There’s a couple of too many implied connections uniting the important thing moments in Argento’s artistic life. That may be essentially the most Argento-esque high quality of this doc. Like Argento’s greatest—and a few of his worst—“Dario Argento Panico” triumphs by making a billowy net of insinuations. The subjects of Scafidi’s on-camera discussions vary from Argento’s collaboration together with his ex-partner Daria Nicolodi to the presumed artistic dip that occurred, in response to the interviewees, proper after 1987, when he made “Opera.” I disagree, however I’m considerably biased. (Along with writing this system notes for Lincoln Heart’s 2022 Dario Argento retrospective, I additionally interviewed Argento right here)
Scafidi’s film appropriately displays its director’s neurotic want to point out all of the alternative ways you’ll be able to take into consideration Argento and his artwork. He covers plenty of floor in a brief period of time and barely overtaxes viewers’ curiosity by use of brief, punchy soundbites, in addition to some entertaining archival footage of Argento, whose superstar as a horror filmmaker is introduced up after which largely assumed.
“Dario Argento Panico” surpasses expectations as a retrospective docu-appraisal given Scafidi’s unusual funding in his topics. He pays tribute to Argento by gathering varied personalities and letting their distinctive points-of-view buffet viewers from one story beat to the subsequent. Like Argento, Scafidi actually appears to like his characters as such; he foregrounds their very own experiences as a manner of enhancing our understanding of who’s speaking and what they’re saying.
Scafidi’s film is most compelling at any time when he encourages his interviewees to unpack their various views, particularly in dialog with Asia. It’s a pleasure to see her speak at some size about her father’s films and never simply those that she’s in. It’s additionally laborious to think about “Dario Argento Panico” discovering a lot of an viewers past the Argento trustworthy, particularly given how a lot emphasis is placed on prevailing theories and concepts of Argento, as an alternative of, say, a extra direct take a look at his films.
It’s nonetheless refreshing to see Scafidi focus a lot on testimonials that would have simply been lowered to their quippier highlights. He runs up towards the bounds of what you are able to do with the sources out there to him. Scafidi additionally takes full benefit of how a lot he can do just by winding up Argento and his family members and letting them go for so long as they really feel like. The remaining is left for viewers to determine.
On Shudder now.