Anticipating The Mother Of Tears

I have been trying real hard to not get too excited about Dario Argento completing the Three Mother's trilogy but I must admit, with all of the Cannes coverage and the first onslaught of photos from the film, that I am not going to be able to help the overwhelming anticipation that I am feeling.
I have hesitated even writing about it in an attempt to curb this anticipation, but I thought maybe a little post wouldn't hurt. I think I am also in a bit of a different boat than some on it because I have actually liked Dario's output from the past decade a lot, the mystifyingly bad PHANTOM OF THE OPERA excepted.
Everything about MOTHER OF TEARS seems perfect to me so far. From the casting of Asia Argento and Daria Nicoldi to the idea that this film is the culmination of his career, perhaps even Italian horror in general, up to this point. Early stills from the film show him clearly echoing not only his past works but also his peers like Lucio Fulci, one shot eerily recalls THE BEYOND.
I suppose he could blow it and I have to admit that ultimately that would be okay. It wouldn't be the end of the world, or his career, but one hopes that he is able to give SUSPIRIA and INFERNO, if not a film of equal greatness, at least a fitting finale.
Anyone interested in this film should regularly be checking the great Darkdreams.org and OdetoAzia.com for regular updates. Alan Jones' recalling of the footage premiering at Cannes over at darkdreams gave me chills and even if the film is a failure it won't be because Dario wasn't giving it his all.
Also for people anticipating this work as much as I am should send a prayer Dario's way as the studio is already pressuring him to tone down the film's violence and sexuality. If ever Dario needed to get a film across un-tampered with it is this one.
The film is due to debut in Italy in October and will hopefully be seen in the States shortly after, or at least by the end of the year. I even having a faint hope that I might actually get to see this one in a theater and not just on dvd.

This is a favorite of the stills released so far that DarkDeams has supplied. Fans of one of Argento's most personal works, PHENOMENA, will immediately recognize this location. I'd say from the mischievous grin on Asia's face here that she is more than aware of the allusion too.

Good luck Dario, we are all pulling for you.

Overlooked Classics: Daria Nicolodi in Shock

1977's SHOCK (BEYOND THE DOOR 2) is mainly remembered as the final theatrical feature from the great Mario Bava. Assisted by his son and future director Lamberto Bava SHOCK is one of the most haunting and effective Italian horror films of the Seventies. Backed by a brilliant score from Libra (featuring members of Goblin) this intense psychologically disturbing feature was first released in the United States as a sequel to Ovidio Assonitis' underrated BEYOND THE DOOR which had also featured young David Colin Jr. While BEYOND THE DOOR was obviously influenced by THE EXORCIST Mario Bava's SHOCK had much more in common with Polanski's REPULSION from 10 years earlier. As portraits of a characters descent into total madness it is hard to beat REPULSION and SHOCK. REPULSION featured one of the great performances by Catherine Deneuve while Bava's SHOCK was blessed with an incedibly good turn by underrated Italian actress Dario Nicolodi.
Nicolodi is a really interesting actress and has always cut an unique figure in all of her work. Her personal life as Dario Argento's significant other in the Seventies and as Asia Argento's mother has overshadowed her career in film. This is a shame, as she was much more than just a girlfriend to Argento. Her work acting in front of his camera brought much to several of his films, especially her great turn in DEEP RED. Also of major importance is her work on the genesis and screen play to SUSPIRIA. It is probably very true that Dario Argento's famed career in the mid to late 70s would have been very different were it not for Nicolodi.
Small supporting roles and her work in Argento's tremendous DEEP RED were all that Nicolodi had under her acting belt when Bava cast her as the lead in SHOCK. She would turn in a performance though, as troubled mother and widow Dora, that would rank among the great work in the Italian Horror genre. It is hard to think of a more emotional and fully realized performance in Italian horror than the one Nicolodi delivers in SHOCK.
One thing that I admire so much about Daria's performance in this film is how authentic it feels. There is never a moment where this feels like caricature. Actually it could be said that this film succeeds as a great film of family dysfunction as well as a supernatural thriller.
Bava seemed to realize the kind of performance Nicolodi was giving as it feels like his camera rarely leaves her. The film's great moments come when she is alone in her bedroom or in various parts of the house. As Daria becomes more and more isolated and afraid of her son, and her past, Bava camera seems to center completely on her and her remarkably expressive face.
Bava's striking trademark economical effects are incredible here as he makes household items such as a piano and bits of moving furniture completely terrifying. One of the great moments in the film is a certain scene that has been copied many times (most recently in the great DON'T trailer from GRINDHOUSE) of a child running down the hall, briefly disappearing and re-appearing as a grown man. It is a great, subtle and potent scare and while SHOCK isn't typically considered one of Bava's great masterpieces (some consider it Lamberto Bava's first film as much as Mario's last) it remains a terrifically inventive and truly frightening film.
Nicolodi is particularly unforgettable in the film's final few minutes when it finally becomes apparent what is really happening to her. Her last moment on screen is still one of the most shocking things I have ever seen. Bava's filming of Nicoldi in her final moments is one of the most tragic and disturbing shots in his entire canon. It would be a shot and ending that would recall one of his earlier works but the combination of elements would give it a much more overpoweringly intense, visceral feel. I am trying to not give this final bit away for people who have not seen this film but I warn you, it is not easily shaken.
I have watched SHOCK many times and I think Daria's performance gets even better upon re-viewings. It is a mulit-layered performance of someone in a lot of emotional trouble. The one problem I have with Shock is an extra scene at the end involving the son which has always bothered me as it calls into question much of what Bava has presented in the rest of the film. Still, SHOCK remains to me one of Bava's most underrated films and one of the defining Italian Horror films of the seventies.

Daria would continue to work with Mario Bava in the last two projects he was involved in, the tv work with Lamberto VENUS OF ILLE and Argento's INFERNO. She continued to work throughout the eighties and nineties in front of and behind the camera but SHOCK remains her greatest role and performance.
Nicolodi recently completed filming the long awaited finale to Dario Argento's THREE MOTHERS trilogy, which marked the first time they have worked together in 20 years. In probably the most anticipated Italian Horror film in at least 30 years Daria will be joined onscreen by her daughter, the award winning Asia Argento, and Udo Kier among others. Whether or not Dario can deliver a film worthy of SUSPIRIA and INFERNO remains to be seen but I can't wait to find out.
SHOCK is currently back in print from BLUE UNDERGROUND in a fine widescreen uncut print that also features an interesting interview with Lamberto Bava.
An official website for Daria should be online any time now and will be found at this address:
http://www.darianicolodi.it/
She also has a Myspace account here worth visiting: http://www.myspace.com/darianicolodiofficial

This Can't Be My Mater Lachrymarum

***I wanted to point out before my look at Dario Argento's Mother of Tears that several of my favorite online associates have written some excellent positive notices on the film, including Steve at The Last Picture Show and Mr. Peel over at Mr. Peel's Sardine Liquer. Everyone should check out their posts for a balanced perspective on a film that has split Argento's fan-base like no other...I wish I liked the film as much as they did. Another favorite post on the film, although a much more mixed one, comes courtesy of Tim Lucas at Video Watchblog, and I wanted to provide the link to that as well. Despite my extreme dislike for Mother of Tears, I am still greatly anticipating Argento's upcoming Giallo and have lost none of my faith in the man's ability to completely rock my world.***



Among my favorite moments in all of cinema is when Ania Pieroni suddenly appears as the overwhelmingly beautiful and cruel Mater Lachrymarum, The Mother of Tears, in Dario Argento’s 1980 masterpiece Inferno. It’s a brief and hauntingly odd moment that only Argento in his prime could pull off, as Pieroni does and says nothing but somehow communicates all of the strange magic that is at the heart of the magnificent Inferno.





As re-imagined 27 years later, The Mother of Tears has transformed into Moran Atias, a ridiculous silicone based adolescent fantasy right out of a bad mid eighties Goth Rock video. Atias, a beautiful and charismatic woman in real life, is just one of the many problems in Argento’s long awaited Mother Of Tears, a film that I rank along with The Phantom of The Opera as his absolute worst.
Mother of Tears is the first Dario Argento film I have failed to connect with at even the most basic level. Even the few films he has made in his remarkable career that I haven’t liked (the aforementioned Phantom and Do You Like Hitchcock) at the very least were interesting and I understood what he was attempting. Mother of Tears, on the other hand, just left me completely and totally baffled and finally very depressed.



Argento’s final film in a trilogy that includes the astonishing one-two punch of Suspiria and Inferno, is a hollow, cheap and rushed feeling production that, minus a couple of really inspired moments, never works for me. The work, filled with many allusions to past Italian Horror productions from the likes of Bava, Fulci and Argento himself, might have been intended as some kind of culmination to more than fifty years of Italian fright, but instead it feels like a sad reminder that the once strong genre has been reduced to less than a shadow of its former self.

I found so much wrong with the film that I don’t know where to begin. Stylistically it is as far removed from the colorful extravaganzas that the first two were as possible. While I admire that Argento was attempting to make Mother Of Tears very much its own film, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the picture, as shot by Frederic Fasano, is a flat looking production that reminded me more of a television movie rather than one of the major films of Dario Argento’s career. Honestly I feel Asia Argento’s flawed but brave Scarlet Diva (2000), Fasano’s first feature, is a visually more imaginative and striking production than this one.



Technically the film is just a mess. From some of the weakest visual effects (courtesy of a Canadian Company that worked on Argento’s superior Masters of Horror productions) I have seen in a long time to many instances of poor editing that manages to spoil most of legendary Sergio Stivaletti’s makeup effects, Mother of Tears just feels poorly conceived at best throughout its 102 minute running time. The film’s final confrontation is especially spoiled by a particularly poor visual effect that frankly looks like something out of a Troma or Misty Mundae production; only at least they would have had the intelligence to play it for laughs. Here, Argento doesn’t seem to realize how truly terrible many of the effects look, something downright tragic for a man responsible for some of the most unsettling imagery in film history.



The film’s many tributes to other films typically only serve to remind lovers of the genre of much more powerful productions, and they lack any real visceral impact for the most part. Take for example an early murder sequence that is clearly inspired by one of Fulci’s more brutal moments, but as done here it feels like something out of one of Lucio’s later productions (like Demonia or Anigma) when he had run out of money and artistic steam to really mount it the way it should. All of the murder’s here in Argento’s film feel like he’s trying too hard and for all their gruesomeness, they lack any real punch.



The cast is doomed as well as they really have nowhere to go here. Atias feels right for the part when you watch her interviewed on the disc’s documentary but in the film itself she is ill conceived at best. Her followers that reek havoc on Rome throughout the film are even worse in how poorly thought out they are, as they play more like a shoppers at a local Hot Topic rather than signals of a world coming to an end. Many familiar faces pop up from Udo Kier to Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni but they all just serve to remind the audience that they deserve much better material.
Particularly unforgivable is the wasting of Daria Nicolodi, who is forced to perform her entire role hidden behind one of the cheesiest special effects imaginable.



Cast in the underwritten lead role is Asia Argento and even she struggles with the material. Shot in the midst of some truly stirring films like Breillat’s The Last Mistress and Assayas’ Boarding Gate, in which she gives two of the most powerhouse performances of her career, Asia looks exhausted here and just doesn’t have anything to work with. Compared to the miraculous performance she gave for her father in the masterful The Stendhal Syndrome more than a decade ago, the part written for her in Mother of Tears becomes among the most disappointing of one cinema’s most remarkable modern careers.



The film thankfully has some positive elements that are worth noting. Claudio Simonetti’s score for the most part is a rousing operatic success (although the rap metal song that ends the film is an embarrassment) while Stivaletti’s effects that aren’t spoiled by amateuristic editing are very memorable. Overall though, Mother of Tears is the most disappointing Italian Horror production since Stivaletti’s The Wax Mask in 1997, a film that is a masterpiece compared to this one.
Mother of Tears, which amazingly got Argento some of the mainstream critical acclaim that has alluded him throughout his career, probably would have broke my heart if I had seen it before hearing anything about it. A year’s worth of many fans (and the revered Alan Jones) disappointment with it tempered my expectations. Seriously though, as someone who counts Sleepless as one of his favorite films of the decade and has great admiration for The Card Player, I was surprised by just how much I disliked Mother of Tears…and more than a little disheartened.



There is one moment though that almost grabs some of the magic that Suspiria and Inferno had in nearly every frame. It is a touching little scene that sees Asia’s character going through a box of old family photographs. Argento’s die-hard fans will of course recognize these are real mementos from her life, and the tears she starts to shed feel just as real. It’s a splendid reminder of what a film obsessed by digging up the past could have been.





Despite my dislike for the film though, I’ll never count Dario Argento out and I will view Mother of Tears as just a mistake. Curbing my disappointment last night after watching this, I whispered “oh well, it’s only a movie” and quickly realized it was the most damning phrase I could have muttered as the life changing duo of Suspiria and Inferno were oh so much more than that…I wish Dario had left Mater Lachrymarum as just that unforgettable vision of Ania Pieroni in Inferno, as cinema’s darkest witch deserved much better than Mother of Tears.

Beatrice Monkey at 32

Two time David di Donatello (The Italian Oscar) award winner Asia Argento was born Asia Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento 32 years ago today on September 20th 1975 to Italian film legends Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi. Born in the year of one of her father's greatest films, the legendary DEEP RED, Asia has been in the Italian spotlight virtually all of her life.
Asia Argento is a lot of different things to a lot of very different people. To many she is one of the last great Italian Horror icons and is mainly known for her work with her father, Lamberto Bava, and Michele Soavi. To others she is an action star from XXX and a major sex symbol with any number of her modeling shoots hanging on many a young mans or young woman's wall. To a handful of important modern female directors like Sofia Coppola and Catherine Breillat she is a peer, collaborator and friend. There are other hats as well: Poet, DJ, Muse, Documentarian. The list is endless for this woman barely in her thirties. Perhaps her most unknown persona is as the double Donatello winner in Italy, as some of her most heartfelt and effective work is all but unknown to most English Language audiences.

Essentially growing up on and around film sets, the young Asia made her acting debut at the age of nine in the Italian miniseries SOGNI e BISOGNI (1985). Good notices in that led quickly to her feature film debut in DEMONS 2 (1986), a Lamberto Bava film co-written and produced by her father. DEMONS 2 was a fairly disappointing sequel to Bava's fantastic DEMONS (1984) but Asia was memorable as the frightened little Ingrid.
Asia had a difficult childhood at times due to her parents separation among other things, and was said to have begun writing poetry at a very early age. Often alone or with her half sisters Fiore and Anna, Asia's early aspirations were to be a writer and not an actress but she felt oddly at home on the set of DEMONS 2, and soon after found herself working with her mom and director Luigi Cozzi in a short lived Italian Giallo television series.
Her career really started to take off in 1989 just after her 14th birthday with her first starring role in Cristina Comencini's ZOO. Working with one of Italy's few female writer and directors no doubt would later fuel the most controversial part of Asia's career. Even more noteworthy than ZOO was Asia's role in young Michele Soavi's THE CHURCH, an audacious and winning Gothic Italian horror picture that would mark the future DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE director as one of the major new talents in Italian cinema. As in DEMONS 2, Asia was very memorable in a smaller role and THE CHURCH remains one of the definitive Italian Horror films from the late eighties.
1989 would also bring Nanni Moretti's PALOMBELLA ROSSA, a dramatic film that would bring the young Asia to an entirely different audience from her horror work. ZOO and PALOMBELLA ROSSA would be the first signs that Asia Argento was going to be more than just her father's daughter.
After taking a few years off to finish school and continue writing, Asia returned to Italian screens in 1992 with a starring role in Michele Placido's CLOSE FRIENDS. This intense film was a critical and popular hit and would make Asia one of Italy's youngest and most respected stars.
1993 would bring one of the most anticipated and disappointing films of Asia Argento's career. TRAUMA (1993) would mark the first time that Asia worked under her father's direction, unfortunately the production is one of Dario's weakest films and Asia's career was briefly hurt by its muted reception. In hindsight I don't think TRAUMA is as bad as many fans consider it. Had Dario pulled away from the Americanizing aspects of the production, then I think it could have been a really solid film. As it stands, it is a flawed but at times interesting work. Asia's performance as the bulimic Aura has been criticised in many circles but I find her odd and slightly mannered performance one of the most moving in Dario's canon. TRAUMA is a strange film and one of the biggest missed opportunities in Dario Argento's career.
Depressed from the TRAUMA reception, Asia would step behind the camera for the first time with an odd and surreal short in the anthology film DEGENERAZIONE. I remember seeing this for the first time in the mid nineties, and being immediately struck by Asia's short segment and thinking to myself that she could possibly end up directing.
1994 would mark a rough time for the Argento family when Asia's beloved half-sister Anna was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. She would throw much of anguish into her next role, Carlo Verdone's LET'S NOT KEEP IN TOUCH, which would garner Asia her first Donattelo and re-establish her as one of Italy's greatest young actresses.
Needing perhaps to have a little escape, Asia next travelled to France to film the intense Patrice Chereau film QUEEN MARGOT (1994). The role was a small one but it would give Asia the opportunity to work with an actress she has often been compared to, the intense and beautiful Isabelle Adjani.
Asia returned to Italy after the success of the bloody and brilliant QUEEN MARGOT and filmed the excellent ensemble film BITS AND PIECES (1997). This great film would also feature a young Monica Bellucci and Dario Argento himself in a rare acting role.
1996 would be possibly Asia's most important year as an actress, with two high profile roles in which she would deliver the best performances of her young life. She would win another Donattelo for TRAVELLING COMPANION, Peter Del Monte's great little film that teamed Asia up with the iconic Michele Piccoli. TRAVELLING COMPANION is a real jewel of a film and it is thankfully available on disc here in the States. I highly recommend it for anyone who just knows Asia Argento through her more genre oriented work.
The second role for Asia in 96 would be even more noteworthy than TRAVELLING COMPANION. I have thought since I first saw it in 1997 that Dario Argento's THE STENDAHL SYNDROME is one of his great works, and that Asia's performance as the police detective Anna is one of the most memorable of the nineties.
It is a film that still divides many people but I am hoping the upcoming Blue Underground special edition set causes perhaps some fans to revisit it. It is a work that has haunted me greatly since I first saw it ten years ago and it is the film that established Asia as one of my favorite modern actresses.
Her intense work in TRAVELLING COMPANION and THE STENDAHL SYNDROME would mark a turning point for the twenty-one year old Argentio and she took over two years off after them. In that period she wrote her first book, the autobiographical I LOVE YOU KIRK (1999).
She would return to Italian screens in 1998 with the comedy VIOLA KISSES EVERYBODY and then she signed on to film a picture with one of her major heroes, New York's own Abel Ferrara.

Ferrara's NEW ROSE HOTEL (1998) is either one of his greatest films or one of his worst. It just depends on who you ask. I was a bit bewildered by the film the first time I saw it in 1999 but re viewings have put me in the camp that consider it one of Abel's greatest and rewarding films. Asia is splendid in the role of the conniving Sandii and she frankly steals the film from both Willem Dafoe and Christopher Walken.
Asia and Ferrara would have a combative but respectful partnership and she would later film a much talked about documentary on the maverick director (which, by the way, if anyone has a copy of please throw a brother a bone and drop me an email for a trade). Ferrara and his late collaborator and MS 45 star Zoe Tamerlis are often named as Asia's biggest influences and the connections, especially in the second half of Asia's career, are easy to see.

1998 would finish up with two more notable films, Michael Radford's B.MONKEY and her father's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. B.MONKEY is a film I am very fond of; with its sleek look, great soundtrack and Asia at her most charismatic. Unfortunately Miramax savaged the film in editing and the version that is out is severely compromised. I really hope that Radford is able to get his original cut out one day as I think it is a sublime little romantic crime film.
Asia looks lovely in her father's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA but the film is a disaster. Easily the worst work that either Dario or his daughter have ever delivered, it remains the only Dario Argento film that I don't enjoy revisiting. I don't even like thinking about it.
The new decade has been a delirious and frenzied ride for Asia Argento. She would break to American audiences in the action packed XXX (2002) and then as, the should have been, star of George Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD (2005). The part in the Romero film was fitting as the great director had first met Asia as a little girl while preparing his DAWN OF THE DEAD with her father in the late seventies.
The last seven years have also seen Asia becoming more and musical minded with late night DJ gigs and guest spots on a number of albums, including a scorching Trash Palace JE'TAIME MON NON PLUS with Placebo's front man.
The early part of the decade would find her performances seeming to suffer a bit. Films like LOVE BITES (2001), RED SIREN (2002), and THE KEEPER (2005) would do little for her career and she seems frankly bored at times in them. Unfortunately these films are much more readily available in America than her earlier fine Italian work, and I believe this is one reason she isn't more respected among English language audiences.

More interesting in the first half of the decade was Asia the writer and filmmaker. 2000 saw the release of her SCARLET DIVA, an overwhelmingly intense and confessional debut film that would mark her as one of the most uncompromising artists of the decade. SCARLET DIVA is a mess at times but there are times when Asia really catches moments so personal and so intense that it is quite astonishing. Her follow up feature, 2004's THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, would be even more intense and perhaps even more flawed. Despite there shortcomings Asia Argento's work as a writer and director have quickly established her as a true voice. I am extremely curious to see what she is going to deliver next.
The last few years have seen Asia the actress thankfully return. Now a mother and seemingly more focused than ever, with this year's Cannes festival premiering a whopping four high profile films. No longer just Dario Argento's daughter, she is one of the most sought after independent actresses in the world and with uncompromising directors like Abel Ferrara, Sofia Coppola and Catherine Breillet all singing her praises, Asia Argento is destined to only get better.

Of course the big film right now is MOTHER OF TEARS. Dario Argento's newest film is getting more attention than any Italian horror film in probably 25 years. It is fitting that it re teams not only father and daughter, but also the estranged Daria Nicoldi is back in the fold. Regardless of its virtues or flaws, the upcoming MOTHER OF TEARS is an important film for all involved, for Italian horror fans and finally for the genre itself. I am extremely happy that Asia is involved in it.
Asia recently wrapped the interesting Bertrand Bonello's new film and she is currently shooting Michael Civetta's sure to be controversial COIN LOCKER BABIES.
It is hard to believe that Asia Argento has accomplished so much in just thirty-two years. Out of all the young actors and filmmakers on the scene, Asia Argento is one to really watch. I wish her all the best and a very happy birthday.

NOTE: All of these wonderful photos (the first shot is from her official site) are from the essential Ode To Azia website which is linked to the right. I have said it before, this is one of the best stops on the internet.

-Jeremy Richey, 2007-