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| "SCREAM IS FOR CHILDREN!"Dario Argento: not one for postmodern horror, then...
Critics described 2001's Sleepless (aka No Ho Sonno) as a return to form. Do you see it that way?Dario Argento: "I went back to the giallo style, maybe like my older films Deep Red or Tenebrae. For a long time, I have been exploring many other fields, and 'Sleepless' was my return to the giallo/investigation film. A long time had passed, and I’ve loved the genre for a long time, so after my ‘tour’ around different styles - these different voyages - I wanted to come back and do my speciality." Sleepless possibly features the first death by wind instrument in a movie. Argento: "It’s a simple instrument, but the thing you put in your mouth can be very dangerous. I saw somebody playing one many years ago, and it gave me the idea to kill a person with an instrument. But I didn’t want to use a big, heavy instrument like a piano that would just go ‘Bang!’ on your head. You can use a horn like a knife." Sleepless was your first movie in some time not to feature your daughter Asia Argento... Argento: "It was a vacation for both of us. Maybe in the next films, we’ll work again together, but we needn't work together on every film. It’s a wonderful experience to work with other people for three or four years, because we know each other very well. She wrote the nursery rhyme for Sleepless. The idea was mine, but I asked her to write the verses." In the Sleepless UK DVD’s documentary An Eye For Horror, Asia admits that she felt strange performing scenes with nudity and rape in front of you. Did you also feel awkward? Argento: "Yes. Absolutely! Twice, we had this problem - in The Stendhal Syndrome and Phantom Of The Opera. It was very, very hard, for both of us, very hard. But in film, the characters are in another world. We are not father and daughter - we are director and actress. Then, we forget it." How do you feel about those movies, Phantom Of The Opera and The Stendhal Syndrome? Argento: "I like more The Stendhal Syndrome. I'm not so pleased with Phantom.... It was very difficult because of budget and many other problems. If you want to make a film for children, it's easy to find the money. But if you want to make something for adults, it's a big struggle." What do you make of the American slasher boom: movies like the Scream trilogy? Argento: "Yes, those are for children! Or at least for teenagers. It’s okay. I have watched them and enjoyed them a little bit, but not too much. They pass like water. It’s made just for the audience - it’s nothing new, and it’s only purpose is money." Do you ever plan to complete the 'Three Mothers' trilogy which began with Suspiria and Inferno? Argento: "It's not easy, for many reasons. One is, that these kind of films cost gigantic amounts. Big distributors don't want to spend a lot of money on film-fantasy for adults. It's impossible to find the budget for the third part of the trilogy. I do have an idea for it, but I think it's impossible to follow. A shame." What is your next project? Argento: "I’m shooting a film in Venice. It’s another detective film, because I want to do maybe a couple of these giallos now. It will be with my daughter Asia and it will be very sinister!" How would you like to be remembered? Argento: "As an Italian, European director. Maybe as someone who contributed to inventing something a little bit different in horror and detective stories. Something close to fantasy, dreams and madness. Something not very realistic like American films, but something a little bit strange. I follow emotions, and many American directors are inspired by my films. John Carpenter springs to mind. Argento: "Yes, John, and Brian De Palma and Wes Craven. There are many. I see many movies now with things from my movies in them. It's like some directors think my ideas are for free. 'Ahh... they're for free! We'll take this!'." © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present. No part of this interview may be reproduced without permission. |