MovieChat Forums > Giallo (2011) Discussion > Dario, for the love of God....stop!!!

Dario, for the love of God....stop!!!

posted 13 years ago by richg814-1
18 replies | jump to latest

I always considered myself to be a loyal Argento fan but his last few films have been severly lacking. To me what always set his films apart were the fact that they didn't look like anyone else's films (meaning that did not look comercial) and even the worst of the lot had at least one or two scenes where one would say "Wow, that was cool". I thought "Mother of Tears" was horrible but I thought it was a fluke (albeit a costly one since fans had been wating years for the third of the "Three Mothers" trilogy. So I had high hopes when I heard Argento was returning to his roots with "Giallo". Since it's release (abroad and limited), I had heard the bad reviews about it but scoffed them off becasue as I said before there is at least some good things in a bad Argento. Well I was completely wrong. I may be going out on a limb to some but "Giallo" has to be the auteur's worse film. It's not just a bad Argento film, it's a bad film period. I'm not going to go into all the details of why it was bad except that if you took out the gore, it resembles an extended version of "Criminal Minds", "CSI", or one of those bad Lifetime Televison thrillers. Now I don't know if it's 100% Argento's fault since I read that he was unhappy with the Amercian distributors cut of the film but knowing that when I watched it, I couldn't see it being good anyway it was cut except being cut into pieces
and thrown in the garbage. And don't get me started about Adrien Brody, e is trying to get the distribution stopped because he hasn't been paid?! Well based on his performance he doesn't deserve a dime and probably knows it. It's upsetting that the master of "Deep Red" and "Suspiria" has gone down the path of such mediocraty. I met Argento last year at a horror film festival and was so star struck, I could hardly say anything but had I met him after I had seen "Giallo", I might of said...Dario, for the love of God....stop!!! It's a shame but my favorite horror director needs to throw in the towel and be content to bask in the glory of his early efforts.

[–] xmjivex 13 years ago

This film actually far exceeded my expectations. Did you see "Stendahl Syndrome," "Phantom of the Opera," or "Sleepless"? These are all far worse than "Giallo" or "Mother of Tears." If anything, he's been on a slight upswing lately.

I agree with you, however, that none of his new stuff really evokes much of his style.

[–] guigui-paul 13 years ago

GIALLO,an ok thriller,is in my opinion better than PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and SLEEPLESS,both being Argento's weakest,most boring films.
I had fun with MOTHER OF TEARS (despite its flaws) and THE CARD PLAYER is a nice little thriller.
THE STENDHAL SYNDROME is in my opinion Argento's last great film,though.

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[–] zarch-3 13 years ago

Also adored his two homages to Hitchcock and Poe. The Black Cat is absolutely hilarious with Harvey Keitel playing a photographer, it goes off on some strange tangents like a dream sequence and that last scene in the tree!. Argento illuminates Hitchcock by making a tale of voyeurism, blending it with the 'eye' of the camera and having the protagonist be a film student.

[–] ilon 12 years ago

"THE STENDHAL SYNDROME is in my opinion Argento's last great film,though."

Agree.

[–] ThreeSadTigers 13 years ago

This was his best film in 20 years. A solid 7/10 in my opinion; nothing mind-blowing, but by far superior to Sleepless (which is okay, but Argento by numbers) and The Card Player (okay until the truly appalling ending).

[–] masuka-fan 13 years ago

I loved Mother of Tears. It was crazy fun and one of my favorites. But this was awful. So weak in every respect. It didn't even have the unintentional humor of his earlier work. It was just dull.

[–] The_King_of_Cool 13 years ago

What did you expect? Its really unfair to expect Argento to deliver a movie on par with what he did in the 70s and 80s. Giallo comes 38-years after his directorial debut and a lot has changed in filmmaking and in culture.

How many filmmakers that long into their career still make movies as good as they did in their prime? Of course there will always be expections, but if you were expecting another Deep Red than that's on you for not liking the movie.

I didn't hate the movie, but I have very little desire to see it again.

Let's do it to them before they do it to us.

[–] cynema 13 years ago

He has been on the decline since the 80's but I can't say I don't love SLEEPLESS and MOTHER OF TEARS.
Especially SLEEPLESS I felt was largely a return to form.

I think that a big problem he has is budgeting and how to make it all a good soup.
His early films benefited from being very modern beaucoup in a way that pop culture does not support anyway.

I guess I'm trying to say that I don't think the problem is entirely ARGENTO. It's a side effect of the digital age and how films are made nowadays.

ARGENTO was a true pioneer of the small budget. He worked with mostly himself and a few others and didn't confine himself to industry standards that I believe are ruining his movies. It's mostly visible if you watch them in order. As his productions get larger his quality gets lower.

"The more real things get, the more like myths they become. " R.W. Fassbinder

[–] JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies 13 years ago

Man, I just do not agree with the negative views of this film, and I'm not sure anything would convince me that they're not simply the product of "bandwagoning". If we could somehow release an arbitrary 70s to mid-80s Argento film now so that everyone believed it was new instead, I'd bet the overwhelming consensus would be that it sucks, too.

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[–] [email protected] 13 years ago

Giallo was TERRIBLE, easily the weakest film of Argento's entire career.

The worst crime it commits is just how lackluster and LAME it is - a hard boiled detective hunts a serial killer who stalks women. That's it. Literally NOTHING else is done to distinguish it from hundreds of other films just like it. Argento's style is almost completely gone. Certain scenes evoke unintentional laughter. Brody seems lost, and Seigner is absolutely awful. There is such an absence of anything interesting in Giallo that I really have a hard time believing anyone involved, particularly Argento and Brody, thought this was a script worth filming. Alas, they did, and now Argento has fallen even further from grace. He was great once, though, wasn't he??? Giallo was actually worse than I expected.

[–] JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies 13 years ago

Just curious why you're replying to me with that.

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[–] jeffscsr 13 years ago

this was a horrible horrible film.
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[–] richie1-1 12 years ago

I watched this movie and couldn't think of anything substantial from it. The plot is lame, the story is lame and the ending couldn't be lamer. I went away from this movie saying "What did i just watch and why?"

[–] malpasouno 13 years ago

I think the issue with Argento is the lack of development in his style which really didn´t change much from the beginning and is hopelessly out of touch with modern cinema.

And while I really don´t know how Deep Red would do if released today, I am pretty sure Giallo would have bombed pretty bad in the 70s.
Some scenes were decent, some had the look and feel of amateur work. It certainly got dense towards the end but unfortunately it also lacked any new and groundbreaking stuff which every Argento up into the 80s provided.

Giallo is just like a bad new copy of a good old giallo.

[–] The_Drunkard_Returns 13 years ago

This is only the 2nd full-length Argento film I've seen (the other being Susperia). I did like his Masters of Horror istallments, but I have to agree with you that Giallo was quite a stinker.

From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.

[–] nybred4 12 years ago

Bingo and bongo and help. Firstly, maybe a re-examinination of when and why your keen eye abandopned you is called for and even deserved. The fella (Argento) is self-absorbed to the the point of destruction via detatchment. And Brody in this film. A one-dimensional disaster. Fuggetaboutet.

[–] SteveResin 12 years ago

This film is shockingly bad. It's a complete car crash of a movie. How anyone can sit through this pile of wank without laughing incredulously is beyond me.

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