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Originally Posted by demonrail666
I'm slowly coming to think that Argento is among the most overrated filmmakers there is. I like bits of lots of his films but haven't yet seen one which is good throughout.
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I think that, in terms of his overall career, he's made a few decent films followed by a whole bunch of godawful super-size turkeys. I didn't like "Opera" at all, and the whole point of "The Stendhal Syndrome" seemed, well, pointless. As for his "classic period", I personally do like a lot of this, but will admit that a lot of that comes from Argento's sense of art direction, which although not original (taking a lot of his cues from Mario Bava), still is striking and very "painterly", in a way. I have to admit that directing actors is not one of Argento's stronger points - look at Michael Brandon's rather wooden performance in "Four Flies On Grey Velvet", for example. Still, when all is said and done, I still rate Argento overall for his early work.
On a footnote, I only wish that Michaele Soavi hadn't had to retire to look after his son, and been given full creative control (i.e. No D Argento mentoring/interfering!) on at least one film. Now that would have been quite something, I reckon.
Re Leone - the "Dollars" film have been over-lionised a bit, but me still like 'em. Mind you, their visual look inspired Fields Of The Nephilim. Argh!!!