Giallo (2009)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Dario Argento

Writers:

Jim Agnew (writer)
Dario Argento (writer)
(more)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

In Italy, a woman fears her sister may have been kidnapped. Inspector Enzo Avolfi fears it's worse. They team up to rescue her from a sadistic killer known only as Yellow. |

Plot Keywords:

Fear | Inspector | Dead Woman | Sadism | Suspense

Cast

Adrien Brody	...	Inspector Enzo Avolfi
Emmanuelle Seigner	...	Linda
Elsa Pataky	...	Celine
Robert Miano	...	Inspector Mori
Byron Deidra	...	Yellow
Silvia Spross	...	Russian Victim
Lorenzo Pedrotti	...	Delivery Boy
Daniela Fazzolari	...	Sophia
Valentina Izumi	...	Keiko
Taiyo Yamanouchi	...	Toshi
Luis Molteni	...	Sal
Giuseppe Lo Console	...	Butcher
Barbara Mautino	...	Nurse
Farhad Re	...	Designer
Linda Messerlinker	...	Girl Victim
Liam Riccardo	...	Baby Yellow
Andrea Redavid	...	Officer #1
Nicolò Morselli	...	Young Enzo
Maryann McIver	...	Girl In Bookstore
Anna Varello	...	Butcher's Wife
Giancarlo Judica Cordiglia	...	Desk Sergeant
Massimo Franceschi	...	Coroner

Directed by
Dario Argento

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jim Agnew		writer
Dario Argento		writer
Sean Keller		writer

Produced by
Donald A. Barton	....	executive producer
Adrien Brody	....	executive producer
Aitana de Val	....	associate producer
Luis de Val	....	executive producer
Billy Dietrich	....	executive producer
Patricia Eberle	....	executive producer
Oscar Generale	....	executive producer
Nesim Hason	....	executive producer
John S. Hicks	....	executive producer
Lisa Lambert	....	executive producer
Martin McCourt	....	executive producer
David Milner	....	executive producer
Rafael Primorac	....	producer
Richard Rionda Del Castro	....	producer

Original Music by
Marco Werba

Cinematography by
Frederic Fasano		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Roberto Silvi

Casting by
Oscar Generale

Production Design by
Davide Bassan

Costume Design by
Stefania Svizzeretto

Makeup Department
Giancarlo Del Brocco	....	makeup artist
Sergio Stivaletti	....	special makeup effects artist
Mauro Tamagnini	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Giorgio Turletti	....	production manager
Daniel Voltz	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jim Agnew	....	second unit director
Fabrizio Bava	....	first assistant director
Stefano Ruggeri	....	third assistant director

Art Department
Gianpietro D'Acqui	....	painter
Leonie Heys-Cerchio	....	art department assistant
Paolo Nanni	....	stand-by art director
Andrea Pitet	....	art department assistant
Giuseppe Proia	....	property master
Morena Trevisiol	....	art department assistant
Marco Viarigi	....	art department assistant

Sound Department
Hidefumi Aoki	....	sound effects editor
Miriam Cole	....	audio post coordinator
Marco Lazzaro	....	boom operator
Leobardo Ledon	....	adr recordist
Leobardo Ledon	....	foley recordist
Michael Mcdonald	....	sound re-recording mixer
Michael Mcdonald	....	supervising sound editor
Manuel Mendoza	....	dialogue editor
Manuel Mendoza	....	sound effects editor
G.W. Pope III	....	sound designer
Roberto Sestito	....	sound
Todd Smith	....	dialogue editor
Marco Streccioni	....	sound engineer
Michael Woodward	....	sound effects editor

Special Effects by
David Bracci	....	special effects makeup assistant
Sergio Stivaletti	....	special effects makeup

Visual Effects by
Chris Ervin	....	digital effects artist
Michael Mintz	....	digital film colorist

Stunts
Bianchi Massimiliano	....	stunt rigger
Claudio Pacifico	....	fight coordinator
Francesco Petrazzi	....	stunt coordinator
David Zamperla	....	stunt double

Camera and Electrical Department
Gianni Aldi	....	Steadicam operator
Gianni Aldi	....	camera operator: "a" camera
Simone D'Onofrio	....	first assistant camera
Alias Gallione	....	second assistant camera
Luca Grivet Brancot	....	backstage cinematographer
Claudio Palmieri	....	camera "a" first assistant
Slobodan Pikula	....	still photographer
Cristiano Sergioli	....	generator operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Akiko Kusayanagi	....	assistant costume designer

Editorial Department
Edoardo Brizio	....	additional editor
Victor Franco	....	key negative scanner
Mato	....	color timer
Irma Misantoni	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
James Barth	....	music editor
Vladislav Boyadjiev	....	music recording assistant
Gabriele Conti	....	music mix assistant
Marco Streccioni	....	music recording engineer
Marco Streccioni	....	music scoring mixer

Other crew
Gail de Courcy-Ireland	....	dialogue coach: Emmanuelle Seigner
Charlotte Fontijn	....	script supervisor
Maria Rita Gagliano	....	bookkeeper
Salem Kapsaski	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Marcello Lanza	....	production accountant
Hayley Magouirk	....	project manager
Laura Saurini	....	cashier
Lynn Swanson	....	dialogue coach

Production Companies

• Opera Film Produzione
• Giallo Production

Distributors

• Entertainment One (2009) (Canada) (all media)
• Hannibal Pictures (2008) (worldwide) (all media)
• Monolith (2008) (Poland) (all media)
• New Films International (2009) (Argentina) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Bolivia) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Brazil) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Chile) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Colombia) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Ecuador) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Paraguay) (TV)
• New Films International (2009) (Turkey) (TV)
• Spentzos Films (2008) (Greece) (all media)
• Vapet Productions (2009) (Czech Republic) (all media)
• Wide Pictures (2009) (Spain) (all media)

Other Companies

• Act One Script Clearance  script research
• Magic Film and Video Works  negative cutting
• Studio Lucherini Pignatelli  press agency: Italy
• Sud Ovest Records  music production
• Tunnel Post  titles and opticals

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Company:

Opera Film Produzione

Trivia:

Vincent Gallo was initially set to play the role of Yellow but dropped out after his ex-fiancée Asia Argento was cast in the lead role. Ironically enough, she later quit the project because she was pregnant and was replaced by Emmanuelle Seigner.

Kiss kiss no more

If a single trait characterizes Dario Argento's 21st century output, it's its self-referentiality. Always a cine-literate filmmaker, his recent material has verged almost on self-parody. Amid all this, a generation of filmmakers have grown up with his films and been influenced by them, some more profoundly than others. Some, like Tim Burton, have assimilated his visual style into their own. Others have been more flippant in their appropriation of Argentoisms, with Quentin Tarantino lifting the music from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage for use in Death Proof, and Diablo Cody including a conversation debating the merits of Argento relative to H.G. Lewis in Juno. In effect, "Argento" has become something of a buzzword for a certain type of movie brat: a slightly edgy (but not too edgy) name they can mention to show that they're a little off the beaten track (but not too far off).

Oddly enough, Giallo represents something of a hybridization of the director's self-referentiality and the sort of fan idolatry that champions his films for their more superficial elements while ignoring the qualities that truly mark them out. Although the first credit at the end of the film reads "written and directed by Dario Argento", the original script in fact originated from two American fans, Jim Agnew and Sean Keller, with Argento essentially being brought on as a director for hire. This is not the first time this has happened: the two episodes he directed for the largely disappointing Masters of Horror series also originated from other writers, much to their detriment. (If Pelts had been directed by Eli Roth, I doubt it would have been appreciably different.) While Giallo's script is nothing remarkable, the overall execution is handled with considerably more flair than Jenifer or Pelts. This may be because Argento is on familiar stomping ground, with the Italian locations lending an air of natural class. Giallo is far from the bland, anonymous piece of work for hire that many feared it would be. While Frederic Fasano's cinematography lacks the verve of a Tovoli or even a Debie, and Marco Werba's Herrmannesque score alternates between effective and intrusive, there are little Argentoisms throughout, mainly in the lightly humorous moments. Likewise, an early sequence at an opera recalls Argento's 1987 masterpiece of the same name, while the oddly ambiguous final frame is reminiscent of The Cat O' Nine Tails.

That said, Giallo's most direct counterpart is The Card Player, and it's tempting to see them as two sides of the same coin. However, while The Card Player was clinical, high-tech and almost bloodless, Giallo goes in the opposite direction. Its set design hearkens back to the past, from Avolfi's dingy basement office to the foregrounding of Turin's picturesque monuments and buildings. The violence is also ramped up a notch, and it's tempting to view the film as Argento's reaction to the recent spate of so-called "torture porn" movies. The director has made conflicting statements as to his opinion of these films, but the lengthy scenes of Elsa Pataky being menaced and tortured in the killer's grimy underground lair are more reminiscent of Saw or Hostel than anything in Argento's past filmography.

And there's the rub: despite being marketed as a return to the genre that made a name for Argento in the 1970s, Giallo... well, isn't actually a giallo. The plot operates more as a cross between a cop thriller and a gore-soaked torture flick, the title referring solely to the killer's jaundiced skin. His face is seen almost from the start and his identity is ultimately not hugely important. Far more interesting is the way in which he and Avolfi are constructed as two sides of the same coin, both pariahs who operate in dark underground lairs and have suffered violent, traumatic pasts. As with much of his past work, Argento seems to be actively encouraging a Jungian reading. At times, this becomes a little too on the nose, with the casting of the killer... well, it's an intriguing choice but ultimately one that will either baffle people or have them slapping their foreheads at its obviousness.

With one notable exception, the cast acquit themselves reasonably well. The elephant in the room is Adrien Brody, who not only receives top billing but also an executive producer credit, performing uncredited script doctoring duties and making key decisions about the score (including nixing Argento's regular collaborator Claudio Simonetti). His role is an odd one, and it's far from the vanity project I expected. Avolfi is not particularly pleasant: he's distant, smarmy and reckless, and an act he committed in the past further blurs the line between him and the killer. Unfortunately, the specifics of this event, revealed around two-third of the way through the film, sent the audience at the screening I attended into fits of hysterics. More problematic in my mind, however, is Brody's performance. He seems to be imitating any number of 40s film noir detectives, but comes across as a mumbling buffoon whose reactions and line delivery always seem to be at odds with what's actually happening. He's not the first Oscar-winning actor to work with Argento, but he IS one of Argento's least convincing protagonists.

Giallo is a decent offering from a director whose work of late has been decidedly patchy. While I'm sure the usual battle lines will be drawn, with fans alternating between branding it a return to form and proclaiming it to be proof that he is a has-been, the truth is somewhere in the middle. No, it's not the next Profondo Rosso, but anyone who expected otherwise would simply be deluding themselves. It's substantially better than either of Argento's Masters of Horror outings, a step up from Mother of Tears, and a superior thriller to Do You Like Hitchcock? It's also more engaging than the overrated Sleepless and about on par with the underrated The Card Player, a film that for me improves with each subsequent viewing. Problems aside, Giallo is surprisingly good fun.