Original subtitles

Red is also the color of anger and violence.

Who are you anyway? What's somebody like who makes horror films?

I'm Dario Argento. There's nothing else...

- to say. - "I was six years old.

After dinner I kissed my parents good night and went to bed.

The way between dining and bedroom seemed endless to me.

It was a long, dark corridor with many doors on the sides.

At the very end of it, there was my room.

Every ajar door I passed...

posed a threat and a somber danger to me.

I had a feeling of fear.

My nightmares are presumably a result of this."

With this recount, Dario Argento opens the doors to his dreams...

and takes us on a trip into the world of his films.

Buckle up since it's not only a journey into fear...

but one into sheer horror.

A trip into the universe of the one and only, inimitable Dario Argento.

This is one of the most precarious phases in the making of Susp/r/a:

The phase of audio mixing.

Suzy, the protagonist of the film, played by Jessica Harper...

is in the center of this witches tale that is musically accompanied...

by a diabolical, unceasing Carillon by the band Goblin.

As soon as the music fades, you hear the voices of the goblins again.

Okay? Ready for the projection?

Are you ready? Let's go!

Go!

Don't leave me alone! Don't fall asleep!

This is the key to find out where the teachers go at night.

Last night I eavesdropped on them.

I wrote everything down.

- Suzy, what do you know about... witches - Witches.

Dario is one of the few visionary directors in the world of cinema.

And since, in my opinion, visions are the most interesting aspect of filmmaking...

I always wanted to work with him.

One clay he called me, and together we thought about...

how to give this film a look that hasn't been seen for a long time.

We decided to shoot a Technicolor picture.

In Susp/r/a we wanted to employ the latest Technicolor process:

The matrices in the primary colors are created from a single negative...

by copying each one onto Blue-, green- and red-sensitive matrice film...

according to the desired color intensity.

Theoretically you could even leave out one of the colors.

This was to me the only option to shoot a different-looking movie.

The interior of the car was completely rebuilt in the studio.

We added thunder, rain, and so on — the whole palette of special effects.

We used very powerful spotlights as well as the usual orange and blue gels.

In this case also yellow ones representing the streetlights.

There's this close-up with a completely changing dimension.

For a short moment you might think the screen was three-dimensional.

I demand two things.

First off, all effects must be accomplished during the principal photography.

We had to abandon the idea...

to do trick photography or special effects in post-production.

Dario agreed that all of the effects had to be clone during the actual shoot.

And the sequence that was first on the agenda...

was the scene on the square in Munich.

Lighting this square wasn't the only technical challenge, however.

The lighting was one aspect...

but the shot with the camera wasn't without problems either.

E853’-

Who's there?

Who is this?

Easy!

Someone's here.

What's happening?

Who is this?

Dario wanted to convey the feeling that something is crashing down onto the actor.

It was supposed to feel very threatening.

We attached the camera to a steel cable that was fixed to the ground.

The camera then dropped down in free fall from a height of 3O to 40 meters.

The mechanism resembled the one of a steel cableway.

Down on the ground there was an electro-magnetic trigger system.

At the touch of a button, the camera on the construction slid down.

Under tension, the whole thing went up again...

so that the camera wouldn't shatter on the ground...

and the shot could be accomplished.

In the end, it was a very nice night shot from above...

that gave you the feeling that the actor was about to be crushed.

Who's there?

Do you know why I make films? Just imagine...

I make movies because I want to be loved.

This also explains that kind of dialogue I'm having with the audiences.

Not only with the Italian one but with all of them.

- You want to be loved by whom? - It doesn't matter.

Just loved.

There are many reasons why someone is doing something.

Why you, as an artist, express yourself in a certain way.

There are many incentives.

For one, it might be power, for the other it's money or something else.

I've often asked myself why I'm doing this.

Just ask my colleagues, not just in the world of cinema...

but also other artists or people in general...

why they're doing a certain thing. I myself know exactly why.

I do what I do because I want to be loved.

Elena.

Give me the power!

Death!

Pain! Pain!

Death!

I said, death!

Our brothers‘ experience warns us...

to not trouble profane minds with our knowledge.

I, Varelli, an architect in London, have met the Three Mothers...

and for them I created and built three homes.

One in Rome, one in New York, and the other one in Freiburg, Germany.

I discovered too late that from these three places...

they rule the world with pain, tears and darkness.

Cinema...

That's my profession which I've practiced since a very young age.

In my mind, film is the ultimate dream.

It's something that can carry an audience or anybody else.

How interesting the creator of a film really is, lies, in my opinion...

in the fact how interesting his dreams, nightmare or illusions are.

Signore?

Excuse me...

Please excuse me.

I can't find the exit.

The other door.

- The book! - What?

"I was at a show by Emerson, Lake & Palmer"...

Argento remembers.

"I was especially fond of a solo by Keith Emerson.

The keyboarder ended the solo...

by sticking solid knives between the keys of his organ.

Thereby he created unusual and unique sounds.

Emerson wrote the music for my film in real time...

while he projected the images in slow motion."

Argento went to the extreme, right into hell...

Mothers... stepmothers that do not give birth to life.

Three sisters... mistresses of the horrors of humanity.

Tenebre could be a sequel to Susp/r/a and Inferno...

at least when it comes to its title.

In reality, however, the film is very much contradicting its title...

since it's a rather sun-drenched, bright and light-infused movie.

In this case, the title refers to the darkness of the soul...

to the dark sides you carry inside of you, that is.

Those that develop deep inside of us and turn out to be the monster...

that's in all of us...

and sometimes shows its cruel and bloodthirsty side.

In any case, the film is sort of a thoroughly whimsical and colorful feast.

Thanks to Argento I had the opportunity...

to use a French dolly called "Louma Crane".

It's basically a dolly with a column and a long arm.

What's special about it is that the camera is fixed to that arm...

and is extremely mobile clue to several gyroscopes.

This wouldn't be doable with a normal arm.

The camera can be lifted upwards up to seven meters in a very flexible way.

We did a tracking shot with it that allowed us to shoot from the roof of a house.

Also this time it was all about turning typical narrative structures on their head.

We didn't want to do an ordinary tracking shot in the usual environment.

So the camera leaves the house through a window...

we pan up to the roof and from there back into the house on the other side.

This is how we changed perspective.

Quiet!

You perverted wench. A dirty, perverted wench.

That's what you are.

I'm here inside the warehouse of "Arco 2".

We're getting the gear for our movies.

For example, the innumerable electric and other cables.

Or our thousands of spotlights and projectors.

As well as our dollies:

Big ones and little ones, medium-sized or electric dollies.

Here you can see the projectors and lots of cables.

We're also getting three Panaflex cameras with soft focus lenses.

You can't tell whether they're American or Japanese.

It's a secret.

I'm here because tomorrow the filming of my new movie should begin.

Or rather, it'll definitely begin tomorrow, in Zurich.

That's why the trucks are being loaded up.

We got 450 special effects with us...

that will be used for Phenomena.

I feel like...

I don't know, I'd like to be cheerful, but I feel a little sad.

I'm troubled by doubts.

I keep asking myself if I can get this film together.

Stop!

Stop!

You forgot me!

But there's one thing we can't take along.

It's a huge crane you can't find anywhere in Italy.

We've ordered it in Munich and it's being delivered to Zurich.

I need this crane for the first scene of the film.

I wanted...

to have the possibility...

to do a shot across a huge forest with the aid of this crane...

and to film a small, isolated little house on the other side.

Is anyone home?

Please! I'm not from here.

I got lost.

Everything to do with insects was accomplished thanks to the thorough work...

of a group of entomologists supervised by Maurizio Garrone.

He's been working for Argento as an animal expert for ten years.

The bumblebee was sedated with ether...

in order to perform a tricky microsurgical operation on it...

during which the stinger is amputated without injuring vital organs.

After the surgery, the insect's leg...

was tied to a very thin nylon thread...

which allowed us to "remote control" the animal.

We're in Zurich.

"Phenomena, scene 9/ 5/ 1. Interior Mercedes.

The bumblebee flies onto Jennifer's arm."

That's the scene we're doing.

The Mercedes‘ roof has been sawed off...

and reminded of an opened sardine can.

A box placed and fixed on the reaming roof...

severed as Garrone's hiding place to move the insect...

so we could get the desired shots.

- Rolling! - 9/9, the third.

Action!

Anyway, with us you're in good hands.

I'm sure you'll feel comfortable in our school.

It's one of the best in all of Europe.

First of all, we all speak your language.

Furthermore, our teaching program is based on the American one.

A wasp! Watch out!

- No! No, what are you doing? Stop it! - Go away!

Leave it alone! Insects would never hurt me...

because I love them.

- You love insects? - Yes.

I love all insects.

How I got the idea for the film, the idea with the insects?

Well, the idea came to me a year ago while I was vacationing on an island.

I was listening to music on the radio when the news came on.

They said that the police in the USA...

managed to catch a murderer with the help of insects.

There are flies, for example, that are attracted by corpses.

A few hours after the killing of a person, the first flies settle down on the body.

It's curious that insects basically act as investigators, right?

So I started to search for the source of this news.

Then I dived deeper into this topic...

and found out that insects are de facto outstanding detectives.

They can really be helpful in solving certain crimes.

If, for instance, a bullet is fired by a gun inside a room...

the wings of some particular butterflies break off.

Their wings are very fragile.

From this can be concluded whether a shot was fired of not.

But there are many more aspects to this...

that inspired me to do Phenomena.

13-years-old Jennifer Connelly, the protagonist of Phenomena...

has the unusual gift in the movie to be able to communicate with insects.

Dario wanted real insects...

and didn't want to resort to optical effects or the like...

to generate a vast number of flies.

They were supposed to attack the boarding school right when Jennifer called them.

The scene should feel real.

Those actually were real flies, six millions of them.

The windows were equipped with a hermetically sealed double glazing.

Below them were big boxes with two holes in them...

through which the flies were pushed inside with a little effort.

I love you. I love you all.

Dawn 0f the Dead is a film that was produced by Dario Argento in 1978.

It was directed by George A. Romero.

It's a firework of music and special effects.

"There's no more room in hell."

Something my granddaddy used to tell us.

You know Macumba?

Voodoo. . . ?

Granddad was a priest in Trinidad.

He used to tell us:

"When there's no more room in hell...

the dead will walk the earth."

Get its head up!

Get its head up!

Get its head up!

Wait a minute, you beauties. We'll be with you soon.

Have a little patience.

Come on, everybody grab a weapon!

Steven !

When those hay doors open, there is gonna be a thousand zombies in here.

That'II take the heat off us.

These guys will take care of them for us.

Tom Savini, the special effects artist for Dawn 0f the Dead.

- Never seen a comb before? - Actor and stuntman.

Savini used to be a war photographer in Vietnam.

"I was walking down a path", he tells us, "when I suddenly stepped on an arm.

A Vietcong was killed by one of my buddies.

When he went down, a bomb he had with him exploded and blew him into a thousand pieces.

Many things you think up for a movie, I've seen with my own eyes."

That whole thing looks like a battlefield.

Destruction.

War.

Today's world of cinema resembles more and more a war or a battle.

You leave your family, fiancée or lover behind...

and go on an adventure for six months or a year...

which sometimes bears no proportion to the story you want to tell.

You travel to strange countries.

I don't know why this is the case with movies nowadays.

Sure, it's nicer in comparison to the times...

when actors told their political tales in amusing scenes.

The films you shoot today are more fun.

It's basically like leaving for military service.

What we have here is a helicopter that crashed into a movie theater.

That was for a film I produced and wrote the screenplay for...

and was directed by Lamberto Bava.

I'm talking about Demons.

Back then, in the 60s and 70$...

when you had a scene where a helicopter was supposed to crash into a movie theater...

small models were used or optical effects were generated, and so on.

You would have helped yourself with the tools of the cinema of old.

Whereas today, you use a real helicopter for that...

and hurl it into a theater.

It seems like only a little difference.

But the difference to the old cinema can only be measured in lightyears.

Even if today your fantasy isn't limited in any way whatsoever...

the depictions itself have to be real and relentless.

MargerY!

MargerY!

Save me!

- Yes, these screams are real! - What are you saying? It's the Dolby system.

I'm telling you, there's someone screaming behind the screen!

Shit!

In order to do the special effect of the emerging teeth...

we need an imprint of the actor's face and teeth...

which provides you with the real shape of his teeth and face.

On these casts made of latex or resin, the desired deformities are modelled...

which perfectly match the actor's facial features.

Look!

It can't be! Look at her back!

Sergio Stivaletti is responsible for the make-up effects in Phenomena and Demons.

Stivaletti always starts with a sketch...

based on scientific facts and documentations.

The study of movements and anatomy...

is the basis for these special creations.

The screenplay of Phenomena demanded for a truly atrocious creature.

It was supposed to be very small, but couldn't be a child.

Since the make-up consisted of a heavy facial prosthetic...

a child of a certain age couldn't withstand the weight of it.

So with Davide Marotta a little person was chosen...

who had to succumb himself to long and strenuous make-up sessions.

This is a mechanical double that was made for the underwater scene.

The water, which is the basis for the effects, was heated up...

and covered with a swimming blanket made of vermiculit.

It's a natural material similar to sawdust...

and with appropriate coloration and treatment...

it creates the impression of a moving worm-like mass.

This rotten-looking mass of jelly was finished...

with a mixture of yogurt, chocolate and mint.

The scenery was completed with human remains...

ribcage as well as cut off arms and legs.

The mobility of the fingers of one hand was provided by a metal skeleton...

whose tendons were replicated with sheaths and cables.

Open up! Open the door!

There's a killer!

Help me!

Murders play an important role in my movies...

and they're clone beautifully.

Nobody should be offended because I used the word "beautiful" in this context.

After all, everybody knows that murders in movies aren't real.

No one really dies and the blood is produced chemically.

So I'm allowed to say that they're beautifully clone.

I literally celebrate the murders, just as if every one of them was a party.

From a technical perspective, I put a lot of effort into them.

The same goes for the framing and the movements of the actors.

In moments like these I let my creativity run free.

Who are you?

Who are you? Answer me!

Answer me!

Cut!

If you see a gloved hand in my movies...

or a shadow, that's usually me.

Some people might even recognize me.

I don't do this for exhibitionism, though...

but because I'm quite an expert in these things by now.

It makes me chuckle, but I'm indeed an expert in this field.

After all, I've been doing these films for many years.

So I know what needs to be clone.

To be honest, I would be quite a good killer myself.

During extreme acts, as for instance...

a bloody relationship between a victim and its tormentor...

there's still a sensual or erotic aspect present.

Provided you don't carry the whole thing to extremes.

But there is something that connects the two acts —

the erotic and the bloody act, that is.

The knife is a phallic symbol as we all know.

Hence there's an interplay between the two orgasms:

Between the orgasm of death and the sexual orgasm.

No!

No! No!

No! No!

In my first film, The Bird with the Crystal P/umage...

the protagonist is played by Tony Musante.

Apart from the fact that he wasn't sympatico to me...

there was also a great distance between the two of us.

To me he seemed like a fish in an aquarium.

A person you don't care about and don't know what to do with.

Someone you feel indifferent about.

In fact, at the beginning I imagined him between the two glass doors...

as imprisoned inside an aquarium.

It's quite frightening.

If someone would show up here, I'd probably run away...

and leave you behind.

But I won't let go of you.

- What a tomblike silence. - Yes, that's literally it.

But there's something here.

What?

- Did you hear something? - Yes.

Don't move.

Maybe it was a cat.

My first three films were:

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat 0' Nine Tails...

and Four Flies on Grey Velvet.

The animal in each title has, if you will...

an almost psychological background.

It stands for the animal or the beast inside of us.

The instinct that triumphs over human rationality...

which is possibly even more foolish than the animal instinct.

And gQ!

Point-of-view shots or subjective shots are very important in my films.

The camera glances, so to speak, through the eyes of a person.

You accompany her movements in the scene and you see how she approaches objects.

Sometimes I use a new camera for this, called the steadicam...

which is designed to film such point-of-view shots.

This allows you to project yourself...

into what's going on, because the transparent lens...

essentially becomes the eye of the audience.

You as the spectator get sucked into the scene, you can move around in it...

and approach objects and people.

You will also become the one who kills or gets killed.

The camera is a master of movement:

It wreathes, it prances, it abandons everyone...

to intrude into hidden places, dreams or dark meanders.

These are the environments of the killer, There, where's no air...

and no place for anybody except for the viewer.

This is where the extraordinary symbiosis between killer and audience is formed.

I asked, what kind of movement?

That's hard to describe.

It's like someone got up and walked out.

But as I said, it was more of an impression.

With the lights it's not...

The dream which is connected to the mystery of darkness...

is the only big channel via which man communicates with the realm of shadows.

The dream, is the mirror of that mysterious chamber...

the sleeping spirit projects.

No!

I sure didn't have to look far.

What are you doing? You're crazy.

I waited for you, Nina.

You also killed Dalia.

The last thing Dalia saw was your swinging medallion.

You did it! You did it! You did it!

Take your hands off me!

Why?

Why?

Because you're so much like him.

Like who?

First shot got your arm, huh?

It hurts.

I know what it's like to suffer.

Freeze!

I came as fast as I could.

She's crazy. She's completely crazy.

Now I understand the meaning of my dream.

I've realized that it's not me who's sentenced to death.

It's not me. Nina!

The killer in a mystery film or a giallo...

is a very hated character.

But that's especially true for the movies of the distant past.

In the last years or even decades, however...

the audience sympathizes a lot with the killer.

When a movie is about to end, I always observe...

that the viewers are all rooting for the killer.

Not because they want him to kill more people...

but because they wish he won't be unmasked or punished.

It almost gives you the impression that his motives were plausible.

You'll never see her again.

I didn't kill her!

You dared to kill, an innocent girl?

She was only eight years old!

A cookie?

Also I, who makes movies, as part of the audience, root for the killer.

At the end, I never manage to detach myself.

I always put them into the foreground...

dedicate spectacular finales to them because I basically love them.

In Argent0's films, killers pay for their deeds by suffering a gruesome death.

In Phenomena, this fate befalls him in a particularly gruesome fashion.

There was a pestilent stench because Garrone and his team...

had about 500 kilos of meat rot for a month.

A special room was furnished with hermetically sealed thin metal pipes.

The larvae multiplied inside of them incessantly...

and tens of thousands of flies hatched out of them.

The monster that was completely covered with glucose syrup...

had to wait patiently and without moving...

for the flies, drawn by the sugar, to settle down on him...

until they covered him completely. Then shooting could begin.

Davide Marotta, the little person, thrashed about as if to defend himself...

so the flies flew away from him.

The cameras shot this sequence in reverse.

This is how the effect in the film came into its own.

Damn you.

You damned bastard had my son killed!

He had nothing to do with it. He...

No!

He just tried to protect me.

He never harmed anyone!

You have no idea what happened.

Don't worry. Nothing will happen to you.

Keep calm, I will accompany you to the clinic.

No! I told you I don't want to go back there.

I told you.

You can't force me again.

It's just for your own good, darling. You heard what the doctors said.

No.

No!

No.

Now, after so much has been said about me...

you might know a little more about my work.

That goes for my work and my films in general.

And you probably know me a little better as well.

You surely know more about me than I do myself.

In fact, I know myself quite well.

I'd also like someone who tells me something about me.

I'd like to meet myself some clay and get to know me.

That's how I would get to know a little more about myself.