Reviews By (Sorta) Request: Tenebrae (1982, Dario Argento)

Paul Clark — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Note: Due to an untimely Netflix issue, I wasn’t able to watch and review your selected film, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, in time for this week’s Reviews By Request. Instead, I’ve written about the film that received the second-highest number of votes, Dario Argento’s Tenebrae. I’ll be writing about Let Sleeping Corpses at a later date, as soon as I’m able to view it. Thanks for understanding.

In addition, I’ll be polling you to determine the film for my November 14 Reviews By Request column. To vote, see the poll at the bottom of this review.

One of my fondest memories as a moviegoer was attending the semi-legendary world premiere of Dario Argento’s The Mother of Tears at last fall’s Toronto Film Festival. The movie itself was only so-so, but what made the experience such a thrill was that Argento himself was in attendance. While most filmmaker Q&As are pretty buttoned-up affairs, Argento’s was anything but. There was an irreverent, almost party-like (since it was his birthday, we even sang to him) atmosphere that filled the room, and Argento, crazy eyes beaming as he took the stage, presided over it all. As he answered question after question in his own inimitable way- even discussing his urge to cast lesbians with no pubic hair as witches- one thing was clear: It was Dario’s happening, baby, and it freaked him out.

I mention this experience not to brag or to be a name-dropper but to make it clear that, above all else, Dario Argento is a showman, something that comes through in all of his best-known work. And of all the Argento films I’ve seen to date, none has demonstrated this so clearly as Tenebrae. In Tenebrae, Argento uses all of the filmmaking tricks in his arsenal to keep his audience entertained. The result is intoxicating.

The movie begins as a fairly standard-issue whodunit. The story focuses on Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa), a best-selling author who specializes in violent mysteries. After he arrives in Rome, people begin getting killed in gruesome ways. A woman, her throat slashed, is found with Neal’s latest page-turner- entitled Tenebrae, of course- stuffed into her mouth. The police get involved, and Neal begins receiving letters from the killer. As is par for the course in murder mysteries, Neal is surrounded by plenty of likely suspects, nearly all of whom are picked off, one by one, by the actual killer. As bodies begin to pile up, it’s up to Neal and the police to figure out who, shall we say, dunit.

As I said before, the setup is nothing special. But Argento is too much of a showman to make a simple- albeit extremely bloody- murder mystery, which the second half of the movie makes abundantly clear. Around the time Neal- and the audience- has figured out the most likely suspect in the case, the suspect is brutally and decisively murdered. Yet the killing is far from over. From that point on, the key color is red- the color of both the herrings and the blood that flows liberally up until the very end of the movie. At one point, Neal quotes Arthur Conan Doyle, saying, "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” One of the chief pleasures of Tenebrae is just how improbable Argento is willing to make his storyline in the service of his crazed, brilliant vision.

As one would expect from Argento, the killing scenes are worth the price of admission- not merely the manner of death itself, but also the way Argento directs them. Clearly, Argento means to entertain the audience with the carnage, and while that might not wash with those who tut-tut the use of violence as entertainment (Michael Haneke would certainly not approve), the sheer excessiveness of Argento’s style makes them shamelessly thrilling. There’s an undeniable naughty-boy glee to be derived from seeing the convoluted ways in which Argento steers his characters to the slaughter, coupled with liberal uses of Grand Guignol-style lighting, complex camera movements, and of course, that Goblin score. And now, having seen Argento in person, it’s impossible not to imagine him sitting next to the camera and reveling in the bloody deliciousness of it all.

Perhaps most delicious of all, to my eyes, is the way Argento teases us with the identity of the film’s killer. At several points in the story, Argento intercuts a flashback sequence involving the murder of a beautiful woman, but fails to tell us who’s having the flashback. Eventually, when the woman’s red shoes turn up again on the feet of another character, Argento tantalizes us with by making us wonder what the connection might be. It goes without saying that the killing of this character and the revelation of the killer will go more or less hand in hand, but when Argento makes it happen in one of the most spectacularly bloody scenes I’ve ever witnessed, the result actually surpassed all my expectations.

In the past, I’ve enjoyed a number of Dario Argento’s films, especially Suspiria and Inferno, but none has ever really clicked for me the way Tenebrae does. In many ways, Argento’s classic-period films are fairly similar. But I’d say that what puts Tenebrae over the top is that it’s goes, well, over the top. More than any other Argento film I’ve seen, Tenebrae injects the style that won Argento legions of fans with an irresistible kind of wretched excess. And, to quote a film by another famously stylish contemporary of Argento’s, “nothing exceeds like excess.”

As before, I’m using a poll to select my next Review By Request. This time around, I’ve included two titles from a previous poll along with three new choices, which have nothing in common but for the fact that I’ve never seen them. The choice is yours:

What should I watch next? | BuzzDash polls

Again, feel free to use the comments to stump for your favorites of this lot, to suggest possible future titles, or simply to agree with me about how awesome Tenebrae is.

DVD Digest for September 23, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

This week, a number of classic crime stories hit DVD, plus the big summer movie whose blockbuster gross surprised almost everyone with a Y chromosome.

DVD of the Week: Okay, so maybe there are more high-profile titles in the mix this week, movies that are both more popular and more critically acclaimed (see the next paragraph). But to my eyes, the big DVD news this week is the arrival of Eclipse Series 12: Aki Kaurismaki’s Proletariat Trilogy. For years, Kaurismaki’s work has been woefully underrepresented on Region 1 DVD, with only his recent films The Man Without a Past and Lights in the Dusk currently in print. So Eclipse’s release of three of his best early works is cause for celebration among his fans, in whose company I count myself. In evidence in each of the set’s three films- Shadows in Paradise, Ariel and The Match Factory Girl- is Kaurismaki’s patented deadpan humor, although in Match Factory Girl, the best of the three, the comedy can be a little difficult to spot at times amid the pathos generated by the film’s title character. If you already know Kaurismaki’s work, you’ve already reserved a copy of this, no doubt hoping that Eclipse will continue their commitment to Kaurismaki with eventual releases of Drifting Clouds and Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana. But if you’re looking to get into Kaurismaki, this is as good a place as any to start.

Additionally, as most of you know this week also brings the release of Paramount’s The Godfather: Coppola Restoration Collection (also Blu-Ray), which includes newly remastered versions of the first two films, commentary tracks by the director, and special features both old and new. There’s also the L.A. Confidential Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner, also Blu-Ray) that includes a new commentary track featuring the cast and crew, plenty of new special features, and even the music-only feature that was a highlight of the original pressing. Finally, two new collections of note: Sony’s new line of “Martini Movies” (whatever that means), which includes Dollars, The Garment Jungle, Affair in Trinidad, The Anderson Tapes, and The New Centurions; and the Warner Brothers Pictures Gangsters Collection Vol. 4- includes The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, The Little Giant, Larceny, Inc., Invisible Stripes, and Kid Galahad.

This week’s new releases coming to DVD include: Sex and the City: The Movie (Warner, also Blu-Ray); George Clooney’s Leatherheads (Universal, also Blu-Ray); Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman in the Skinemax-ready Deception (Fox, also Blu-Ray); Dario Argento’s final installment in the “Three Mothers” trilogy The Mother of Tears (Dimension); the Flatliners-style thriller Pathology (MGM); and Simon Pegg in Run Fatboy Run (Warner).

This week has plenty to offer in TV on DVD, including: Boston Legal Season 4 (Fox); Brothers and Sisters Season 2 (Disney); Cashmere Mafia: The Complete Series (Sony); CSI: New York Season 4 (Paramount); Friday the 13th The Series: The First Season (Paramount); and Samantha Who? Season 1 (Disney).

Finally, this week’s relatively small slate of Blu-Ray only releases includes: Blow (Warner), and Cirque de Soleil: Corteo (Sony).

The Screengrab : the mother of tears

Reviews By (Sorta) Request: Tenebrae (1982, Dario Argento)

DVD Digest for September 23, 2008