This is for Horror fans: Dario Argento Returns with The Sandman (& Iggy Pop)
 

I'm a huge thriller/horror fan, and my favourite director is Dario Argento.
At Christmas he's planning to return with a new thriller called "The Sandman" with Iggy Pop starring as the namesake killer.
It has been a long while since this master of horror has made a work worth of his name, I am very excited.
You can read all the informations here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/d...ng-iggy-pop--2

I saw that maestro Argento has managed to collect the 119% of the predetermined money, if anyone on The ledge contributed, thank you!

Love him! His movies are so atmospheric. Susperia and Demons rock!!!!

I love him too, Suspiria is my all time favourite horror movie.
On Demons he was just producer or writer, I don't remember well, and two of his daughters had minor roles; the director is his friend Lamberto Bava, son of the first great Italian horror director Mario Bava, you should check them out.

I'm a horror buff. I have followed him for a long time. In fact have some of his soundtracks. Demons has his feel all over it. Love the Bird with the Crystal Plummage. An Unexpected Violence is one of the best, moodiest soundtrack pieces ever. The same composer composed music for The Exorcist 2: The Heretic.

I'm also a big fan of Argento. "Phenomena", to this day, still gives me the worst nightmares!!! I'm really hoping Sandman is a "return to form" for him!

Ennio Morricone is arguably the best italian composer, he is most known his work with Sergio Leone, that was the master of Dario Argento. He was perfect for the soundtrack of the Giallo "animal trilogy" of Argento, "The bird with the crystal plummage", "The Cat o' Nine Tails", "Four Flies on Grey Velvet", but the most perfect fit for Argento were the soundtracks composed by the italian progressive rock band Goblin for "Deep red", "Suspiria", "Tenebrae" and "Phenomena":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AMz...vM_-GLnih-DhmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV76...vM_-GLnih-DhmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3K2...vM_-GLnih-DhmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fpt...vM_-GLnih-DhmA

The images are from a series of beautiful limited edition posters. My closest friends gave me one on my 21st birtday.

I hope too, because his last movie, "Dracula" 3D was a bit disappointing. I think his last GREAT movie was Opera. The stendhal sindrome was good too, but I don't like his daughter Asia Argento's acting skills too much.
Yeah, that deformed child is one of the most anguishing thing I've ever seen!

Not just that, but the opening scene with the girl's head going through the glass window in slow motion, and the shards come crashing down on her face...

...and the one guy getting beheaded with the thin piece of sheet metal (or whatever it was)...

...and then, yes, the deformed child...

(shudder) :distress:

I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Mother Trilogy. Suspiria was superb but I thought the last one, Mother of Tears sort of fizzled out. Inferno was solo weird.

Yes, Mother of tears (in italian was The third mother) was VERY disappointing, but there still were little clues of his previous genius; I liked that all the murders had a meaning linked to the killed person:
- The woman that dared to summon the demons died with her mouth crashed (and then sliced open and strangled with her guts
- The lesbian medium died penetrated by a sword
I'm sure there were more that you remember, I've seen it long ago. The Sabba scene was very well built and the locations were beautiful.
The main faults were that it's too short and it didn't develope well all the themes involved and it didn't build suspence and pathos at all. Also the witches were ridiculous andthe acting skill of Asia Argento were only sufficient.
The choice of Moran Atias to impersonate the witch was truly poor, she was just a model with no acting talent famous for her sexy calendars and her soccer-players boyfriends. At the time she was trying to enter in the cinema industry but it didn't last long.
The italian actress that impersonated the mother of tears in the cameo in Inferno was the only right choice. This movie should have been done 25 years earlier.

Inferno was more splatter and gore for Argento, I think because it's his first production with American setting.
To me it still has a weird charm with those amazing colours and all those evil animals. I think the scene underwater is one of the best directed horror scenes of all time.

Sydney's Royal Commissions
 

Royal Commissions running in Australia right now-

The Royal Commission into Child Abuse in Institutions
- Sexual
- Psychological/Mental impairment
-Physical (hand-on-hand contact with force)

The Royal Commission into [Trade Union] Corruption :eek:

:thumbsup:


:rolleyes:

Greetings, from SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.


Release of public complaint follows (sensitive --I will withhold it). :sorry:

I don't think it's sensitive to put a statement about child abuse on a horror thread...

Iggy Pop Is Indeed Playing A Serial Killer In Dario Argento's New Film

Italian horror master Dario Argento made his mark with gorgeously gory films like Suspiria, Inferno, Deep Red, and Tenebre. His creative heyday (late 1970s to the mid-1980s) may be over (though 2007's Mother of Tears had its moments) — but the 74-year-old's latest boasts a bit of stunt casting so intriguing, it just might make the film worth seeking out.

In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, sinewy punk god (and Star Trek cameo-maker) Iggy Pop holds forth on his role in Argento's forthcoming, successfully crowdfunded The Sandman, which is based not on the Neil Gaiman series, but rather the 1816 German short story by The Nutcracker and the Mouse King author E.T.A. Hoffman.

The updated plot, per the film's Indiegogo page:

Going back to the dark, original German legend: the REAL Sandman was someone who stole the eyes of any children that wouldn't just close them and go to sleep... he'd then go feed them to his hungry children on the moon. How's that for a bedtime story? To share this tale in a contemporary way that only Dario Argento can offer, we've carefully crafted a script like none other.
Iggy Pop Is Indeed Playing A Serial Killer In Dario Argento's New Film


Assaying the creepy eye thief will be, of course, Mr. Pop, who told Bloody Disgusting that he's a huge fan of Argento's Suspiria. Of the character, he says:


I think I'll try to bring out the side, the very real side of my personality that can do great harm to others without giving it a second thought, basically. That's how I would play him. In this particular script, if you want to look at it this way, in this Sandman's mind there's a justification because his own mother lost his sight and he has a sort of OCD. He's obsessively, compulsively, repeatedly restoring her sight by stealing the eyes of other people. But I just like the idea that he could do harm and it just rolls off his back and he can do it again and again and again. He enjoys it! He's an artistic Sandman who enjoys a little bit of craftsmanship. He makes dolls that represent the images of each victim and then he decorates the dolls with the eyes of his victims. It's a nice touch.

There's a bit where he has a human counterpart at the beginning of the movie, who's kind of a smarmy Eurotrash art gallery owner, which I'm looking forward to playing because I know a lot about Eurotrash [laughs].
Oh, and speaking of Suspiria and, uh, Eurotrash, another article about The Sandman (this time in Rolling Stone) drops the nugget that the film will contain music by "Claudio Simonetti's Goblin, one of two incarnations of the Goblin band that wrote music for Argento's Suspiria, Profondo Rosso and Phenomena," as well as George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

http://io9.com/iggy-pop-is-indeed-pl...arg-1669436002

'The Dario Argento Collection' & 'The Lucio Fulci Collection' Dated for Blu-ray

Two triple feature Blu-ray sets are planned for March.

In an early announcement to retailers, Blue Underground will be releasing 'The Dario Argento Collection' and 'The Lucio Fulci Collection' on Blu-ray on March 31.

Three classic Dario Argento thrillers on Blu-Ray for one low price!

THE CAT O NINE TAILS: When a simple robbery at a research institute leads to a series of brutal murders, a blind puzzle maker and a tenacious reporter begin their own investigation of the crimes. With nine different clues to follow, they uncover a shocking web of twisted genetics and dark sexual secrets that will finally lead them to a shattering climax of violence and suspense.
DEEP RED: An English jazz pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal hatchet murder of a renowned psychic and is quickly drawn into the savage crime. With the help of a tenacious female reporter, the pair track a twisted trail of deranged clues and relentless violence towards a shocking climax that has ripped screams from the throats of audiences for more than 30 years!
INFERNO: A young woman stumbles upon a mysterious diary that reveals the secrets of The Three Mothers and unleashes a nightmare world of demonic evil. As the unstoppable horror spreads from Rome to New York City, this unholy trinity must be stopped before the world is submerged in the blood of the innocent.

Three classic Lucio Fulci gore fests on Blu-Ray for one low price!
CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD: The Seven Gates Of Hell have been torn open, and in three days the dead shall rise and walk the earth. As a reporter and a psychic race to close the portals of the damned, they encounter a seething nightmare of unspeakable evil. The city is alive with the horrors of the living dead!
THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY: A young family moves from their cramped New York City apartment to a spacious new home in New England. But this is no ordinary house in the country: the previous owner was the deranged Dr. Freudstein, whose monstrous human experiments have left a legacy of bloody mayhem. Now, someone - or something - is alive in the basement, and home sweet home is about to become a horrific hell on earth.
THE NEW YORK RIPPER: A blade-wielding psychopath is on the loose, turning The Big Apple bright red with the blood of beautiful young women. As NYPD detectives follow the trail of butchery from the decks of the Staten Island Ferry to the sex shows of Times Square, each brutal murder becomes a sadistic taunt. In the city that never sleeps, he's the killer that can't be stopped!

Specs and supplements haven't been revealed yet, but the suggested list price for each set is $39.98.

You can find the latest specs for 'The Dario Argento Collection' and 'The Lucio Fulci Collection' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they are indexed under March 31.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...r-bluray/20158

On amazon is 37% off at 24.99$: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1631...ollection.html

Hannibal Season 3 to Explore Classic Horror Roots, Teaser of Mason Verger Shown!

“Hannibal” has been a massive hit ever since its first season, and the show’s premise was partly to thank for that. Other than the notorious “Dexter”, there aren’t that many popular TV shows that revolve around the topic of horror and psycho thriller – and yet “Hannibal” managed to earn a spot in viewers’ hearts almost immediately. Now, the show is getting ready for a third season – and reports indicate that the producers are preparing a real treat for their fans.

A teaser image was recently released, showing the new actor for Mason Verger. The character will be presented by someone new in the third season of the show, replacing Michael Pitt who held the role until recently. This was apparently a decision Pitt made himself, choosing to leave the production – and he’ll now be replaced by Joe Anderson for the third season. Reportedly, Anderson has been hired with a more permanent spot in mind, and he’ll remain on board for any future seasons as well.

However, reports indicate that the Pitt may not have left the production on amicable terms – according to some rumors, the actor was disliked by some of the producers, and they have been actively looking for a replacement. It’s interesting to note that this isn’t the first such incident in Pitt’s career, as the actor previously left “Boardwalk Empire” surrounded by similar rumors, although these were never officially confirmed.

Joe Anderson was quite excited about his new role, and immediately posted a set of pictures on his Instagram account, showing him in full prosthetic makeup for Verger. However, it appears that the posts weren’t officially sanctioned, as they were subsequently taken down almost straight away.

Meanwhile, producers of the show have been teasing about what fans can expect from its third season. They have reportedly been looking at old, classic horror movies quite a lot more compared to the first two seasons, and are looking to incorporate more classic psycho-thriller elements into season 3. In particular, they talked about Dario Argento and his productions, claiming that the new season will show some obvious signs of inspiration from Argento’s work.

Bryan Fuller also stated that the production is interested in bringing new stars on board, including Kristin Chenoweth, Anna Friel and more. None of them have commented about this possibility at this point, so it’s not known if the producers are already in any serious talks about this, or they’re just considering the idea as a possibility. However, the show could definitely benefit a lot from spicing up its cast a little more, especially if this trend continues after season 3 and onwards.

All I Want For Christmas . . . Is Some Original Horror Flicks!
by Richard Spalding

So here I am, bored at work, surfing the internet in search of some good horror flicks to catch in 2015. Searching through Google News, I came across a Yahoo! list of 13 must-see horror films for the new year, and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) list of upcoming horror films for 2015 and beyond.

Of course, I clicked on the links to check them out. What I saw left me somewhat excited, but more than a little disappointed, too.

The films that have me the most excited are the ones that sound as if they are going to breathe some fresh air, or at least ideas, into the horror genre. Spring. 31. Abattoir. It Follows.

Yet, for every interesting and seemingly-fresh movie I came across, there were probably 4-5 sequels, reboots, or retreads that made me realize why horror typically gets dismissed as an inferior genre of story-telling. For starters, just check out all of the sequels (or in some cases, prequels) that are slated to be released in 2015.

The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. Insidious Chapter 3. Sinister 2. Amityville The Awakening. Friday the 13th Part 13. Chucky 7. Evil Dead 2. Halloween 3. Jeepers Creepers 3. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Rings. Saw VIII. The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist. The Purge 3. The Strangers 2.

Seriously – not one of these movies will offer us anything different than what we got from previous installments. That doesn’t mean that all of these sequels will be terrible, just more of the same. And while an extra helping of “more of the same” is welcome here and there, there are 16 sequels listed above – an average of just over one sequel per month next year.

WHEREAS SEQUELS MAKE ME SHRUG AND SAY, “SURE, WHY NOT?” REMAKES GENERALLY FILL ME WITH THE SORT OF HOMICIDAL TENDENCIES THAT ARE BEST LEFT UNSAID, LEST THE FBI BEGIN RED-FLAGGING MY WRITING.
But sequels are a way of life, and while they usually offer more of the same, at the very least you are treated to a (somewhat) new plot with (somewhat) new characters. The same cannot be said for remakes, however, and there is a healthy does of these spawns of Satan set to insult their source material in the next year or two, as well.

Audition. Cabin Fever. Crimson Peak. Day of the Dead. Gremlins. I Know What You Did Last Summer. It. Poltergeist. Sleepaway Camp. Suspiria.

If you are at this site, and can honestly say that you have not seen at least 2-3 of the films listed above, then you have some homework over the holidays, my friend. Half of those movies should be found on any credible “Top _____ Horror Movies of All Time,” which automatically means they don’t need to be remade: they are already that good. As much as I like Rob Zombie, if you asked me which version of Halloween should be allowed to presented to future generations for their viewing pleasure, I sure as hell am not going to go with Zombie’s remake. (I don’t know if I can say the same for Zac Snyder’s reboot of Dawn of the Dead, though – but there are always exceptions to the rules!)

Whereas sequels make me shrug and say, “Sure, why not?” remakes (or reboots, if you prefer) generally fill me with the sort of homicidal tendencies that are best left unsaid, lest the FBI begin red-flagging my writing. Classic films don’t need to be remade: they’re classics. And ****ty films don’t need to be remade, either – ‘cuz they’re ****ty. Either way, my question is always, “What are the filmmakers hoping to accomplish?”

What can Sam Raimi add to Poltergeist that could trump what Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg did? How can a modern director hope to recreate the nightmarish look that Dario Argento infused his film with? And how likely is it that a remake of Audition will retain the slow pace of Takashi Miike’s original, which was absolutely essential in building the sense of dread that we felt as we watched the story unfold?

Of all the remakes that are listed, it is the one of Audition that has me disappointed the most . I just don’t see a modern director having the patience to allow the plot to develop as gradually as Miike did – I can already see some the big reveals that were saved for the final third of Miike’s film being revealed during flashbacks at much earlier points in the remake.

The fact that there are so many horror films being made right now is a testament to the popularity of the genre, but my enthusiasm is tempered by the fear that a string of lazy sequels and unnecessary at best (downright embarrassing at worst) reboots will kill the momentum that the horror industry has built for itself. There are too many talented writers and directors working within the genre today to have it reduced to such derivative efforts, which is why my Christmas wish for this is to see the industry become less reliant on resurrecting plots from the dead.

Sadly, I may have to wait until 2106 or beyond to see whether or not my wish came true.


http://1428elm.com/2014/12/24/want-c...horror-flicks/

Dario Argento Debuts Autobiography 'Fear' at Courmayeur Noir Festival
by Ariston Anderson 12/13/2014 10:19am PDT

“There’s only one thing I know for sure: As long as there’s someone out there to scare, I know I will be a happy person,” writes Dario Argento in his new autobiography Paura (Fear).

The terror maestro presented his autobiography at the 24th edition of the Courmayeur Noir Festival, a yearly gathering celebrating the latest in film and literature thrillers in Italy's idyllic ski town underneath the Alps.

Argento, a regular guest of the festival, debuted the new book, which is published by Einaudi, to a room full of Italy’s cinema elite. The director, who has had numerous tales written about him over the years, said he wanted to finally set the record straight.

Paura mixes stories of Argento’s personal life with his career. “Thriller, horror, fantasy, giallo, noir, these are just words we use to define our dreams,” he writes. The director of classic Italian films including Deep Red and Suspiria, Argento discusses a wealth of topics such as his screenwriting process, his relationships, drug use and how censorship became his greatest enemy.

There's also a fair amount of advice from the 74-year-old director. "Things you say as a kid, write them down, put them aside," he writes, "and read them again when you’re a man."

"My life is long. I have lots of experience," Argento told THR in Courmayeur. "Some experiences are strange, but this is my life."

In one life-imitating-art event detailed in the book, the director was once stalked by a Suspiria superfan who called him anonymously over and over, repeating lines from the film, referring to himself only as the "great punisher," before mysteriously disappearing.

Argento recently completed a successful crowdfunding venture for his next film The Sandman, starring Iggy Pop as a maniacal serial killer. Fans donated generously to the film’s production, for perks including the opportunity to play a policeman cameo for $25,000 or for the chance to play the black-gloved killer in a scene for $5,000, a part that Argento has always historically played himself.

Argento told THR that his entry into crowdfunding is only just beginning. With the first phase wrapped, the film will commence a second crowdfunding phase in January.

"I am happy because it’s marvelous to have a relationship with fans," he said. "It becomes like a big family. Everybody speaks and says something about the film. It’s a great experience."

Argento met Pop in New York, and the two instantly connected on the project idea. "I think he’s a great villain," said the director. "He’s powerful. He’s a big icon."


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...aphy-at-757476

This! My best friend gave me the Phenomena poster this Christmas. Jennifer has embossed insects in her hair. It's gorgeous!

I have my favourite movie's poster, Suspiria, and the dancer has beautiful gold finishings in her hair and she's wrapped in silver metal-wire.
It's beautiful and I commissioned a beautiful golden frame with red velvet inside for it last year as Christmas gift.

Sounds beautiful! Suspirira is my favourite too, but I think that poster has sold out now. My friend picked Phenomena for me and I couldn't be happier. Definitely need to get it framed!

Do you have the standard edition or the special variant one with metallic paint and glitters?
By the way I totally see it with an ebony frame!

Just the standard one, but it's still gorgeous. And an ebony frame would be beautiful!

Yes, also mine is the standard one but I prefer it to the variant deluxe poster because the other is only 2 colors, black and red, while mine is silver, black, gold and red. I was fortunate to discover it one year and a half ago, when the sale was just started, because they quickly run sold out.
I think the most beautiful were the Inferno poster, but I couldn't be happier too with Suspiria!
A silver frame with black or dark red velvet would work out too for Phenomena.

Slow Motion Radio Dario Argento Mix:

Goblin - Suspiria
Goblin - Profondo Rosso
Goblin - Tenebre
Claudio Simonetti - Opera
Ennio Morricone - L'uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo

(Time-stretched x10)

https://www.youtube.com/c/SlowMotionTV


http://www.mixcloud.com/slowmotionra...o-argento-mix/

I bet Stevie would like it
 

From the same italian artist that created the Dario Argento posters series:

La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and The Beast) Poster by Malleus

Artwork created to promote and celebrate a special screening of the 1946 french classic La Belle et la Bête. Dark City Gallery in conjunction with Mark Kermode and The Phoenix Cinema.

http://cdn3.volusion.com/prakm.mcyzp...otos/M32-2.jpg


http://www.darkcitygallery.com/La_Be...ster_p/m32.htm

Horror Master Dario Argento on Fear and Happiness (Q&A)
by Ariston Anderson 8/6/2014 5:06am PDT

To walk into Dario Argento’s apartment in Rome, one would never suspect to be inside the home of one of the world’s most renowned horror directors. The man behind Deep Red, Suspiria and Phenomena, the man who launched Italy’s "giallo" (mystery, crime) genre to international audiences, lives alone inside of a spacious tidy flat in northern Rome.

Indeed most of the memorabilia he’s saved from his films are stored at the Museum of Horrors in the basement of his fan shop, Profondo Rosso, in Prati. Various awards are scattered among the dozens of bookshelves inside his apartment, and film posters line the hallways, the only hint of the Italian director’s career.

Argento, 73, takes a seat in a tall, stiff chair to protect his back, still in pain from a recent fall down slippery steps in his building. But the injury isn’t holding him back from attending the Locarno Film Festival where he’ll be a guest of honor at the Titanus Retrospective.

The Titanus studio represents Italy’s golden age of cinema, producing some of its most important films in the post-war era. With Argento, Titanus took a gamble on a first-time director who would turn out to be one of the world’s most iconic masters of horror. Locarno will screen Argento’s first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plummage, as well as a series of short scary films the director had made for Rai TV, which have never been shown outside of Italy.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the upbeat director about launching his career with Titanus, the moment he became a global name and what truly scares him.

THR: How does it feel to be part of the Titanus retrospective at Locarno Film Festival?

Argento: Very nice. It’s a beautiful place with a big, marvelous square to watch movies in the night. The other European film festivals are too formal. Locarno is a very happy festival. It’s one of my favorites.

My first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, was possible because [Titanus chief] Goffredo Lombardo had a great deal of trust in me and financed this film. My whole career started from there.

Was your first film difficult to do?

It was not difficult because before that I was a screenwriter, and before that a film critic. I knew movies very well. My father was a producer. I knew film people. And then I wrote the screenplay and I did the storyboard, everything. The film was very much in my mind. I shot it in six weeks. It was a great first experience.


You started as a film critic in an industry that has changed a lot since you began. What do you think is missing from film criticism today?

Today the critics are too short, too simple. They have a possibility to examine films, to analyze films from many different aspects. Now the critics just tell us the story, the names of the actors, good, bad, finished.


At what point in your career did you know you had become an international phenomenon?

I think when I shot Suspiria. It was so spread out into the world then. There was a call from every country, from Japan, France, England, everywhere. And then I started to see my career have an upward curve.

The attention surprised me. Many books were written in so many countries. There was a very important moment when I was in Japan. We had such a big crowd; I was really stunned. Also, I remember the premiere in Paris. There was a huge theater that was full, and people were screaming and laughing, all the things you’d want.


Why has Japan in particular received you so well?

Japanese people think my films are inspired by Manga. The Manga was inspired by some of my films. I’m a part of Japanese culture. I’m a big friend of Banana Yoshimoto, a very important writer. She’s a big fan of mine. And all the Manga writers are big friends and admirers of mine.

I remember I was in Japan many times for my films. For Phenomena, Sony was the distributor, and we decided to try an experiment. It was a big theater and every chair had headphones. The film was played without sound, only through the headphones. It was very funny to see a silent film and watch people scream and laugh.


When in your career were you most happy?

Many times I was happy, and many times I was sad. It’s a sequence of your life. I had many very happy moments. But for me to shoot a film, there’s no happy moment, because it’s very tough. I’m not a happy, joyous director, no, no. A film is a tough thing. To think, to prepare, to invent every day, it’s not such a happy experience.


You’ve influenced so many directors globally. Did you ever see it as plagiarism?

No. I was happy to have followers, many directors who appreciate my films. Yes, and after this they usually became great friends of mine, like George Romero, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper. I was also to influence the new generation of French and Spanish directors, and directors in South Korea, such as Park Chan-Wook, and in Japan and Hong Kong.


What’s your theory for using music in films?

I discovered how important music is, because it becomes one of the protagonists of the film. It helps not only to follow the story, but it becomes an expression of the film.

Each movie uses music and sound differently. I chose different musicians because I was a big fan of music before I became a director. So I knew a lot about music.


What was your favorite film score?

Of mine? Maybe Suspiria and Deep Red.


For you, what is the key element of horror?

Psychology is the most important element. It’s a shame because the latest horror films forget psychology and put the focus just on the special effects and the bloody scenes. Psychology doesn’t exist anymore in movies. This is not good because psychology is very important. For this reason, I say that the films of South Korea are the best today, because they’re horror films with a strong psychology.


When writing your scripts, do you put yourself inside the mind of your protagonist?

Yes. When I write a film, I try to become very young, like a child, to have a completely pure impression, not filtered by culture. And I write a film in this condition, from this viewpoint.


What’s your writing process?

I start with a small idea and I stay alone. Nobody lives with me, because I like to be alone and think about the idea. And then the idea grows and grows until it becomes a story. When I write a film, there are no distractions at all. I write all day long until I get tired and stop.


What was the writing process like with Bernardo Bertolucci on "Once Upon a Time in the West"?

Yes. When Sergio Leone chose me and Bernado to write a treatment of Once Upon a Time in the West, we worked together for months. We knew each other already as we are the same generation. I remember it was marvelous to work together. We went to see films together, American Westerns like John Ford. Then we’d go to a restaurant or walk around the city and get inspired to write it.


Is there anything you wouldn’t make a movie about?

I don’t have a taboo. Nothing’s off limits.


What scares you?

In my life? First of all, I’m scared of everybody, people on the street, yes. Everybody is scary.

But then I am scared by something profound, something impossible to explain, some sentiment that comes from deep within me. I wake up in the night very scared. Some parts of my films come from my nightmares.

I am lucky to have a possibility to speak with my dark side. This is important. I have a dialogue with my dark side, and in this dialogue I discover my films.


What are you working on now?

Now I just started writing the treatment for a new project. I don’t know when I’ll start the film. It’s a long time from the start of the idea to the film, a minimum of two years. Sorry, but I can’t tell you what it’s about yet.



http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...to-fear-723085

The art of film: galleries in the movies
From National Gallery to Skyfall, Anne Billson looks at the greatest film scenes set in art galleries

The most beautiful art gallery sequence, on the other hand, is surely the first ten minutes of Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome, a title inspired by a real psychosomatic disorder (named after the French writer, who suffered from it) whereby great works of art make the sufferer swoon. The horror director's daughter Asia, somewhat miscast as a detective who suffers from the syndrome, is on the track of a serial killer in Florence, and pops into the famous Uffizi Gallery. Big mistake.
Botticelli's Primavera and Caravaggio's Medusa, two of the museum's most celebrated works, make her feel dizzy before she faints in front of Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (to be found, in real life, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brussels) and imagines she's actually inside the painting. It's one of the strangest and most beautiful sequences Argento ever directed, though unless you're a hardcore horror fan it's probably best not to watch any further, since the film later gets bogged down in unpleasantness.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/f...he-movies.html

Top Ten Horror Film Scores
Gwendolyn Kiste Jan 14th, 2015 5 Comments

Horror movies would be nowhere without the music. There to amp up the scares and punctuate the chase, horror scores are vital in crafting an effective film. So for your listening pleasure, here are the top ten horror film scores. Kick back with some vintage headphones and enjoy the spooky ride.

Suspiria
Dario Argento’s surreal masterpiece is unforgettable, but try to imagine it without that inimitable Goblin soundtrack? Next to impossible, huh? That’s the sign of an effective horror score: so inextricably mingled with the terror that one simply cannot exist without the other. With its intensely beautiful melodies–and random lyrics thrown in just to enhance the off-putting aura–the Suspiria score is one-of-a-kind in the best possible horror way. And even without the Technicolor blood, Goblin’s theme song makes for a macabrely fun listen. A Me Decade accomplishment every way you look at it.

Phantasm
As one good turn inspires another, the score for Phantasm was heavily influenced by Goblin. The electronic sound of the 1978 mindbender is an exercise in strident melodies, but when there are evil tall men and shrunken minions in cloaks, no other tunes will do. Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave might not be household names, but their Phantasm score remains one of the most memorable journeys into graveyard mayhem. Because as we all know, metal spheres with blades are always scarier when set to music.

Halloween
My mother and I were recently talking horror movies (because my mom is super awesome and knows her stuff when it comes to the genre). Without her being aware I was in the throes of drafting an article about horror film scores, she commented something along the lines of “Every John Carpenter soundtrack sounds the same. It’s good, but they’re all interchangeable.” Now I, of course, respectfully disagreed, but that being said, good ol’ mom does have a little bit of a point. Consequently, I chose only one film to represent Carpenter’s oeuvre. And while I have a real soft spot for the creepy music of The Thing (which was actually a collaboration between Carpenter and legendary film composer Ennio Morricone), Halloween is the slasher masterpiece that started it all, so it’s the obvious choice. The behind-the-scenes story goes that Carpenter screened the film with no soundtrack and quickly realized it wasn’t remotely scary. One laborious trip into the studio later, and he had a classic.

Near Dark
Remember back in the day when Tangerine Dream ruled when it came to film soundtracks? Oh, to travel back to the technologically simplistic days of the 1980s when a synthesizer and a Casio keyboard were all you needed to sound amazing and futuristic. Recorded in Berlin–with director Kathryn Bigelow in the studio during production–the score for the Oklahoma-set Near Dark is at once jarring and lilting, making it perhaps the most lethally beautiful dust storm you’ll ever meet.

Candyman
During the genesis of these lists, there is oftentimes one film in particular around which I construct the entire idea. The unnervingly lovely Philip Glass score from Candyman was the centerpiece of this week’s article. According to the lore behind the film, in order to persuade renowned composer Glass to craft the haunting music for the film, director Bernard Rose omitted details about just how gore-laden the finished project would be. Upon release, Glass was not entirely thrilled that he had scored what he deemed a conventional horror movie. However, he eventually came around–at least somewhat–as he added a few tracks to the Candyman II score and ultimately released the music–first on CD in 2001 and then on vinyl last year. Better late than never.

The Exorcist
The horror movie score that introduced the word “tubular” into the creeptastic vernacular. The score for the 1973 celluloid bastion of demonic possession is a bit of a mishmash and includes Mike Oldfield’s legendary “Tubular Bells”, which was released independently from the film’s soundtrack and was incidentally on the first ever album from Virgin Records. Another random research note: director William Friedkin later commented that he would have selected Tangerine Dream to score The Exorcist if he had heard their music sooner. Why, tubular bells! You suddenly sound so Reagan-era synth!

The Shining
Proving the value of the less is more aesthetic, the score for The Shining makes the most of every note, sometimes with no more than simple discordant chords during otherwise banal establishing shots. The original soundtrack for the film was scrapped after it didn’t pass muster with capricious genius Stanley Kubrick. Ultimately, there is empty silence as often as there is music, and that choice undoubtedly enhances the omnipresent terror of the Overlook Hotel. Room 237 please.

M
While we’re on the topic of “less is more”, how about a film with next to no soundtrack other than one classical tune? Consider exhibit A, er, M. The Fritz Lang masterpiece makes such effective use of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt that the lovely song almost becomes nausea-inducing even when there’s no murderous Peter Lorre whistling it. And by the way, Peter Lorre actually couldn’t whistle, so that was Lang’s wife (and co-screenwriter) Thea von Harbou doing the soundtrack work for him.

Jaws
When my goddaughter was three, we introduced her to Jaws. This was a major initiation into the family. And despite being easily scared, she took to the film with aplomb. No matter where she was playing in the house, the moment John Williams’ inimitable score came on the television, she would stop what she was doing and announce “There’s that dangerous music again.” That’s the visceral power of melody. You can hear it from another room and know instantly what it means. So even if Bruce the Shark was less than cooperative on the set of the 1975 horror classic, that so-called dangerous music more than makes up for it.

Psycho
When it comes to horror movie scores, Psycho is truly the one to beat. After all, nothing slices straight through the public consciousness and stays there for over half a century quite like violins and Bernard Hermann. Originally, the shower scene was going to be silent. Then it was going to have jazz music (because really, why not?). But Hermann’s orchestral arrangement ultimately persevered, and celluloid history is forever changed–and all the better for it.


http://www.horror-movies.ca/2015/01/...r-film-scores/

Yes, I'm into Japanese stuff...
 

This anime called Yuri Kuma Arashi (=Yuri Bear Storm) has obvious Suspiria references. The accuracy in reproducing the movie setting is stunning:

http://41.media.tumblr.com/8f7d0d45c...7vzo1_1280.pnghttp://40.media.tumblr.com/c3a093bb7...7vzo6_1280.png

http://40.media.tumblr.com/c45006b30...7vzo2_1280.pnghttp://40.media.tumblr.com/9936a1368...7vzo7_1280.png

http://41.media.tumblr.com/e21556b06...7vzo3_1280.pnghttp://41.media.tumblr.com/ed766b0d6...7vzo8_1280.png

http://41.media.tumblr.com/fc15a7f3f...7vzo4_1280.pnghttp://40.media.tumblr.com/e7c0a41c2...7vzo9_1280.png

http://40.media.tumblr.com/79798fa7f...7vzo5_1280.pnghttp://40.media.tumblr.com/6e6121b23...vzo10_1280.png

Suspiria: Experience the True Nightmarish Genius on the Big Screen at Alamo
By Cory Casciato Thu., Jan. 22 2015 at 5:46 AM Write Comment
Categories: Geek Speak


Some films are simply better on the big screen. You can certainly admire the craft of 2001: A Space Odyssey on a 22" computer monitor and the pair of tinny speakers that came with your circa-1995 soundcard, but you're not going to feel the impact of the movie that way. Not many horror films demand this treatment, but if there's one from the genre that definitely deserves the kind of big-screen, theater-sound experience lavished on such classics as 2001 or Lawrence of Arabia, it's Dario Argento's Suspiria.


The power of Suspiria isn't in its story, which is a semi-coherent mess about a girl who finds her elite ballet school is actually run by a coven of witches. You won't find its appeal in the kills, which are both bizarre and inexplicable but lack the kind of visceral, stomach-churning detail that makes your stomach turn over in recognition and empathetic terror. What makes Suspiria special is its atmosphere, and you simply will not experience it properly while sitting in front of a TV set.

Experience is the key word here. In a theater, you do not watch Suspiria the way you do other films: You feel it. It invades your sensory sphere and replaces your normal points of reference with a skewed and unnerving set of alien sensation. Imagine the final sequence of 2001, only less cheesy, more horror-themed and far more intense. Now imagine that lasting nearly the entire runtime of the film, punctuated by a bare handful of "normal" scenes. If you are imagining something weird and disorienting, even delirious, you are on the right track.

Visually, Argento suffuses the screen with bright, primary colors -- especially red -- throughout the film. The way he shoots the architecture of the school and sequences his scenes, the place takes on a surreal, dreamlike quality. The scenes themselves, in typical Italian horror movie fashion, are often more than a little disconnected and not always strictly comprehensible, but where in most films that destroys the flow of the film's story, here it simply adds to the sense of unreality.

Paired with this odd visual approach is the unrelenting, incomparable score. Composed and performed by the legendary Italian band Goblin, in collaboration with Argento, the score is more integral to the film than perhaps that of any other horror movie ever made. If you replaced the music from Jaws with something else, the film would no doubt lose some of its impact; replace the score of Suspiria and the movie would, for all intents and purposes, cease to exist. The score, with its waves of distorted guitar sounds, throbbing synthesizer rhythms and inhuman-sounding voices, does as much work to build tension and terror as the visuals, and the film as a whole should probably be considered a collaboration between Argento and Goblin.

The combined result of all this could easily be called psychedelic, as it generally results in an altered state of consciousness. That's probably not quite right, though, unless you're looking for the kind of dark, demented experience that most psychonauts would undoubtedly call a "bad trip." Better instead to compare it to a nightmare, or perhaps a fever dream, the kind of sweaty, disturbing rush of images and sensations that awakens you from a heavy sleep, alone and afraid in the dark, relieved to find yourself merely in the grip of some illness rather than stuck in the hellscape created by your malfunctioning brain. Of course, after Suspiria, you'll find yourself awakening in a theater, surrounded by other horror fans, but the sense of relief will be the same. It's a special film and, more to the point, a special experience. Like the warnings on TV say, don't try this at home. You will be disappointed. Do it in the theater, or not at all.

See Suspiria the right way on Wednesday, January 28 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. For tickets ($7) and more info, visit the Scream Screen: Suspiria event page.
http://drafthouse.com/movies/scream-...ia-35mm/denver

Find me on Twitter, where I tweet about geeky stuff and waste an inordinate amount of time: @casciato.



http://blogs.westword.com/showandtel...f_suspiria.php

Joe: David Gordon Green on Nicolas Cage, Suspiria and Little House on the Prairie
David Gordon Green says Suspiria is too expensive to remake during the found footage boom, compares his Little House on the Prairie to John Ford movies.
April 10th, 2014 Fred Topel


At a press conference for his new movie Joe, Nicolas Cage said that director David Gordon Green wrote him a letter asking him to be in the movie. We interviewed Cage and Green at the Toronto International Film Festival, but now that Joe is opening Friday, I had the chance to speak with Green by himself a little bit longer. The film, based on Larry Brown’s book, stars Cage as the title character, the head of a tree clearing crew who develops a bond with his young worker, Gary (Tye Sheridan). Gary’s abusive father Wade is played by Gary Poulter, a nonactor Green discovered who passed away after the film was complete. We delved further into Joe with Green and also got some updates on his Little House on the Prairie and Suspiria remake projects, and his next movie Manglehorn, starring Al Pacino.


CraveOnline: What was in the letter you wrote to Nic?
David Gordon Green: Basically, I’d heard he hadn’t worked in over a year and I assumed there was something bubbling in his brain about that and I felt like I had the key in this project. I’m a huge Nicolas Cage fan. I love an actor that is a credible comedic actor and then he makes a turn and wins an Oscar for a dramatic performance and then fights his way into Bruckheimer’s world and makes The Rock. I just love an actor that’s got that kind of appetite and takes those kind of risks and has that diversity to his career. So I wrote him my appreciation of that and said, “By the way, will you read my script?”

Did you write a letter to Tye Sheridan too?
No, he wrote a letter to me.

Did he really?
He did and I’d been in the editing room on Mud. Jeff Nichols (http://www.craveonline.com/film/inte...nichols-on-mud) is a good friend of mine. They were editing that in Austin where I live so I’d seen a few cuts in the rough cut stage of that movie. Jeff put it in Tye’s ear about this project as it started to come together, told him about the movie and I got a nice e-mail from him. Called him in. He lives in East Texas and we brought him into Austin, talked about the role and he did a killer audition.

As I had with a lot of the other cast of the film, I was exploring nonactors for that role. I was exploring nontraditional actors and auditioning kids at boys homes and group homes and juvenile detention centers, looking for the real Gary. Getting to know the technical requirements of the role started to make me doubt that I should do that, the more I was getting to know some of these kids. I thought it was very valuable research getting to know the look in the eye of a young man that’s going through the situation that is the domestic life that Gary Jones goes through. I talked to a lot of them and it was heartbreaking. But, I knew I was going to have to get emotionally really connected to a character and at the same time have a technical perspective to be able to achieve the structural narrative requirements of this movie, to make it what I wanted it to be.

When I met Tye, he had a beautiful understanding of the voice of these kids, but he also had some film experience. He also had not developed any bad habits. He also had an energy to take this type of research and join me on that adventure rather than me going alone to learn about the authenticity of some of these emotional circumstances.

What did he say in his e-mail to you?
He said, “I love the script and I would love to meet with you about it, and I’m the right guy for the job.”

I appreciate Nic wanting to get back into more grounded territory, but did you want some of the crazy Nic Cage also?
This movie, the character was about restraint. That was the one intention of every scene. I want you to feel these things internally and suppress them, keep suppressing and let’s not let the water boil, but let’s let it get hot. So the beauty of Nic in a lot of ways is the perception that an audience brings. Everyone has a different favorite Nicolas Cage movie or least favorite Nicolas Cage movie, people that appreciate the crazy and some appreciate the calm. Here, I wanted to utilize everything. I wanted to have all those unpredictable qualities and yet at the same time make something that he’s never made before so we could diminish people’s expectations in a way and not bring those perceptions to the table but utilize all the baggage.

He still freaks out a little with the dog.
Oh yeah, and it’s amazing, his process is really beautiful. We’d be lighting a scene and then you’d hear him getting into character. He’d just start talking out loud. He’s sitting at the bar one day and we’re going to shoot the bar scene where Willie-Russell comes in and he’s going to go to a difficult place where he is going to let a little bit of the gas out. He’s going to hit the pedal a little bit.

I see him, he’s just going through something in his head and we’re backing off and we’re getting everything set up technically. I just hear him talking to himself. That day in the headlines of the newspaper there was a story about African painted dogs. A kid had fallen into a pit at the zoo and been eaten by these dogs. I saw that’s his process. He’s talking about this. Then I just had everybody kind of hustle quietly and we just started rolling. What you see in the movie is him talking and telling a story to the woman behind the bar. He’s just telling her the story of the headline news of that day in reality, but it’s Nic getting into character. It really started to blur the lines between where Nic ends and Joe begins.

Is an interesting aspect of Joe and Gary’s relationship that Joe’s not really mentoring Gary? He’s just treating Gary like an adult.
Yeah, there’s no ageism in this movie. The kid works hard and he likes him. I think he sees himself in the kid. Early in the movie we kind of structure it almost like a flashback. The way we introduce Gary is almost like it could be Joe when he was a kid. You never connect the two. He’s looking at the car window in the rain. He might as well be looking at himself when he was 16 years old. There are all these moments of reflection where we cut to Gary so I really wanted to play with that a little bit and have those seeds of connection in nontraditional ways.


We talked about your admiration for people like the tree clearers in Joe and the backhoe drivers in Toronto too. It’s one thing to admire those workers. How did you make tree clearing cinematic?
Just get a good DP. Tim Orr shooting at the right time of day in the right location is pure cinema.

Did he shoot Prince Avalanche for you too?
Yes.

So he saw something in the tree clearing and the road painting.
And in our new movie, locksmithing.

Are you still working on a Little House on the Prairie movie?
Yes.

What stage is that in?
We are just getting the script in shape. Hopefully we’ll turn that into something. It’s a pretty exciting piece of property.

Looking at the original book or any of the TV series?
Using the novels, the book series as our reference.

I don’t know how much they differed anyway.
Quite a bit. But they’re great stories, just really great American pioneer stories.

Are you still working on Suspiria?
No, I put that on the shelf for a while. The horror genre’s playing its game right now with its found footage interests. We’ll wait until they want to put back on the Polanski.

Is that why Suspiria won’t work now, because everyone’s doing found footage?
It’s a relatively expensive movie to make, my particular version of it. You can turn a camera on it and do any number of versions of it but mine is not cheap.

You work in the low budget realm. Why would Suspiria the one you want to spend money on?
Well, every movie’s different. That’s just a movie that requires big set builds and big construction and international locations, a lot of things. A lot of production and logistics just cinematically to achieve what I want. I wanted to do basically an opera version of it, not a low-fi nitty gritty version of it. You can make a modest budgeted Joe, shooting in locations that are forests and costumes you get at the thrift store. By the time you make something that has a sense of elegance and epic scope to it, you have to construct most of that, building multiples of wardrobe and multiples of locations and some perspective. There’s a massive construction endeavor in the version of Suspiria that I’d imagined.

Was it going to be a very faithful remake of the Argento film?
Mm-hmm.


Wouldn’t a period piece like Little House also be pricey?
It doesn’t need to be but there are certainly elements of epic scope. I’m looking at it as more of a John Ford movie, kind of in the great western genre. But at the same time, it’s a little house on a prairie. It’s not like I’m making a big special effects extravaganza or something like that.

In Manglehorn, does Pacino like to improvise too?
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We played a lot. I need to call him. He likes to play. We just finished production.

What’s the final cut of that movie coming in at?
The running time? 91 minutes. I love an efficient length of a movie.

But Joe is almost two hours.
Yeah, I know. I think a lot of it is my attachment to the source material whereas Manglehorn was an original idea that I got to play with. I find myself drawn to repeat viewings on movies that are around an hour and a half. I like that length.

Is Joe a particularly male story?
I mean, he’s a male and I think to be honest, I think it does deal with the issues of masculinity and manhood, the mythology of a man in his environment. I look at it as a father/son story but I think it’s relatable in a way and emotional enough where I don’t think it distances a female viewer from the experience.

Not a female viewer, but it deals with things that are male as opposed to what women in that community might be going through.
Right, but it would be interesting. That’s one of the reasons I’m really drawn to Little House on the Prairie is that I think finding the efforts and struggles of survival and hardship through a female perspective is very fascinating. It came through the exploration of Joe where I got excited about this and acquired the rights.

When did you first read the book Little House on the Prairie?
When I was 11.

When did you read Joe?
When I was 21.

So this has been on your mind for a while too?
Mm-hmm.

What are some great scenes from Larry Brown’s book that either you didn’t shoot or didn’t make the final cut?
There’s an enormous amount about the Wade character, Gary Jones’ father, an enormous amount. Some of it we shot and some of it we didn’t, but when you’re trying to streamline the narrative and make the movie centered around Joe, you lose some of that. At the same time, there’s also some great stuff we filmed with Joe and his ex-wife. It just seemed like we were letting everybody know so much about Joe, I was really tempted to hold back. She did a great performance in their scenes together but the only thing that remains is her looking at him sitting in a jeep and he rolls down the window halfway and gives her a look, and says everything you need to know about those two people. So it was fun having those opportunities of okay, that scene works but it lets us know a little bit more than we need to know right now. Let’s let the movie breathe and unfold.

When you work with nonactors, are basic things like getting them to memorize lines more difficult?
Oh, I never try to get anybody to memorize lines. I’m not worried about that. As long as it sounds right. As long as they’re saying the right thing to some degree.

But even that, do nonactors ever have trouble remembering the gist?
I don’t remember ever having that problem. I’m very confident in my casting. I try to cast people that I really believe in their voice and what they bring to the table that’s going to be at least as valuable as anything that me or a screenwriter bring to the table.




http://www.craveonline.com/film/inte...on-the-prairie

Suspiria original international trailer
 

Never seen in such good quality:

Joss Whedon's 5 favorite horror characters
The producer/co-writer of ''The Cabin in the Woods'' (now on DVD) talks about his inspirations

1. Ian Holm as the Android Ash (Alien, 1979)

When he says [of the alien], ”I admire its purity,” I saw a piece of humanity that I’d never seen before. Everything he did made perfect, logical sense. Ripley became [the hero], but Ian was the one who stayed with me.

2. Shawnee Smith as Meg Penny (The Blob, 1988)

She’s a cheerleader, she’s intelligent, she has a machine gun, and I love her. I had a picture of her framed on my desk the entire time I was running Buffy. She’s just tough as nails and sympathetic and lovely, and definitely a seminal character for me.

3. Donald Pleasence as the Priest (Prince of Darkness, 1987)

There was a lot more to him as an actor than being portentous in John Carpenter films. But I never loved him being portentous in John Carpenter films more than in Prince of Darkness. The way he describes evil is so exciting.

4. Jennifer Rubin as Taryn White (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, 1987)

She was so badass. [Dream Warriors] changed the dynamic of the horror movie in a way that I appreciate — the idea that the people facing horror could be empowered by it and confront what they were fighting. It’s very Ur-Buffy as well.

5. Chip with a razor blade (Phenomena, 1986)

That movie is so ridiculously chock-full of horror: There are terrible murders, Jennifer Connelly just happens to have control over insects, there’s a crazy person living nearby. By the time you get to the monkey with a razor blade [who saves Connelly’s life], you’re just like, Oh my God! If you look at Cabin in the Woods, you can see the influence of ”Oh, you mean we can just never stop coming up with stuff?”

(As told to Adam B. Vary)

Synapse Films Blu-ray update: “PHENOMENA,” “MANOS,” etc.


Genre Blu-ray/DVD specialist Synapse Films has a hot lineup of horror titles coming on disc in 2015, and we got a few details on what’s up with some of them, including their next Italian-horror releases.

Right now, the company is hard at work on its trio of Dario Argento titles: PHENOMENA (pictured above, a.k.a. CREEPERS), TENEBRE and, further down the road, the 4K restoration of SUSPIRIA. Synapse’s Don May Jr. tells Fango, “We’re working with the high-definition PHENOMENA and TENEBRE masters from France’s Wild Side, but doing additional work to make the presentations the best they can be. It’s not confirmed yet, but our plan is to include all three editions of PHENOMENA: the 116-minute version, the 110-minute version and New Line’s 82-minute CREEPERS. It might be fun to include CREEPERS in hi-def for the first time.” Both PHENOMENA and TENEBRE will include new interviews and other bonus features as well.

From the sublimely stylish to the ridiculous, Synapse is also busy preparing Harold P. Warren’s classic Z-movie MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE for its hi-def unveiling, working from a restoration by Ben Solvey. “It’s been a long road,” May says, “but we’re excited that Ben has picked us to help him release MANOS. We’re in authoring and compression right now, and we have extras created by Ben and Daniel Griffith’s Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, including a making-of and a commentary.”

In addition, May reveals that their special edition of Curt McDowell’s bizarre adult/horror/mystery/black comedy THUNDERCRACK! will be out for its 40th anniversary this year, which will also see Synapse’s releases of Jim McCullough’s Bigfoot cult fave CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE, Jim Wynorski’s SORCERESS starring Julie Strain and Linda Blair and Kurando Mitsutake’s SAMURAI AVENGER. Keep your eyes here for more details on these discs as we get ’em, and look for a bunch of PHENOMENA coverage (including new chats with Argento, actress Daria Nicolodi and others) in Fango #340, on sale next month!



http://www.fangoria.com/new/synapse-...ena-manos-etc/

17 Moments of Movie Terror in the Bathroom
Ryan Lambie 2/6/2015 at 8:44AM

From toilet-based scares to nasty encounters in the shower, here's a selection of 17 memorable moments of terror in the bathroom...

The following contains potential spoilers and scenes which may be considered NSFW.

The scariest moments in horror are often the most intimate -- this is why knives are a far nastier, button-pushing instrument of death than the gun. As the Joker famously put it in The Dark Knight, “You can savor all those little emotions...”

Intimacy may be the key to understanding why, in horror films, so many dreadful things tend to happen in bathrooms. The bathroom is often where we go to be by ourselves - either to answer the call of nature, brush our teeth, or simply relax in the bath after a hectic day at work. Equally, the water closet also sees us at our most vulnerable: naked, or at least with our pants down, and often with nothing more to defend ourselves with than a mobile phone or a copy of TV Quick.

The following is by no means an exhaustive catalogue of every terrible bathroom moment that has occurred in cinema, but it hopefully offers a broad cross-section. So from nasty experiences on toilets to far-from-relaxing encounters in the bathtub, here’s our selection of horrifying bathroom moments...

Psycho (1960)



Here's the granddaddy of the bathroom horror scene, and likely the one you’ll immediately think of when someone asks you to think of an unpleasant scene set in a restroom. It’s important to remember just how boundary-pushing the shower stall death of Marion Crane was back in 1960 (famously, this was the first time we’d seen a flushing loo in an American movie). The US censors also complained to Hitchcock that they could see actress Janet Leigh’s nipple during the bloody onslaught - Hitchcock, mischievous old soul that he was, told the board that he’d cut the scene out, screened it for them again, and the censors gave Psycho a pass.

The secret to the shower scene’s brilliance is the sound and editing. Hitchcock can’t really show us anything as graphic as a knife slicing flesh, but he can give us the sensation of violence through jolting cuts and the sonic jabs of Bernard Herrmann’s classic score.

Shivers (1975)



Leave it to director David Cronenberg to direct a bathroom scene that is so repulsive and disturbing that it seems to have scorched itself on the minds of numerous other filmmakers. Cronenberg's low-budget feature debut sees a breed of disgusting, man-made parasites - part leech, part turd - spread a venereal disease through an exclusive high-rise building.

In Shivers’ most effective scene, one of these parasites pushes its way up through the drain and into the bathtub of horror queen Barbara Steele, who’s enjoying a bit of me-time with a glass of wine. Her moment of relaxation is ruined when the loathsome critter noses its way out of the plughole and slowly, deliberately makes a beeline for an intimate area between the poor woman’s legs. What happens next is far from explicit - we see nothing but the thrashing of her legs and the shattering of her wine glass - but it’s all we need to know. It’s a horrible, squirm-inducing moment.

Deep Red/Profondo Rosso (1975)

http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/site...//deep-red.jpg

At the height of his creative powers in the 70s and 80s, Dario Argento specialised in staging a string of elaborate, grisly and slickly-executed murder scenes. Profondo Rosso was among the very best of his giallo movies, with a sparky pair of leads (played by David Hemmings and Daria Nicolodi), an intriguing central mystery, and of course, Argento’s trademark horror set-pieces.

This particular one is particularly withering: the unseen killer attacks a woman in her own bathroom and, in a horribly protracted sequence, drowns her in a bathtub of scalding water. Argento’s camera lingers over every unpleasant, murderous detail, before later delivering the warped punchline: the victim, in her dying moments, scrawled some incriminating evidence in the condensation on the wall.

The Shining (1980)

http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/site...-shining_0.jpg

There's an entire article to be written, perhaps, about the significance of bathrooms in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. As Jack Nicholson's wannabe novelist Jack Torrance slowly goes crazy in the remote environs of the Overlook Hotel, notice how the film's most disturbing moments occur in water closets of one sort or another. Butler Delbert Grady fatefully tells Torrance to punish his family in one. The famous "Here's Johnny" sequence takes place in another.

For the purposes of this article, we're concentrating on the scene where Torrance, midway through the film and still teetering on the brink of insanity, wanders into room 237 and sees a naked woman lying in a bath. Seemingly hypnotised by her curviness, Torrance wanders in, and the woman - naked, obviously - gets out of the bath and stalks towards Jack. It’s only when they embrace that Jack realises the woman is in fact a hideous old ghoul. It's both an effective jump-scare and a further insight into the decaying state of Jack's mind.

Poltergeist (1982)



Did Steven Spielberg direct the best moments in this 80s cinematic ghost train, as the legends suggest, or was it Tobe Hooper? Whoever it was, they allowed their imagination to run riot. What starts as a low-key tale of the supernatural soon branches out into wildly unpredictable horror territory, as the malevolent force terrorises the Freeling household with a series of freaky occurrences. The goriest: the one where paranormal investigator Marty (Martin Cassella) looks in the mirror and promptly peels his own face off. We’re allowed a moment to gasp at the horror of it, before a cut reveals that it was all in the character’s mind. Gratuitous? Yeah. Effective? Undoubtedly.

The Dead Zone (1983)



Here’s David Cronenberg again, this time with his superb adaptation of Stephen King’s best-selling novel. Eschewing gore for the most part, Cronenberg angles the story of small-town psychic, Johnny (Christopher Walken) as a chilly tragedy, and the result is one of the most satisfying King-derived films yet made.

There is, however, one scene where Cronenberg lets the blood flow. Having been unmasked thanks to Johnny’s psychic powers, serial murderer Frank Dodd (Nicholas Campbell) is cornered in his mother’s bathroom. The cops break the door down, but not before Frank has managed to terminate himself in one of the most unpleasant ways we can think of: essentially, he head-butts a pair of scissors.

For several years, the more graphic parts of this sequence were snipped out by a horrified BBFC. They’ve since been reinstated in all their gory glory. Even now, it’s a gasp-inducing moment; not because of its special effects, but because the sheer notion of it is enough to send a shudder down our spines.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)



Wes Craven’s 1984 slasher was all about a demon which could strike while his victims were at their most vulnerable - in their dreams. In one stand-out sequence, Craven went for a double-whammy of horror intimacy, and had dream demon Freddie Krueger attack heroine Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) when she foolishly falls asleep in the bath.

The scene appears to be influenced by Cronenberg’s Shivers, particularly when you compare the camera angles and pacing; in fact, Craven lifted Cronenberg's bathing scene once before, in his lesser-seen Deadly Blessing (1981). There, a young woman (Martha Jensen) is attacked by a snake while she's lying in the bath.

The equivalent scene in A Nightmare On Elm Street is far more accomplished. Like the foul beast in Cronenberg’s film, Krueger’s familiar gloved hand emerges in a particularly vulnerable are, pulling Nancy under the water and into a scary underwater netherworld. While later sequels drifted into self-parody, Craven’s original film saw Krueger at the height of his unnerving powers.

Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)



The Friday The 13th series occasionally dabbled in bathroom horror over its long history. In the original film, a victim received an axe to the face and fell against a shower curtain. In the deceitfully-titled Final Chapter, Voorhees bucked the horror trend and killed a young man in a shower stall instead of a young woman (interestingly, he chose to crush his face rather than stab him).

For the purposes of this article, we've chosen the bizarre toilet sequence from Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning. Here, bejewelled young buck Demon (Miguel A Nunez, Jr) attempts to enjoy a relaxing poo in a ramshackle outside toilet, only to be impaled by a huge spike. Far scarier than the murder is the Glee-like singing contest that takes place between Demon and his girlfriend Anita (Jere Fields. There's a time and place for everything, but engaging in a duet while emptying your bowels? There should be some sort of law against it.

Ghoulies (1985) and Ghoulies II (1988)



The enjoyably schlocky horror Ghoulies offers a rare example of a scene being inserted into a film to fit with its advertising campaign. When Ghoulies’ producer Charles Band came up with a poster depicting a little green monster emerging from a toilet, an additional sequence was shot to tie in with it.

The lavatorial humour was retained for the 1988 sequel, where a young man's attacked by a monster rising up from the U-bend (as seen in the video above). It delivers on what the first film's strapline promised: “They’ll get you in the end.”

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go To College (1991) offered a Hitchcockian twist on the scenario: a showering co-ed is attacked by a group of critters wielding a sink plunger. Classy.

Street Trash (1987)



Like the toilet scene in Ghoulies, this one plays out like a grotesque, schoolboy joke. A batch of home-made booze called Tenafly Viper has the nasty side-effect of turning its unsuspecting drinkers into puddles of goo, which is essentially all you need to know about this messy B-horror. Such is the fate awaiting one poor old geezer, who drinks a bottle of the spiked booze while sitting on a loo in the remains of a demolished building, writhes in pain, and manages to flush himself down the pan. It should be a joylessly grotesque moment, but the dayglo colours and sheer absurdity of the scenario make it strangely entertaining. Note, too, the wobbly cardboard walls.

Fatal Attraction (1987)

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You’re probably well aware that Fatal Attraction originally had a much different, more downbeat ending, in which Glen Close’s infatuated Alex Forrest committed suicide after being given short shrift by Michael Douglas’s love rat, Dan Gallagher - an act which leaves Dan framed for her murder.

Test audiences, baying for blood, wanted a more gratifying come-uppance for Alex, so this sequence was shot instead. As a piece of suspense, it’s nicely staged; Anne Archer’s Beth runs a bath, unaware that a crazed, knife-wielding Alex has broken into the house. A desperate struggle ensues between Dan and Alex, before Beth ends the encounter with a single gunshot.

Audiences clearly liked this new ending, because the film was a massive hit, making $320m and sparking a string of other evil-woman-in-our-midst thrillers (The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Single White Female, and so forth).

Arachnophobia (1990)

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Frank Marshall's spider-infested comedy thriller found time to pay homage to Hitchcock's Psycho, as an arachnid creeps into a shower stall and leaves its occupant screaming for her life. It's more of a throwaway gag than a horror scene - the young woman showering is intercut with a scene of her father sitting on the toilet, blissfully unaware of the spider lurking beneath his arse - but like the rest of the film, our visceral reaction to creepy-crawlies still gives it impact.

Jurassic Park (1993)



Steven Spielberg’s the master of inserting horror moments into films otherwise aimed at a broad audience; at his best, he has an eye for a starkly nasty image. Take, for example, the blood-stained remains of a lilo washing up on a beach in Jaws, or the silhouette of a small boy in a doorway, just seconds before he’s kidnapped by aliens in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

Spielberg was firing on all cylinders when he made Jurassic Park, a broad thrill-ride of a movie laced with moments of quiet brilliance: the shaking of a cup of water heralding the approach of the monster we’ve all been waiting for, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Had Spielberg or effects supervisor Stan Winston botched this moment, the whole film could have collapsed. Instead, it’s a masterpiece of anticipation and then pulse-pounding excitement. And in the middle of it, that brief, yet unforgettable moment: terrified lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), hoping to find protection from the T-Rex by hiding in the loo. He barely has a chance to scream before the tyrant lizard leans down and gobbles him up like sushi in a suit. Sublime.

Scream 2 (1997)



Wes Craven breathed new life into the slasher genre with his self-referential Scream series, and Scream 2 continued its run of gore and arch humour. Early in the sequel, Phil Stevens (Omar Epps) heads to the bathroom during a screening of Stab - a film-within-a-film based on the events in the original Scream. Entering a stall, he hears strange noises from the next cubicle, and mystifyingly places his head against the partition to try to make out what it is. His reward? A knife in the ear.

The scene was parodied, predictably, in 2000’s Scary Movie, where Shawn Wayans is killed by a phalus through the ear during a screening of Shakespeare In Love. For us, the most horrifying aspect of either scene is that anyone would think of putting their head against any surface in a public loo. If Phil hadn’t been killed by a psycho’s knife, he probably would have died from some hideous disease within a few days in any case. At the very least, he’d probably have left the bathroom with someone’s curly trouser hair stuck to his face.

Final Destination (2000)



Death is cast as the ultimate serial killer in the Final Destination series: invisible and, thanks to his ingenious ability to make his crimes look like accidents, almost undetectable. In the original film, Death stalks a young victim in a bathroom, where all manner of mundane dangers hide: razors, pointy nose-hair scissors, and electricity in close contact with water. In this instance, a wire cord for hanging washing over a bath becomes a deadly noose. It's a wince-inducing scene, partly because it's a reminder of how dangerous everyday objects can be if we're unlucky - or, in this film's case, if we've somehow ended up on Death's hit list.

Slither (2006)

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James Gunn’s irreverent sci-fi comedy clearly took inspiration from Shivers, from the design of its parasitic monsters to this bathroom horror sequence, which, like that earlier cult horror, was considered strong enough to be featured on its poster. This time, the leech-like creatures crawl in through an open window, and makes a beeline for an unsuspecting woman's face. It's a scene played for gross-out laughs more than terror, but it says a lot about how well the idea of a crawling parasite plays into our subconscious fears that, even as Kylie (Tania Saulnier) is frantically killing the alien slug with what appears to be a pair of hair straighteners, we still can't help but feel a hint of revulsion.

The Conversation (1974)



To conclude, here's what might be the most unsettling bathroom scene of the lot, since Francis Ford Coppola's bravura thriller contains a moment of unexpected and surreal terror. Surveillance specialist Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) explores a deserted hotel room, and hears the sound of running water from the bathroom. Lifting the lid on the toilet, he stands transfixed as a cloud of blood bubbles up from the piping, forms a skin on the top and then comes oozing down the sides of the pan.

It's a moment that seems to come from a half-remembered nightmare, and aptly summarises what the best of the scenes on this list achieve: they appeal to a nervy, primal bit of our subconscious that would prefer not to dwell on things like death and defecation for too long. Here, those subjects come together in a stomach-turning stew.

In his video essay The Pervert's Guide To Cinema, philosopher and critic Slavoj Zizek describes the cinema as a kind of sewage works for the subconscious, where all our fears and desires are projected on the screen, and then come rising back up in ways that horrify but also thrill us - just like the blood in Francis Ford Coppola's grim toilet.

"The art of cinema is in playing with desire but at the same time keeping it at a safe distance," Zizec says. "When we spectators are sitting in a movie theatre and looking at the screen, are we not basically staring at a toilet bowl, waiting for things to reappear out of the toilet? Is the entire magic of [cinema] designed to conceal the fact that we are watching ****, as it were?"


http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/movie...n-the-bathroom

Celebrate The ‘Demons’ 30th Anniversary With This Deluxe Bag Of Goodies
By JonathanBarkan on February 25


To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Demons, the 1985 horror film written by Dario Argento (Suspiria) and directed by Lamberto Bava (Delerium), Rustblade has announced several package deals built around the soundtrack of the film, which was composed by Claudio Simonetti (Goblin).

The big kahuna that they’re offering is a deluxe bag, which includes a bevy of goodies, from the soundtrack on vinyl to an autographed poster. The full list of its contents can be found below.

Rustblade describes the soundtrack:

The lower tones as the main characters move through the dark theater give a distinctly ‘creepy’ air to the movie. A distinctly frightening melody characterizes the ‘transformation’ sequences as the 2nd prostitute slowly becomes a demon. The same melody appears throughout the film in different places.

You can pre-order the package via Rustblade. Shipping begins on May 29th.


Deluxe Ultra Limited Bag (100 Copies Only) Contains:
Blue Transparent Vinyl
Poster
Tin Box with CD
Bonus Cd “Soundtrack Remixed”
Trasparent Postcard
Metropol Ticket
Litte Bag
Siver Pin
Autographed Poster by Claudio Simonetti
Embroidery patch.



http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/33...e-bag-goodies/

translated from the italian edition of Rolling Stone with google's help, enjoy!
 

The terrific playlist of Dario Argento
The selection of music that accompanies the interview with the master of suspense

http://www.rollingstone.it/wp-conten...io-argento.jpg


The masters of the fear, the thriller and the hard-boiled, the ones that scare us (in a good way, of course) with their films and their works, what do they fear? We asked at the XXIV edition of the Rome Film Festival.

A unique festival, entirely devoted to crime novel and noir fiction: a film festival where the best film in competition is awarded the Black Lion (they're adorable, the prize is themed). In the "Fear at Midnight" events are being placed unpublished international works , thrilling horror cinema, retrospectives and tributes to the protagonists of the international Noir.

For literature, instead, there are meetings and conferences with the best mystery writers and the assignment of the Raymond Chandler Award for career and the Giorgio Scerbanenco Prize for the best Italian noir novel.

With this framework, what better than an interview in two voices, those now distinctive of Dario Argento and Carlo Lucarelli?
To flush out their fears and their worst nightmares, to find out what they cannot write about and what they wish they could say about Edgar Allan Poe.

We begin our chat with Dario Argento, the master of the nightmare for excellence.


We ask now: What is Dario Argento afraid of?
Phobias I have many, but as a child I was really terrified by a corridor: the corridor of my house.

I was very small and the corridor obsessed me because it started from my bedroom and ran through the house.
In the evening, when I went to bed, I kept staring at it. It was so long and in dim light and for that frightened me. It scared me every night.


Let's speak about your autobiography: "Fear", published by Einaudi and edited by Marco Peano
I put everything in it. From when I was a child, at the age of four years, until now. Since I received black marks in school because I refused to read Manzoni, because I wanted to read Dos Passos instead, and about when I did the "diviner", as I shot a movie, to be able to find the suitable woods.

I wanted to tell the realization of all my work, why I love Banana Hoshimoto and how I write my scripts, just thinking that the story I want to tell is not fiction but it really happened, somewhere, someplace.


What would you like to ask Lucarelli?
I know him well, we worked together in the past. I would ask him how he manages to do all those history programs for RAI (translator's note: RAI is the acronym for Italian RAdio-television)
I like them a lot, but I'd really want to understand how he manages to make so many!


What kind of program would you like to do on TV?
I'd like to adapt Edgar Allan Poe's tales, bring them on television. It would be a gift made especially for the one who I consider my master.

I am a great reader, I love novels and essays. I've never been, even as a child, a fan of comic books, while I really loved literature.


Why don't we talk about Turin, scenario of your films?
I recently brought to Turin, to Tff (translator's note: Turin's Film Festival), my restored copy of Deep Red.
I presented at the Festival and it was a great emotion to find myself again in those places. I rarely happen to see the places where I shot my movies one more time.

I like the metaphysical parts of Turin. The Art Deco ones. I am fascinated by the courts, by the stairs. It 's a city full of stairs and staircases, beautiful, each one different. I like the architecture of some buildings, so gothic, and I especially like the layout of the city, such as the periphery.

The periphery, in fact, was created by Fiat for the workers. Those small houses, those gardens, I liked them a lot, among other things I've also shot a movie there, Sleepless. It was a movie all filmed in the suburbs. Yes, that movie is all made in suburbs and courtyards.


What is the actor you directed with most difficulty?
Surely the first. Tony Musante, in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. He criticized me from the start.

Since I was a novice he thought he could do what he wanted. But I had a clear idea of ​​how I wanted to do the film.
I had made the critic for many years, I was passionate about movies, I knew very well what I wanted to do and how to do it. There were conflicts that lasted until the end of the production!


When one becomes an accomplished director do these problems disappear?
Not at all. The problem remains. For example, I had some disagreements with the leading actress of Opera, Cristina Marsillach.
She was young, she was 19 when we shot. Yet she gave me a lot of problems too.


What was the most difficult film to shoot?
Surely Suspiria, although it was great fun to realize. At the time there were no means for the special effects I wanted, so we had to actualize a lot with games of mirrors, it was all very complex. And also shooting Opera was very difficult, I had to film in a theater, it was a mess.


Could you suggest some good horror, released recently, that you liked?
There are not many at all. Lately I only watch oriental movies, Korean or Japanese, they are very good horror movies. But the titles are hard to remember ... But also from South America are coming interesting titles, in addition to the current Japanese or Korean film that I really like.


David Lynch will make a third series of Twin Peaks. What do you think?
I found Twin Peaks bizarre, but not outstanding. I do not know, in the end everyone does what he wants. It seems a bit weird. Had he got no better ideas?


Which TV series follows?
Everyone asks me this thing of the TV series! There are many, all of them are similar, interesting, well done. It is useless to discuss about it, they are really the best of American cinema.


Here's what the master of suspense listens to and why ("I have so many favorite songs, but I think that I cannot make a playlist, I can't choose!"):

1. "My Way" Sid Vicious

"Because it is one of the most beautiful songs sung by Sid Vicious."




2. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" U2

"This, I have always adored it."




3. "Purple Rain" Prince

"There was a period in the '70s and' 80s when there was an explosion of wonderful songs, I can hardly choose. I like that song by Prince, what's the name ... Purple Rain. "




4. "Imagine" Lennon

"For me it's the only essential song, the one that cannot miss. But strictly sung by Lennon. "




5. "Viva l'Italia" Francesco De Gregori

"When I went to America I brought along some Italian songs to hear them, to have something from my country. And there was a song that when I listened to it, I was always a bit moved, since I was so far away. And it was this, De Gregori's. "






- See more at:http://www.rollingstone.it/musica/ne....6K8YkC39.dpuf

'Django' and Dario Argento's 'Suspiria' Getting Classy TV Series Remakes
Two cult classic Italian properties have been picked up for English-language TV revamps.


In a watershed deal for the Italian television industry, two production companies have inked a development and production pact to turn the spaghetti western "Django" and the Dario Argento-directed occult horror film "Suspiria" into international TV series.

French television producer Atlantique Productions and top Italian indie production company Cattleya will first re-imagine Sergio Corbucci's 1966 western — which of course spawned Quentin Tarantino's own homage, the slave revenge western "Django Unchained," along with a bevy of sequels and spinoffs— "with the grit and edginess of modern television dramas," per a press release.

The overseas producers will then jump into the "smart horror" parade with "Suspiria De Profundis," from the 19th century Thomas De Quincey novel that influenced Dario Argento's stylish, seminal 1977 giallo horror. Though directors, showrunners and casts have yet to be unveiled, Argento will serve as the series' artistic supervisor. Set in fin de siècle London and Rome, "Suspiria De Profundis" will be an English-language period horror series — a la cable's most prestigious example, "Penny Dreadful" — with De Quincey as a kind of "Sherlock Holmes" meta lead character.

This isn't the first time someone has taken a crack at remaking "Suspiria." Austin indie David Gordon Green most infamously tried to resurrect the film, but in a 2013 interview with TOH! said: "It's just not the right time for that movie to exist. It's a classy, elegant horror movie and people want to see things that are a little more raw, like found footage. Nobody's really begging for something that's elegant, classy and expensive."

Not the right time for that movie to exist, maybe. But a series? Yes.

Both "Django" and "Suspiria" will be 12 50-minute episodes with storylines expected to unfold over multiple seasons. The series will be shopped to broadcasters at next week's Mip TV market in Cannes. Atlantique Productions’ Olivier Bibas and creative director Patrick Nebout will executive produce with Cattleya partners Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini and Marco Chimenz.




http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...makes-20150408

What happened to the Suspiria remake?


Visually and aurally sumptuous, Dario Argento's Suspiria was one of the most striking horror movies of its age. The soundtrack was cacophonous, the cinematography drenched in colour and often beautiful - even when Argento was spattering the screen with claret.

In 2008, director David Gordon Green risked the ire of horror fans everywhere when he revealed to MTV that he planned to remake Argento's nightmare classic. It could have been a starry affair, too, with Natalie Portman on board as producer and star. That incarnation of the movie appeared to fall apart, though, and Portman ultimately went on to make Black Swan with Darren Aronofsky - a film about a ballet dancer with more than a touch of Argento's delirious brand of storytelling running through it.

Thereafter, news on the project went a bit quiet, until Green, who by 2011 added the comedies Your Highness and Pineapple Express to his portfolio of exquisitely-shot southern dramas, started talking about Suspiria in interviews again.

Green told us of his desire to make Suspiria in 2011. "That'll be a lot of fun," he said. "I've written it with the sound designer, so we've really written it from a unique perspective. We've come at it not from a traditional narrative way, but from the perspective of sound. It's a fun experiment for me, to see how it works out."

For a while, Green's Suspiria seemed to once more gather pace. A cast had reportedly been assembled, which included Michael Nyvqvist (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), Isabelle Huppert (Heaven's Gate, The Piano Teacher) and Isabelle Fuhrman (The Orphanage, The Hunger Games). Lack of Portman's star wattage aside, that's an admirable roster of actors.

In April 2012, the announcement came that Suspiria's financing was secured, the rights to reuse Goblin's booming soundtrack was granted, and that shooting was to begin that September.

Predictably, things didn't quite pan out.

Early 2013 brought the news that Suspiria was caught in some kind of weird legal quagmire from which, to date, it hasn't emerged. But Green's recently provided an update of what he's called his "opera" take on Suspiria.

"That would have been the ****,” Green told Crave. "I wrote it with my sound designer. I love Argento’s film and we wrote a very faithful, extremely elegant opera, basically of [Suspiria]. I don’t mean musical opera, but it would be incredibly heightened music, and heightened and very operatic and elegant sets. Isabelle Huppert was going to be in it, [and] Janet McTeer. We had an amazing cast of elegance and prestige that we were engineering for it."

The problem, it seemed, was that $20m was a lot to ask for an industry which widely sees the likes of Saw and Paranormal Activity as the benchmark for horror. If you can make a hit horror movie for $1m or even less, what's the point in risking 20 times more than that?

"...the economic model for a horror movie was not where I wanted it to be to make a $20 million elegant movie from a guy who was an unproven horror director," Green explained.

Green also suggests that the tepid commercial performance of the bawdy fantasy spoof Your Highness may have affected Suspiria's chances.

"If people would have given that movie [Your Highness] the hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office that it deserved, Suspiria would exist for us all to enjoy!"

But Green adds that, while he won't be directing the remake himself, the new Suspiria may still appear. "I'm actually hopeful that it's happening," Green said, "with a great Italian director that I had breakfast with last week."

Meanwhile, there's a Suspiria TV adaptation in the offing, said to be a 12-episode season of 50 minute episodes, called Suspiria De Profundis. According to The Playlist, it'll involve "fearful mysteries" solved by a "Sherlock Holmes-style lead character." Argento himself is said to be consulting on the show, which will be shot in English.

So while the fate of Green's Suspiria still looks uncertain, Argento's classic movie may still resurface in a new, small-screen form. Now, if only someone could tell us which Italian film director Green had breakfast with recently.

On a final, semi-related note, Asia Argento's drama Incompresa was a high-profile entry at Cannes in 2014. Just saying.



Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/susp...#ixzz3exJFEKQV


P.S. In Italy word is spreading that Federico Zampaglione (singer of italian alternative-rock band Tiromancino, and recently critically appreciated horror movie director) is the "great italian director" that David Gordon Green is in contact with.

Luca Guadagnino Talks Making ‘Splash,’ Next Is ‘Suspiria’ Redo


Six years after launching “I Am Love” from Venice, Luca Guadagnino is back on the Lido with the more ambitious “A Bigger Splash,” a psychological drama about a rock star and a photographer (Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts, respectively) whose vacation on the sun-drenched Sicilian island of Pantelleria takes an unexpected turn when a record producer (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter (Dakota Johnson) burst on the scene. Guadagnino spoke about the process that led to making “Splash,” which Fox Searchlight has set for a May 13, 2016, U.S. release.

“I am Love” took your career to the next level, after “The Protagonists” and “Melissa P.” Now comes “A Bigger Splash.” What took you so long?

Last month I counted how many scripts I’ve read since “I am Love,” and it’s more or less 500. It gave me a fantastic read of the business. Many things I was reading six years ago seemed to be very much the thing to be done then, and then the effect evaporated immediately. I got the feeling that even if I had great stars, a great studio, I knew there was something false, like a trompe l’oeil, so I ran away from trompe l’oeils. Having said that, I truly would love to be making films at a brisker pace, and I’m dedicating myself to that. But I am a control freak. I need to have a great deal of control and the ability to share my control with my collaborators and grant them the freedom and the quality of work I think these people deserve. If I don’t have those elements, I walk away.

StudioCanal, which asked you to direct this remake of Jacques Deray’s “La piscine,” seem to have been instrumental in creating the conditions to get “Splash” done.

I think that StudioCanal — and I’m not saying this to be unctuous — these people are the real thing. I grew up with a concept of cinema as a directorial thing, meaning the director is allowed to sail the ship. Not a dictatorial thing. Studiocanal believes in this. The inspiring quality of the collaboration that came out between me and them, Olivier Courson and Ron Halpern, and the rest of the team, it’s really remarkable.

On “Splash,” you worked with writer David Kajganich. How did this film come together creatively?

I think a script is great when it starts with the structure and works with the structure without falling into the typical three-act system in which the audience is ahead of the movie. I hate that; but that is like 99% of what I read. I like the idea that you do not precede the narration, and that’s what we tried with David.

The actors, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson, Matthias Schoenaerts, really gave you a lot. Tell me about working with them.

I am glad that they were so generous. Moviemaking is a dirty, tiring affair. The joy comes from the possibility to be free on set and really let loose.

The music obviously plays a very important part. Can you tell me about your relationship with the Rolling Stones? Did they know that you were going to have a character (Harry) who had been their manager?

From day one the Rolling Stones were the spirit of the film, not just the soundtrack. We gave them the script and they gave a tip: they said: ‘Change that thing you had in Ralph Fiennes’ monologue to this.’ That was a great moment.

What’s on the horizon?

I’m going to direct a remake of Dario Argento’s “Suspiria.” I’m going to shoot the movie this winter. I think my friends at StudioCanal will be part of it.



http://variety.com/2015/film/news/lu...ia-1201587085/