Dario Argento

Mother of Tears: an illicit glimpse

Source: Dark Discussion

Dark Discussion member Yellowfire was at the Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors convention in Secaucus, New Jersey on July 1st, where the same 20-minute preview of Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears that was screened at the Cannes Film Festival was being shown. He has made available a few hand-held photographs of the footage shown and even a couple of audio clips, and they won’t be left online for long, so get ‘em while they’re hot! While it’s too much to hope that the entire preview will ever be made available online, I would like to hope that the launch of the official Italian Argento web site in five days’ time will herald some high quality clips, or at the very least a non-camcorded copy of the trailer.

Returning to the shots themselves, it’s obviously difficult to get much of a flavour for the film’s look given that they are fairly small and blurry. I do, however, note with some degree of glee that some of the old Inferno look seems to have returned, judging by the blue tinting in the last few shots. Likewise, the music sounds excellent from the sample clips provided, very similar to that of the trailer.

In even better news, here’s what someone else who was in attendance had to say about the preview:

I had the chance to see about twenty minutes of this film last weekend. All I can say is that it’s vintage Argento. Highly atmospheric, bloody as hell, surreal, disturbing and gorgeously shot.

[…]

Frankly, eveything I saw of it was amazing. This is the Argento we haven’t seen in almost twenty years back at the top of his game, and MOTHER OF TEARS looks to be a fine capper to the Three Mothers trilogy.

Naturally, I’ll be waiting to see the final film before making any definite opinions, and I sincerely hope that I don’t have too long to wait, but, based on this feedback and these tantalising glimpses, I’m very, very excited.

Argento online

Long overdue, Dario Argento will finally get an official web site, as of July 7th 2007. As you can probably gather from the URL, www.darioargento.it will be an Italian language resource, and it’s unclear exactly what the content will comprise. In the meantime, the definitive Argento resource on the web is Dark Dreams, and, for English speakers at least, this is likely to remain the case even when the official site has been launched. I really hope it will give us some new material on Mother of Tears - like a high quality copy of the trailer.

Anchor Bay goes Blu

Source: High-Def Digest

Well, colour me surprised, excited and disappointed in equal measure? Starz Home Entertainment, the DVD company formerly known as Anchor Bay, have added their name to the still-small list of independents producing high definition content. The good news? We may soon get to see Dawn of the Dead (the original, not the remake), Halloween, The Evil Dead et al in HD. The bad news? They have tossed their hat exclusively into the Blu-ray ring (I was sure they would go with HD DVD, if anything), and their only announced release so far is the first season of Masters of Horror. Oh, and MGM is handling the distribution, which, given their track record with their own titles so far, is slightly worrying.

I must say I never thought the first Dario Argento title to get an HD release would be Jenifer. That’s just… wrong. Still, looking on the bright side, I’m now hopeful that those HD-mastered special editions of Tenebre and Phenomena will eventually emerge, on both DVD and Blu-ray. That’s what I’m hoping at any rate. Those, coupled with an HD DVD of Suspiria from The Weinstein Company, would put me in HD heaven. It’s just too bad so many of the other Argento films are owned by the HD-phobic Blue Underground.

Mother of all picture galleries

A lavish gallery of promotional stills for Dario Argento’s upcoming Mother of Tears has appeared online at Italian movie site Occhi Sul Cinema. There are potentially some major spoilers, but if you don’t mind about that sort of thing, then it provides a rather interesting insight into just what we can expect from the final part in the Three Mothers trilogy. Obviously, as photographs taken on the set, these shots haven’t gone through the digital grading process to which the final film will be subjected, but I sincerely hope that we get more in the way of primary colours than what has been seen so far. I’m also slightly wary that the gore seems to adhere to the “squirt as much blood as we can” philosophy of Jenifer, Pelts and Non Ho Sonno rather than the more imaginative, lyrical violence of Suspiria and Inferno, but I will of course reserve judgement until I see the finished film.

If nothing else, it looks set to be an audacious and explosive finale. Will it be anything like the first two instalments in the trilogy? Probably not - we are, after all, talking about a gap of almost 30 years - but at least it looks as if we’ll be getting something more daring than Argento’s last few efforts (both film and TV).

By the way, a couple of shots from this gallery were removed shortly after being uploaded, but Dark Discussion member SilverSurfer had the foresight to save them, so they are now available here.

Update, June 16th, 2007 08:21 PM: The gallery appears to have been taken down, but some low resolution versions have been saved at GoreZone (scroll down to find them).

BU Stendhal specs announced

Fangoria has got the scoop on Blue Underground’s upcoming release of Dario Argento’s The Stendhal Syndrome, due for release on September 25th. This 2-disc special edition will feature the following specifications and extras:

Disc 1:
- 119 minute uncut version
- 16x9-enhanced 1.66:1 transfer
- 6.1 Dolby DTS-ES English audio track
- 5.1 Dolby Surround EX English audio track
- 2.0 Dolby Surround Italian audio track
- Original Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2:
- “Director: Dario Argento” featurette
- “Inspiration: Psychological Consultant Graziella Magherini” featurette
- “Special Effects: Sergio Stivaletti” featurette
- “Assistant Director: Luigi Cozzi” featurette
- “Production Designer: Massimo Antonello Geleng” featurette

Sounds like it’s going to be a great set, although I’m a little confused as to why Blue Underground would bother remixing the horrendous English dub into 6.1 rather than the vastly superior Italian version (and I’m a little concerned that no mention is made of subtitles - such things are not guaranteed with Bill Lustig at the helm, even when non-English audio is included). It’s also a shame Alan Jones seemingly didn’t get a chance to record that interview with Asia Argento for the disc that he was trying to put together at Cannes.

On the same day, Blue Underground will also be re-releasing The Cat O’ Nine Tails, Opera and Suspiria. As with their earlier releases of Deep Red and Inferno, these will simply be the old Anchor Bay DVDs repackaged. Opera will be the single-disc release, while Suspiria will be a 2-disc set, presumably replicating the first two discs of the Anchor Bay 3-disc limited edition, sans soundtrack CD.

This information discovered by R.J. MacReady at Dark Discussion.

Mater Lacrimarum in the flesh!

The trailer for Dario Argento’s upcoming Mother of Tears/The Third Mother has been running in Italian cinemas in front of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof (his half of Grindhouse, which was split into two films for its European release), and one thoughtful viewer had the presence of mind to camcord it, the results of which are now available on YouTube. Bearing in mind that this is just a very brief trailer, and that the image and audio quality are both quite poor, it’s very exciting to see these tantalising glimpses of the film.

The musical accompaniment, which I’m guessing is an excerpt from Claudio Simonetti’s score for the final film due to the presence of the words “Mater Lacrimarum” in the choral accompaniment, reminds me very much of Jerry Goldsmith’s work on the Omen trilogy (and I consider this a very good thing, because I think they are among the finest movie scores ever created), while the presence on the traditional Satanic imagery (in particular the goat’s head with a pentagram on its brow) suggest a distinctly different tone from the more fairytale-oriented Suspiria and Inferno. This is all good, from my perspective: while I hope Mother of Tears includes many of the elements that we know and love from the first two films in the trilogy, it’s also nice to see Argento experimenting with new ideas. October 31st (and whenever the film becomes available to those of us outside Italy) can’t come soon enough.

Thanks go to Mariana at Dark Discussion for uploading the video to YouTube.

Oooooh yes!

Source: Shock Till You Drop

I guess Mother of Tears is the official US title, then, rather than The Third Mother. Too bad Myriad didn’t employ better proofreaders - that spelling error is a pretty damning mistake to make!

Credit for discovering the poster goes to Misery at Dark Discussion.

Suspiria in HD?

Source: Mobius Home Video Forum

One film that I’d give my eye-teeth in order to see released in high definition is Suspiria… and now, it seems that this may be a distinct possibility. Earlier this month, I reported that a new, restored version of Suspiria was to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival along with a preview of The Third Mother. Now, according to Fangoria, The Weinstein Company has established a new sub-label, Dimension Extreme, which…

…will specialize in horror and other genre fare. The first title to go out under that brand will be a restored version of Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA (which, as we told you here, also has a remake in the works); other movies coming under the Extreme banner are Greg (WOLF CREEK) McLean’s killer-crocodile pic ROGUE (pictured) and - ugh - PULSE 2.

Well, all I can say is that I never thought I’d see a film entitled Suspiria released under the Dimension label and actually consider it a good thing. As a pretty prestigious title, and the first in their line-up, my guess is that it will be a strong contender for release on HD DVD (The Weinstein Company is one of the few independent labels to have embraced high definition home entertainment). I’m definitely crossing my fingers that I’ll be seeing one of my favourite films in HD soon, particularly given that, if any film deserves to be appreciated in full 1080p, it’s Suspiria.

Like trying to drown a cat

Just over a year ago, I reported that the projected remake of Suspiria had been canned. Unfortunately, it seems that this little project is as durable as Mater Suspiriorum herself, for it has once again reared its ugly head, as per an article at Dread Central.

Variety is reporting that upstart production house First Sun has acquired the rights to remake Dario Argento’s classic 1977 headfuck Suspiria for modern audiences. First Sun is a conglomeration of director Luca Guadagnino, fashion designer (!) Silvia Venturini and a slew of producers.

“Suspiria has a unique style that we want to reinvent for today’s generation,” director Guadagnino told the trade. “We intend to create a concept that will encompass cinema, videogames, fashion and music and that revives the original for those who did not experience it. The Gothic resurgence is very strong around the world at the moment … and we feel that a new version of Suspiria will fit very well.”

Christ, what is with people? I could say so many nasty things, but I frankly don’t have the energy, so I’ll just shake my head sadly and direct you to some more positive news regarding The Third Mother, straight from the pen of Alan Jones.

Mother of Variety

Dario Argento’s The Third Mother is clearly set to receive considerably more publicity than I had originally expected, certainly more than his last few films, as it is the featured title on the cover of the Cannes Film Festival 2007 issue of Variety. I’ve never bought Variety before (the bizarre abbreviations and grammatical oddities used in the publication’s articles drive me up the wall, actually), but I’m definitely going to look into getting hold of a copy of this issue. Does anyone know of any online stores that are selling it?

As reported at Asia Argento fan site Ode to Azia, a three-minute preview of the film will be shown at Cannes on May 20th, along with a brand new print of Suspiria.

Credit for discovering this goes to Mannfan at Dark Discussion.

Update, May 14th, 2007 07:32 AM: Apparently, despite its prominent position on the cover, there’s nothing about the film inside the actual magazine.

What’s going on with The Third Mother?

Last Friday I posted the triumphant news that The Third Mother would be uncut after all, as per Dario Argento himself. Unfortunately, it now seems that there’s more to the story than meets the eye, according to Alan Jones, arguably the one journalist who knows more about Argento than anyone else. As he says in his blog at FrightFest,

Distributor and producer Medusa reeled in shock at Dario’s first cut of the supernatural shocker that went far beyond any extreme they imagined. Didn’t they read the script? So they sent him back into the editing rooms to make it more ‘mainstream’, i.e. attractive to overseas buyers who they thought wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole in the original version. So far they’ve been right. The problems are all to do with the depiction of perverse sex in the witch gathering satanic scenes and one cannibal killing of a major character.

[…]

Argento is now in a standoff position with Medusa. He’s not one to suffer fools gladly and is prepared to fight his corner. His reputation is still so great in Italy that it will be an interesting face-off. I hope for his sake, and ours, he wins and we see The Third Mother in all its gory and orgy glory.

I hope so too. People have been waiting for this film for 27 years - for it to finally emerge after all this time in a form that doesn’t represent its director’s intentions would be a travesty.

Discovered by Cookie at Dark Discussion.

What sort of noise does a goblin make?

Are you a fan of Goblin? Do you have a lot of money to fritter away? Then you might be interested in this 8-CD box set from Japan, featuring the scores to Profondo Rosso (2 discs), Suspiria, Roller, Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark, Zombi, Tenebre and Cherry Five. Myself, I doubt that I’d be prepared to spend this much money on music even if I could afford it, but I’m sure it will make a few collectors out there very happy. Incidentally, I do need to pick up the scores to Profondo Rosso and Tenebre, which for some reason are missing from my library of CDs.

Credit for discovering this little gem goes to Andrew Monroe at DVD Maniacs.

The Third Mother will be uncut, says Argento

Following the rumours that the upcoming The Third Mother would be cut by distributor Medusa Film before its theatrical release, director Dario Argento has himself weighed in on the issue, and here is what he has to say:

According to Dario, “La Terza Madre” won’t be cut and there will be only one version for the theaters and the DVD. “These days, people are used to a cinema that’s a bit stronger and more vivid, I don’t think there will be any problems. It will be rated, but it’s normal.” In fact he says “I wasn’t asked to do any cuts.” So I hope this will stay this way and that nobody will ask him to cut anything.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this remains the case.

The Bill Lustig syndrome

Blue Underground boss Bill Lustig recently gave an interview to Belgian site Cultfilms en Kultfilms, in which he discussed a number of pertinent issues, including his own career as a director, the status of upcoming titles, and, perhaps most importantly, the company’s future. Sadly, the news does not appear to be good: apparently the DVD market is currently at a stage where saturation is so high that it’s impossible for obscure titles to compete against the big guns and make a profit.

Still, we do have some nice releases to look forward to, the main one for me being the upcoming special edition of The Stendhal Syndrome, which will replace the Troma monstrosity as the official American release of this often-underappreciated 1996 gem from Dario Argento. I previously expressed reservations, based on Blue Underground’s track record of often not including Italian audio options for such films (and The Stendhal Syndrome is a film that needs to be experienced in Italian). Any fears can be laid to rest, however, as, according to Lustig:

Will you feature both the English and the Italian versions?
Yes - the English and the Italian. We just finished the transfer in high-definition under the supervision of the director from the composite, so it’s the definitive version.

Let’s just hope they remember to throw in English subtitles, unlike some of those multi-language Anchor Bay titles where the non-English dubs are essentially useless unless you speak the language.

Information has also been provided on the bonus content:

Would you consider letting Dario Argento do an audio commentary in subtitled Italian?
Well - no - we’re not doing an audio commentary, but we’re shooting an interview with him next thursday. Him and Asia and Guiseppe Rotunno, Sergio Stivaletti and the author of the book. We’re shooting those interviews in Rome on the 18th and the 19th. And when I say ‘we’ - I’m not going to Rome, it’s going to be David Gregory who works for me.

I’m slightly disappointed by the lack of a commentary (I had hoped that we’d get another of Alan Jones’ excellent efforts), but the interviews sound excellent. Sign me up for this release.

Update, April 15th, 2007 10:02 PM: Apparently Lustig was misquoted in the original interview, so “director of the composite” should read “director of photography” (i.e. Giuseppe Rotunno).

Mother of spoilers - redux

Here’s a piece of advice: DON’T click this link if you want to have any surprises at all when you finally get to see The Third Mother. Mariana at OdeToAzia.com has kindly translated the text of the article on the film which appeared in l’Espresso (see my previous post on the matter). This article, for some inexplicable reason, provides a synopsis for the entire film, including the ending. I glanced at it briefly, but stopped myself before I ruined too much. I’m providing the link here just in case you want to be completely spoiled, but I strongly advise against reading it.

Mother of spoilers

Source: Dark Discussion

Mariana, who runs the Ode to Azia Asia Argento tribute site, has kindly scanned and uploaded a two-page article on the upcoming The Third Mother from the Italian newspaper l’Espresso. Apparently the text is extremely spoiler-intensive, even going so far as to give away the ending, so you may not want to look at it if you read Italian. Ignoring the text however, however, you can still enjoy the rather fuzzy and hard to make out photos from the film itself and the set, which showcase, among others, Asia Argento and the Mother of Tears herself, Moran Atias.

Composer Claudio Simonetti has also posted about the film on the forum for his web site, and Dark Discussion member Mannfan has kindly summarised some of the most important points:

- The music is done and the mixing of the Italian and English tracks has just been done.
- Simonetti worked almost 4 months on the soundtrack… there are some nods in this music to Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Carl Orff… its style is classical and also a bit Gothic, especially in the use of choir… Simonetti is very proud of his music, one of his most beautiful and accomplished.
- The cinematography is dark but beautiful and full of colours in the same time!
- The film is full of actions and violence (Walter Fasano’s editing is very good), with many different locations… the scene(s?) in the catacombs are very good.
- The film is full of Lee Wilson’s digital effects and Sergio Stivaletti’s effects.
- The witches are very, very sexy!
- There is one of Dario’s most striking shots in his whole career, a 4 minute and 10 second sequence without cuts (?) when Asia’s character is entering an old house.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. The rumours of the film being cut by distributor Medusa Film are apparently true, and Nick from Dark Dreams has warned fans to expect a film that “will not be Dario’s original vision”. I just pray (not literally, of course) that a version that does represent what he wanted to make eventually sees the light of day on DVD.

The Blue Underground Syndrome

Source: Dark Discussion

We’ve not heard much from cult DVD producers Blue Underground recently, barring a few Argento and Fulci re-releases, with news so quiet that many people began to speculate that the company might be on the verge of folding. On a recent webcast interview at Deadpit.com, however, head honcho Bill Lustig let slip some morsels of information, the tastiest of which was the news that the company plans to release a 2-disc special edition of The Stendhal Syndrome, Dario Argento’s best film of the last two decades, in August. For Region 1-restricted American fans especially, who currently have to make do with Troma’s monstrosity, this is huge news. For the more fortunate, a good but not brilliant 2-disc release has been available from Italy since late 2003, but even so I’ll be all over this if Lustig and co are able to deliver on the bonus content, and perhaps even issue a better transfer.

Of course, if they don’t include the superior Italian dub (which features Asia Argento’s own voice) then I would personally consider the disc more or less worthless, as the film is incredibly painful to watch in English (and is also missing a couple of minutes of footage only found in the Italian print). Blue Underground were kind enough to include Italian audio for their 2005 2-discer of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and also for Paolo Cavara’s The Black Belly of the Tarantula, but it must be said that, as far as including Italian audio is concerned, their track record isn’t all that great. Still, here’s hoping.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Mother of Scissors

Source: Dark Discussion

According to a news post on Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso shop web site, The Third Mother’s distributor, Medusa, have not only delayed the film’s release date to October 31st (so they can have a Halloween-themed advertising campaign), but are also demanding cuts to the film’s more violent scenes and effects. This sort of thing truly beggars belief. Did Medusa seriously think that the sequel to Suspiria and Inferno wouldn’t be violent? What is the point of this? This isn’t even a censor attempting to cut things, just a bunch of meddling executives sticking their oar in.

I suppose the best course of action right now is to hope that the news becomes widespread and a backlash from angry fans convinces Medusa to rethink their decision. Failing that, we can only hope that it will eventually surface in an uncut form on DVD. This really is the story of Argento’s career, isn’t it? Something tells me that something is seriously wrong with the way people think when Pelts can be screened on American television without any cuts, but what has got to be one of the most highly-anticipated sequels of all time for the Euro-cult crowd looks set to be butchered at the whims of a bunch of people in suits.

The Third Mother delayed

Well, I guess it’s official now: the Italian theatrical release of The Third Mother has been delayed till October. Get the news direct from the web site of Dario Argento’s own Profondo Rosso shop:

Dario Argento’s new movie “The Third Mother” release date has been postponed to next October 2007. But the picture’s alredy been finished and most probabily it’ll be screened during the next Cannes Film Market.

According to a poster at The Latarnia Forums, the reason for the delay is to take full advantage of the Halloween festivities on October 31st, which I guess is as good a way as any of drumming up supernatural anticipation. Of course, the danger is that, rather than encouraging more people to see it, it’ll be lost among the scads of generic teen horror movies that tend to be released at around the same time. Personally, I’m still hoping a semi-prominent distributor picks it up and gives it even a limited release over here, although I’m not sure how confident I should be. I also really hope we see a trailer, or a poster, or something, sooner rather than later - those snippets from a Cinecittà promo that emerged back in January were tantalising but all too brief.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of February

• American Psycho (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Babel (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Beatrice Cenci (R2 France, SD DVD)
• The Descent (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Enemy of the State (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Kingdom of Heaven (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Masters of Horror: Pelts (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Perversion Story (R0 USA, SD DVD)
• This Film is Not Yet Rated (R1 USA, SD DVD)

As you can see, a rather blue month for me - put that down to the giddy thrills of a new format to play around with. I suspect that, in future months, as the HD DVD side continues to ramp up production, there will be a more even split between the two formats as far as purchases are concerned.