Profondo Rosso aka
Deep Red (Dario Argento 1975)
I saw a heavily cut version of this on video ten years ago and thought it was an incoherent mess. The BBFC had pretty much censored all the violence reducing an already truncated print of Argento's masterpiece to disjointed nonsense. In the last few years the UK censor has been relaxing a little thus waiving all previous cuts on some of the older nasties (most recently Wes Craven's
The Last House On the Left).
Profondo Rosso or
Deep Red as it's better known outside Italy is one such film that has benefited from the new ever so slightly more liberal BBFC (I still got the R1 Blue Underground release though). The film has also been helped by Argento and Co (one of his cameramen and closest friends) restoring the film to it's former glory, and adding over twenty minutes to its running time in the process. The end result is a bloodier, scarier, much more coherent treat and must see for fans of both arthouse and horror.
Often labelled the king of the Giallos,
Deep Red is a murder mystery/detective story revolving around Marcus (David Hemmings) a concert pianist who witnesses the brutal murder of a famous clairvoyant. Marcus becomes obsessed with uncovering the identity of the killer but endangers himself and his closest friends in the process; many of whom are themselves murdered. With the help of Gianna (Daria Nicoladi who would later become Argento's wife) an attractive young journalist, Marcus gradually begins to piece things together.
If all that sounds familiar and, well, let's be honest, done to death, then that's because the story isn't (or wasn't) really anything new. It's in Argento's expert use of color, brilliant photographic composition, crudely effective editing and sweeping grandiose camera work wherein lies the brilliance of
Deep Red. It's a style often heavily reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock (there are some expertly crafted scenes of suspense in this movie that are pure Hitchcock) and Mario Bava (the lush color saturated visuals and expert use of shadow) coming together to form a delicious Baroque nightmare. Add in the memorable atmospheric prog rock Goblin score and the resultant film is an unforgettably effective balancing act of tawdry trash and virtuoso high art.
It was great to finally see
Deep Red as Argento intended it to be shown. I still found the narrative a little confusing at times (
Tenebre is his most coherent movie), but overall the film more than held my attention, and was for the most part highly entertaining (despite being very talky in places). Argento throws in some great red herrings and one unexpected twist ensuring
Deep Red remains intriguing and suspenseful right up to the final frame. Really though this is all about visual brilliance and sadistic violence if truth be told. Yes it's style over substance, but it's style over substance the Dario Argento way, which is pretty much the best kind.
*I was pleased to discover that the Blue Underground release of
Deep Red does in fact have both the English and Italian soundtracks. This review is based on the subtitled Italian version.
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