Dario Argento’s elaborate ‘whodunit?’, an updated 'penny dreadful' recalling Edgar Wallace.
Where the capricious narratives of Argento's immediately prior SUSPIRIA (1976) and INFERNO (1980) were in many respects primarily pretexts for Argento’s virtuosity, TENEBRE harks back to the narrative driven PROFONDO ROSSO, the plot, while arguably artificial, is notably more significant to the movie's function. An American detective novelist (Franciosa) visits Rome on a promotional tour and before you can say "slash of the blade" an attractive young shoplifter finds herself on the wrong end of a straight razor, torn pages from Franciosa’s latest novel stuffed into her mouth even as she draws her final breath. The hapless author in no time at all becomes caught up in a nightmare, finding himself embroiled in a series of extremely violent slayings, the victims all young women, the murders seemingly imitative of his work. Coming under suspicion, Franciosa is driven to indulge in a little sleuthing himself, aided by his agent (Saxon), who subsequently is murdered. In the end, it transpires that though the murders were initiated by a deranged television personality (genre vet John Steiner), Franciosa has himself continued them out of psychopathic misogyny. The splendid twist that closes the movie sees Franciosa apparently committing suicide by cutting his throat, only for his action to prove bogus and he subsequently murders the investigating policeman (Gemma), when on the verge of claiming another victim (Daria Nicolodi) he is picturesquely killed by impailment upon an appropriately elaborate steel sculpture.
Very much in the operatic style of the best of Argento, TENEBRE may not reach the intoxicating heights of SUSPIRIA or PROFONDO ROSSO, but it’s up there amongst the Italian stallion’s best work. Unquestionably some elements of this material recall DePalma’s disappointingly mundane DRESSED TO KILL (1980) but Argento's film is in its own way considerably more effective. The killings are staged with relish and sublime virtuosity, the visual detail - gloved hands, keys turning in locks - is brilliantly orchestrated to jangle the nerves. The on-camera fake suicide can be interpreted as a teasing objectification of the director's preferred technique of fooling his audience with sheer technical trickery or a mocking put down to the censorious who argue for the suppression of what is essentially entertainment fantasy.
Intriguing , compellingly plotted and light-years away from the distasteful path of LA SYNDROME DI STENDHAL, TENEBRE represents Argento at the height of his powers. The dubbing is perfectly passable, much of the acting erratic, Franciosa is perfectly fine, indeed quite effective in the lead role and the gorgeous Daria Nicolodi excellent and alluring as always, but Steiner is over the top and some of the support acting is less than entirely convincing. The script is clever and well written and Argento’s direction flawless and masterful, his trademark virtuosity a visual and aural delight.
Nouveaux’s disc is cut, but with only 4 seconds trimmed, the cut isn’t that intrusive. The arm chop gets the chop, but is still there in part ("the bloody stump you might say"!). |
