fbpx Biennale Cinema 2023 | Dario Argento Panico (Dario Argento Panic)
La Biennale di Venezia

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Cinema

Dario Argento Panico (Dario Argento Panic)

Venice Classics
Director:
Simone Scafidi
Production:
Paguro Film (Giada Mazzoleni)
Running Time:
98’
Language:
Italian, English, French, Spanish
Country:
UK
Screenplay:
Manlio Gomarasca, Davide Pulici, Simone Scafidi
Cinematographer:
Patrizio Saccò
Music:
Alessandro Baldessari
Sound:
Dino Gervasoni
As themselves:Dario Argento, Fiore Argento, Asia Argento, Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Nicholas Winding Refn, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Lamberto Bava, Luigi Cozzi, Michele Soavi, Claudio Simonetti, Marisa Casale, Cristina Marsillach, Floriana Argento, Franco Ferrini

Synopsis

Within hotel rooms, sheltered from the outside world, Dario Argento created his most acclaimed films. Today, in a hotel room in Rome’s countryside, he is writing his last. This time, however, he is not alone. Today, in agreement with his agent, he decides to return to a hotel to conclude his new script and to be interviewed, filmed, followed by a crew that is shooting a film about him. Inside this structure, Argento does not initially feel at ease, struggling to find tranquility both to finish the writing of his film, and to confide in who is interviewing him. But the demon of cinema, who never abandoned him, followed him up there and will push him, once again, to give himself totally.

Director's Statement

Through the words of the director himself, Panico reconstructs the director’s entire life, from his birth in a family already linked to the show, reviewing the great films of Argento, up to the celebrations around the world in recent years. The narrative consists of the life of Argento told by himself: interviews with his collaborators, people from the family sphere and personal friendships, Italian and international scholars, world-famous guest stars; excerpts from his films; archive materials from his sets, both video and photographic.
However, the film also aims to address the director through the staging of some thematic characteristics of his creative world: isolation, double and panic. The isolation is represented by the first narrative line of the film, which sees Argento staying at a hotel to finish the writing of his new film. This trick is therefore consistent with the creative method of the director himself, who often needed to isolate himself, estrange himself from everyday reality to immerse himself in his own depths. The double is one of the peculiarities of many heroes, and psychopaths, of Argento’s films. And Argento himself speaks of himself as if he were divided in two, as if there were two Dario Argentos: the one who creates nightmares and the private, common, ordinary one. Finally, panic: Argento said, at the time of the making of Suspiria, that scaring the public is a vocation, something inherent in him, in his soul, in his dreams. But also, that he does not seek simple terror, which is a beginner’s goal, but pursues panic. That would be delirium. But is panic today still what Argento was once chasing? What is Dario Argento looking for today at 83?

Production/Distribution

PRODUCTION: Giada Mazzoleni - Paguro Film Ltd
St. James House 65 Mere Green Rd Sutton Coldfield West Midlands
B755BY – London, United Kingdom
Tel. +39 3491267650
info@pagurofilm.com
http://www.pagurofilm.com

WORLD SALES: Arianna Castoldi – Mediawan Rights
46, Avenue de Breteuil
75007 – Paris, France
Tel. +33 0649299756
arianna.castoldi@mediawan.com
http://rights.mediawan.com/

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION: Gianluca De Falco – PLAION
Strada 1 -Palazzo F5 – 5° Piano
20090 – Assago, Italia
Tel. +39 025737420
g.defalco@plaion.com

PRESS OFFICE: Alexandra Berenguer - Mediawan Rights
46, Avenue de Breteuil
75007 – Paris, France
Tel. +33 625038315
aberenguer@mediawan.eu

ITALIAN PRESS OFFICE: Stefania Collalto – Echo SRL
Via G.B. Morgagni 33
20129 – Milano, Italia
Tel. +39 3394279472
collalto@echogroup.it
press@echogroup.it


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Biennale Cinema
Biennale Cinema