Dario Argento: Panico

... in the discotheque ... or wherever else you want to take it. Just do not take your gloves off for this - so no pun intended. How are you feeling about Dario? You may be a fan of the first hour - you may still be a fan ... you may only like the early things he did ... I doubt there will be many who like his recent output ... which would beg the question: was he always "bad" or is he losing his touch? Something to ... well food for thought.

Argento worked with a lot of people ... he worked for a lot of people ... so there is no shortage of people who want to talk about him and his work. As a friend said, this is a beginners guide ... it is more about Argento light ... but there are enough more documentaries that probably dig deeper ... we will know shortly how the other movies fair ... I will watch them and tell you about them.

Known as the "Master of Thrill", Italian filmmaker Dario Argento boasts a long and complex career. The Shudder original Dario Argento: Panico documentary takes a look at highlights from Argento's filmography by interviewing the Master of Horror himself along with other talking head contemporaries. For those that might only be familiar with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) or Suspiria (1977), Panico is a suitable overview with Argento himself acting as a grandfatherly host. For true Argento fans, Panico has all the substance of a featurette buried on disc 2 of the Opera collector's edition Blu-Ray.

Dario Argento: Panico provides a totally-fine overview of the auteur's work that pairs nicely with salt-cured prosciutto and a glass of Sangiovese chianti. But what would have worked spectacularly would have been if that Italian hotel was haunted... instead of Argento's tired eyes.

In my wildest dreams, I never hoped that anyone would ever do a Dario Argento doc that would seriously delve into what makes Argento one of my favorite filmmakers. Indeed, I often vacillate myself between seeing him as a guilty pleasure and a true visionary in the horror genre. Dario Argento: Panico lays out a sound case for placing him at the top of the pantheon of greats.

I enjoyed the film with a rare relish and was very impressed that the exploration was not top heavy with Suspiria- but rather doled out equal time to so many other films. It made me want to go out and revisit some of the work I haven't seen in a while. (I'd just seen Inferno recently in the Blu Underground print and was blown away by the film for the first time- after three previous viewings. ) My high praise, however, comes with a warning- I think if you have limited exposure to all of his work you will be at a severe disadvantage here. This is a deep dive and the film doesn't take time to get you up to speed on the work- but that's how it should be when dealing with the "Maestro". (If Fellini called him that, how could I possibly disagree?)

Plot

A film crew documents horror director Dario Argento as he works on his latest script in a hotel room, revisiting the isolation where he dreamed up his most iconic films, removed from distractions to explore his dark imagination.

Cast

Made by Simone Scafidi who also did a comparable documentary about Fulci (Which I've yet to see) and featuring interviews with Dario, Asia, del Toro, Bava and Ferrini.

Verdict

Argento is a cinematic genius, this to me is not disputable. I've enjoyed a large percentage of his works and hold him in high regard within the industry.

A documentary about him I saw great potential in, sadly the execution is very sterile. It's not exactly an expose or even a biopic, it's a very bland by the book look at his life and his works with contributions from his peers.

This to me is a passable and eye opening watch for mega-fans, but for anyone else it's an unforgivable bore.

Rants

Something has always bothered me about Argento, and that's his use of his daughter Asia. He cast her frequently through his works even from a young age, yet the consistency is nudity and sex involving her and that just never sat right with me and raised questions I'm entirely certain I don't want the answers to. To him it's likely harmless, to her it's likely harmless, to me it has made my skin crawl since the first time I saw it.

Breakdown

Informative Some decent contributors Rather boring No surprises, no frills, just the facts.

Dario Argento Panico is a documentary that has an initially interesting framing device that it doesn't do a ton with (the man himself working on his latest film in a hotel, with a film crew purportedly following him around). It intercuts these scenes with fairly standard documentary scenes that go through his directorial career chronologically.

The only part that really felt inspired, beyond the first few scenes, was a time when what Argento was saying in the present day lined up very well with a TV interview he'd given in the 1970s or 1980s. The editing kept cutting back and forth, letting young and old Argento finish their sentences, and it was quite affecting.

It's otherwise a decent documentary about an interesting filmmaker, but at a certain point, it feels like it's going through the motions a bit as a documentary about a filmmaker. Beyond a couple of parts that stood out, it's probably just for Argento fans only. I find Argento's films generally interesting, so I found this documentary mostly interesting.