DARIO ARGENTO'S DEEP CUTS
4-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 594 Minutes
Audio: Italian Mono DTS-HD MA Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen, (1.33:1)
Directors: Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Luigi Cozzo
Dario Argento's Deep Cuts offers a glimpse into the underseen world of horror master Argento's work on television projects for the RAI TV network, with disc one and two dedicated to the 1971 Door Into Darkness, offering four hour-long episodes, with three of the four episodes sourced for the first time from the original 16mm negatives. The episodes include Il Vicino Di Casa (The Neighbor), directed by Luigi Cozzi, wherein a young couple Stefania (Laura Belli, Almost Human) and Luca (Aldo Reggiani, The Cat o' Nine Tails) with a young infant move into a seaside apartment in the middle of the night, and accidentally discover the corpse of a woman in the upstairs apartment, assuming the woman's husband did the deed they attempt to flee, but are thwarted when he suddenly returns.
Dario Argento himself directs Il Tram (The Tram), the best of the foursome, a murder mystery set on a public transit tram train, after a woman is found stabbed to death on a tram with over a dozen people on it. Inspector Giordani (Enzo Ceruscio, The Five Days) demand that all the witnesses (and presumably the murderer) who were on the tram recreate the scenario to catch the culprit and the mystery of how the killer managed murder unseen on a crowded tram.
Episode three, La Bambola (The Doll) a mental patient escapes the asylum and goes on a killing spree, targeting red-heads, and the police team-up with psychiatrists to apprehend the killer. This one features Inspector Erika Blanc (The Devil's Nightmare), which is always a treat!
The final episode is Testimome Oculare (Eyewitness) is credited to director Roberto Pariante, but in the extras it is said that Argento stepped in to do massive re-shoots after being unhappy with Foglietti's work, with some assistance from Cozzi as well. In this one a woman driving on a rural road unwittingly becomes a witness to a murder of a woman, and ends up becoming the target of the killer who fears she will be able to ID him. These were previously issues on DVD via Mya Communications, but this is the best these episodes have ever looked on home video, and that release has not always been easy to track down so this was a nice treat.
Disc three collects the fifteen episodes of Turno Di Notte (Night Shift) which aired from 1987-1988, a show that I've never even heard of till his released was announced. The Argento produced runs 15 episodes with Argento collaborators Luigi Cozzi (Contamination) and Lamberto Bava (Demons, Demons 2) splitting directing duties. These episodes only run 15-20 minutes long, each one centered on a one of three taxi cab drivers, Red 27 (Matteo Gazzolo, Body Puzzle), Calypso 9 (Antonella Vitale, The Church), and Tango 28 (Franco Cerri), who oddly find themselves at the center of a murder mystery each episode, often sleuthing the crimes themselves. Lamberto Bava directs E di Moda la Morte (Death in Fashion), Heavy Metal, Buona Fine e Miglior Principo (Good Ending and a Better Beginning), Giubetto Rosso (Red Jacket), Il Bambino Rapito (The Kidnapped Child), and Babbo Natale (Santa Claus); while Luigii Cozzi directs L’impronta dell’assassino (The Killers Fingerprint), Ciak si Muorte (Lights, Camera, Death), Sposarsi e un po’morire (Getting Married is a Bit Luke Dying), Delitto in Rock (Murder Rock), L’evasa (The Fugitive), La Casa dello Stradivari (The House of the Stradivari), Giallo Natale (Chris Giallo), which which notably features Asia Argento & Daria Nicolodi; Via delle Streghe (Witches' Road), and Il Taxi Fantasma (The Ghost Cab). These were a bit hit and miss for me, the short running time made it easy to blow through these, but some needed more fleshing out and it was hard to latch onto any characters because of the short duration. That said, there some surprising violence and gore in a few of these for a TV program, as well as fun recycled scores from familiar Argento flicks (Phenomena, Suspiria). There's also a recurring motif about a "ghost cab" that shows up in nearly every episode which gets a dedicated storyline in the final episode that is quite bizarre.
Disc four is dedicated to Dario Argento’s Nightmares, another short format series with episode running three to seven minutes, each directed by Argento, scanned from recently discovered film elements. These are short but stylish segments, some fair better than ithers, but it's very fragmented, at juts a few minutes in length it's very stream of conscious, but interestingly curious bits of the macabre, just the same.
Audio/Video: All of the episodes are presented in 1080p HD fullscreen (1.33:1) with Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono audio. Three of the episodes of Door Into Darkness are sourced from the 16mm film negatives with the exception of the Argento directed Il Tram which comes from an SD tape master source. The Turno Di Notte (Night Shift) is advertised as "scanned from recently discovered film elements", the episodes looking to be a mix of film elements and SD broadcast masters. A couple of the Nightmares episodes looks terrific with filmic qualities and pleasing texture and detail, others looks SD quality. All three of the series episodes get uncompressed Italian audio via DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono, the tracks are generally inn good shape and sound fine, some hiss, sibilance and slight distortion does creep in from time to time though, but all things considered I thought the presentations were terrific.
On top of these terrific and little-seen Italian Argento TV productions highlighting the master's own work and that of Luigi Cozzi and Lamberto Bava we get a wonderful array of extras. On disc one we get the 2-part Dario Argento: My Cinema (1999), a documentary encompassing Argento's body of work from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage on through to Phantom of the Opera, directed by Luigi Cozzi. We also get Audio Commentary For Il Tram With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema Of Dario Argento. Disc two offers an Audio Commentary For Testimone Oculare With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema Of Dario Argento, plus another archival doc and interviews. The doc comes by way of the 87-min Dario Argento: Master of Horror (1999), also directed by Luigi Cozzi. This is a clip heavy doc also featuring interviews with Dario Argento, Luigi Cozzi, Pino Donaggio, Fabio Giovannini, Daria Nicolodi, Madeleine Potter, Tom Savini, Michele Soavi, Sergio Stivaletti, and some terrific behind-the-scenes footage of Argento on various film sets. Interviews include the new 20-min A Streetcar Named Fear – Interview With Writer/Director/
Producer Dario Argento, in it he talks about how the films were originally aired in B&W, which is how they were meant to be seen, and some censorship issues and how popular the series was; plus we get a new 34-min On The Other Side Of The Door – Interview With Writer/Director Luigi Cozzi in which he remembers a few bits and pieces about each of the episodes.
On disc three we get the 10-min TV Nightmares – Interview With Producer Dario Argento who chats about the TV host Enzo Tortor, some strange business with the famed TV host being accused of being a drug smuggler and even serving prison time, tarnishing his reputation, and how he passed rather unexpectedly. In the 20-min Giallo On The TV – Interview With Director Luigi Cozzi the director talks about the rushed production schedule, while the 11-min Taxi Drivers – Interview With Director Lamberto Bava talks about the cast and crew; the 12-min Big Giallo Taxi – Interview With Screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti talks about coming up with the story ideas; and the 7-min Calypso 9 – Interview With Actress Antonella Vitale features Vitale, who had previously appeared in Argento's Opera, and enjoying playing more of a lead character in the series. The only extra on disc four is the 85-min Giallo Argento which was a Argento hosted talk show of sorts, in it he shows off some of the props used in film like Tenebrae, and he interviews Anthony Perkins, as well as David Gilmore and Nick Mason from Pink Floyd via satellite, plus appearances from Luigi Cozzi in a segment where he travels to Scotland to investigate the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, and bits with both Fiore Argento and Lamberto Bava,
The four-disc set arrives in an oversized keepcase with a flipper tray housing the four discs. We get a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a moody portrait of Argento on the wrap.
Content/ & Special Features:
Disc 1: Door Into Darkness, Part1: (1972)
1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1), Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Episodes:
1. Il Vicino Di Casa (The Neighbor), directed by Luigi Cozzi (58:36),
2. Il Tram (The Tram) directed by Argento (54:20)
Disc 1 Special Features:
- Audio Commentary For Il Tram With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema Of Dario Argento
- Dario Argento: My Cinema, Pt. 1 (1999) (58:23)
- Dario Argento: My Cinema, Pt 2 (1999) (63:32)
Disc 2: Door Into Darkness, Part 2: (1972)
1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1), Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Episodes:
3. La Bambola (The Doll) 61:41) Directed by Mario Foglietti
4. Testimome Oculare (Eyewitness) (55:44) directed by Roberto Pariante,
Disc 2 Special Features:
- Audio Commentary For Testimone Oculare With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema Of Dario Argento
- Dario Argento: Master of Horror (87:23 )
- A Streetcar Named Fear – Interview With Writer/Director/Producer Dario Argento (19:51)
- On The Other Side Of The Door – Interview With Writer/Director Luigi Cozzi (33:41)
Disc 3: Turno Di Notte (Night Shift) (1987-1988)
1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1), Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Turno Di Notte (Night Shift)
1. E di Moda la Morte (Death in Fashion) (14.29) directed By Lamberto Bava
2. Heavy Metal (15:15) directed by Lamberto Bava
3. Buona Fine e Miglior Principo (Good Ending and a Better Beginning) (13:55) directed by Lamberto Bava,
4. Giubetto Rosso (Red Jacket) (15:33) directed by Lamberto Bava
5. Il Bambino Rapito (The Kidnapped Child) (16:34) directed by Lamberto Bava
6. Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) (17:54) directed by Lamberto Bava
7. L’impronta dell’assassino (The Killers Fingerprint) (15:46) pqdirected Luigi Cozzi
8. Ciak si Muorte (Lights, Camera, Death) (14:27) Directed by Luigi Cozzi
9. Sposarsi e un po’morire (Getting Married is a Bit Luke Dying) (15:36) directed by Luigi Cozzi
10. Delitto in Rock (Murder Rock) (18:30) directed by Luigi Cozzi
11. L’evasa (The Fugitive) (18:17) directed by Luigi Cozzi
12. La Casa dello Stradivari (The House of the Stradivari) (16:19) directed by Luigi Cozzi
13. Giallo Natale (With: Asia Argento & Daria Nicolodi) (ChristmascGiallo) (18:44) directed by Luigi Cozzi,
14. Via delle Streghe (Witches' Road) (15:00) directed by Luigi Cozzi
15. Il Taxi Fantasma (The Ghost Cab) (17:14) directed by Luigi Cozzi,
Disc 3 Special Features:
- TV Nightmares – Interview With Producer Dario Argento (9:31)
- Giallo On The TV – Interview With Director Luigi Cozzi (18:51)
- Taxi Drivers – Interview With Director Lamberto Bava (10:56)
- Big Giallo Taxi – Interview With Screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti (12:07)
- Calypso 9 – Interview With Actress Antonella Vitale (6:43)
Disc 4: (Gli Incubi di Dario Argento) Dario Argento's Nightmares (1987)
1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1), Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Dario Argento's Nightmares Episodes:
1. La finestra sul cortile (The Window on the Court) (4:07)
2. Riti notturni (Night Rituals) (3:23)
3. Il Verme (The Worm) (3:30)
4. Amare e morire (Loving and Dying) (4:14)
5. Nostalgia Punk (Punk Nostalgia) (2:58)
6. La Strega (The Witch) (3:03)
7. Addormentarsi (Falling asleep) (2:26)
8. Sammy (5:56)
9. L'incubo di chi voleva interpretare “l'incubo” di Dario Argento (The Nightmare of the One Who Wished to Explain Dario Argento's “nightmare") (6:49)
Disc 4 Special Features:
- Giallo Argento (85:10)
This terrific four-disc set is a must-own for cinema fiends who are more than just casual horror fans, but who are Dario Argento deep-divers looking to track his macabre work from the not only the big screen, when it occasionally bled onto Italian television screens in the 1970/80s. Additionally, it's a wonderful document of the talented people in Argento's circle of filmmaker friends, including some lesser seen directorial work from Italian horror titans Luigi Cozzi and Lamberto Bava, as well as the work of screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti, and some familiar acting faces from Argento's iconic filmography. This set is truly and wonderful gialli favored compendium of Argento short form subject matter, most of it largely unseen for decades until now thank to the vault-plundering exploits of Severin Films and their like-minded cohorts.
Buy It!
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