Dario Argento's Mother Of Tears!

Italian thriller director Dario Argento came through again with his latest release, Mother of Tears , the very belated sequel to his previous films, Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980). I saw the film last Thursday night in Soho's Sunshine Landmark Cinema (where the surrounding neighborhood at night looks just like the kind you'd find in an Argento movie) at the 8:20 showing, just before the movie gets "bumped" to "midnight showing only" status. AND I LOVED IT!!!!


(Star Asia Argento goes through a lot for her father's film.)

This film is totally over the top. There are so many bizarre but grandly (and bloody; this is NOT a film for children) staged scenes of killings and other acts of violence that a viewer is liable to feel dizzy in a punch-drunk way afterwards. The photography and direction is first rate, and the cast, led by the director's daughter Asia Argento (Land of the Dead; Marie Antoinette), more than make up for the script's various plot holes. (At one point -read the links I put on this post for an explaination why- Asia's character discovers her parents were good witches and she inherited their powers. Trying to elude the cops, she discovers she can make herself invisible, right in front of people, just like Lamont Cranston.) And of course, it wouldn't be an Argento film without some awkwardly written translated-into-English lines ("There's more here than meets the eye", one cop says after finding the brutally murdered body of a colleague), but the dubbing is otherwise quite good. It's not for all tastes, but Mother Of Tears is entertaining and NEVER dull!

Reviews and plot summaries can be found at Movies.com , the New York Times ,Entertainment Weekly , Filmcritic.com and even Wikipedia , which goes into the background of the film's gestation. The DVD Planet website has a September 23rd release date for the film's Region One DVD. You BET I'm going to see it again!

-Ed

FOUR Recent Articles of Interest From Last Sunday's NY Times

The Arts Section of last Sunday's New York Times (June 1st, 2008) featured two articles of interest. On page 19, there was a full page piece on Italian movie thriller director Dario Argento , whose long awaited Mother of Tears (the belated sequel to two of his previous films, 1977's Suspiria , and 1980's Inferno ) will be premiering this week in New York. I've been a big fan of Argento's, and I'm glad his latest work is getting such attention. His directorial style has influenced dozens of current American films & TV shows (like CSI and its spinoffs) and I hope this'll mean more recognition from the critics. (The library carries several of his films; I recommend the aforementioned Suspiria and especially 1982's Tenebrae .)



Harking back to the topic of a previous post on this blog, the NYT Arts Section, beginning on page one, ran a pretty good story on the new James Bond 007 novel Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks , as well as offering a critical overview of the original Ian Fleming novels and, of course, the long-running (forty six years!) movie series. Of course, you can find these books & films here at the library also. (BTW That shot of Roger Moore in the gun barrel sight is actually from 1973's Live And Let Die . Who says I don't know my Bond?)



AND The NYT Book Review contained this nice article by The Daily Show 's John Hodgman on the influence that the late comic book illustrator Jack Kirby (1917-1994) had on the genre. (My review of Mark Evanier's Kirby: King of Comics , which we also carry, of course, can be found here .)

FINALLY, the Times' Connecticut Section had this informative and touching article on "Puppies Behind Bars" (yes, that's actually what it's called!), a program at several prisons in the Tri-State area where inmates train dogs to assist the disabled.

All of these articles can be found in hard copy form from our Periodicals section or online via the New York Times (in case you don't want to register for an online subscription).

-Ed