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This is a collection of quotes either by Dario himself or by others who have worked with him. If you have any that you think should be added, let me know.
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( Dario about being called the "Italian Hitchcock")
"Maybe I have inherited Hitchcock's audience, but certainly not his themes. Between me and Hitchcock there are differences of morality and neurosis. Hitchcock is a puritan while I am an anarchist, even too anarchist for my own good"
("Dario Argento - il brivido, il sangue, il thriller" - (C) DEDALO - bari 1986) |
"If it was in my hands, I'd do the whole movie by myself. I'd play every part, the part of a man, a woman, a child, an old man... If I had the time and the money, I'd make my movies completely on my own, disguised and performing everyone's part"
("Dario Argento - il brivido, il sangue, il thriller" - (C) DEDALO - bari 1986) |
"Once upon a time, the audience hated the murderer, now it loves him! Is it the stories that have changed, or is it the world? And when the audience is holding his breath for the killer NOT to get caught, is this happening out of a sympathy for the criminal, or is it because it does not want the film to end?"
("Serial Killer" - Guida ai grandi assasini nella storia del cinema"- DATANEWS Editrice S.r.l.,Roma - 1994) |
"Special Effects are a very important part of my movies. I do not sacrifice to them my idea of terror (a completely mental plot of paranoia and dark fantasy), but I work them out, I discuss them with the technicians, I invent them, because I want them to give the maximum visual impression. Blood is not what counts.
The most important thing is to add the "effect" to the suspense, without disrupting it. This of course depends on the inspiration of the director, his ability to direct fear, by using more the way that a nightmare works than real life. Unfortunately, MY fantasy often goes beyond the technical abilities of cinema. The film camera - let's not forget - has remained almost the same for 60 years. What a disappointment!"
(Dario Argento "They Are All Marvellous Toys", Unita, 1st May, 1982) |
"Argento is a very intelligent man. He understands immediately when an actor 'feels' the scene or not. If he does, he lets him act. Then he sees what he can get from the actor. If he needs something else, he asks him. Finally, he gets everything : what he wants and what the actor can bring."
(Thomas Kretschmann - "L'ecran fantastique" 144, December 1995) |
"It is very pleasant, and it's more interesting than when when I acted in 'TRAUMA'. I was only 16 and I was not self-assured enough, and in this job, you have to be fully self-assured to be completely released."
(Asia on working with her Father again - "L'ecran fantastique" 144, December 1995) |
"...it's true that I like portraying violence, but that doesn't mean I'm bloodthirsty or sadistic, it's just that I believe that violence can be used "poetically""
Dario Argento |
"The process of writing and directing drives you to such extremes that its natural to feel an affinity with insanity. I approach that madness as something dangerous and I'm afraid, but also I want to go to it, to see what's there...to embrace it. I don't know why, but I'm drawn."
(Dario Argento - "Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds" - SUN TAVERN FIELDS - 1991) |
"I really love PROFONDO ROSSO and TENEBRE but if I was to remake the films prior to these, I'd do them quite differently."
(Dario Argento - "Spaghetti Nightmares" - FANTASMA BOOKS - 1996) |
"I like it when people are disgusted, because it means you've made an impression on them. A deep impression."
(Dario Argento - "Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds" - SUN TAVERN FIELDS - 1991) |
"I often ask myself, 'Why don't you help Dario to be more logical? He needs it...' But I believe it would only serve as a constraint, and be rather damaging."
(Franco Ferrini - "Spaghetti Nightmares" - FANTASMA BOOKS - 1996) |
"As for Dario, I rather liked him, except the way that he always wanted to come across as neurotic all the time seemed ridiculous to me. Perhaps he really was a little neurotic - all of us are to some extent - but certainly not as much as he wanted people to believe."
(Mimsy Farmer - "Spaghetti Nightmares" - FANTASMA BOOKS - 1996) |
"What I wanted to achieve with these scenes in "Cat O'Nine Tails" (he talks about the scenes in the cemetery where Franciscus and Malden are looking for clues in a woman's grave) was a macabre and above all, a necrophiliac atmosphere, pretty close to that of Edgar Allan Poe's work. Whenever I want to create this kind of feeling in my films, I just think of Poe."
(Dario Argento - "Sensualita dell'omicidio") |
"Well, now that he killed both Fiore and me I believe he feels much, much better. I think we can be friends again."
(Daria Nicolodi referring to PHENOMENA in VAVEL magazine - 1992) |
"I am grateful for what I'm doing as I'd probably end up in jail otherwise!"
(taken from Dario Argento - Master Of Horror - Italian Version) |
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