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Do You Like Hitchcock?

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Folks may gripe about Argento's output over the last decade or so, but he certainly hasn't lost the knack for a good concept. I don't expect another Deep Red or Tenebre, and why should I? With a ton of great movies under your belt over more than 30 years, not everything is gonna be primo.
Do You Like Hitchcock? is a little murder mystery Argento made for Italian television. No, it's not the most original of concepts because the whole theme is based on another director's ideas. But at the same time, that's also what makes it original. It's both an homage as well as an Argento film.
The film follows a kind of dorky film student(is there any other kind?) who becomes suspicious of a sexy neighbor. At a local video store he witnesses a meeting between his neighbor and another attractive woman who both come to rent the Hitchcock film, Strangers On A Train. He suspects that these two woman have come to a similar arrangement as the two male characters in the Hitchcock film(and if you haven't seen Strangers On A Train, shame on you!). And in the Argento(and Hitchcock) tradition, our protagonist plays detective and snoops and spies, getting in over his head when he finds out that there is indeed a murder plot going on. No one believes him of course and he finds himself a target.
This is a relatively common type of scenario with Argento, but this time the Hitchcock influence is cited. It's the actual catalyst for the mystery. Argento also mixes in a bit of Rear Window and even a tad of Vertigo. For a made for T.V. movie, it's very above average. Not as violent as the average Argento film, but it is a bit bloody for the first murder. Like I said before, don't go expecting Deep Red, but Argento fans should get a bit of a kick out of it.

Dario Argento`s new film arrives with the slightly tongue-in-cheek title: `Do You Like Hitchcock?' The film is not only homage to the master of suspense films, but it also is a surprisingly good thriller cleverly developed from the concepts in several of Hitchcock classics such as "Rear Window" and "Strangers on a Train."

Giulio is a film student living in Turin, who occasionally watches Sasha, beautiful woman living in the room across the street. One night Sacha's mother is brutally murdered. Apparently it was done by a robber, but Giulio alone knows some secrets anyone else does not know. One of them is that before the murder she was having a conversation with another lady at a local rental video store, and both of the women seem interested in Alfred Hitchcock films.

You don't need any more summery of the plot, nor Giulio. Being a film student Giulio knows the story of most of the Hitchcock movies, and can predict what may happen next. He rather stubbornly insists on his theory that his girlfriend does not take seriously, and gets involved in the case more than he should.

First let me tell you something about the director's trademarks. Dario Argento's lavish visual style is certainly here, but you don't find much gore or violence. You will still see the close-ups of seemingly unimportant things (like a key in the keyhole) and will find the film's opening chapter unnecessary, but Argento fans would find the master's distinct touch in them. You also hear the curiously enticing music of Pino Donaggio, but Argento's technique is more restrained than usual. The script is more tightly written, but except for several thrilling moments (like Giulio riding a motorcycle running in the rain), the film fails to build up the tension we expect from this kind of suspense.

Still the film is largely well-acted (even though English-dubbed) and entertaining, will certainly keep us guessing until the end. Worth watching if you like either Argento or, of course, Hitchcock.

This film had some interesting moments but was basically destroyed by its terrible shot-on-video look, its stupid and confusing double-ending, and some really poor direction (ex: when the protagonist breaks his leg and repeatedly falls off his moped in the rain, the strong healthy man chasing him blatantly slows his running down to an impossible level of sluggishness to avoid catching him). It wasn't quite as out-and-out atrocious as Argento's "Phantom of the Opera," but doesn't hold a candle to his newer, more graphic works like "Pelts" and "Jenifer." It's mostly just dull, and filled with stupid characters.

Many of Argento's films over the last 20 years have left me feeling various degrees of disappointment and dissatisfaction. While elements of many have been good, the movies as a whole do not stand up to his better work. For the record, the most satisfying Argento film for me, start to finish, is Tenebrae. His most recent American released DVD, The Card Player, really left me feeling sad. It contained none of his trademarks - brilliant cinematography, interesting set pieces, and that surreal quality to the action that lets you know you're inside an Argento giallo. I just rented his latest American release (nods to Anchor Bay) last night, and for the first time in a long time, I watched from start to finish and felt a deep sense of satisfaction afterwards. No disappointment, no lingering feelings of lost opportunities.

During many scenes of "Do You Like Hitchcock?", the action and situations more closely resemble DePalma's Hitchcockian homages than the work of Hitchcock himself. And that's a good thing, because I've always thought no one does fake Hitchcock better than Brian DePalma. As the previous reveiwer noted, Argento pays tribute to several Hitchcock classics throughout - framing it all inside a Rear Window set piece. At one point, our hero even breaks his foot and is confined to a cast, bickering with a girlfriend who at first thinks he's crazy and then realizes he's not. Of course neither actor is of the caliber of Stewart and Kelly, but they give solid performances.

This Argento movie is less bloody than any of his movies since Bird With the Crystal Plumage and relies more on good old-fashioned genuine suspense without the bizarre murder scenes. I found that change refreshing. I did not realize the movie was made for Italian TV, as noted by the previous reviewer. Perhaps this forced Argento to go back to basics, so to speak, and build a coherent plot that utlizes atmosphere moreso than the killer's bloody knife. All in all, high applause for "Do You Like Hitchcock?" Recommended for fans of Argento, Hitchcock and DePalma.

Do You Like Hitchcock? (Dario Argento, 2005)

I like Hitchcock, at least when he was at his thunderous, tyrannical best. I also like Argento, when he is at his giallic, operatic best. Neither of those things is true in this Argento-directed made-for-TV flick, a paint-by-numbers chiller if ever there was one. It says all too much about this movie that despite it paying homage to (or ripping off, your choice) both Hitch and Argento's earlier, better films, most of this reminded me of Sergio Martino on an off day (like when he did Torso). That cannot be good. And, of course, it isn't.

Elio Germano (Nine) plays Giulio, a film student writing a dissertation on Hitchcock. His way-too-hot-for-him girlfriend Federica (Chiara Conti, whom it's far too easy to imagine mouthing Alan Rickman's "I played Richard III!" from Galaxy Quest, though in Conti's case it was A Midsummer Night's Dream) is kind of annoyed by his obsession, but puts up with it. Giulio is sometimes distracted by his also-way-too-hot-for-him neighbor across the street, Sasha (Elisabetta Rocchetti, who turned up in Argento's earlier The Card Player), who seems to mind his seeing her naked with binoculars a great deal less than she should. Sasha and her pal Arianna (L'auberge Espagnole's Cristina Brondo, and do I have to tell you she's hot?) drop into the video store where Giuliano spends a lot of his time to pick up Strangers on a Train at one point. Not long after, Sasha's mother turns up dead. Giuliano gets it into his head that events in life are mimicking events on film--Sasha has hired Arianna to kill her mother, and that someone close to Arianna will soon die at Sasha's hands.

And thus, an Argento-style giallo is born, with many, many visual cues to both Hitchcock films (Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, Vertigo, etc.) and Argento films (one scene in particular is an almost perfect recreation of a scene from Profondo Rosso--for those who have seen this and wonder what I'm on about, it's Giuliano scaling the wall, looking exactly like a geekier David Hemmings). Unfortunately, however, this is not the Argento who made Profondo Rosso thirty-five years ago. Back then, he understood the use of humor as a release of tension (David Hemmings' continuing encounters with Daria Nicolodi's car) rather than a substitute for it (the ludicrous Vespa chase scene not long after that wall-scaling bit). More to the point, the timing of the humor is off. And there's an air of adolescent fantasy about the whole thing; Argento the geeky film student being flirted with and/or pursued by (and/or sleeping with) all these incredibly attractive women? Not that it wasn't already, but that scenario was catapulted into the realm of the ludicrous in 1982 (with the advent of 'Allo 'Allo!). As it's close to twenty years later, and Argento is a year older than Gorden Kaye, it's downright creepy if you think about it. (Though, being the same age Gorden Kaye was at the beginning of the series myself, I'll swallow the creepiness and take all the film of Chiara Conti I can get my hands on. That woman is dynamite.) **

Director Dario Argento grew up reading Edgar Allan Poe stories and watching Alfred Hitchcock movies. He is often referred to as the "Italian Hitchcock." It only seems appropriate that he would make a movie in homage to his idol. Half the fun of watching this movie is finding the scenes that are reminiscent to such movies as "Strangers on a Train," "Dial M for Murder," and "Psycho." In the film, the walls of a video store are plastered with Hitchcock movie posters.

Perhaps Argento, as a young man, saw himself as Giulio, a nerdy film student with an overactive imagination. Giulio also has a penchant for spying on his neighbors; he is often caught in the act and chased away while being verbally threatened with death. One evening, a neighbor lady is murdered and he suspects that her daughter conspired with another girl to have her killed.

"Do You Like Hitchcock?" is a direct to video release. It was originally filmed to air on Italian television as a seven-part series made in homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Lacking big name stars, it has a subdued, made for television feel. The body count is low and the gore and sex are kept to a minimum. The only graphic murder scene is when the neighbor has her head bludgeoned with a candlestick holder. This movie lacks real suspense. The "twist ending" was disappointing.

"Do You Like Hitchcock?" should have been titled "Do You Like Peeping Toms?" Too much emphasis was placed on the lead character's habitual voyeurism. Despite all that happens to him, he never learns his lesson. Unless you are a diehard fan of Dario Argento, I recommend renting this movie before purchasing it. It is definitely not up to par with his earlier releases such as "The Card Player" and "Trauma." On the other hand, it is much better than his gore-driven Masters of Horror episodes: "Jenifer" and "Pelts."

Surprisingly, Argento's Italian TV movie Do You Like Hitchcock? is a welcome return to form despite one of the worst DVD covers of all time and a pretty blah pretitle sequence that has no relevance to the film beyond padding out the running time and establishing the hero's voyeurism. Splicing Rear Window and Strangers On a Train, originality isn't on the menu (unless you count the killer wearing white gloves instead of the usual black ones that feature in Argento's previous films: who says he's afraid to try something new?) but along with a strong narrative, a good visual sense and an effective score from Pino Donaggio, you can really feel the playful enthusiasm with this one (somewhat borne out by some backstage footage of Argento getting caught up in the shoot).

The plot makes a virtue of its familiarity: after seeing one of his neighbors and a stranger bond in a DVD store - which only stocks old movies, mostly Hitchcock, German Expressionism and the odd Argento (Dario and Asia) - over a copy of Strangers On a Train, our typically Hitchcockian mother-dominated voyeur's curiosity turns to suspicion that they may have been using it as a blueprint when the mother of one gets murdered. Mind you, I'd regard Elio Germano's lead with some suspicion himself if only because no self-respecting film student would watch silent German Expressionist classics in widescreen. From there on you can tick off the references - yes, our hero does end up with a broken leg while his girlfriend searches the killer's apartment, and yes, there is a Hitchcock blonde - but it's executed with some panache and a sense of fun that never descends into outright comedy.

Unfortunately although, as usual for Argento, the film was shot in English and while at least a couple of the cast are more than passable in the language, for some reason the whole thing has been redubbed in London by what sounds like rejects from a Clearasil commercial: a couple in particular are so strikingly inept that they'll almost have you cursing the invention of talking pictures. They obviously couldn't get the rights to use the soundtrack of Strangers On a Train either, leading to one hysterically awful bit of dubbing when our hero watches the film with his girlfriend. Despite these and some casting quibbles, the film is strong enough to overcome. It's no all-time great but it is a surprisingly satisfying giallo - you won't be surprised, but you probably will be entertained. Suddenly the prospects for Argento's concluding part to his Three Mothers trilogy, The Mother of Tears, don't seem quite so bad...

Coming off The Card Player, which many see as Dario Argento's worst movie I went into Do You Like Hitchcock with very low expectations. For the longest time I actually avoided the movie. Argento is without a doubt one of my very favorite filmmakers and quite possibly my favorite horror filmmaker.

While many might disagree with me I feel Trauma was his last great movie and The Stendhal Syndrome is last really good movie. Since his career has been average or downright terrible. I couldn't see this being any worse than The Card Player, but I didn't think I could watch one of my Idols continue his fall from grace.

But I have to say I actually really liked this movie a lot. When it comes to the legacy of Dario Argento Do You Like Hitchcock will probably not even get a mention, but this was a really surprisingly good movie.

After watching Do You Like Hitchcock the first thing that I thought was Dario Argento still sort of has it. This may not be Argento at his very best and while it doesn't compare to his classic films I do believe this movie can stand proud in his body of work.

I guess it was only fitting Dario Argento would do a movie like this since he is called the Italian Hitchcock. You get a little bit of Strangers on a Train, Rear Window and Dial M for Murder mixed with Argento's style.

The screenplay by Dario Argento & Franco Ferrini was rather solid for the most part. Most fans will say the screenplays to Argento's movies aren't the strong point, which is sort of true. I found a lot of his early work well-written, but in general while his scripts weren't bad they could be seen as his only weakness. Do You Like Hitchcock isn't the best screenplay ever written, but I think it was a solid one.

There were some touches of comedy and I found it rather amusing at times. Since the plot is inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock the mentions of his movies as a fan were also a lot of fun. Overall the script is interesting enough to keep things moving along.

The biggest complaint is the lack of violence, but I didn't mind it at all. This was far less violent than Argento's work prior, but what it lacks in violence it makes up for in suspense. Though the first murder, which comes about 20-minutes in is kinda bloody.

I also think it just might be one of the best kill scenes in a movie by Argento. The whole set up was classic Argento, which is another reason why I think Argento still has it. While he may not be the filmmaker he once was he still can deliver the goods.

This may not be a return to grace for Dario Argento, but it's still in my opinion a solid flick with some nice twist and turns. Don't go in expecting another Deep Red or Tenebre. Take the movie for what it is and I think you might find yourself enjoying it.

The visual side Do You Like Hitchcock looks good; Argento could possibly be the best visual filmmaker out there and of course he delivers here, but it's toned down a bit and he doesn't use the wild angles or colors he did with Suspiria, but Do You Like Hitchcock still looks good

In closing, Dario Argento may not be the filmmaker he once was, but I do think he has a lot left to offer us. This may not be one of Dario Argento's all time greats, but for the most part it's a well made flick with some pretty good suspense and tension. Like I said don't go in expecting another Deep Red or Tenebre. Just take the movie for what it is and you mind find yourself enjoying it.

This might really be more of a 3 star film really but given how bad Argento's previous film, the Card Player, was, I was so greatly relieved that this turned out to be pretty darn enjoyable that I'm upping it a star. There's a danger here in building up expectations unfairly: this is a fun diverting movie but it's not one for the ages so just don't anticipate too much and you should have a good time.

The odd thing about this film is that it should almost be called Do You Like De Palma? Because it most closely resembles the sort of postmodern puzzles that De Palma was once concocting when he was building films out of intriguing derivations from Hitchcockian scenarios and stylistic conventions, taking Hitchcock's themes and modernizing them, pushing them further than the originals in graphicness and in contemporary techniques and attitudes. In fact, the film this reminded me of most was Body Double more than any actual original Hitchcock film, through its deliberate referencing and quoting and its continual meta-commentary on films and filmmaking. Like Argento, De Palma himself has gotten less and less reliable as time has gone on and has made a lot of so-so work as the 80s turned into the 90s and into the 21st century. As De Palma has moved away from Hitchcock, his films have lost their focus and personality so that only the Hitchcockian Femme Fatale really stands out as a true "De Palma" film since 1992's Raising Cain. Similarly, this is probably Argento's most satisfying film in its totality through a comparable fifteen year period, though admittedly it is not particularly brutal by his standards and lacks the accomplished visual stylization of his glory days that made him the Bertolucci of the horror film in the 70s (this was apparently shot for Italian TV so a more appropriate basis of comparison might fairly be Dario's early Door into Darkness episodes). Both directors might profit from returning back to basics in figuring out where to go from here. And this modest thriller is a pretty good sign from Argento that he could still pull himself out of his rut. It's not a major work by any stretch of the imagination but it's a solid diverting picture with some well done scenes and good drawn-out suspense.

So, the bottom line is probably Do you like old Argento or old De Palma? If so, give this film a shot; it's not bad, not bad at all.

Lacking the baroque horror and much of the graphic brutality of Argento's other work, "Do You Like Hitchcock?" is, nevertheless, a fitting tribute to the Master of Suspense, even while channeling Brian de Palma via that director's frequent musical collaborator, Pino Donaggio. Beginning as a direct hommage to "Rear Window", "Do You Like Hitchcock?" finds nerdy film student, Giulio (Elio Germano) spying on his gorgeous neighbor across the way, a tantalizing young woman constantly berated by her mother. Is the mother simply a nagging scold, or is there some degree of validity to her behavior? Later events cause Giulio to ponder this question more deeply, especially after another beautiful young woman befriends his neighbor. Is it a coincidence that the women have recently rented "Strangers On a Train" from the friendly--too friendly?--clerk at the local video store? When a murder eventually does occur, Giulio, under the skeptical eyes of his down-to-earth girlfriend and flighty mother, decides to play amateur sleuth and get to the bottom of the mystery. But are events as clear-cut as them seem? Not in an Argento film, they aren't, and before it's all said and done, Giulio has placed himself in mortal danger, keeping one step ahead of the police investigation while the killer closes in. Of course, it's all pretty farfetched, but it's also beautifully filmed and extremely suspenseful.

As he lusts after these mysterious femme fatales, gawky Giulio, who has such a lovely, lively, generous-hearted girlfriend, seems undeserving of her company; his constant spying, ostensibly to ferret out a murderer, seems to have an underlying motive that, initially, adds a certain element of creepiness to Giulio's character. Hitchcock didn't present Jimmy Stewart in quite the same light in "Rear Window" because there, Stewart's character was only too happy to shove uber-glam Grace Kelly into the background, not so he could spy on and lust after Miss Torso, but because his libido was the polar opposite of Giulio's in "Do You Like Hitchcock?". Stewart's Jeff was content to spy on his neighbors and imagine what they might, or might not, be up to; sex was the last thing on his mind. For the youthful, energetic Giulio, of course, sex is at the forefront of his thoughts, so even while he's bedding his girlfriend and chasing these long-limbed model-types around Turin trying to solve one murder and possibly prevent another (possibly his own), we're not completely sure what he really wants from these other women. Does he want to save them? Sleep with them? Prove their guilt or innocence? Maybe a little of all three. "Do You Like Hitchcock?" may be minor Argento, but it's still better than many "major" films ground out by the Hollywood film studios each year (and also better than some of Argento's recent work). The cast is quite good, and Pino Donaggio's score adds an elegant sense of menace to the goings-on. For me, it's as much an hommage to Brian de Palma as to Hitchcock.