Opera DVD

Opera
The polar-opposite worlds of opera and horror collide in this gory giallo film from director Dario Argento. Christina Marsillach (Tom Hanks' romantic interest in Every Time We Say Goodbye) stars as Betty, a beautiful understudy who gets an unlikely break to play the female lead in a contemporary opera of Verdi's Macbeth. Her fear of Macbeth's notorious curse proves to have foundation when a psychopath with a strange connection to Betty murders a stage hand in the midst of her debut and later kills several ravens being used in the opera. Characters introduced at this point who could be the killer include: the show's director, Marco (Ian Charleson); Betty's publicist, Mira (Daria Nicolodi); and the police inspector, Alan Santini (Urbano Barberini). The middle third of the film is devoted to the killer's bloody work which serves to torment Betty. The madman binds her and tapes a row of tiny needles beneath her eyes so that she is forced to watch him butcher a young stage manager and a costume designer, among others. With the police investigation going nowhere and the killer zeroing in on Betty's death, Marco decides to enact his own plan to stop the madman; he releases the ravens (apparently, they always remember their enemies) during a performance. The birds circle wildly before attacking the killer and plucking one of his eyeballs out. He absconds with Betty, but dies in a fire after revealing his demented motivation and his connection to the young singer. A final scene set in the Swiss mountains provides a couple of final shocks. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

Cast Christina Marsillach as Betty Urbano Barberini as Insp. Alan Santini Daria Nicolodi as Mira Ian Charleson as Marco Antonella Vitale as William McNamara as Stefan

Crew David Bassan - Art Director Dario Argento - Director Franco Fraticelli - Editor Claudio Simonetti - Composer (Music Score) Brian Eno - Composer (Music Score) Rosario Prestopino - Makeup Ronnie Taylor - Cinematographer Vittorio Cecchi Gori - Producer Dario Argento - Producer Mario Cecchi Gori - Producer Germano Natali - Special Effects Franco Ferrini - Screenwriter Dario Argento - Screenwriter Giacomo Puccini - Featured Music

Opera
Italian horror director Dario Argento's shocker Opera features a strong display of the filmmaker's signature styles in terms of inventive visuals and fantastic murder set pieces, but the film lacks the story cohesion it needs to fall into the category of his classic genre films. Inspired by Phantom of the Opera (which Argento remade in 1999), Opera tells the story of a young understudy (Christina Marsillach) who gets her chance to sing thanks to a deranged madman whose connection to the singer doesn't become clear until the ending. In the meantime, he torments her in a most devious way -- by taping needles under her eyes so that she is forced to witness his excruciating murders. For gore fans, these sequences mark the film's finest moments. These include a brutal stabbing in which the victim is hacked in the throat and hands, a gut-wrenching tracheotomy, and a shot of the killer having his eye plucked out by a crow. The showstopper is a close-up of a bullet being fired through a door peephole and into Daria Nicolodi's head. The excellent special makeup effects by Sergio Stivaletti are complemented by a high-voltage selection of heavy metal tunes (an Argento signature) and a great score that features contributions by Claudio Simonetti and former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman. The screenplay by Argento and Franco Ferrini starts with a good premise and an intriguing setting (the opera). However, the characters are rather one-dimensional (not to mention poorly acted) and the story's "surprise" revelation is less than spectacular. On the plus side, the film features one final shock sequence that ends things on a bizarre and disturbing note. Overall, the final result is a decent, fairly typical Argento film that is worth watching primarily for its above-average murder sequences. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: English Sound Processing: DD-EX: Dolby Digital Surround EX (simulated 6.1) DDS: Dolby Digital Surround DTS-ESD: True 6.1 system. Rear center channel is separately encoded into the DTS soundtrack. Additional Features: Widescreen presentation [2.35:1] enhanced for 16x9 TVs Conducting Dario Argento's Opera: an all-new 36-minute documentary featuring interviews with co-writer/director Dario Argento, cinematographer Ronnie Taylor, animatronics artist Sergio Stivaletti, music composer Claudio Simonetti, and stars Daria Stivaletti and Urbano Barberini Theatrical trailers Daemonia music video Dario Argento bio DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1: Cinemascope MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 107 min Part of Series: Dario Argento Collection   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 0. Chapter Selections 1. Program Start/Main Titles [3:14] 2. The Ingenue [5:01] 3. Ominous Overture [3:30] 4. Command Performance [5:09] 5. Rising Star [5:11] 6. Beauty And The Blade [1:43] 7. Cries Of The Ravens [4:27] 8. Witness To Slaughter [4:57] 9. Lost In The Storm [3:12] 10. Strangers In The Hall [4:19] 11. "Don'T Cry, Betty" [2:51] 12. Suspicion [4:52] 13. Costume Repair [3:45] 14. Shear Horror [5:31] 15. "He Makes Me Watch" [5:02] 16. Lights Out [4:02] 17. Peephole [2:52] 18. Self-Defense [3:18] 19. In The Air Vents [4:19] 20. No Escape [3:25] 21. What Dreams May Come... [2:13] 22. Aria Of Terror [1:23] 23. "Just Like Your Mother" [:57] 24. Inferno [3:13] 25. "Run, For God'S Sake!" [3:40] 26. Free [4:25] 27. End Credits [4:37]