The Innocents (1961)
20th Century Fox were vexed by how to market The Innocents even before it was released. After the recent successes of Hammer Horror, it was recognised that there was a lot to be gained from promoting it as a good, old-fashioned spook-fest. However, even the densest of studio executives were aware that Jack Clayton had crafted something all together more sophisticated than The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula or The Mummy (no disrespect intended). Succour might therefore be found in jumping on the then-rumbling Hitchcock bandwagon, and drawing on the popular clamour for films in the Vertigo and Psycho mould. Read more
Opera (1987)
Have you ever wondered what a Dario Argento opera might look like? Of course you have. Violence, anarchy, tragedy and death are shared leitmotifs, and given that the merit of Argento’s early work lays as much in his artistic vision and delivery as it does in the nuts and bolts of plot or narrative, the more pointed question is why hasn’t he ever taken the plunge and done something at La Scala? Read more