Dario Argento: Panico

In my wildest dreams, I never hoped that anyone would ever do a Dario Argento doc that would seriously delve into what makes Argento one of my favorite filmmakers. Indeed, I often vacillate myself between seeing him as a guilty pleasure and a true visionary in the horror genre. Dario Argento: Panico lays out a sound case for placing him at the top of the pantheon of greats.

I enjoyed the film with a rare relish and was very impressed that the exploration was not top heavy with Suspiria- but rather doled out equal time to so many other films. It made me want to go out and revisit some of the work I haven't seen in a while. (I'd just seen Inferno recently in the Blu Underground print and was blown away by the film for the first time- after three previous viewings. ) My high praise, however, comes with a warning- I think if you have limited exposure to all of his work you will be at a severe disadvantage here. This is a deep dive and the film doesn't take time to get you up to speed on the work- but that's how it should be when dealing with the "Maestro". (If Fellini called him that, how could I possibly disagree?)

Known as the "Master of Thrill", Italian filmmaker Dario Argento boasts a long and complex career. The Shudder original Dario Argento: Panico documentary takes a look at highlights from Argento's filmography by interviewing the Master of Horror himself along with other talking head contemporaries. For those that might only be familiar with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) or Suspiria (1977), Panico is a suitable overview with Argento himself acting as a grandfatherly host. For true Argento fans, Panico has all the substance of a featurette buried on disc 2 of the Opera collector's edition Blu-Ray.

Dario Argento: Panico provides a totally-fine overview of the auteur's work that pairs nicely with salt-cured prosciutto and a glass of Sangiovese chianti. But what would have worked spectacularly would have been if that Italian hotel was haunted... instead of Argento's tired eyes.

Plot

A film crew documents horror director Dario Argento as he works on his latest script in a hotel room, revisiting the isolation where he dreamed up his most iconic films, removed from distractions to explore his dark imagination.

Cast

Made by Simone Scafidi who also did a comparable documentary about Fulci (Which I've yet to see) and featuring interviews with Dario, Asia, del Toro, Bava and Ferrini.

Verdict

Argento is a cinematic genius, this to me is not disputable. I've enjoyed a large percentage of his works and hold him in high regard within the industry.

A documentary about him I saw great potential in, sadly the execution is very sterile. It's not exactly an expose or even a biopic, it's a very bland by the book look at his life and his works with contributions from his peers.

This to me is a passable and eye opening watch for mega-fans, but for anyone else it's an unforgivable bore.

Rants

Something has always bothered me about Argento, and that's his use of his daughter Asia. He cast her frequently through his works even from a young age, yet the consistency is nudity and sex involving her and that just never sat right with me and raised questions I'm entirely certain I don't want the answers to. To him it's likely harmless, to her it's likely harmless, to me it has made my skin crawl since the first time I saw it.

Breakdown

Informative Some decent contributors Rather boring No surprises, no frills, just the facts.

Dario Argento Panico is a documentary that has an initially interesting framing device that it doesn't do a ton with (the man himself working on his latest film in a hotel, with a film crew purportedly following him around). It intercuts these scenes with fairly standard documentary scenes that go through his directorial career chronologically.

The only part that really felt inspired, beyond the first few scenes, was a time when what Argento was saying in the present day lined up very well with a TV interview he'd given in the 1970s or 1980s. The editing kept cutting back and forth, letting young and old Argento finish their sentences, and it was quite affecting.

It's otherwise a decent documentary about an interesting filmmaker, but at a certain point, it feels like it's going through the motions a bit as a documentary about a filmmaker. Beyond a couple of parts that stood out, it's probably just for Argento fans only. I find Argento's films generally interesting, so I found this documentary mostly interesting.

This documentary about the great master of European fantasy and horror cinema offers an immersive exploration of the life and work of the legendary director of ¨Suspiria¨, introducing us to the mind of the Italian genius, and offering us the testimonies of other filmmakers who love his work with key names in current cinema. Dario Argento wrote his most famous films inside hotels, completely isolating himself from external reality and immersing himself in his own nightmares. In the documentary Dario is working on his latest script in a hotel room, revisiting the isolation where he dreamed up his most iconic films, removed from distractions to explore his dark imagination. After many years, advised by his agent, he decides to go back to a hotel to finish his new screenplay and to be interviewed, filmed and followed by a crew that is shooting a film about him. Meanwhile, they are intertwined with opinions from notorious directors, screenwriters, producers, actors and family members, such as: Michele Soavi, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini, Luigi Cozzi, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn, Cristina Marsillach, Asia Argento, Fiore Argento, Floriana Argento and musician Claudio Simonetti who was the main composer and member of the musical band Goblin . Within this structure, a wellness center very far from the distressing places that characterize the cinema of Argento does not feel at ease and has difficulty both in finding the peace necessary to finish the screenplay, and in confiding the his secrets to the crew who are interviewing him. But the demon of cinema, who has never abandoned him, will once again push him to give himself totally.

In his beginnings Dario was a prestigious screenwriter in various genres as Spaghetti Western, wartime and thriller, such as: ¨One upon the time in the West¨, ¨Oggi a me... domani a te!¨, ¨Cemetery without crosses¨, ¨Battlee of Commandos¨, ¨Commando¨, ¨Every Man Is My Enemy¨. Dario then created the 'Animal Trilogy', whose film titles were influenced by a magician from Turin. His first important movie was ¨The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" that became an international hit, despite having continuous discussions with the main star, Tony Musante, who even claimed some authorship of the story. Argento followed up with two more thrillers, ¨The Cat o' Nine Tails¨ (1971), starring Karl Malden and James Franciscus, and ¨Four Flies on Grey Velvet¨(1971) starring Michael Brandon and Mimsy Farmer whose character and aspect bears remarkable resemblance to wife Nocolodi which made her quite angry. These films were backed by his father Salvatore Argento who was the major promoter and producer, who financed all his projects and sometimes limited the highly imaginative and expensive productions that came out of Dario's mind. He then went back to directing so-called "giallo" thrillers, starting with ¨Deep Red¨ (1975), a violent mystery-thriller starring David Hemmings that inspired a number of international directors in the thriller-horror genre. His next work was ¨Suspiria¨ (1977), his masterpiece, a surreal horror film about a witch's coven that was inspired by the Gothic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which he also wrote in collaboration with his girlfriend, screenwriter/actress Daria Nicolodi, who acted in "Profondo Rosso" ("Deep Red") and most of Argento's films from then to the late 1980s. However, due to some vicissitudes, discussions and the little recognition of Nicolodi's authorship, it gave rise to the sad marital separation between her and Dario, which caused him deep sorrow. Argento advanced the unfinished trilogy with ¨Inferno¨ (1980), before returning to the "giallo" genre with ¨Tenebrae¨(1982), a sort of gory whodunit, and then with the haunting ¨Phenomena¨ (1985) with a very young actress: Jennifer Connellly.

Argento got a big hit in North America, as he temporarily settled in the US, where he collaborated with director George A. Romero on the two-part horror-thriller ¨Two Evil Eyes¨ (1990) (he had previously collaborated with Romero on the horror action thriller ¨Dawn of the Dead¨ (1978)). While still living in America, Argento appeared in small roles in several films and directed another violent mystery thriller, ¨Trauma¨ (1993), which starred his youngest daughter Asia Argento from his long-term relationship with Nicolodi. Argento returned to Italy in 1995, where he made a comeback in the horror genre with ¨The Stendhal Syndrome¨ (1996) and then with another version of "Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera",¨ The Phantom of the Opera¨ (1998), both of which starred Asia, in this last film she had her first on-screen love scene in front of her father, and where Asia said she lost her virginity. Most recently, Argento directed a number of "giallo" mystery thrillers such as: ¨Sleepless¨ (2001), ¨The Card Player¨ (2003) and ¨Do You Like Hitchcock?¨ (2005), as well as two gory, supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series ¨Masters of Horror¨ (2005). Having always wanted to make a third chapter to his "Three Mothers" horror films, Argento finally completed the trilogy in 2007 with the release of ¨Mother of Tears¨ (2007), which starred Asia Argento as a young woman trying to identify and stop the last surviving evil witch from taking over the world. In addition to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling, "La terza madre" has many references to two of his previous films, "Suspiria" (1997) and "Inferno" (1980), which is a must for fans of the trilogy.

The documentary titled¨ Dario Argento: Panico¨(2023) was well directed by Simone Scafidi who, together with his production team, documents his life, including formative interviews and illustrating us extensively about Dario's career. Simone is a director and screenwriter specialized in the world of documentary. Among his works are: ¨Zanetti story¨ (2015) and ¨Fulci for Fake¨ (2019).