Dario Argento
Il fantasma dell'opera

In June 1998, I was on vacation in Sapri with my girlfriend and one day we decided to take a trip to the Grotte di Pertosa, one of the most suggestive and fascinating natural beauties of the Parco del Cilento.

That day, and believe it or not, there he was, for me, a die-hard fan of the great Dario Argento. He wasn't there as a tourist; he was at the caves to present, in a press conference held in the evening, his latest film: IL FANTASMA DELL'OPERA (me cojoni!).

We had arrived there in the morning, but I managed to convince my girlfriend that it would be worth staying late to attend the conference ...and so we did.

Dario is an affable, kind, very calm person (and rightly so, he's always a bit out there!) and basically, he talked at length about his latest work, about this film adaptation loosely inspired by the famous novel by Leroux.

Needless to say, that when the film was released in cinemas a few months later, my girlfriend and I rushed to see it. At the time, I hadn't yet realized what kind of disastrous path this burned-out junkie would take. Sure, I had some suspicions. "Trauma" (3 stars) and "The Stendhal Syndrome" (2 and a half) didn't convince me...

The film turned out to be a mess, incoherent, gibberish, embarrassing. I never watched it again and I don't think I will because I'm not a fan of trash. Yes, okay, sometimes trash makes me laugh but 90% of the time it annoys and displeases me. I remember the "phantom" in this film being a handsome blond guy, then I remember there are some splatter scenes, then I remember the rats and of course the caves, the nicest feature of the film but not thanks to Dario.

Another thing that stuck with me and for me is the most embarrassing feature of this film is Asia Argento who acts with a heavy Roman accent, in The Phantom of the Opera... yes, yes... in a classic of the 19th century! It means you have no shame... that (worse) you have no idea what the hell you are doing.

After The Phantom of the Opera, I decided I wouldn't watch any more of his films (in the cinema) and so I did. Anyway, I have subsequently seen only Non ho sonno and the short film "Jennifer" which, by comparison, is half a masterpiece. "La Terza Madre", "Il Cartaio", "Giallo", and "Dracula" (???) I've missed but I don't feel like watching them, I trust those who have seen them that there's rubbish.

However, despite the fact that over the years to come he continued to churn out one terrible film after another, except for "Non ho sonno" which is still a 3 stars itself, I don’t hold it against Dario. I still like Dario Argento ...but Dario!!! ...holy Christ what a fried fool you've become over the last 20 years!