aka SLEEPLESS (2000) 117 mins MEDUSA FILM ; ITALY

[video - laserdisc - dvd]

[artwork][photo]

click here for italian dvd review click here for uk dvd review click here for IMDb user comments

Finally, the quintessential tour de force every Dario Argento buff has been waiting for in the modern era has arrived. Nonhosonno (the Italian for I Can’t Sleep blurred together to fit into his one-word title canon) is unquestionably his finest giallo picture since Opera and as technically accomplished and uniquely galvanising as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red and Tenebrae, the three films continually referenced throughout the superior narrative flow even as their archetypal motifs get expertly spun into new areas of high tone shock.

Geared around clever visual and aural clues to the identity of the assassin using a dark nursery rhyme as a murder blueprint, Argento’s scintillating return to the sleight-of-hand virtuosity of his past glories is a major cause for celebration. After three women are horrendously mutilated in Turin, widowed detective Ulisse Moretti (Max Von Sydow) is pulled out of lonely retirement to help puzzled police investigate the new batch of crimes bearing the hallmarks of a serial killer he thought he'd closed the book on in 1983.

Haunted by the fact he clearly blamed the wrong person – a dwarf author of giallo tales, subsequently shot dead by his own mother (Rossella Falk) to avoid imprisonment – the murders are once again being based on a chapter in a yellowing children's storybook titled 'Death Farm'. Unofficially aided by Giacomo (Stefano Dionisi), the son of the last victim in Moretti’s casebook whose life took an alcoholic nosedive after witnessing his mother being orally violated by a sharp musical instrument, the frail Moretti must try and piece together the deranged modus operandi of the unhinged maniac while the homicides intensify and warp into ever more surreal juvenilia. But why has the devious slaughter recommenced after all these years? And what is the motive for the vicious hardcore violence? The answer to those questions has a devastating impact on Moretti’s fragile existence and Giacomo’s close circle of friends including his new lover, classical harpist Gloria (Chiara Caselli).

Beginning with a sustained symphony of suspenseful terror on a moving train in the grand Suspiria tradition and ending in a Deep Red pool of dripping blood, Nonhosonno goes for the whodunit jugular as Argento artfully combines shimmering set pieces and trashy red herrings with full throttle pulp friction. Many will be surprised by the hip contemporary look given to this, the first episode in Argento’s planned neo Animal Trilogy, by cinematographer Ronnie Taylor. The baroque flamboyance of Turin a la Deep Red has been replaced by an ultra-realistic sheen that bathes the intimately atmospheric locations in cool mystery and the introduction of the disco go-go dancer victim is as vibrantly day-glo electric as it is atypical of anything Argento has ever directed before.

So too are the end optical illusion credits deliberately placed over the concluding action – a signature first for the groundbreaking maestro. Sandwiched between the giallo conventions Argento has made well and truly his own is one perfectly modulated jolt after another. The main bravura sequence, one that will be reverentially talked about for years to come like the Tenebrae roof crawl, is an astonishing foot level slow pan along a theatre carpet with dancers, the audience, stagehands, a cleaner with a Hoover and the assassin walking in and out of frame before the camera finally focuses on a strangle-held prima ballerina’s shoes as her still twitching severed head falls to the ground. An absolute stunner! Argento also reinvents the maniac point-of-view shot for fast-food waitress Dora’s (Barbara Mautino) teeth shattering death in the subtlest way possible – a frisson that had the Rome premiere audience gasping. Sergio Stivaletti’s gore make-ups are wincingly realistic and everything is superbly choreographed to a thunderously effective Goblin score complete with haunting riffs from their own Argento back catalogue. Max Von Sydow does something in Nonhosonno that few Argento stars ever have and that’s actually act. His shining moment can’t be discussed because it would give away a major plot point, but the Swedish megastar centres Argento’s chiller in the profoundest way possible with his credible and sensitive performance as the recluse with a pet parrot his only friendly contact. A shame the same can’t be said about Stefano Dionisi who is definitely the weakest link in Argento’s chain of damaged deception. Exploding heads, severed fingers (and finger nails), slit throats, fountain pens through skulls, sinister puppets, Crystal Plumage yellow anoraks, nude prostitutes continually punched in the head (the only cause for any real censor alarm), murky family secrets and more suspects than a Cat O’Nine Tails - Nonhosonno (at the time of writing, still no official English title) has it all and then some. Argento’s triumphant redefinition of his giallo roots is a sustained masterwork of epic brilliance and one that his fans should embrace with overwhelming joy and renewed devotion.

reviewed by Alan Jones

To view the US promo booklet click here.

credits
cast:	Max Von Sydow, Stefano Dionisi, Chiara Caselli, Rosella Falk, Gabriele Lavia, Roberto Zibetti
director:	Dario Argento
producer:	Claudio Argento
screenplay:	Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Carlo Lucarelli
cinematography:	Ronnie Taylor
music:	Goblin
sfx:	Sergio Stivaletti

technical information
negative:	35mm
print:	35mm
aspect ratio:	1.85:1
format:	Spherical

[artwork][photo]

[reviews index][film index]

[top of page]

|home|darknews|biography|filmography|dariobase|

|reviews|asia|audio/visual|links|comunicazione|map|