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Tenebre (English version)
Location
Main screening room
Date
July 21st, 2022
Duration
101 min
Cycle
Dario Argento: Deep Fears

To coincide with the presentation of Dario Argento's new film, Dark Glasses (Occhiali Neri), at the 2022 edition of Fantasia, we are presenting, in collaboration with the festival and the Italian Institute of Culture in Montreal, eight of the filmmaker's previous films, which together testify to the way in which this prolific Italian master of terror has never ceased to experiment, formally and thematically. From his major contribution to the giallo genre at the beginning of his career to the horror cinema of the 2000s, through the supernatural phase initiated with Suspiria, this cycle allows us to revisit a work in perpetual evolution, with incisive direction and delightful international casts, including the complete Three Mothers trilogy: Suspiria, Inferno and Mother of Tears.

New 4K restoration from Synapse Films

Tenebrae
Directed by
Dario Argento
Language
English version
Actors
John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma
Origins
Italy
Year
1982
Duration
101 min
Genre
Horror, mystery, crime
Format
Digital (Restauration 4K de Synapse Films)
Synopsis

While promoting his new book in Rome, Peter Neal, a well-known novelist, finds himself involved in a series of crimes. Pages from his novel are indeed found at the first crime scene, and he also receives disturbing phone calls and letters. When the police fail to respond, Peter decides to investigate with the help of Anna, his long-time assistant, and Gianni, a local.

Tenebrae

Dario Argento

Growing up in Rome in the 1940s, Dario Argento experienced both the world of film sets with his father, a film producer, and that of modeling in his mother's studio, a fashion photographer: some would say that he fell into the giallo as a child. Before moving on to directing, this great cinephile began his career as a critic, standing as a defender of genre cinema. He then used his writing skills to sign or contribute to many scripts, the most famous of which is Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone. In 1970, Argento moved on to directing with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, a giallo film. The originality of his direction was already evident in this first film, which opened the most prolific and acclaimed period of his career, marked by his collaborations with his partner Daria Nicolodi, the editor Franco Fraticelli and the group Goblin. With Suspiria, the filmmaker turns to supernatural horror, beginning an alternation of genres, which he transcends with a colorful expressionism and never ceasing to experiment stylistically.

Explore

There is no trace here of the supernatural in the style of Suspiria: we are in the middle of giallo, that playful and perverse form that the crime thriller has taken in Italy. Against a backdrop of electronic music - the Goblin at full blast - Argento goes far into gore, as in a scene of amputation with an axe that has been censored in the four corners of Europe. The plot doesn't matter: it's the style that hits the nail on the head.
Aurélien Ferenczi
Télérama (2011)
About Tenebrae
Full cast
About Dario Argento
Filmography
Le Vidéo Club de Dario Argento à l'occasion de la sortie de "Vortex"
Comment faire la peur au cinéma, par Dario Argento
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In collaboration with

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