Dario Argento James Gracey by James Gracey 9781842434833, 1842434837, B005E7AMPM instant download after payment.

 To watch an Argento film is to indulge in a totally visceral experience. Elaborate set pieces and dazzling cinematic artistry collide in a cacophony of blood and sinew. The camera is used like a weapon, ceaselessly prowling for its prey. Strange point-of-view shots align the viewer with both pursued and pursuer, implicating the audience in each ostentatious depiction of murder and mayhem. Attractive female victims glance back longingly as they flee in abstract terror, all too aware of their own vulnerability. At times almost sensual, each murder is filmed as though it were something more closely aligned with a sex scene; a frenzy of flesh and blood, culminating in a disturbing orgasm of bloody chaos. Lashings of bizarre and fetishistic images abound in Argento’s work.

 One such recurring image is that of the killer’s hands, clad in black leather gloves, fondling various sharp implements of death. The fact that Argento’s own hands usually stand in for the killer’s in these shots adds an additional dimension of perversity. Argento utilises images and sound, the very language of cinema, to further his twisted narratives in which logic is all but lost in a constant bombardment of nightmarish and extravagant style. Argento is often referred to as ‘the Italian Hitchcock’ as he has made a name for himself creating scenes of terror and tension. Though Hitchcock’s work is marked by its staunch linearity, focused plotting, narrative and logic, in Dario Argento’s films these are often usurped in favour of atmosphere, technical prowess and provocative imagery.

Dario Argento was born in Rome on 7 September 1940. His father Salvatore was a well-respected and highly successful film producer integral to the international promotion of Ita