At this point in his career, one wonders what Dario Argento is trying to prove to his fans, save for the fact that his former artistic greatness seems completely drained. While the cheeky-yet-conventional "Do You Like Hitchcock?" emphasizes self-referential genre playfulness over gore, it still can't save the fact that the film is a mostly dull view. I realize this was made for Italian television, but that shouldn't excuse the all-around lack of enthusiasm and interest--the film suffers from the indifferent staging, framing, and characters that has afflicted most of Argento's work from the '90s onward. Here we have film student/nerd Giulio (Elio Germano), an avid Hitchcock fan, who becomes obsessed with a sexy brunette who lives in the apartment complex opposite his; there is a murder, and Giulio becomes entangled in the rather bland string of Hitch homages that follow (particularly "Rear Window"). Had Argento made this during his '80s heyday, it would have seemed pretentious and smug (considering his 1969 directorial debut, "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage"), but it also probably would have been more competent and stylish at the same time. While this runs circles around some of the director's more dire efforts ("Phantom of the Opera" and "Sleepless" come to mind), its drab images and lazy framing keep us from connecting with the story, leaving only a bevy of beautiful (and sometimes nude) ladies and a few bloody setpieces to hold the viewer's dwindling attention. Too bad.
Review of Do You Like Hitchcock?
