Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: Dark Dreams of Dario Argento [Paperback]

Maitland McDonagh (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: Sun Tavern Fields; New edition edition (March 5, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 095170124X
• ISBN-13: 978-0951701249
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,809,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in New York City, Maitland McDonagh misspent her youth prowling Times Square grind houses in search of horror, exploitation and mondo movies, and has been writing about them ever since. She has appeared in documentaries ranging from Sky Television's "Illuminations" series (2000) to "100 Scariest Movie Moments" (2004). As the senior movies editor of TVGuide.com, a position she held for 13 years, reviewed hundreds of new releases every year and contributed weekly columns to both the online and print magazines.

Maitland earned an MFA in Film History/Theory/Criticism from Columbia University, has taught film at the City University of New York and is the author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (1990, Sun Tavern Fields), Filmmaking on the Fringe: The Good, the Bad and the Deviant Directors (1995, Citadel Press), The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time and Movie Lust: Recommended Viewing for Every Mood, Moment and Reason (Sasquatch Books). She has contributed essays to Zombie (Stray Cat Publishing, 1999), The Time Out Book of New York Walks (Penguin, 2000), Fantasy Females (Stray Cat Publishing, 2001) and The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood 1967-1976 (Amsterdam University Press, 2004), I Love TV () and Exile Cinema (). She has written for dozens of publications in the United States and Europe, ranging from Film Comment and Dance Now to Fangoria.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars good intro to dario, May 15, 2011

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Peter R. Mcguire (Elkin, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (Paperback)

Truly one of my favorite directors - this is an excellent book and it is well worth your time to read. very enjoyable.

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, serious criticism on Dario Argento., May 11, 2007

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Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (Paperback)

Maitland McDonagh, Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (Citadel Press, 1991)

Thanks to horribly butchered American theatrical releases and a staunch refusal to operate outside of genre filmmaking, Italian horror auteur Dario Argento escaped critical notice, especially on this side of the pond, for a good long time after he started making films. McDonagh, looking to correct this, decided to do her thesis on Argento; Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds is the revised and expanded edition of that thesis.

You get about what you expect: a critical analysis of Argento's movies. If you've read a critical analysis or two previously, you know what's coming. What may be surprising is the book's accessibility. This isn't three hundred pages drowned in jargon the average human being can't understand; this feels like basic film review writing, albeit a little more objective than most Argento fanatics are likely to find comfortable. Still, the fact that a serious critical analysi of Dario Argento's work even exists is cause for celebration. ****