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

[SisterNightroad]

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

[SisterNightroad]

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

[lyonluv]

Been a fan since I saw Suspiria in college. Loved the whole three mothers trilogy plus several of Argento's other films.

[SisterNightroad]

What Happened to Dario Argento’s ‘The Sandman’?

Dario Argento has been in the game a long time. From his directorial début in 1970, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (now out on a beautiful disc from Arrow US), to his most recent film, 2012’s Dracula 3D, Argento has managed to build an astounding resume. Certainly his later efforts have not been on par with his earlier output (though, I think there are more bright spots than most), but fans still hold out hope his next time in the director’s chair will recapture the magic of his Giallo glory days. Enter, The Sandman.

The Sandman was announced in June of 2014 as part of the Off-Frontières co-production market. Little was known right off the bat except that Argento signed on to direct a script written by David Tully (Djinn). These early details were quickly followed with news of rock legend Iggy Pop taking on the titular villain role. Before long we were given solid info as to what the heck the film would be about, and undoubtedly, it sounded like the perfect match for Argento’s phantasmagoric sensibilities.

Inspired by the original Sandman of German folklore that plucked out the eyes of children who wouldn’t sleep, The Sandman website describes the tale as follows:

“THE SANDMAN tells the story of a young student in the city who struggles to forget their childhood trauma at the hands of the serial killer dubbed ‘The Sandman’. As a child the student killed The Sandman years ago, on Christmas Eve, after witnessing the murder of their mother. This memory is repressed until they see the beautiful woman who lives in the apartment across the way dying at the hands of that same masked killer. We follow our protagonist to find out who is the real killer. This is a story of voyeurism and obsession and is a direct homage to Giallo films of the past.”

Needless to say, diehard fans of Argento and Iggy Pop were more than intrigued. In October of 2014, they were given the opportunity to get involved with the project. An Indiegogo page launched to help fund The Maestro’s film; the campaign sought a total of $165k to help “partially” bankroll the production. Tax credits, due to the Canadian/German co-production status, were said to bolster a large chunk of the film’s remaining budget. The launch page stated, “While those monies are secured, it is not enough to make the film. We are dedicated to bringing a quintessential masterwork to the faithful fans of Dario and Iggy. It’s the first time for us to approach you and ask for your support before making the film… because we want to do it right and deliver!”

The perks offered to help drum up that sweet cash ranged from copies of the film, signed posters, and even the chance to don the infamous black gloves of the killer on-screen. That particular perk was “one and done”. It went for $5k! Another exciting addition to the crew of The Sandman was Claudio Simonetti, one of the masterminds behind many of Italy’s finest scores. He would be composing for the film along with Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series) contributing the theme for the soundtrack.

Everything sounded great. For the first time in a long time, a script written specifically for Argento was handed to him with the promise of full artistic freedom. The crowdfunding campaign was a huge success, exceeding with 119% to goal. With $195,633 raised by 1082 backers, The Sandman was coming. Hopes were that it’d be released in time for Christmas the following year. It has now been three years since the initial announcement. Sadly, The Sandman has yet to go into production.

So, what exactly happened? Personally, I was over the moon with excitement when the word first broke (I didn’t back the project as I was one broke mo-fo in 2014). I’ve stated this before, but to reiterate, Argento is a part of the Holy Trinity of directors that helped shape my genre tastes. Romero and Craven complete that particular trifecta. I was hungry for more info on this movie. Realizing there hadn’t been any substantial news regarding The Sandman in some time, I started to do some digging.

It’s important to note that filmmaking is often a long, arduous journey. Projects can stop and start at the drop of a dime. Unfortunately, a lot of fans who put up their cash during the campaign have yet to receive their promised perks. Obviously, items such as copies of the film will have to wait, but what about signed posters? A quick peek at the comments on the Indiegogo page show a lot of anger from backers. People are requesting refunds and even labeling the campaign a “fraud.” Some commenters are more understanding but remain upset over the “Updates” which have come with less consistency as time has gone on. All hope is not lost, however. Argento has actually spoken on the matter. In August of last year, IndieWire interviewed Argento. In regards to The Sandman, he had this to say:

“Iggy Pop keeps asking, ‘How long do we have to wait on this film?’ Honestly, it’s not my fault. This film is a co-production by many different producers in different countries. They apparently can’t agree on a number of things, including where to shoot, locations, things like that. It goes on and on. I know it’s been dragging on. Time goes by and they haven’t reached an agreement. I must say that I myself have been thinking about some other projects in the meantime. I still need to work on them, think about them.”

While The Maestro’s patience might be wearing thin, he recently hinted at two possible projects in his near future. As quoted by Dark Universe, he stated, “Let’s see what will start first.” There was no confirmation that one of these could be The Sandman, but the producers have recently become more vocal about the production’s progress. Just last month, a post on the film’s Facebook page revealed that locations are locked (Ontario) and financing is still being secured. And those perks? On July 5th, a reminder to backers went out to make sure all mailing info was up to date. The signed posters were close to being shipped!

It’s certainly been a long journey for Dario Argento’s possible return to the sub-genre that made him a horror-household name. Here’s hoping the wait is worth it for fans and backers of the project.

Note: I attempted to reach out to “Team Sandman”. They did not respond to request for comment.



http://bloody-disgusting.com/editori...entos-sandman/