Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds

The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento

2010
Author:

Maitland McDonagh

The definitive guide to the cinema of Dario Argento

Italian filmmaker Dario Argento’s horror films are psychologically rich, colorful, and at times garish, excelling at taking the best elements of the splatter and exploitation genres and laying them over a dark undercurrent of human emotions and psyches. Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds, which dissects Argento cult films, includes a new introduction discussing Argento’s most recent films, an updated filmography, and an interview with Argento.

Simply stated: If you are an Argento fan, buy this book.

Fangoria

Italian filmmaker Dario Argento’s horror films have been described as a blend of Alfred Hitchcock and George Romero—psychologically rich, colorful, and at times garish, excelling at taking the best elements of the splatter and exploitation genres and laying them over a dark undercurrent of human emotions and psyches. Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds, which dissects such Argento cult films as Two Evil Eyes, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Suspiria, and Deep Red, includes a new introduction discussing Argento’s most recent films, from The Stendahl Syndrome to Mother of Tears; an updated filmography; and an interview with Argento.

Maitland McDonagh is a film critic and TV commentator who maintains her own Web site, MissFlickChick.com. She was the senior movies editor of TVGuide.com from 1995 to 2008.

Simply stated: If you are an Argento fan, buy this book.

Fangoria

Long overdue, it will remain the definitive text on Argento’s films and excesses for quite some time.

Variety

This enticingly titled book is an absolute must for any Argentophile. This book is heartily recommended. Brava Maitland!

Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror

Her insights into Dario Argento and his work are nothing short of genius. . . . There’s a lovely droll and wit in the book. And McDonagh’s voice is one of experience. She’s not only remarkably well versed in the Dario Argento oeuvre, or in the exploitation genre, but in all of film history. . . . A sharp writer like Maitland McDonagh challenges the reader to rethink his or her notions about film.

HorrorDrive-In.com

McDonagh displays unabashed enthusiasm for what she describes as the ‘dark dreams of death and night and blood.’ This edition of [her] readable book merits inclusion on shelves devoted to horror.

Choice

Serves as a useful pedagogical tool, providing useful readings to accompany screenings of Argento’s work in film courses and an excellent model for close analysis of texts that have otherwise gone unnoticed in the history of film criticism.

Screening the Past

Stays the course, unerringly, measuring out equal parts deconstruction, film history, cultural surroundings, and critical response, making Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds one of the few extensive books on the Argento oeuvre.

Bright Lights Film Journal

UMP blog Q&A: Horror films and the dark dreams of Dario Argento

4/7/2010
Horror films -- and genre pictures in general -- have always been the black sheep of the movie family and they’re treated accordingly. Frankenstein (1931) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) are far more influential movies than best picture winners like Cimarron (1930-1931) and Oliver! (1968). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween are just as culturally significant as The Godfather Part II and The Deer Hunter, and deserved slots on the 1974 and 1978 best picture ballots more than The Towering Inferno and Heaven Can Wait.

 

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