Opera: Opera Argento Style

VHS Title: terror at the opera, actual title: Opera

Purchased  from Loony Tunes Records in Boston MA in March 2012

   The Italian horror film genre may have began as part of the Italian exploitation mess, but a few directors like Lucio Fulci (The Beyond aka Seven Doors of Death), and Dario Argento made it so much more.  Argento's signature film Suspiria (1977) is a visual feast with vivid colors, stylized sets, and innovative camera work.  Although not his best, Opera is a Dario Argento film through and through.

    The plot of the film revolves around the production of an operatic version of Macbeth being produced in Rome, directed by a "famous"  American horror director.   In a (not so) highly original development, the star of the opera walks out/is injured before opening night and is replaced by her understudy, who is a huge success.   Although the film starts out with a series of well done long shots, I became concerned when after ten minutes into the film nobody had been thrown through a plate glass window (a staple shot of Argento's)!  I was left underwhelmed by the films first death sequence, but kept watching and was very much overwhelmed by the films second.

    Opera really starts to heat up on the second death scene, so much so that I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch the rest of the movie.  From here on in when the killer kills, he ties up our new diva, tapes needles under her eyes and brutally, graphically, murders someone.  I've seen allot of shock horror/exploitation films and felt that some of Opera's death scenes where difficult to watch.  Perhaps this is why the film originally held an U.S. NC-17 rating.  The tape I have is unrated, and runs at 107 min. and I believe is not a cut version. Frustratingly the film is in full screen which takes a bit away.

   From a film making standpoint, this is an odd film.  Opera has high production values, is beautifully shot and some of the score is done by Brian Eno!  The film at certain points is very suspenseful, notably the apartment sequence which I found very enjoyable.  I feel that the issue with this film is that Argento is trying to make a "good" horror film, so at times tries do develop the plot and weave in intricate shots, then other times blasts metal music while someone is being stabbed to death.  If the viewer is not already an Argento  fan, most of this will probably seem like a confusing bewildering mess. Like any auteur, Argento has a very unique style that one can feel while watching one of his films, but in this case that style will go unappreciated to a viewer which has never seen one of his films.  Shock horror fans will be turned off by the films pacing, and attempts to develop a plot, which in an amusing way no cohesive plot is ever formed.  "Film" buffs will be turned off by extraordinarily graphic violence ie: a bracelet being pulled out of a freshly sliced open throat, and general ridiculousness.
   This film, and others, show that Argento had unique style and the directorial talent of other contemporay oddball European filmmakers like Ken Russell and Peter Greenaway (albeit both of them are British).  If Argento had ever branched out of the horror genre he might have garnered a reputation of being an "auteur" or "art-house" filmmaker, but rather his reputation was solidified as master of Italian Horror, which isn't half bad. Opera is considered to be his last "great" film, before things really went bad.
     That's enough film critisizm for one day, "Go Free Young Lizard"

Left in Boston on the Red Line outbound to Alwife at apx. 10pm on 3.24.12  -Wiley