Giallo

Many people have compared this film to 2004's Eyes of Crystal, and I have no doubt that Argento was influenced by said film, but one thing I do want to say is that Giallo has much cleaner and more precise cinematography, and that is a huge improvement over Eyes of Crystal's jerky and fast camera movement style. I know that it was popular in the 00's, and even up until only a few years ago, but it's always been a style I've hated. At any rate, this isn't exactly a great effort from late Argento. A hell of a lot better than Dracula 3D, but what isn't? Sleepless is much better than this, as is The Stendhal Syndrome and Trauma. Just about the only post-Opera film it does overtake is Phantom of the Opera, and again, what doesn't? Giallo is honestly somewhat of a disappointment, especially considering the pretty involving beginning. Visually however, it is somewhat of a treat. And for me, visuals are even more important than plot. What this IS lacking is atmosphere, pacing, and tension- in favour of gore and torture. Not a good trade off.

On the part of promotion this title couldn't been better. Dario Argento, the master of old school giallo's made a flick called, Giallo. For all those who think that he isn't softened they will be disappointed by this thriller, Yes, this is definitely not a giallo.

"Giallo" films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camera-work and unusual musical arrangements. The literary whodunit element is retained, but combined with modern slasher horror, while being filtered through Italy's longstanding tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. They also generally include liberal amounts of nudity and sex.

None of this is included here. Why it is called Giallo, which means yellow is because once the killer is revealed, in the first part, you can see that his face is yellow due hepatitis.

I didn't had any difficulty with the flick itself which do has a few typical gory Argento shots but the acting of Emmanuelle Seigner (Linda) couldn't convince me. Adrian Brody (Inspector Enzo Avolfi) did look like those typical smoking Italian detectives and reminded me of a Tom Savini look-a-like.

I understand that Argento geeks will hate this but it's worth watching. A mediocre flick.

Gore 2/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Acceptable gory killing film in which Dario Argento demonstrates his penchant for original ideas and creative directing . In Torino, Celine ,Italy, a woman named Linda (Emmanuelle Seigner , Roman Polanski's wife) fears her sister , a fashion model girl named Celine (Elsa Pataky, at that time Brody's girlfriend) , may have been abducted . Obstinate Inspector Enzo Avolfi (Adrien Brody, also producer) gets some clues and fears it's worse . When a Japanese young girl is found at nearby a fountain, Enzo and Linda along with Chief Inspector named Mori (Robert Miano) find that the woman is calling the sadistic kidnapper's skin is "Yellow" . Both of whom team up to rescue her from a sadistic murderous known only as Yellow, or Giallo . The Inspector along with Linda start following the tracks that lead a cab man who might have jaundice and they go to a hospital.

Classic though average Gialli with imaginatively staged gory killings by the master of horror, the talented writer/director Dario Argento . Italian cult director Dario Argento, master of arty gore, brings this eerie and stylish story plagued with depraved gore murders . Exciting film with stylish , effective aesthetic that packs lots of gore , guts , chilling assassinations and twists plots . This is a trademark terror work for the Horrormeister Argento with high tension quotient and equally elevated suspense by means of an ever-fluid camera that achieves colorful shots well photographed by the cameraman Frederic Fasano. Noteworthy for intelligent edition work that tightens the mystery , glimmer use of color and distinctive utilization of shock images . Sometimes weak screenplay is added to nice but gory special effects . Thrilling musical score by Marco Weba with suspenseful whispers combining to fortissimo soundtrack which help achieve incredible creepy moments . The terror pieces are well staged with eye-opening flair-play and contain obscure tracks to the denouement of the script .

This scary motion picture is professionally directed by Dario Argento , though uninspired and with no too much originality. Argento is one of those film-makers (other examples are Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda ) who set off simple for frightening us to death . His period of biggest hits were the 70s when he directed the animals trilogy : ¨Four flies over gray velvet¨, ¨The cat of nine tails¨, ¨Bird with the crystal plumage¨, after he directed some masterpieces as ¨Suspiria¨, ¨Inferno¨ , ¨Tenebre¨ and of course ¨Deep red¨ , one of the best ¨Giallo . In 1995 Argento made a comeback to the horror genre with ¨La Sindrome Di Stendhal (1996)¨ and then by another version of ¨The phantom of the Opera¨ (1998) both of which starred by his daughter Asia Argento . Most recently, Argento directed a number of 'giallo' mystery thrillers which include Insomnio (2001), ¨Il Cartaio (2004)¨, and ¨Ti Piace Hitchcock?¨ (2005), as well as two creepy , supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series "Masters of Horror". Furthermore , to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling , ¨La Terza Madre (2007)¨ has a lot of references to the previous two movies as 'Suspiria and Inferno' which is a must for fans of the trilogy . And finally directed this so-so film called ¨Giallo¨ . This bloody fun plenty of graphic gore and weirdness may not be for all tastes but to be liked for Argento connoisseurs especially .

Giallo (2009)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Looking at the title and seeing Argento's name, you might expect this film to be a giallo but you'd be mistaken. Set in Italy, a woman gets kidnapped by a psychopath killer so her sister (Emmanuelle Seigner) teams up with an Inspector (Adrien Brody) to try and locate her. There's no question that Argento's career has been very hit and miss over the past twenty-years but I've been pretty kind to him finding many of the films to be entertaining for what they are. At the same times he's made some really bad stuff like PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? and while this one here isn't that bad, it's still lower level stuff and it's a shame considering I'm sure many were hoping for a better project. The biggest problem is the screenplay that is downright horrid as it gives us no characters to care for, an idiotic killer and some really lame dialogue. The story jumps around so much that at times it feels as if the movie doesn't know what it's trying to do or what type of story it's trying to tell. The sister characters come across as people we can't really stand so we don't care if they live or die. The Inspector character isn't any better as the screenplay tries to give him some backstory yet it's nothing interesting or deep enough to make us care. Then there's the killer known as "Yellow" because of his skin color. I'm really not sure what they were thinking but it just doesn't work. The film throws in some rather tame death sequences with many of them happening off screen. We do get a few gory shots that are pretty over the top but nothing we haven't seen countless times before. Female characters have never been a strong point in any Argento film and that continues here as I really didn't care for Seigner's character or her performance. Watching Brody here you have to keep pinching yourself that he's an Oscar-winner as he really doesn't come off looking too good. Then we have Argento who must have lost any of his stylish eye because there's very little. All in all, this is a pretty big mess and a real disappointment for me as I was one of the few who really enjoyed his third entry in the Three Mothers series. I do hope he continues to make more films but hopefully they'll turn out better than this.

When the man responsible for some of the best giallos ever made directs a movie simply titled Giallo, then I suppose one might reasonably expect him to fully embrace the conventions of the genre (many of which he was instrumental in establishing). Instead, Argento only loosely follows the giallo format, the grimy approach he adopts being more akin to the recent US 'torture porn' trend, a fact that has unsurprisingly caused something of a critical backlash from fans of Italian horror.

But although Giallo clearly doesn't warrant its title, and, devoid of his usual visual flair and labyrinthine storytelling, is far from the director's best work, neither is it totally deserving of the drubbing it has received.

The film moves along briskly enough, switching regularly between crime and police procedure to ensure that boredom never sets in; the hero cop-with-a-dark-past, Enzo Avolfi, is played with conviction by Adrien Brody; Emmanuelle Seigner makes for a decent enough side-kick; the rather lovely Elsa Pataky is required only to look scared and beautiful, but does so convincingly; and the strangely familiar killer is delightfully daft—an ugly, dummy-sucking, bandana-wearing taxi-driver with yellow skin (caused by a dose of Hepatitis C, inherited from his junkie mother) and a hatred of all things beautiful.

Argento also finds time for a few seriously nasty moments, including a graphic hammer to the skull scene, a nasty bit of finger pruning (resulting in plenty of pumping blood), and a wince-inducing moment involving shards of broken glass.

Whilst it is true that Argento's typical sense of style might be lacking on this occasion, there is still enough to enjoy about this film to make it worth a go—after all, even Argento at his worst is better than many other directors at their best.