Over the top metal music and drawn out "ending after the ending" mar what otherwise would've been Argento's last solid film for me.
Many dismiss this as minor (or crap) Argento—and there *are* plenty of crap Argentos to choose from—but I find it to be one of his most experimental and compelling. And that wtf ending so many people hate. I can’t claim to understand it, but I do love it, not only for how it conflate’s Betty’s character with Connelly’s in Phenomena, but also for how it pushes the film even further past the confines of “giallo.”
Suitably mad film from an Italian master
A stylistic feat, to be sure, but Argento's typical fixation on childhood trauma needlessly muddles the slight plot and the ending is pure tripe. Argento's Macbeth, however, looks wonderful.
Argento's flawed technical masterpiece that is as frustrating as it is intriguing.
lavish set design and stylish cinematography, yet dry dialogue and overacting... I would be lying if I said I wasn't bored out of my mind.
I thought this was absolutely terrible. Almost turned it off.
Agreed. Since the screenplay is so much more direct, stripped-down and non-supernatural compared to the usual Argento fair, it's much more enveloping.
This really comes together in the last 10 minutes! Incredible visuals and one of Argento's most coherent stories.
***1/2 With OPERA, Dario Argento presented, in 1987, the most fluent film of the first half of his career. I also liked the way the director blends in OPERA's heroin with Jennifer, PHENOMENA'S heroin, in the last ten minutes of the movie. Recommended.
Ok so it doesnt make that much sense ,but who cares when Argento is on full visual mode and giving us Giallo fans what we want .
Style trumps plot a good percentage of the time. Argento is the living proof of that. As Anthony P. said it is the message.
I realize The Auteurs likes to use American release titles but it's been reissued on DVD under it's real title, Opera, so why not go with that rather than the idiotic Terror at the Opera banner. Argento isn't that important to me anymore but, come on!
If I see Unsane pop up somebody's gettin' gaffled!
Argento's most artistically accomplished film. Style over substance? Perhaps, or maybe the style is the substance in the same degree that Antonioni or Leone expressed style as the message.
