31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 21 - Opera

Opera

107 mins.

Dir. Dario Argento

1987/Italy      

           

What is there left to say about this masterpiece?  Probably my favorite Argento flick.  Let’s take a look again at the maestro in action and spend a night at the Opera.

When the star of an avant-garde operatic production of Shakespeare’s MacBeth is injured the understudy Betty, is given the coveted role of Lady MacBeth, a tale that is apparently just as cursed in real life as the story is itself.  Betty has some issues as we see in flashbacks of a hooded killer murdering her mother.  So when she becomes the target of another hooded killer, she is about to go off her rocker.  That’s the basic premise here.   As with most giallos, we have our list of suspects and the notorious black gloves.  Who is murdering the people are involved with the MacBeth’s opera?  Is it the jealous injured star, who was supposed to be played by Vanessa Redgrave?  Is it the horror movie director that is trying his handed at an opera?  Is it Betty’s agent played by Daria Nicolodi?  Is it the inspector played Michele Soavi?  Is it the wardrobe seamstress played by Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni?  Only the ravens know, as they are witness to the killer and ravens never forget and apparently hold a grudge.  Who knows if this is true, but I’ll buy into for sake of this movie.  Assuming the killer is present during a presentation of MacBeth, the ravens are let loose disrupting the show in order to find the killers identity which they do by plucking out the murderer's eye.

This is really Argento at his finest and unfortunately probably Argento’s last really good movie.  Stendhal Syndrome was ok and I did enjoy Sleepless, but he has never achieved the high points of Opera since.  All his trade marks are here, the colored lights, the camera movement, the questionable story, the stiff acting and the violence.  Oh definitely some of my favorite violence.  In an ingenious idea from our killer, he tapes pins under the eyes of Betty, so she is forced to keep them open as they murder people in front of her.  Amazing imagery that only Argento could achieve.  In another form of violence as poetry, that I have to chalk up there with the severed arm scene from Tenebre and the heart piercing of Suspria, is a large knife being stabbed through the lower jaw as we see it inside the mouth.  Even his use of heavy metal music, which some find disrupting I think works in this movie because it is the antithesis of the opera music itself and happens during the violent scenes of the movie.  The antithesis of life.  Symbolism, man.

Love Argento?  Love giallos?  You certainly can’t go wrong with Opera.  Yes as with most Argento films, you need to suspend some disbelief with the story and yes some of the acting could use a little help.  But let’s be honest we are mostly interested in the visual with Argento movies, here the story takes second place.  Dario definitely seems to be one of those directors that could probably benefit from having someone else do the writing and he concentrates on the directing.

Opera.  Watch it.  Love it.  I have never seen a real opera myself, not sure I would like it.  For now I will stick with Argento's.