All language subtitles for Dario.Argento.Panico.2023.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-CINEPHILIA-English

- Careful, I'm moving it down ok?
- Yes yes.

Shhh!

On the other side.

Attilio try to turn further,
to the other side.

I'll go from below, you from
above.

When there are no dogs.

Leaves, leaves, shake the
leaves.

- Nice?
- Good!

We cross the leaves like
a person passing through them.

Ready? Go!

But what is Dario Argento's
fear?

In short, I'm afraid of many
things.

And the biggest fear you have
right now?

Yes, yes, I'm really scared
that's why I also work on holidays

there are only a few days
left until the movie starts

and I'm afraid of the film.

This movie is like a person

like a bride I have to meet
and I'm afraid of being rejected

but then she never rejects me

I have this little fear.

Do you feel the wind?

But how long have we been in
the car?

Well, it’s almost an hour.

Couldn't we find a place closer
to home!?

Maybe here in the countryside
you can isolate yourself a little more.

Hello Maestro, welcome!

Good morning.

Come and let me introduce you
to the hotel staff.

- Good evening, Ilaria.
- Good evening.

- Good evening, Luce.
- Good evening.

Good evening darling.

- Good evening Jaime.
- Good evening.

Please, I'll show you the way.

We set up a small welcome
buffet.

Thank you.

My mom was Elda Luxardo

who was a very famous
photographer

of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

She was specialized
in showing the beauty of women.

My school was very close

to my mother's studio

so after school I always went
there.

She photographed the divas of
the time

like Loren, Lollobrigida

all these amazing beauties.

And I was there
in a corner of the dressing room

where they put on their makeup
and dressed up

I stayed there doing my homework

but I looked, I saw, I saw

how they put on their make-up

I still have the sweetish
smell of make-up in my nose.

Then when I found myself on set
for the first time

I immediately saw that I knew how
to show the female figure in the best way.

Women, girls
are very important in my movies

because I remember
how my mother depicted them

how she elevated them.

I start the film in seven days
and in the last days

there are no Sundays...
Look how cute she is.

- She is nice!
- Sweet isn't she?

What do you like the most
about a woman? What strikes you?

The face!

I find his movies entertaining.

You don’t watch them
to get sexually aroused

you watch them because,
you know, they are exciting and effervescent.

They leave you with a little
tachycardia which isn’t that intense

which is neither nonsexual
nor necessarily sexual.

There is pure excitement
like the one experienced by a kid

who discovers coca cola
for the first time and wants more.

You watch Dario’s movies, with screaming women,
whether it’s through a cinemascope

or not, in extremely bright colors,
with all those hands covered with gloves

and it’s beautiful, it’s exciting
and you just want to watch more.

Our house was all about cinema.

My mom was a successful
stars' photographer.

My dad was a manager at
Unitalia.

In the distribution
of Italian films abroad.

Dad was friend with the
producers.

He traveled with Gina
Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren

who then met my mother.

Our world was cinema,
directors, actors

photographers.

It was everywhere,
these were our friends were those.

I was a kid

I was on holiday in
the Dolomites, with my family

and one evening we went to

a theatre that was in town.

They were screening

"The Phantom of the Opera"
with Claude Rains.

And I was moved, I liked that
film a lot.

It revealed to me some
parts of the soul that I didn't know

even a certain sick love
that I didn't know could exist.

That was the first time

that I experienced those
feelings.

My mum

didn't have, let's say,
a regular childhood.

Her dad was a very adventurous
man.

He liked to go to the centre of
Brazil

and had no qualms about
taking his family with him.

So no one knows where my mum
was born, she was born somewhere.

So when she was very little

she had misadventures
with poisonous spiders.

This was her childhood

and this had an impact
on Dario's upbringing.

During the war in 1941 with
Dario newborn

she took newborn Dario to
see his father who was in Slovenia

on the battlefields

because she didn't want
to leave her husband alone,

the passion was too strong.

My grandmother didn't like
to talk about her work.

She was a great artist,
but after she became a mom she put her job away.

Maybe regretfully
and she never talked about it.

When we asked her "Grandma
take a family photo" she refused.

When we took pictures all
together

she struck crazy poses,
a bit retro as her photos.

So she never taught me
anything about photography

however I observed her work
a lot, and I believe also my father did.

This almost supernatural
aesthetic sense

these chiaroscuro,
these mythological poses

it was such a perfect form of
aesthetic. It almost created complexes.

My dad has always encouraged
Dario to read

because the basis of culture is
reading.

My father's library was very
extensive, there were so many books

and I read a lot of them.

All books for grown-ups,
that I read as a kid instead.

What's going on Dario? You look
puzzled.

Where the fuck did you take me?

But why? It’s a famous hotel
People come from all over Italy.

I hate famous hotels!

But everyone knows
you love to write in hotels.

I know, but I hate famous
hotels!

So you would not write a movie
here?

I don't know, maybe yes.

Can you please bring us
two fruit juices, please?

Of course.

Thank you.

Since the father was close
to the film press,

when Dario finished his studies,
he sent him

as an apprentice to
"Giornale dello Spettacolo"

which was the official
Magazine of Italian cinema.

Then he worked for "Paese Sera"

but he was the assistant of
the assistant of the assistant.

So initially they sent him
to do the review of ballets

and things that weren’t
interesting to anyone in the editorial team

Dario Argento, director.

Argento, director for how long?
Didn't you start out as a film director?

No, I've been a sailor,
so I've sailed through many harbours.

I was a critic when I was very
young.

Then I wrote for cinema as a screenwriter
and I thought this would be my path

and I really liked
this solitary relationship

with the typewriter at home.

I loved it.

Marisa was my high school
classmate.

We studied together

and so one day we were both
studying at our school friend’s house.

We were late

and so I asked Dario
if he could pick us up

because our friend's house was
far away.

I was a little annoyed I must say
because he stopped at Marisa's house

and he talked to her for 15, 20
minutes

while I stood there waiting for
them.

Why did you fall in love
with Dario Argento?

Amazing!

I fell in love with Dario
Argento

because I could not do
otherwise, knowing him.

I was still in high school
and I was his sister's classmate.

That's how I met him, we were
friends

and so I had the opportunity to
know

her legendary brother
who was already working for a newspaper

and for the showbiz section!

So he had charm,
for an eighteen year old like me.

It was obvious that I fell in
love.

What surprised me was
that he fell in love with me!

Yes, I'm leaving,
everything seems fine here.

Dario is starting to settle in.

Yes, yes, you know how he is

at first he hates having
everyone around, then slowly he relaxes.

The place is beautiful,
but it's terribly hot

but maybe you can also take a swim in the pool

"That Italian is starting to
worry me!"

That's what the master of
thrilling, Alfred Hitchcock, said

after seeing Dario Argento's
first movie!

His way of using the camera
has greatly influenced me.

It follows the detective
who climbs the stairs and reaches the top

and it turns on itself then
it follows him from behind again.

The camera tells so much!

Another one who influenced me
is Sergio Leone

with whom I wrote,
together with Bernardo Bertolucci

"Once Upon a Time in the West".

I understood that him,
who had worked with the most famous

Italian and foreign
screenwriters,

having to make a movie where
the protagonist was a woman,

he thought that these
screenwriters of a certain age,

did not know women,
they didn't know how to describe women.

He wanted to get some younger
people

whom he thought were more
in tune with women

and understood them better.

We spent a long time writing
this film

but the female character came
out.

Also this one is kissable, she has nothing
traditional, she's modern and up-to-date.

For those who haven't figured
it out yet

we're on the set of
"The Bird with Crystal Plumage"

which is nothing more
than the title of a thriller movie

which is currently being filmed
in Rome.

Salerno, he certainly doesn't
need advice

instead he gives it to this
young man, a predestined victim.

Or maybe not, maybe he is the
murderer?

Mystery in a thriller is
mandatory

and director Dario Argento
remained very tightlipped.

Actually whether in art
galleries or outside, in the sky

very few birds with crystal
plumage have been seen so far

so for the curious ones
we will reveal the secret: Ready?

He was already established
in cinema as a screenwriter,

he had already written
some important screenplays

but directing is another thing,
it's all on your shoulders.

I remember I think the first day

I was not on the set so I
report it,

apparently
he did not shoot anything at all

because he was so nervous
that he just wanted to

get familiar with the
environment

and my father kept telling him
"Relax, don't worry, relax."

It was very emotional for Dario,
with no assistant director experience

but only this great culture
of movies, that he had watched,

analysed, reworked and discussed
with his friends and colleagues.

But afterward, he carried on
really fast.

Salvatore Argento,
I have a very dear memory of him,

because I worked with him a lot.

He was an extremely
generous man, extremely vital.

He knew everything about cinema.

He had already been a producer

before doing with
Dario “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage"

because no one at that time
wanted Dario to direct that screenplay.

They liked the script,
they wanted to buy it

but they didn't want Dario as
director.

Salvatore was always behind
every movie they made together.

He made the contracts,
negotiated, discussed

then the fights between him and
Dario were famous because the father

obviously had a budget,

he knew they could not exceed
it.

Dario, for certain reasons,
thought it was right to exceed it

to achieve a certain effect

and there were furious quarrels

but quarrels that lasted no more
than an hour.

Perhaps a movie that isn’t
even a giallo, for there is no suspense

nor mystery around who the
killer is

but mainly an erotic
representation

of men murdering women,
is "Peeping Tom" by Michael Powell.

In the aesthetic of the film,

you can spot many elements
belonging to "Peeping Tom"

while watching
"The Bird with the Crystal Plumage".

I remember a phone call

made with the old phones
still attached to the wall at home

with Sergio Corbucci,
who was the author of a subject called "Incubus"

which became the movie
“The Girl Who Knew Too Much"

after "The Bird with
the Crystal Plumage" came out

and was already a hit at the
box office.

Sergio, who was a nice person
too

asked my father

"But that film is a bit
too similar to ours.

what are we going to do here?"

And my father told him
"What are we going to do with it?

It's a great movie, ours went
bad

let's be satisfied that there is
someone in Italian cinema

who manages to bring audience
to the kind of cinema we like"

When his first movie come out
"The Bird with the Crystal Plumage."

I was so terrified that I didn't
even remember what I had watched.

Yes, so my father watched
the film with Lombardo

and I didn't want to go

because I already knew
that Lombardo had negative thoughts.

And instead my father
went there, he watched the movie

and in the end everyone said

"No, the movie isn't worth it,
it isn't worth it".

Because it was a thriller
different

from the other thrillers
seen up to that moment

which were very flat

instead this was bizarre

full of new ideas.

And then they all went up
in Lombardo's large studio.

On one side there was Lombardo's
famous secretary, her name was Cesarina.

She was eating a sandwich for
lunch

and her hands were shaking.

"What's up Cesarì?

Your hands are shaking!"

She says "The movie scared me,
It impressed me very much!”

Goffredo listened and told

"She doesn't understand anything
about cinema."

When I first watched the movie

and I saw many people entering
the cinema,

I was proud, I was so proud of
my brother!

I felt important to him, that's
it!

It's Dario Argento, the director
who opened up a new dimension

on the anguished world of fear

Dario himself told us
how much he had been frightened

by the bombing of Rome in 1943.

It traumatized him.

He probably remembered it for
long time

but in a certain sense,
he exorcised it immediately afterwards,

by talking about it

by scaring me when
I was a child in this big house.

Fear has an abstract meaning to
me.

I make films that respect

my intimacy, my depths

but I don't know what real fear
is!

When we watched movies when
I was little with my mother and father

I remember that in suspense
scenes

when maybe the killer appeared
from behind

my mother screamed!

So she scared us even more.

But the fact of being a coward

was not accepted.

We lived on the top floor of
a large aristocratic building.

He chased me into this
big house, therefore mostly dark

in dark corridors etc. scaring
me

and then I ran screaming
"Please stop!"

He tested what could be scary.

Then when the film had great
success

Lombardo called me and told me

"We are very happy,
we have followed you so much,

we were always behind you!"

I didn't remind him

that he even wanted to
replace me halfway through the film.

1970, a film has caught the
world's attention

and it is in the US of Hitchcock,
the king of fear where it triumphed

with a 2-million box office
success in the first weeks of release.

The movie is "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage"

by Dario Argento.

It had never happened that an
Italian film

was number one in the US box
office!

Another person
who completely changed his mind

was the main actor, Tony
Musante.

We argued throughout the film
from the first shot to the last.

He saw me as new, so he saw
me as someone who was not capable.

I worked in a strange way,
crooking the camera shots...

all things he didn't like.

Before leaving

he even came to my house

and he wanted to hit me.

He knocked on the door

"Dario Argento
open the door! Open the door!"

"Open the door! Open the door!"

Kicks on the door

I remained silent, I thought

Well, it's ten in the evening

I may have gone to the cinema

I'm not at home

so you can hit as much as
you want against the door which is pretty sturdy

Nothing will happen

and so finally he got fed up
and left

The film was very successful
especially in America

I got a call from Tony Musante

who told me

“We are delighted,
we had great success together”

And I told him "Look,
that's not true, that's not the story

the story is we fought
throughout the film

We didn't love each other at
all”

The fashion for
the Italian thriller started from him

Dario Argento,
29 years old, only two films

two animals, a bird and a cat,
two immediate successes

Almost 3 billion gross.

Now Argento is shooting
another film that has four flies in the title

I met Michael Brandon in Los
Angeles

Something about him
fascinated me immediately

he looked a lot like me!

"Four Flies on Grey Velvet" is
a film that

coincided with a first crisis
between us

a first crisis between us

What I noticed was
the incredible resemblance of the protagonists

with us!

But

to what point does this
resemblance correspond to us?

Do you really think that

something hard, something
difficult could happen between us?

The question was a bit like this

When there was
the first screening of the film

my wife was there too

At the end of the film she looked at
me and asked me "What have I done to you?

For you to represent me like
this?”

But I hadn't thought at all
when I chose the actress

that she indeed looked like my
wife

in terms of expressions, face,
hair

in short, she really looked
like her!

But on the other hand we all
get inspired by our private lives

when making movies

once a magician I met in Turin

told me to put animals in the
title

I actually put it in the first
one because it was quite relevant

and then in the second one I
kept it

And here it's actually almost
more pertinent than in the first one

because the resolution of the thriller
entitled "Four Flies on Grey Velvet"

entitled "Four Flies on Grey
Velvet"

is precisely in finding
out what this title means

What you are about to see is the first
of the four films I’ve made for television

and it is also the first meeting
between you and me

because up to now my activity
has focused exclusively on cinema

Dario accepted
the invitation to work for television

because at the time
the Italian broadcasting company

had decided to "rejuvenate"
itself

So when his work was broadcast
Rai was overwhelmed

with protests from quiet
people who had watched it

expecting a sequel to
"Melissa" or something like that

and had found themselves
in this sort of hellish nightmare

We wrote this series with
Alfred Hitchcock's one in mind

"I think you have to introduce
it"

I told him I had seen him
acting many time

I mean acting in real life

And so his face became
very popular for a director

people usually only vaguely
knew how directors looked like

They didn't know what
they looked like, popularity was given to actors

We were pleased with

the success that has resulted
from the success of this project,

but

it also created moments
when we were overseen, stopped,

constantly harrassed

It had become difficult to even go
to the supermarket to do the groceries.

Damn, it's really broken!

And what do I do now?!

Success is a bad companion for
a couple

We understood this

and then we simply noted it

With regret, but also with the
idea that

"Okay, let's move on"

I think the case of “The Five Days”
is very telling of his artistic route

He was trying to experiment

with something in his poetic
view

Comedy is actually
an integral part of his work

The fact that this was
a terrible flop was for him

I think, I wasn't born yet

cause of great suffering,
but also a warning

He said to himself

"Okay, I tried, but now
I have to stick to my genre"

Well, when we made
"The Five Days” he cared a lot about it

because several articles by
major Italian critics ended with

"Pity that Dario Argento wastes
his time with these ridiculous giallos"

"He should use his talent
or more serious projects"

And Dario was indeed eager to
show that he was a versatile director

In my opinion it was this
"failure"

of “The Five Days" which
brought him back

with a vengeance

in his “Deep Red".

When I was writing "Deep Red"
in a cottage in the countryside

without lights and
without anything, isolated, alone

I went there in the morning at
about 9am

and I only left in the afternoon, at sunset

Sometimes I was scared

As I was digging really

into the depths of my soul

I had moments of fear

anguish, anxiety

Building puzzles of different cities
for a movie, creating an imaginary city

It was the right choice,
a great idea it seems trivial

But it's the great idea
that gave a particular shine to his films

Because they were Italian,
but not from a precise Italian city

When Argento had just
finished shooting "Deep Red"

he was working on
the soundtrack with Giorgio Gaslini

who had already
collaborated with him for "The Five Days".

But he wanted

a little more rock music

because Giorgio Gaslini was
too traditional with the orchestra

So he said to the sound engineer of the film

Carlo Bixio of Cinevox Record

that he wanted Pink Floyd
or Deep Purple

Carlo Bixio said to Dario

“Why don't you listen
to these guys I’m producing?”

and Dario came to the studio
and he listened to our music and said

"Here, they can fit!"

We have been quite disruptive

because we combined 70s rock

with a thriller movie,
which had never been done before

I had already made films that
had been extremely successful

but I thought
I was doing something different

something dreamlike,

something unrealistic

Putting art

into a sort of great mixer of
styles

There was the fascist style of
Turin

there was the art déco villa

A big cauldron
where I put all my aspirations

"Deep Red" was released in
theaters

And it sold 1 million albums
in just the first ten months

At the time
the Gold Record prize was 1 million albums

now all the discography
put together reaches 1 million

Well those were different times!

So we held the record

of being perhaps the best-selling
album in the history of Italian music.

"Deep Red" sold more than 4
million records!

She was a woman
with a very strong character

very important

of great culture,
she was a very cultured person

She inspired me in many things

We travelled a lot together
during my trips around the world

she supported me

We discovered the Eastern
civilizations

the Andean civilizations

She has been very important to
me

Then it finished,

on the other hand

everything ends sooner or later.

How important has love been in
your life?

Well it’s important for
everyone.

But I also think that
in this era that we are living,

love, the ancient love, Dante's
love

is no longer so powerful
because there are so many distractions

there is television, you can
travel easily.

Once people lived
in small houses with no light.

Only with candles, in
the evening it was cold people needed capes.

They fell ill easily
and they all had bad breath

because of stomach diseases.

They had toothaches
and there were no dentists.

So once upon a time,
love was the only thing...

the only entertainment, like a
leisure

Now there are many leisure activities
there are discos where you can have fun,

you can travel, there are football
matches on television, there are videogames

In short, it has become less
the center of the universe, I think

"Suspiria" is a bit

the elephant in the room

for my family and for my life

Because my mother
used to tell one story about it

and my father another.

According to my mother as we
all know

it's a very personal story

it was my great-grandmother's
story.

Witchcraft...

things that were definitely part
of my mother's universe.

I've never seen my father
studying the magical arts,

instead my mother
had a lot of books about it

it was definitely my mother’s
subject.

With "Suspiria"
we have truly created a genre

that cannot be said to be
inimitable

because it has been imitated
by many other musicians.

Let's say the real music,
the real Goblin sound

it's more like "Suspiria".

Screening, ready?
Ready? Go!

It is the key that lets us know
where the teachers go every night!

I discovered it yesterday
evening, I wrote everything here next to you!

Susy you don't know anything
about witches!

We have experienced a lot,
we used ethnic tools,

we used bouzouki,
the Indian tabla, the Greek bouzouki.

Then I brought in a big Moog

to make electronic music

in short, it was a very
avant-garde work.

Still today when I listen to it,

we were way ahead!

But I know this situation,

has been the beginning of
the end of my parents' relationship.

This son "Suspiria" which
belongs to both,

it was a film,
a child they had made together.

Son of a great love and a great
passion.

But in my opinion the thing was
that

my mother was supposed to play
the main character, I think eh!

My mother talked about it a lot

it was a resentment

until the end of her days.

It's kind of something we can't
talk about

but it is certainly

the most loved movie abroad.

But I recognize a lot
of my mother in this story.

there is a lot of her

and also in "Inferno"

I am anxious before starting a
movie.

Why?

I can't get rid of that so much
stress

so from the film,
I always get very strong depression,

I think about suicide,
even if I shouldn't say it, though

tonight I can tell you anything.

I felt like a pull towards the
window,

to almost throw myself out.

I don't know why,
everything was fine the movie was good

I had a lot of fun,
I went out a lot after I got divorced

I was single, I went out,
I had a lot of girlfriends

it was wonderful!

I remember that I lived
in a hotel in via Veneto

while I was making a film,
called "Suspiria"

and

almost every night I was taken from
this desire to throw myself out the window

I spoke about it with a doctor
friend of mine and he told me

"put a wardrobe in front of
the window. Do you have a wardrobe?"

And in fact I barricaded this
window

with the wardrobe,
a small table and a chair

The suicidal idea is very quick,

it comes to you

and if you have to move the
wardrobe

to turn, work, open,

it has already passed.

- But why did you want to die?
- I had absolutely no reason to!

I have no idea
why this thought came to me...

Because, in fact, I was happy

Strange!

And weren’t the two daughters
a reason that could bind you to life?

In fact the idea of committing
suicide made me sad for their pain.

But I thought that I was so sad
anyway, that I was not of help for the girls.

For me he is my family,

my world, my everything,
it has always been like this.

My mother traveled a lot for
work

and I've always been with him
he’s my point of reference.

He is my dad!

How are you here?

At first I thought it was
terrible

because I didn't like the people
who stay in this hotel but the weather is good,

then I'm always by myself,
always writing,

so basically
I meet people only when I eat,

otherwise I don't see anyone,
for me it's the same

this or another hotel,

eventually it is the same.

My family was very close
when my grandfather was around.

On Sundays we all went to have lunch together,

the classic bourgeois family
thing to do.

Keeping the family together,
that was him!

In fact, when he became sick,
the family fell apart.

These lunches never happened
again.

I remember my mother hated them,
these bourgeois Sunday lunches,

instead for me they were
fantastic.

I think they were important

to my father, who has a bourgeois
spirit. They are important for his stability.

I mean, he had these
emotional peaks through his work,

to have

such a strong basis

it helped him, held him steady

Even now, I sometimes dream
of working on that film!

Everyone who worked on it knew

they were doing something
different.

For example, when Dario made
Inferno with an American production,

he was shooting with a studio
that wanted to teach him how life works

as they’re used to explaining to
directors how to make a movie more profitable.

Dario thought “We’re using
American money,

we have plenty of it,
so we can do even crazier things!"

"We’re going to make movies
as crazy as Fellini’s"

"delirious, oneiric ones,
which were a success”.

In order to make "Satyricon",
Fellini used American money too

and Americans gave him
a lot of artistic freedom

so that he could be as extreme
in his movie as he wished to

Dario thought he had enough
money

even to outperform the craziness
of his own films.

Then they told him

“That’s not what we want
narratively speaking, etc.” .

For someone who had begun
filming

through the production of his
father

Who would always defend

and recommend him
to investors and distributors.

He could not fathom what they
meant

and how money could rewrite his
work

Inferno is written as if it was
a dream,

kind of like “Age of Gold"
or "An Andalusian Dog" by Buñel.

The movie might be harder to
understand.

It is the film
that has taken most of my time

because I wrote part of it in
New York

in winter, while it was snowing

and I stayed in the hotel and
wrote

I wrote, I wasn’t satisfied.

The months went by,
it was too difficult, it was an alchemic film,

it was an enigmatic film.

The president of 20th Century
Fox,

she watched it sitting next to
me

At the end she told me

"Look... I didn't understand
some things

and I think the audience won't
understand”.

It was released in theaters
in the rest of the world,

but not in America

because the American
audience is not used to this kind of cinema,

so enigmatic and so full of unsolved mysteries.

I let the audience watch the
scene

and try to understand why,
what did that sentence mean.

In some countries such as
England

it was also a great success
from the audience,

so these riddles actually
interested the audience.

Do you want to scare me?!

We are live with “Blitz",
a lighting bolt ripping the darkness.

Let's hear what the music is
like

Slowly, slowly.

Grow, grow, grow.

"Tenebrae" brought Argento
back to the beginning

he went back to making a Giallo
with a classic story

of the assassin who kills
everyone with his black glove.

And he wanted the Goblins again
for this occasion,

but it was not possible because
we had split up in 1978.

After the Goblins,
I completely changed genre.

I started making dance music.

I thought that "Tenebrae"
should have more modern music

and less 70s rock

Completely electronic work was
done

in fact there is not even
a drummer, there is the electronic battery

a kind of electronic rock.

When I was assistant on
“Tenebrae” and I met Dario's family

I used to see in the cinema

"Salvatore Argento presents"

"a film by Dario Argento"

"produced by Claudio Argento"

"written and directed by Dario
Argento"

You entered a universe where
you say "Are these all from the same family?"

As I said before,
Argento, Argento means silver

and silver is a tinkling thing,
a precious thing...

No, instead

let's butcher people!

The Louma was a device
that no one had ever used.

This Louma started from a point
and circled the whole house

and it entered the window
from the other side.

I remember when it was told to
the troupe

of “The Passenger” by Antonioni,

that the camera would
go out the window in the ending

there was this idea of doing
things

that would remain in history,
as it has remained in the history of cinema

Dario was immediately

very welcoming and affectionate
with me truly like an older brother,

both he and Lamberto
protected me because I was very young.

There are a lot
of strange people in this job

and they were afraid
that I might take a bad turn

because there were those
who drank after midnight

and he told me
"Be careful, don't drink

If they offer you a drink, say
no!”

I told him "But I don't
drink, what should I care".

Both of your two daughters
have decided to come and live with you

when they were very young.

What was family life
like with two girls to raise?

Like the ones of all fathers
actually.

And therefore I also
had a double responsibility,

and so this pushed me to
be more involved in the family

For me it was a beautiful
experience

Fiore, will your dad get angry ona
the set, but does he get angry also at home?

Has it ever happened with you?

Sure, yes!

- It happens to argue
- Of course!

They can't be left as...

a wild horse that

*BANG ♪

you pat its ass and say "Go!"

And it goes.

No, that's not how

you raise a child.

There's absolute equality
with both daughters

and I have to say,
it's a thing I don't see often

which I don't see much in other
families.

So he does one thing for one
he also does one thing for the other

there has always been.

And it must be difficult too
always having to balance

a smile to one, then a smile to
the other, a good word, a good word

a help, a help, a trip, a trip.

Never do a little less for one
or a little less for the other

How come?

Yes, yes, it's something
that comes instinctive though,

that you know you have
to do this, and so you will!

You chose both your daughters
in movies

the first was Fiore in
"Creepers", making her debut

and you immediately murdered
her. Why did he make that choice?

Did it have a meaning
or was it just for fun?

No, no, it's not fun.

Making movies is serious
business!

Serious and demanding

no, it's never been a joke,
entertainment is different

No, I wrote this film
having my daughter near me

who was 13 years old,

and I saw her and said
"I think she could do it right"

I thought "But she's not an
actress

Oh well, but nobody is
really an actress at 13"

During a dinner, it was a party

Where there were various movie
people

someone thought to play a game.

That is "Who would you like
to be in cinema?"

And I said "I would like to be Daria Nicolodi"

"Wait, why?"

"Because she writes films
with Dario Argento".

And since I was a big fan
of Dario Argento,

who I didn’t meet yet,
I expressed this wish.

And in fact then I became after
not long

Daria Nicolodi.

"Creepers" is the first film
we wrote together

and for him it was a turning
point because it was the first film that

he produced or attempted
to produce by himself

So he told me "I can't go wrong"

and in fact we had taken
a long time to write this screenplay

and at first he gave me some
input.

One was

"In my films there is always
the family"

And there is family in
"Creepers", an absent family

but there is one!

The main character, she is looking
for her father, she is looking for a mother

Usually the directors like
staying in the shade for a while.

Meaning that only the actors
are shown

Instead Dario was a character
who everybody knew

also because he is very
particular.

And I have to say
that when we were hanging out

I was also a bit his "bodyguard"

because everyone went to him to
ask for autographs, to bust his balls

I think it’s hard.

And I must say he has
always given himself to everyone!

You told that years ago there was
a more homemade variant, a famous double

a doppelgänger of Dario Argento,
who pretended to be you.

He went around Rome
claiming to be Dario Argento,

what did he do?

He went to restaurants to eat
and he said that he was Dario Argento

and that he didn't have any
change, but it would pass after a few days.

He had nothing to do with me,
because he was a guy with long hair

with a prophet's long beard.

They reported him,
they took him to the police.

And he started looking for me,

I had to do a press conference
where I should have said

that he was not Dario Argento.

"You have to do it by force, by
force

otherwise, when I meet you,
I'll slaughter you!"

There were a lot of mythomaniacs
stalking him, not just that guy.

We just told that guy over there
"Listen, what do you want?"

Now we are working,
you have to leave us alone,

otherwise we call the police.

Then there was Cozzi
who was quite energetic

They started to fight,

and this was a lesson, I think a good
one for him, because he never showed up again

He

Lion in cinema, sheep in life!
I mean he was scared.

And now I don't remember
the names of the women who stalked him

who became obsessed with him

Dario called me
and told me he wanted to see me.

I said yes and he said "Well,
come on, let's go for a short trip

I'll pick you up at your house,
then I drop you off at your house

In the meantime,
I'll tell you about the movie".

So, he came to pick me up at
my house and we left with the car.

It was a very long ride for me.

He told me the idea he had,
how he wanted to realize it

He insisted that
I was the perfect character

that Betty was a very pure girl.

It was a word he used a lot.

The atmosphere on the set
was one of of great professionalism,

everyone was focused on
their plot and a lot of respect for Dario

everyone.

He usually speaks very softly,
which I thought was exquisite.

It was a lot of fun
because he is very nervous

and then, well, he was
talking to me, in five minutes

he would transfer the magic,
the electricity to me

and then he would go to the
cameraman

and say "This is how it’s done".

Then to the one with the light,
he was at the one with the light and makeup,

he was like a lizard
moving all over the place.

But it was him, all
the rest of us revolved around him.

It's coming at you, no no!

One here!

Look here Cristina, you look at
him here!

Yes, come forward, come forward

Ok, you say "no, no, I said no!"
ZAM! He got stabbed.

And he fell on your feet,
he is here next to your feet.

Every morning they put
the adhesive plastes on me with the pins.

Dario always came
when I had scenes like that

he would always come to my side,
and he would always say to me like this

they're not going to take off,
are they?

He would check

"No, no, you've got it well glued, very good."

It was very uncomfortable a lot of times,
because I couldn't move my eyes very well.

For him, it was all natural

and he made us feel natural
about everything that was going on.

Dario makes a very particular
kind of film

which also does not follow
the Italian tradition of cinema.

Dario Argento movies were
famous abroad

where the culture of these kind
of films

was at its peak
and moreover also in America.

And a friendship was born
between me and Dario

I think before even making the
film.

And then I remember we made
a good film, one of the best we have ever made

and then it went well all over
the world.

You stomp on him,
do you understand?! Like this

Yes, hard! You're a fury,
understood?!

There was also tension
between him and Marsillach

because she must be wet

and he wanted something to
be seen through the white blouse.

She didn't want to take
off her bra, then Dario sent me

to say "Cristina could
you please remove your bra?"

And she said first yes,
then no, then she lifted it a bit.

Then when I went back to Dario,
he asked me "So?!"

“No, she says no”

And he, in fact, was so angry
that he stopped talking to her.

The feeling I get from
Dario Argento as a director of actors

for me

it's wonderful,
because he helped me a lot.

I don't know if he did
it intentionally or not, but he helped me a lot.

That coldness, that detachment,
even contempt for me

that he didn't talk to me,
or gave me directions

in a very cold way, right?

Very "Put yourself there,
I don't know what, and now you have to do this".

Ready now? All set?
Fantastic. Come on, everybody.

And maybe like a father
to a daughter, right?

Like "let's go help this girl"

To really feel everything
that is going on in the film

and I did not feel hurt

that is, I did not perceive
that I was the victim and he was the executioner

and I believe that we were on an equal footing,

because I was helping him
and he was helping me.

The last memory I have

of Dario Argento on set was

I think we gave each other a hug

I am two Dario Argentos,

There is the normal Dario
Argento in life,

then there is another
Dario Argento, the one who instead

has a deep dialogue with himself,
the dialogue with the dark side of him,

who lives these experiences
between the dreamlike and the unreal

and then transmits them to
the spectators. So we are two people.

If you have to describe him,
who is Dario Argento?

Who is Dario Argento?

I don’t know.

I do not know who Dario Argento
is

I'm sorry, but I just don't
know, I don't know how to answer this.

Listen, out of curiosity,
what do you have in your pocket?

What?

I mean if I frisked you right
now, what would I find in your pocket?

- Like a policeman?
- Show me

Matches, 10 Lire, two cinema
tickets

One "Monsieur Verdoux

"I watched it recently,
I watched it the day before yesterday.

This here “The Last Tycoon"

A telephone.

A remote control.

A little train.

A penknife, I found it in front.

An elastic band.

A slightly sucked candy, don't
look.

You can hardly see it, a stone.

A glittering

stone.

This is a poem that I translated

by John Donne, a 17th century
English poet which is called "Broken Heart".

But above it I put a quote of a
sentence

said by Monsieur Verdoux
Chaplin.

A very nice quote

"Despair is the narcotic
that generates indifference among the people".

Think about it for a moment.

For someone like you seeking
isolation

and peace to write in
tranquility away from everyone in hotels

isn't the mobile phone a problem now
that everyone can reach you everywhere?

No, that's not true,
because if I put it on silent mode

no one can reach me.

So...

I once said I believe
that he brought me into the world

to have a protagonist in his
films

after he broke up with my
mother.

Me and my father are very
similar, both mentally and physically.

He, although he almost always
had female leads.

I think he identified
with the main character

and therefore, being myself almost
an extension of my father just because,

we had such a similar childhood,
two very introverted people,

book worms, both Virgos, very
organized.

Then when I became an actress
I connected the dots

I said "Ah here it is,
the perfect protagonist is me".

I mean I'm my father in those
movies!

I spent a long time with Asia

as the main character of my
films.

I know that her way of acting
attracted me,

to pose, to narrate, to tell
her expression,

her face, her smile, her eyes.

She always was

my favourite actress!

That fury, the one
that was in Argento until “Opera"

has faded a bit and changed,
what do you think happened?

What changed
in Dario at the end of the 80s?

First of all, in "Opera"
there’s really been a budget exploit.

Dario also called
an Oscar-winning cinematographer: Ronny Taylor

Those were the days
when Dario imagined a dolly

attached to the ceiling
of the Parma Regio Theater.

Slowly descending with
the a remote-controlled camera

simulating the subjective view
of a crow

These are those things
that took three weeks to build,

with testing and everything

and then didn’t work very well.

They were times when
those things could still be done.

At some point
we started to film in English

choosing an American actor or
actress,

making these international
products

it has stopped working,
they are no longer done.

Actually this change after
"Opera",

I link it a little
to my grandfather's death.

An event, the death of grandfather Salvatore,

which I know touched him a lot

and therefore he has changed like
everyone else change, like human beings

and therefore our cinema,
our works are a reflection of who we become.

What happened in my
father's cinema is very natural

and it's a good thing
that he didn't stay still

making the same cinema over and
over again.

A person who always remains the
same,

it means that he hasn't evolved.

My father evolved as a human
being, although he has mellowed over time.

He'd hate to hear that,
but I'm happy for him

The key is television,
television has funded ever since

all Italian cinema.

But it was no longer the old
Italian cinema

because Italian cinema
was made for television,

done with the TV clauses.

Among the clauses, there is also
the one that says that if your film is R-rated,

you must return all the money
we gave you to make it.

Which changed cinema
because the authors were no longer

free to express their true
imagination as they wanted.

Dario always replies "We made
that cinema, then that cinema was transformed".

It's nobody's fault,
it's the market's fault.

At a certain point
there was no more request.

I had the idea for a film.

I have to propose this to Dario
Argento

and it was "Seven".

The one written by me took
shape,

it had been even more
“Americanized”

and then it became the success
it became.

And when I see Dario I always
tell him

"Look, the credit,
you don't know, but the credit is yours!"

At first he was a revolutionary.

He wanted to stand out from
everyone, do better than everyone else.

Then he got into a system.

Earlier his films were produced,
but not only his

all Italian films were produced
to do better than the previous film.

By putting in more gore,
more crazy scenes, more madness

all this broke
with the arrival of television.

"Trauma" marks a turning point
because there is no more art,

there is no more theatrics

there’s the American world.

"Trauma" was a very difficult
film.

I wanted to work with my father
from the beginning

but I started when I was nine
and he called me when I was 16,

after I had already made
several films

as an actress, with great
authors.

And I was like,
"But when is he going to call me?"

And then he did.

I was terribly afraid of
disappointing him.

Plus it was a film in English,

where I had to speak with a
Romanian accent

and there was the theme of
anorexia.

My sister Anna suffered from
anorexia,

so it was a thorny subject.

I had studied many books and in
those days I didn't know a lot about anorexia,

in the early 90s.

It was quite

painful!

Also because

we have never spoke about
this topic with my sister Anna

that we were making a film
about her.

Because what was said at
that time was that anorexia comes

from a girl with an absent
father

and a mother too present, which is
kinda what the plot of the film speaks about.

The character of the mother had to be
my mother and I was supposed to be my sister.

My sister came to watch the
film,

but there was no speech about
it.

"Look, this is to help you" we did
a kind of psychodrama, but only with the film.

It didn't help anyone,
maybe just us at that time

The memory of
"The Stendhal Syndrome" is not so fresh,

but between the movies he made with
Asia is the one that touches me the most.

It's a fabulous film

and I find the film
to be almost more cerebral

than "Inferno",
which is maybe his film or is openly.

“The Stendhal Syndrome" is
my favorite movie we did together.

I felt a great freedom as
an actress in that character.

She was a powerful character,

in fact I remember
that during the shooting filming,

I felt a bit haunted by this
character.

And even when the film was
finished, that character stayed with me.

She wasn't a spirit of light,
she was very dark.

Come forward, come come.

Come forward, come, see? Never
stop.

OK, another one.

Come down and immediately open.

Ready? Where are
you looking now, are you looking down?

No.

No, I look like that.

Look at the other look.

But there were scenes in
“The Stendhal Syndrome" really

really hard to shoot.

At that time I didn't have
the courage to tell my father

"But why do we have to do these
scenes?"

Because in the end he always
says "Because the movie is like that!

Oh well, you're my daughter
but you're also the actress,

we have to do these
scenes, that's how I wrote it!”

I can't explain

why

we shoot these extreme scenes.

Sure, it's unusual
for a father and daughter

to make such extreme films,
even from a sexual point of view,

especially such a young girl
in her twenties.

But our relationship

is kinda grown

and precisely by the fact that
we went

into the abyss so deep
into the human psyche together

and then
we'd come out the other side

without a scratch

She is a sensitive girl,
who tried to become a policewoman

exactly to go against
this strong sensitivity.

Which inevitably comes out
in front of such beautiful paintings

and while travelling
she is lost, she is a touristcon.

She feels unwell and
her oversensitivity comes out.

Her identity breaks and each
part of her personality comes out.

She has no control of herself.

The relationship between
father and daughter is fabulous.

It must make a lot of women
jealous

or envious to witness such
a creative, artistic and joyful relationship.

And yes, they are both fascinating
beings, kind of unbridled, never self-censuring.

They have their own limits
and their relationship code but

they make movies in a joyful
atmosphere.

Of course, there are things
in life that can’t be joyful, but

they are exactly where
they want to be, and they are proud

to be where they stand,
and they work their magic.

Few fathers and daughters

can brag about having
collaborated together on such ambitious projects

With her face and... you see...

And I go "Oooo Mon tresor"

When we shot that sex scene

in "The Phantom of the Opera",

there was a sword of
Damocles hanging on this scene.

We hadn't talked about it
when we were going to shoot it.

That day my grandmother Fulvia
was there

my mother's mother with whom me
and my father were very close,

came to meet us
in Budapest that very day.

And my grandmother sat with her chair
facing away, to not to look at the set.

I was embarrassed and
I already had the angel tattoo on the belly,

they had hidden the tattoo with
make-up

and my father had complained
to the operator saying

"Oh well the tattoo is really
big".

I then cried even more, I felt
humiliated.

I mean I was losing my virginity
in front of my father.

It was just the Electra complex
to the nth degree.

It’s been very tiring.

Just a day to forget.

But then when it was over, I
definitely cried,

my father didn’t cry, but he
was relieved.

I should have done “The Card Player",
but I was in the United States,

where the production of my second
film as a director “The Heart is Deceitful”

started very quickly.

So I couldn't go back to Italy,
for me it was a unique opportunity

make my second film as
a director at 27 in the United States.

My father was very upset

and then he didn't talk to me
for a couple of years

for this reason.

For me it was terrible,
but also for him I think.

And I remember that I contacted
him, when I finished shooting the film,

to ask him for advice

but it took a while for our
relationship

to come back
to how it was before the movie.

I would say like before I
became a mother

Argento,

your vocation is to terrorize
people.

Yes

yes, it is a vocation,
but also a personal, cultural predisposition

perhaps It’s also a constant,
who knows, of my nightmares

of my dreams, even of my
cultural choices

But it's complicated.

I would not even say
that the predisposition is just terrifying

because terror is a phase
that beginners provoke.

I'm looking for panic,
which is something more,

it’s a deeper penetration.

If we want to compare
panic to terror and fear,

we can say that fear, for
example,

it is a feverish state
with a temperature of 100.5.

Instead panic is 106
degrees temperature, that is delirium.

Many years ago I said that fear
was

like having a feverish state
with a temperature of 100.5

and panic was even higher fever.

As a joke to explain what panic
is.

Panic is also something quite
inexplicable

that takes you to a dimension
you don't know

that you can't control.

The only time I've ever seen my father
cry was when my grandfather Salvatore died.

It was Easter, we went to the
Vatican

and there was Pope Wojtyla
speaking.

My father was not religious,
not yet at the time

and I don't know why he brought
me and my sister Fiore to see the Pope.

And then, seeing the Pope speak,

my father bursts into tears
with his hands folded like this

he asked for forgiveness
"Forgive me, forgive me" and cried.

And I know that he was speaking
to his father, my grandfather.

This is still a very strong,
very touching image for me today,

seeing my father fragile.

Because he is just a man from
another time,

he has never shown himself fragile, even today

He hates to be seen fragile.

Since the moment I first spoke
about the story,

before I even started writing
anything.

I’ve been thinking about how
Dario would be amazing in the father’s role.

Maybe because of how familiar
he is to me

and because of his Italian ways,
how he moves his hands while he is speaking,

it reminded me of my own father.

I remembered him during
his presentation of his films to the public,

when he introduced "Phantom of
the Opera",

the guy is on stage
and for an hour straight,

he can’t stop talking

and people are clapping as if
they were watching the movie itself.

He’s so much more charismatic

than most comedians
I know in France or elsewhere.

I thought "Hey, he’d be perfect"

Even better than the actor

who played "Umberto D." in De
Sica’s movie

Do you know why I make cinema?

Why doing it, why?
I know why, I absolutely know.

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

The car arrives at four o'clock

Okay, let's go

May I accompany you, Maestro?

Thank you.

He's someone who makes you want
to live,

someone who makes
you want to have a family.

Someone who makes you want to
make movies

and someone who makes you want
to watch other people’s movies.

When I asked him to be in the
movie,

he said “Why are you proposing this to me?”

"I’m young, can’t you see?",
and I replied

“I do, but, we can lie,
make you look older, etc."

It’s true, he’s an eternal
teenager

with the cinematographic
intelligence of an adult director.

However, his behavior is that
of an everlasting teenager.

Various directors
are trained on his films,

one of these, for example, is
Tim Burton

who came to Rome
and asked to meet Dario Argento.

What did the two do?
Did they talk?

No!

Because they both knew to
be ordinary people in real life.

Well Tim Burton

is Tim Burton...

that is, a badly dressed man
with awful shoes, with a black ugly coat,

with big teeth forward, a bit
long hair.

We know Dario Argento

and instead they know very well
that they transform when they do their job.

If you know De Palma, Carpenter,
they seems like two normal gentlemen.

No, Dario is Dario Argento,
he has no equal.

Because Dario Argento is fear!

I still remember New York
at the time of "Inferno",

"Alien" just came out.

Dario and I went to see "Alien",

we were so scared that
we had our legs over the seat.

I remember this like it was
yesterday.

He was someone who was
happy in our company, he liked to joke.

He had a sense of humor,

he had a sense of humor!

People can’t believe it,
but yes he does have it!

One thing is the movies
you make, one thing is how you are, right?

He has luckily never felt
like a star,

because in this way
he remained a very concrete person

Dario Argento is Dario Argento

he is like Andy Warhol

he paints you a painting,
it's an Andy Warhol painting!

And therefore a great artist!

Many young people know
his films, they discover and love them

but many others only know that
"he's the scary one!"

They talk and say
"But who is this Dario Argento?"

He’s the one who did
"The Exorcist", didn't you watch it?

That is, they universalized it.

Dario is now fear himself!

When I won the David di
Donatello, I was 18 years old.

I returned home with this prize

and my father who, in short, he is one
of the greatest Italian directors of all time,

he had never been nominated,
he had never won.

Then he won it later
as a lifetime achievement award.

I went home, we looked at each
other

and he told me "Oh
well, sticazzi!” (“Who cares”)

This thing frees me a lot
because

in fact sticazzi,
because who cares about the prizes!

This was the important lesson.

It's not the rewards,
it's the work. Work is the most important thing.

The real prize
is being able to make a film

It's like a miracle

to be able to make films,
today more than ever!

My dreams

they've changed, they've...

they changed because I changed.

I think that

I will continue to explore

my depths

my dark half

my dark half that is

in reality

the true

the true reason
why I do cinema in this way

Implacable death exists

and you can't escape,

but I don't think about it.

Yes, you made me talk
for almost two hours!

- Three quarters of an hour
- No, no, no, it's 11!

Yes, it was 10. An hour, an
hour!