NOT an Argento fan

[Giselle]

I'm probably gonna get my ass kicked out for making comments like this but am I the only one that thinks thinks Argento is completely overrated.
I've seen all his classics and thought they were overdramatic drawn out badly acted pieces of crap. I in no way want to offend any fans of his on the board but I thought if there were any others like me they might want to come out. :eek:

[The Claw]

Yep. I've only seen a few of his films but I didnt really care for them. Susprira is overrated and well, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep somewhere during it. Also, Trauma or however you spell it is somewhat entertaining but confusing as hell. I can't remember any more of the guys movies, I just think he's rather unintresting.

[ParileseMonster]

I think his movies kick ass. They keep me interested and the head trauma is a plus also the music is cool!:p

[Buck Turgidson]

Originally posted by Giselle
I'm probably gonna get my ass kicked out for making comments like this but am I the only one that thinks thinks Argento is completely overrated.
I've seen all his classics and thought they were overdramatic drawn out badly acted pieces of crap. I in no way want to offend any fans of his on the board but I thought if there were any others like me they might want to come out. :eek:

I'm with you, baby! He's even got a bunch of supporters on a Criterion Board that I frequent. I swear. His movies bore me to death and are total visual eyesores. He's like Danny Thomas and Edger Bergen: famous men who's major contribution to humainty is their beautiful daughters...

[Giselle]

Originally posted by Buck Turgidson
I'm with you, baby! He's even got a bunch of supporters on a Criterion Board that I frequent. I swear. His movies bore me to death and are total visual eyesores. He's like Danny Thomas and Edger Bergen: famous men who's major contribution to humainty is their beautiful daughters...



Aaaaah. . . . . .my god that was nicely put! I don't think i've seen you around here yet but I'll no doubt remember you now.;)

[!MorganOnyx!]

Whilst I think he ROCKS and have just been getting into italian horror a lot more, I can totally understand why y'all don't like him. I like him mainly for four points:

1. The kills, gore, slicings and dicings!!!
2. Way groovy camera shots, angles etc. Very original. Cool style.
3. Freaky italian music. Weird, but cool.
4. The killers are usually creepy and freak me out.

Having said that I will say something that you'll no doubt agree with me on. I bought TENEBRAE -UNCUT recently, and was expecting some kickass deaths and gore. About an hour and 20 minutes into the film I was thinking "this movie sucks!!!" and only the decent bloodshed at the end saved it. So there is a part of me that thinks his movies only rock because of the wicked death scenes! I mean, they don't exactly rock for the acting, scripts or storylines do they?!! LOL

[The Arrow]

Originally posted by Giselle
I'm probably gonna get my ass kicked out for making comments like this but am I the only one that thinks thinks Argento is completely overrated.
I've seen all his classics and thought they were overdramatic drawn out badly acted pieces of crap. I in no way want to offend any fans of his on the board but I thought if there were any others like me they might want to come out. :eek:

You won't get your ass kicked anywhere for having an opinion Giselle, you're entittled to it.

I can see how Argento's work wouldn't appeal to everybody. I do feel that he's a better director than he is a writer and that he should change his screenwriting team.

Having said that I don't think any Director out there compares to him when it comes to shot compostions, elaborate kills set ups and overall visual flair. His films look like morbid yet sumptuous paintings come to life and that's what draws me to his work

To each his own yo!

[Jason13thh]

Giselle if u don't like Argento and find him underrated we are not gonna be friends.
All the things The Arrow has written about him is true however it is true that Argento is not for every - one, I mean it is an aquire taste like u say.
Argento is certainly one of my favorite director whatever the genres.
I must admit that a few of his films were not that good but which director can have a flawless list, that's impossible.
I am not angry at all, so don't take it bad Giselle.

[Romero&Juliet]

I can totally see how people wouldn't like Argento.. The terrible acting and mega plot holes are enough to piss anyone off. The man has a serrrious flare for style, though. That's pretty much what hooks me.. luuuuv the soundtracks, too~!



Giselle.. what a BADDDASS avatar!

[Giselle]

Well thank ya Romero!Course I changed it yesterday so I hope this is the one you are talking about.

[eetstatik]

I gotta agree, i love his visual style and his inventiveness, but i always get the feeling that he's making the story up as he goes along. He should just let someone else write for him, since he can't do it himself worth a fuck.

[Buck Turgidson]

Maybe it's just the prints available in the US, but his films always look cheap and filmy, like they were shot w/ overripe Eastmancolor stock. It hurts his visual style to have the films look so bad before anything even happens.

[Romero&Juliet]

Originally posted by Giselle
Well thank ya Romero!Course I changed it yesterday so I hope this is the one you are talking about.

it certainly is~! :)

[SwimFan87]

Yeah totally he is totally overrated especially "SUSPIRIA" which only has 3 good scenes and thas all because the rest is just a lot of blah,blah,blah. Though i've only seen from him Suspiria and Sleepless which i really liked a lot because of the style,story & deaths, is a really good slasher Hes movie are so dramatic..

[Dehydrator]

While I love the man and most of his movies, I'm experienced and can connect to people smacking their forehead when I mention that the guy is one (if not the) greatest directors ever.

I personally had a hard-ass time to get used to his style, the first movie I saw by him ("Trauma") left me largely unimpressed and the second ("The Stendahl Syndrome") was on my personal worst-movies ever list for a while. It was "Profondo Rosso" and evenmorso "Phenomena" that draw me into the man's work, but it took numerous viewings to appreciate them. Nowadays I'm what people call an Argentophile, whenever I take part in discussions about movies in general I can't go without mentioning his name once and the usual reaction is a mouth-wide-open "Argen-who?". His movies, bad writing or not tend to emotionally affect me on levels I never knew a movie could affect before. His visual style, compared with his "unique" (say awful if you want, I say unique) writing and the genius-ass soundtracks make me go nuts and think heavily about every single thing in his movies. You properbly heard of the "susy-is-a-white-witch" theory considering Suspiria? I think it got made up by people who read a little between the lines in the movie and for myself, that's only the peak of the iceberg when it comes to analyzing his films. I am aware that I properbly should rather over-analyze Lynch or another director who "intentionally" puts weird (or inexplicable) stuff in his work but that's how it is.

With all that said, I can fully understand people not digging Argento. What I personally get out of Argento is strictly personal (I can't even explain it in proper words) and therefore I can't expect anybody else to get the same.

I'd like to know what "non-Argnto" fans think of Mario Bava and italian cinema in general. Argento is largly influenced by his style (check out "Inferno") but I think that Bava is the more "accessable" of the two (if you're able to sit through movies that were made such a long time ago, that is). Classic european horror cinema differs largly from the rest of the world I suppose, maybe people are just looking for the wrong things in these movies. I was damm near cursing Fulci along with his entire ancestors and grandchildren for wasting my time with a movie that's devoid of what modern audiences crave for, like plot, character development and that all questions are answerd before I asked myself who am I to say that this movie blows. My eyes and mind are used to other things in movies so it's my problem if I can't entirely relate to a movie that was made under different circumstances and different intentions. Nowadays, italo-horror has become my favorite genre, hell, I never even thought about that there were any "horror-genres" before.

The moral to it: Dario Argnto rules!

[Gretchen_Ross]

Originally posted by Romero&Juliet
I can totally see how people wouldn't like Argento.. The terrible acting and mega plot holes are enough to piss anyone off. The man has a serrrious flare for style, though. That's pretty much what hooks me.. luuuuv the soundtracks, too~!


couldn't have said it better myself, Romero&Juliet.

[!MorganOnyx!]

DEHYDRATOR -

One of ARGENTO'S 'disciples' MICHELE SOAVI is somebody I would like to have seen more of. Because I'm such a big slasher fan and it's my fave sub-genre, I was VERY impressed by STAGEFRIGHT. I heard it flopped in ITALY but did well in the states. I've always wondered why. STAGEFRIGHT was much more straightfoward, easier to sit through and coherent, unlike alot of ARGENTO'S work.

Anyway, the atmosphere was bubbling. The kills, fantastic and there was plenty of stalking (a slasher isn't a real slasher unless there are stalk sequences in my book. It's all about building up the tension before/during a murder). Overall, one of THE best slashers fullstop.

[Duke Nukem]

I've seen some of Argento's movies, and I can see where a lot of you are coming from. My first Argento film was "Opera." I was impressed it. Good enough story, well set-up kills, good mystery.
Next, I saw "Deep Red" and "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage." They were both cool. Good enough story, good kills, good mystery. Then, I recently got "Suspiria," "Tenebrae," and "Phenomena" uncut. With these, I had mixed thoughts. I heard a lot of good stuff about "Suspiria," but when I saw it, and despite it's creepy and fairy tale-like and few standout scenes, there wasn't enough to interest me. I feel that it is over-rated. "Tenebrae" had a good enough story, but the kills were less than impressive, and there was less style and more standardness/basicness/ordinaryness in the filming, making it less interesting. Lastly, "Phenomena" was really weird, but it had a good story, style, less kills (but it doesn't matter here), good mystery, and Jennifer Connelly. She carried the film well, and I couldn't help but feel for her. This film, I think is superior along with "Opera," "Deep Red," and "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage."

[Bomont the Destroyer]

Well with the acting in an Argento movie you gotta take into account that his movies are filmed in Italian usually and then dubbed into English, usually very poorly. (The killer in Sleepless anyone?) So you can't really judge the acting that much since it's usually not the actual actors voice. It can get annoying sometimes though (again Sleepless anyone?) but I don't let it bother me.

[The Sandman]

You like or not!! It's easy to understand!!

Personnaly I like all of his movies, his art... he's very good with terror movies and you feel it when you see thoses movies!! Personnaly, Suspiria & Phenomena proove it all!! Inferno and all of the others too!!

[The Sandman]

Originally posted by Dehydrator
While I love the man and most of his movies, I'm experienced and can connect to people smacking their forehead when I mention that the guy is one (if not the) greatest directors ever.

I personally had a hard-ass time to get used to his style, the first movie I saw by him ("Trauma") left me largely unimpressed and the second ("The Stendahl Syndrome") was on my personal worst-movies ever list for a while. It was "Profondo Rosso" and evenmorso "Phenomena" that draw me into the man's work, but it took numerous viewings to appreciate them. Nowadays I'm what people call an Argentophile, whenever I take part in discussions about movies in general I can't go without mentioning his name once and the usual reaction is a mouth-wide-open "Argen-who?". His movies, bad writing or not tend to emotionally affect me on levels I never knew a movie could affect before. His visual style, compared with his "unique" (say awful if you want, I say unique) writing and the genius-ass soundtracks make me go nuts and think heavily about every single thing in his movies. You properbly heard of the "susy-is-a-white-witch" theory considering Suspiria? I think it got made up by people who read a little between the lines in the movie and for myself, that's only the peak of the iceberg when it comes to analyzing his films. I am aware that I properbly should rather over-analyze Lynch or another director who "intentionally" puts weird (or inexplicable) stuff in his work but that's how it is.

The moral to it: Dario Argnto rules!

couldn't have said it better myself, Dehydrator

[Jason13thh]

Again : I love Argento !