Dario on DVD
May 13, 2008

On May 27, Anchor Bay will issue the 5 Films By Dario Argento collection, a quintet of movies by Italy’s maestro of horror and giallo filmmaking. The collection features a cross-section of titles spanning some 23 years in Argento’s prolific career and includes Tenebre (1982), Phenomena (1985) starring Jennifer Connelly, Trauma (1993) featuring Dario’s always-game daughter Asia Argento, The Card Player (2004) and the 2005 TV movie Do You Like Hitchcock (2005).

“It’s a good collection of work,” Argento told me in a phone interview last week. “My films are all very different from each other and so many people in the U.S. just know me from Deep Red and Suspiria, but the others are

Surprisingly (at least, to me), Argento appears to be most excited about the release of the recent Do You Like Hitchcock, the made-for-television production about a college film student obsessed with the works of Hitchcock who, in the manner of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, stumbles upon a murder of a neighbor who lives in the apartment complex across from his own. It’s the student’s cinematic sense and knowledge that helps him to unravel the mystery.

“Do You Like Hitchcock--it’s the story of my life,” said Argento, who also wrote the film’s screenplay. “When I was a teenager, I liked movies like the man in the story. I knew every kind of movie and with my friends, we would discuss Hitchcock and everything. So, I wrote something similar to my own life.”

The May 27 release of the DVD collection coincides with the Argento kicking off his newest production—the horror/thriller Giallo starring Adrien Brody and Emmanuelle Seigner, which is tentatively scheduled for a 21009 theatrical release. And speaking of theaters, Argento’s latest film, The Mother of Tears starring daughter Asia, is opening theatrically in New York on June 6. As Argento will be well into the production of Giallo, he regrettably can’t make it to the Manhattan opening.

“It’s a shame--the only times my films go to a theater in New York are the times that I can’t go to New York,” he told me. “It makes me very sad.”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on May 13, 2008 | Comments (0)