After the highly successful paperback version of this book, FAB Press has now released the promised limited edition hardback.
Never before has so much information and opinion on Argento and his films been gathered together in one place. The 300+ pages are bursting with essays, reviews, stills, posters, ad mats, fotobusta's...and the most complete filmography to date.
The first section, primo tempo, consists of five essays by Chris Gallant. The first explores eye violation, voyeurism and compares OPERA with the Michael Powell classic PEEPING TOM. The next investigates what 'Gothic' actually means and how it is applied to horror films, in particular SUSPIRIA and INFERNO. Thirdly, he discusses Argento's use of heroines. The next investigates Argento's visual style and lastly the influence of Poe on his work.
I will get around to it no doubt but my interest was immediately taken by the sheer amount of information available. I have not seen such an exhaustive compilation of details on his films before. Also, there are loads of stills throughout the book many of which are new to print. There are four full colour sections containing beautiful and sometimes rare reproductions of posters and lobby cards.
The secondo tempo contains all the film reviews. I like the fact that they are by different reviewers, it not only gives a wider sense of perspective but also accounts for some different reviewing styles. I also feel it was a good idea to only give brief coverage to his produced films in this section. Although he may have had an influence over them, they are not pure Argento.
This hardback version is just beautiful and exudes style and quality. It is a big, heavy book which immediately gives it substance. As well as this, there is the addition of a NONHOSONNO review with added colour pictures, a completely updated video/laserdisc/DVD listing (compiled from this sites DarioBase) and improved reproduction of the colour sections. You can see that these guys have put an awful lot of work into not only the content but the way it is laid out on every single page, the visual style is certainly worthy of Argento and I feel sure he would be proud of it.
In conclusion, this is a wonderful second volume in the FAB Press Directors Series. If you love film but know nothing about Argento or are already a disciple, this book needs to be in your collection. Well done Chris, Steve and Harvey.
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