Dario Argento's Fear Autobiography

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

https://www.facebook.com/28022799866...type=3&theater

After many months of negotiations the contract finally arrived today. FAB Press is now officially Dario Argento's publisher. English language version of Dario Argento's autobiography FEAR, coming soon. Merry Christmas everyone. Here's to 2019.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I wonder if he'll dish the details on how and why his movies from the 90's onward sucked so bad.

Come at me Non Ho Sonno defenders.

[Curwen Member Find all posts View Profile Close Curwen]

FYI, The hardcover can now be purchased on Amazon & possibly a few other US booksellers. I found it simpler to search by ISBN: 9781913051051 .

Just finished reading my copy. Curious to hear what others think.

Alex K. - I wonder if he'll dish the details on how and why his movies from the 90's onward sucked so bad.

Fraid not. The more recent the films the less candid & more hurried his writing.

I found it to be an easy, breezy read. A glass of red wine which adds flavour to the hearty main courses of Alan Jones' PROFONDO ARGENTO and Maitland McDonagh's BROKEN MIRRORS BROKEN MINDS. A nice nightcap, if you will. Argento does throw out some interesting tidbits I'd been unfamiliar with, such as how heavily marijuana contributed to his creative thought process.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Fulci really hated stoners.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

I want it. I wonder if there'll be a Kindle edition. I do all my best reading in the tub and so usually wait for the digital version to avoid all those soggy pages.

[Curwen Member Find all posts View Profile Close Curwen]

Fulci really hated stoners.

Speaking of auteur substance disapproval, Alan Jones' book quotes Argento as saying the following about BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA:

"I hated it. It was terrible. The reason why it wasn't any good was because director Francis Ford Coppola was sick, depressed and hooked on the drug Lithium when he made it. That's what the movie was really about and why it was so awful. It was just his drug-addled fever dream. Who's interested in that? I'm not."

It's not cited. So I don't know if Argento said this in a private conversation with Jones, or if it's taken from some published interview.

Either way, always found this an odd hangup. Especially Argento's misconception of the effects of Lithium. It's a mood stabilizer. To reduce impulsivity & mood swings. Argento makes Lithium sound like opium or absinthe.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

That giant praying mantis makes sense now.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

That giant praying mantis is the result of stink weed.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Richard Stanley was Argento's hookup whenever he was in London in the 80's so you know it was quality product.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

And he couldn't get access to Stanley's pot in the 90's! It all makes sense now! FUCK!

[Curwen Member Find all posts View Profile Close Curwen]

Richard Stanley was Argento's hookup whenever he was in London in the 80's so you know it was quality product.

And he couldn't get access to Stanley's pot in the 90's! It all makes sense now! FUCK!

I wonder who Dario's dealer was during the DEEP RED / SUSPIRIA /INFERNO days! I'd like to smoke some of that!

I recall something from Stanley's old website journal wherein he blames Michael Cimino for not being able to hang out with Dario... quite funny... Ah! Thank you Wayback Machine!

It was the winter of 1990. American forces were standing by off the coast of Kuwait and I was in Switzerland on official business. Hardware was playing in competition at Avoriaz but most of all I was hoping to see Dario, who had promised to come if we could only find some decent smoke to make his trip worthwhile. As we were approximately three thousand meters up a goddam mountain in what were fast approaching whiteout conditions, this was proving to be a tall order.
[...]
"Do you think we should help him?"
"Help who?"
"That guy over there..."

I followed her eyeline, watching the bedraggled figure right itself, a freezing wind whirling down off the piste, beating against him as he tried to make headway.

"He looks sick..."
"Probably drunk. Or dying. Who cares? We're on a mission, remember! Unless we get back to Dario in the next half hour, there's no way il maestro's getting on that plane, no way in hell..."

The stranger took a half step, then his legs folded and he pitched face first into the snow.

"Oh my God..."
Michael Cimino
"He'll be fine..."
"It's Michael Cimino!"

The man, who single-handedly brought down United Artists, had been flown in to replace Brian de Palma as head of the jury after de Palma was recalled to LA, following the disastrous reception of The Bonfire of Vanities (1990). Nobody seemed happy about this, least of all Cimino, who had a sort of 'drowning, not waving' look in his eyes as he struggled to regain his footing.

"So?"
"He made The Deer Hunter!"
"So what?'
"We can't just leave him!"

"And Dario co-wrote Once Upon a Time in the West! Where are your priorities!"
"What about Thunderbolt and Lightfoot! I mean, we have to at least get him back to his hotel..."
"Oh God, okay ..."
"C'mon... Get the other arm..."

So I never did see Dario or give him the statue that waited on the windowsill back at the lodge, watching the snow silently pile against the double glazing.

http://web.archive.org/web/200810222...2.php#mountain

Alas, Argento doesn't talk about Stanley at all in FEAR.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

On Elijah Wood's Visitations podcast, Stanley says Argento wouldn't go unless he got the weed: https://player.fm/series/visitations...ichard-stanley

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

On Elijah Wood's Visitations podcast, Stanley says Argento wouldn't go unless he got the weed: https://player.fm/series/visitations...ichard-stanley

This is amazing!

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

I wonder if he'll dish the details on how and why his movies from the 90's onward sucked so bad.

I don't think it's fair that Argento always gets singled out for a decline in quality during the '90s. Most of the major horror directors had a rough decade: Craven sold out; Romero made nothing; Fulci made nothing; Carpenter made one great flick (IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS); Hooper made THE MANGLER; Cronenberg pretty much left the genre; Cohen made nothing etc.

I'd say the only major horror directors who were pretty consistent in the '90s were Yuzna and Gordon (and even he made THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT).

At the very least, Argento was getting movies made.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

I don't think it's fair that Argento always gets singled out for a decline in quality during the '90s. Most of the major horror directors had a rough decade: Craven sold out; Romero made nothing; Fulci made nothing; Carpenter made one great flick (IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS); Hooper made THE MANGLER; Cronenberg pretty much left the genre; Cohen made nothing etc.

I'd say the only major horror directors who were pretty consistent in the '90s were Yuzna and Gordon (and even he made THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT).

At the very least, Argento was getting movies made.

I think it was because Argentos fall was so big. I mean he went from absolute greatness to unwatchable, while the others mentioned went from good to bad.