and I can't believe I didn't remember it being such a terrible movie! At least most of Dario's other movies have a distinct visual style and bright colors to keep your interest when everything else fails, but this movie literally had nothing going for it. This is probably the worst Argento film I've seen, there's just no excuse for this.
sharePeople either love TENEBRE or hate it. At first it seems as if Argento is telling a straight forward mystery, but he's not. The film is really about the way an artist manipulates action; the murder mystery plot merely begins what is otherwise a fanciful equation that builds back and forth from the book Peter Neal has written to the film we are watching. The key to any Argento movie is to discover where his story logic is based. He rarely confines himself to stories that are character driven; nor does his sense of melodrama follow strict unities of cause and effect. Argento's logic is usually peripheral to his action; images maintain a special life of their own, and follow a unique progression of association. It's the kind of thing David Lynch does. The difference is, Lynch is not considered first and foremost a horror specialist; we accept him as a surrealist. Argento's work is just as surreal, but always within the parameters of a particular genre. With this film, one either flows with Argento, or dismisses the film as being implausible and unmotivated. I flow, and believe this to be a true masterpiece of post-modern cinema.
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I've just watched it for the first time, I don't think it's either his worst or his best, but I think it was very good ! Personally I prefer Il Gatto a Nove Code, I find the pacing and the script better, it reminds me of Mario Bava. Tenebrae is more stylish, with strong visuals before and during the murder scenes (the long travelling that literaly crawls the house of the lesbians is useless but really nice !) unfortunately the rest of the film, in my opinion, is not always on par with the artistic gore. It feels like there are some gaps, it might also be because of the dubbing, which was quite bad at times (the first victim).
Hey, talking about Mario Bava, that scene with John Saxon waiting on the plaza, wasn't it a tribute to La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo ? Didn't he wear a hat like this too ? I saw it several years ago so I might be wrong. Nonetheless, very good film, very enjoyable (!) to watch, too bad they don't make them anymore like that. :(
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