No one envies the biographer to a truly great writer. But in “Dario Argento Panico,” director Simone Scafidi takes on a task even more daunting — profiling one of the best filmmakers to ever live in his own medium.
The two artists, forever bonded by an appreciation for the 83-year-old Italian’s otherworldly filmography, take turns illuminating the mystery behind giallo masterworks like “Deep Red” and “Suspiria” (1977) in Shudder’s essential and ethereal portrait. Astounding archival footage and insightful new interviews pay taut homage to Argento’s exacting style and near-impenetrable public persona, allowing the still-working cinematic legend to vivisect his life and legacy as others do the same. The result is an accessible yet effervescent retrospective on the auteur who has become synonymous with chiaroscuro nightmares: a tightly constructed character study that will initiate unfamiliar viewers with a thorough and thought-provoking primer, while simultaneously giving lifelong fans a better understanding of their sometimes-fetishistic fondness for the filmmaker.
“Is he a ghoul or a zombie or just a frustrated painter?” asks genre peer Nicolas Winding Refn. “The Neon Demon” writer/director is one voice in a cadre of intriguing players putting precise verbiage to the intangibly intoxicating quality of Argento’s glamorous and gory oeuvre. Described by Guillermo del Toro as a kind of “cosmic, angry, evil universe,” the…
Read full article: Shudder Documentary Honors Filmmaker – IndieWire
The post “Shudder Documentary Honors Filmmaker – IndieWire” by Alison Foreman was published on 02/05/2024 by www.indiewire.com