Dario Argento (Dario Argento), Italian master of horror and thriller movies.
In Italy in the 1970s, two types of films advanced by leaps and bounds and entered film history. One is an Italian macaroni movie with northwestern films as the genre, including Leonie's "Once Upon a Time in the West" and Clint Eastwood's "The Red Dead Trilogy". If Western films are the representative of positive, then the incarnation of evil is definitely the Giallo Film of the time. In the 1960s, Italy became another major film production base outside the United States. Italian filmmakers who are good at imitation have developed horror films into a brilliant genre, which is divided into three categories: murderers, zombies and cannibals. Among them, the horror film that shows the homicidal type is called-Giallo Film (Giallo Film).
The lead movie is definitely the most cult genre in the history of Italian cinema. Bloody, pornographic, weird; extremely cruel, the minute and second presentation of the death process has reached a detailed and realistic sensational level, and also has a SM tendency. The target of the torture is usually a woman with a white and plump body and a beautiful face; accompanied by a bloody scene There is also an atmosphere of suspense and paradox, which is very stylized. After trying Western films, Dario Aquido, who was deeply influenced by the American god Hitchcock, found that he prefers to shoot suspense and thriller genres. He has a good aesthetic and screenwriting ability, and he became accidentally. The standard bearer of the Italian lead movie.
In 1975, he drew on the gourd and produced the thriller "Profondo rosso" (Profondo rosso), a thriller tribute to Hitchcock, about the decryption experience of a pianist accidentally involved in a murder case.
The content inter-texted Hitchcock's "McGoffin", using suspense to trigger plot conflicts, but in terms of film genre elements, Dario Aquido made a bold attempt. The film’s strong sense of form, whether it is the palpitating soundtrack or the atmosphere, is refreshing and terrifying.
Taking "Blood Red at Night" as the starting point of style, in 1977, Dario Aquido produced the horror work that burst the film world-"Suspiria" (Suspiria).
Recently, the Italian director Luca Guadagnino (Luca Guadagnino), who became famous for shooting "Please call me by your name", will remake the film and it will be released in November this year. For 40 years, the old version of "The Wind and Wind" has always been a peak of Italian lead pornography. It has been imitated for a long time and has never been surpassed.
Dario Aquido established himself as a master of horror and thriller in just 14 minutes.
Fat brother has always emphasized that the first act of a classic masterpiece will often give people a sense of surprise, and the entire film will be highly condensed in the first act from the style to the genre.
The first act is an important beginning for the director to deeply penetrate the genre of the film into the audience's mind. Dario Aquido knows this well, so he did not hesitate to use all his moves in the 14 minutes of the opening of "The Wind and Wind". Sure enough, a large number of fans who watched the film said, "The ones who have survived the first 14 minutes are old horror film drivers"!
"The Wind and Wind" still maintains the suspenseful story like Hitchcock, telling a dark past about a witch killing a young girl. However, "The Wind and Wind" is a masterpiece of genre elements, but the story takes a back seat, with strong use of colors, strange styles, and futuristic paintings and architecture.
There is also the signature Goblin psychedelic electronic music, which makes the film windy, scary and terrifying. The first act of the film was completed, showing the strong style of the film's formalism. The heroine Susie came from the United States to study in a dance school in Germany.
When leaving the airport, the goblin’s weird soundtrack sounded. The grand piano and drums repeatedly pressed the audience’s slack nerves without melody, reminding the audience that the horror was coming and squeezing the anxiety of the fans. Goblin’s soundtrack once shined in another Hollywood classic horror film "The Exorcist" (1973), and it was once one of the most reluctant pieces to hear at the time, because it was already terrifying. Symbol, melody is in your ears, fear is hard to resist.
In order to remind the anxiety in the shortest time, the film also features a scene of the opening and closing of the automatic door. This is a close-up of the alarm, using the scene and the soundtrack to create a suspenseful atmosphere.
Outside the airport, it was stormy and Susie hit the car with difficulty. The driver in the car was indifferent and weird. Susie leaned by the window and watched the boring rain.
At this time, the color style of the film began to slowly heat up, suddenly turning from a cool tone to a large blush, and the exposure contrast of the entire screen rose rapidly.
In the process of driving, the background color of the film appears quietly. Red, yellow, green, and blue are all hues that easily arouse people's uneasiness. Aesthetically and psychologically, these colors have a cold feeling or indicate ominousness. trillion.
The first act of "The Wind and Wind" is actually divided into two parts. Susie’s arrival is used for the after-heat film style, and Susie arrives at the school, and the subsequent bloody encounter of the blond girl who ran out of the school is the first act to establish the style. Extreme presentation. Chasing and fleeing are the most terrifying scenes in "The Wind and Wind". In the second half of the first act, the girl Susie encounters becomes the focus of the narrative. The whole process of her killing is the most talked-about classic for movie fans in 40 years.
From the time the girl came to the friend’s hotel, the strong style began to release the venom of fear. In the hotel lobby, there is a strong and uncomfortable scarlet background, and there are suspenseful irregular patterns on the wall. The most amazing thing is the lighting projected by the polychromatic prism through the top of the house.
The lighting with red, yellow, blue, and green as the background changes constantly, making people dizzy, and it is difficult to distinguish between the real and the virtual. From the futuristic standpoint of abstracting the human body and geometrical movement, the plot of killing and fleeing in the first act of "Golden Wind" can be infinitely abstracted as the opposite relationship between triangles and circles in motion.
The triangle is always towards the center of the circle, which represents aggressiveness; while the circle is always rotating, which means hesitating. In futuristic painting, concrete images are completely abandoned. The pursuit of speed makes futuristic painters enthusiastically use distorted lines and high-contrast colors, abandoning all harmonious and symmetrical compositions. The purpose is to challenge people's vision. , Causing unknown anxiety. In "The Wind and Wind", fear is transformed into an observable reality through sound and painting. The girl is attacked in a closed bedroom, and the wind blown windows attracts the attention of the audience and the characters.
A fixed lens stopped time and space, and the sudden breaking window ignited fear. The girl’s head was knocked against the glass window by the murderer,
The sharp shards left many scars on her face; a sharp knife jabbed the girl's bare beating heart back and forth; it fell on the zenith stained glass, and the girl's body passed through the middle of a triangular glass and then hung in the air. . A piece of broken glass falling from the sky split the face of another girl on the ground in two. The sharp knives and glass form a sharp contrast with the rounded bodies and faces of women. Women keep fleeing in front of sharp objects, but they keep getting hurt...
The last picture of the first act, shaking from the head of the slain girl, the female suffering body, to the thick blood under her feet. In these short minutes, Dario Aquido almost brought the film to a climax. He brought out all the horror elements of the film and highlighted the style. For 14 minutes, the audience was completely exhausted and exhausted. The first act established the viewing inertia. After that, whenever the goblin soundtrack sounded, the colors were rendered in red, blue, yellow and green, irregular graphics appeared, and unexpected close-ups appeared, the audience would be nervous and uneasy. .
When the film enters the second half of the film, the light, shadow and color of the picture often break into the surreal without warning, making the audience feel a fatal threat, and the fear is magnified, bringing the audience into the abyss of fear with an immersive experience.
There are also several horrible scenes in the second act and the climax of the third act of "Golden Wind".
The pianist stands lonely in the empty square, and the object of his life is astonishing; Susie's friend discovers the secret, ran away, and then fell into a bundle of wire loop traps;
And finally, the mystery that makes people sit on pins and needles is revealed, and Susie trespasses alone in the dark magical secret way.
The above-mentioned types of frightening elements continue to increase their doses, pour the poison of fear into your nerves and blood vessels, making people flee into hell, shivering. "The Wind and Wind" is a film that uses genre elements and highlights style to narrate. The only real thing in the whole film is the thrilling atmosphere that permeates the air.
The protagonist throughout the film is actually not Susie in the superficial text, nor the witch under the subtext, but the weird light and shadow alternately, the castle buildings with weird lines, and the mysterious and unpredictable music laid out behind the image. .
Forty years have passed, "The Wind and Wind" is still the most classic horror thriller in Italian movies. The lingering fear that transcends time and space is still remembered.
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