten himself a lobotomy. I wouldn't call him the best director of all time but I would call him a very very talanted film maker.

[Antonio]

Hell no!

[TheHitcher2]

Ugh...here we go...I'm going to get RUINED for my opinion here...

I used to be an enormous Argentophile, I'm talking ENORMOUS. I've seen EVERY one of his films (I'm talking Four Flies, Milan, etc.) and he is a visual genius. But trust me, you can only take so much.

I am at the point where I just get angry when I watch his films. The scripts are terrible, the characters often paper-thin, the logic is very convoluted, and the revelation of the killer is always weak and nonsensical. It just annoys me so much to be like, "Wait...what the fuck?!" all the time...

I do love Dario's visual skills, he is a true genius, but for the love of god, have someone else write a script for him. Like a really good horror script. He'd be able to make the ULTIMATE horror movie if he only had a screenplay with a strong plot, well drawn characters, good dialogue, and a good ending...

[JDog83]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Visually--he's a master! In any other way he's a hack. His films have little plot, horrible acting and characters, and usually have terrible endings.

[dellamorte dellamore]

One of the best with regards to Horror,definitely.The case could also be made that he has influenced mainstream American directors with his brilliant use of color,and his uncanny ability to compose a shot in such a nightmarish,unsettling way.


Yes he has faultered recently with Phantom of Opera and Syendahl Syndrome,but i feel he has redeemed himself with the release of Nonhossono.The guy is in his sixties,i would imagine at that age your heart may not be in horror as much as it once was,but you can't take away what he has done in the past,and what an influential,luminous figure he is in the world of Horror cinema,or films in general.


The rare director who's cinematic vision is realized just as he intends without compromise,even with those pesky studios in the way.


I also have a fondness for Bruno Mattei,only because he's so inept,yet he does'nt let that stop him.Never has a director with such limited talent persevered so long in the film biz,unless you count Ed Wood,which is essentially what he is,the Ed Wood of Italian horror.You could probably put Umberto Lenzi in this category too,but Mattei is at the top of the Dung heap,hands down.


The scary thing is that he's still making films and he's in his 70's just about.


Long live Argento,he changed horror forever.

[This message has been edited by dellamorte dellamore (edited 05-12-2002).]