What's with the Hipster Refs to Giallos?

First there's the improbable caption, "Dario Argento presents Psycho." Then there's the constant quoting of Giallo soundtracks by the likes of Bruno Nicolai.

The practice isn't hipster because of *what's* being quoted. It's hipster because there's no functional reason for it to be quoted at all. As in Tarantino at his worst (Kill Bill), it's quoted for no other reason than because it's a cool set of cultural refs. There's a point at which postmodernism becomes an excuse for aimlessness and this piece about Hitch seemed particularly aimless. There's a difference between using the trope of emptiness and doing a film that actually is empty.

You want to say to the director: Let viewers and critics make these sort of connections between directors and cultural material. You're not telling them anything new. And leave collage to experimental directors who are concise -- Abigail Child, for example.

Never mind the fact that Argento used to be called (improbably enough) the Italian Hitch. The truth is, they're nothing like each other beyond common interests in suspense, camera work and choreographed misogyny from the POV of killers. There was absolutely no reason to ref '70s giallos in the middle of this piece about the '50s, early '60s and '80s. There's no common aesthetic.