Eyes of Crystal: Does Italy Have A New Argento?

well, ive been an argento fan for 15 years so... yes, i think this looks like a top film, worth noting and looking for a dvd of in the future... nice.

I'm an Argento fan as well, even when he churns out crap. I'm still interested to see Il Cartio, even if people say its relatively bloodless.

On another note, I'm loving this surge of horror films we're seeing now. I don't care if half of them are remakes.

I saw a trailer for The Card Player and thought it looked okay ... nothing spectacular, but decent ...

yep : il cartaio / the card player will probably be crap, argento does make some crap, but when someone has made as many stunning films as argento, you want a little new taste of his work every now and again... so i have ordered it. out 29th but not shipped yet...

Out on the 29th where? Here? England?

I know there are already a couple DVDs of it available, in Italy obviously, and other places.

I can't afford to order many more. Well, I CAN, but I SHOULDN'T. I need $5,200 for the Canon XL-2, and I'm working my ass off for the money. I'm planning to have it, if not by my bday in April, by June. Perfect timing too, because I'm DPing my company's first film with it. My best friend/partner-in-crime is directing, as it's going to be his thesis for school. We're planning to take it on the festival circuit afterwards and making a comprehensive DVD that we'll hand out to interested parties. Should have a mini-site up when pre-production starts in the next couple of months. Stay tuned to www.runningoncoffee.com for news. Running on Coffee is our new site, replacing my current one. Asian DVD Time will remain as a part of Running on Coffee, however, and we'll be doing a lot of interesting things with the site. Stay tuned!

What were we talking about again? hehehe

I'm hot/cold on the whole Argento thing...his visual look is undoubtely his strength...his grasp of narrative and how to get a good performance out of his actors leave a bit to be desired...While I will admit Goblin doing many of his soundtracks is an acquired taste, his musical/score choices can be a bit off-putting at times.

I can think of far better Horror directors than Argento though...

Crazybee...

I'm curious...I will be checking out your site now that i'm aware of it...(please update often!)

kuRt.

We will try, and we'll also have a bigger team than we do now (one person, I.E. me). We're branching out to a lot more things, too. I'll be focusing on the DVD/Movie reviews and also the filmmaking section of the site. There should be interesting articles, interviews, art - hell, I'd even like to have music on there. Sky's the limit as of now, and it's going to be really ambitious. Nothing's on the site now, but there's a docking page that states the site should be running (not fully, of course) by Xmas, a gift to the fans.

personally i cant think of many (if any) better horror directors than argento. i dont rate fulci that much, and american horror is largely poor or derived from italian horror in some way. few exceptions to the "crap american horror" theory : exorcist, first "nightmare on..." and "carrie", perhaps also "halloween"...

i like giallo...

I suppose I should back myself up. First off, one of the most effective and best directed horror pictures is Scottish: Robin Hardy's "THE WICKER MAN" (although he had no career outside of that movie and the recent (like this year..) remake).
But David Cronenberg is far, far, far superior to Argento in a story telling sense, a metaphorical sense and a horror sense. Argento only trumps him in the visual/colour dept. (but one of 4 ain't bad).

Carpenter is not consistent, but "The Thing" is superior to most of, if not all of Argento's work.

I prefer regular directors who dabble in horror (Kubrick in the Shining, Amenebar in The Others and Ridley Scott in Alien).

You tend to spot the Argento (or is the the entire Giallo genre which he invented) formulas after you watch a few of them.

I'm still a fan...but i'll be the first to admint i've been bored through several of his pictures (And I watch Tarkovsky, Antonionni and Van Sant's experimental pictures (Gerry, Elephant) without getting even slightly bored).

I've digressed too far perhaps, so here is a further tangent...Argento is often developed into over-rated territory...there is a good jab at this in the Lucky McKee film "May" when the guy who keeps bragging he loves Argento pictures is grossed out by a few of the simple things that May does during their kissing).

Taste is taste, Chacun son Gout, etc. etc.

The trailer to this picture look pretty darn good though...I'll keep my eyes peeled.

KuRt.

One last comment...Yes Argento could direct the pants of Fulci, but that isn't saying much...Fulci is a bit of a hack...(with only the occasional moment of goodness..)

/out for now...
/horror snob

This trailer looks pretty damn cool. Love the look of it. When is it out?

I don't know if it's been picked up outside Italy ... I think it's just doing the rounds now ...

Can I just say that Wicker Man is overrated? There, I said it.