Fantastic horror bathed in hemoglobin

PostED ON  22.09.2015 AT 3:59pm

 

TRANS-ALPINE THRILLER - In Deep Red, a young pianist played by David Hemmings investigates a series of mysterious murders. Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) reflects the crippling panic one encounters while watching this thriller washed in hemoglobin, a crown jewel of the master of giallo cinema, Dario Argento.

In the realm of the Italian and the woman who was his muse in real life, Daria Nicolodi (with whom he had daughter Asia), the flick has a distinct taste of disturbance and terror- sanguine flavors of the genre by a still young Roman filmmaker, who was described at the time as embodying the new "gold value" of Italian cinema.

Questioned upon the film's release in France in August 1977, the director bluntly stated his desire to "inflame all the tensions" of the audience. "This film is about psychological violence as much as physical violence. In the film, I know it's my own anxiety and the irrational terrors within me that I'm unleashing, letting them participate more personally in Deep Red.  So the ethical and esthetic codes of this film differ, perhaps, from those of my former films. We no longer have any use for previously proposed models."

Playing with a refined, Italian-style esthetic, the fifth film by Dario Argento is considered to be his masterpiece. He will present a restored print of the fantastic giallo in person at the Lumière Festival in three screenings: Monday, October 12 at 5pm at the cinema Comœdia, Tuesday, October 13 at 7:45pm at the Pathé Bellecour and at 8:30pm at the Cinéma Opéra.

C.P.