Mini Bio : Daria Nicolodi

Born June 19, 1950, in Florence, Italy, actress Daria Nicolodi started performing at an early age. She dabbled in theatre and underground film before making her bigscreen debut in 1970's "Men Against". Her first daughter, Anna was born in 1973. She continued with theatre and TV appearances until her big break in 1975, when avant-garde thriller director Dario Argento cast her in his hugely successful Deep Red. A romance blossomed between the two, and that same year their daughter, actress Asia Argento, was born. Their union, which would last until 1985, started to unravel in 1977, when the two cowrote the masterpiece, Suspiria, based on a story Daria's grandmother had told her. Though the lead role was written for Daria, it was instead given to American cult-goddess Jessica Harper when the distributors demanded an American play the part. Perhaps the greatest injustice she was dealt was not being given any credit for her part in the film when it was released. It wouldn't be until two decades later that Dario finally gave her writing credits. It wasn't all doom and gloom though, as that same year she starred in Mario Bava's Shock. She continued to act in Argento's films until 1987, though throughout that time period she also acted in horror films for Lamberto Bava,and Luigi Cozzi, and even wrote Cozzi's Paganini Horror and Demons 6/ The Black Cat. Sadly, her daughter Anna died in an accident in 1994. To this day she continues to appear on TV, and not long ago had a part in Argento's Mother of Tears, where she performed alongside Asia.

Selected Filmography

Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975)
Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977 - writing and cameo appearance)
Shock (Mario Bava, 1977)
La Venere D'Ille (Mario Bava, 1979)
Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980)
Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982)
Phenomena (Dario Argento, 1985)
Opera (Dario Argento, 1987)
Delirium (Lamberto Bava, 1987)
Giallo Natale (Turno Di Notte, TV Series, 1987)
Demons 6/ The Black Cat (Luigi Cozzi, 1989 - writing)
Il Gioko (Lamberto Bava, TV, 1989)
Paganini Horror (Luigi Cozzi, 1989 - writing and actress)
Scarlet Diva (Asia Argento,2000)
Mother of Tears (Dario Argento, 2007)

Visit Daria's official site HERE.

THE WAX MASK

(Sergio Stivaletti, 1997)

This turn of the century period horror opens with the brutal murder of an Italian couple, living in Paris, by a metal-clawed madman who tears out their hearts. Unknown to the beast is that their daughter Sonia, hidden beneath their bed, is alive and the sole witness to the carnage.

Years later, in Rome, Sonia becomes employed as costume designer in a new wax museum opened by artistic genius Boris Volkoff. There she meets photographer Andrea, who's drawn to the museum and it's eerily life-like collection of wax automatons, after a man, dead of fright (in an obvious homage to Tourneur's "Figures De Cire/ The Man With Wax Faces"), is found there. As more of the locals begin to disappear, Andrea and Sonia begin to suspect that there may be more to the wax figures' realism than meets the eye.

Producer Dario Argento originally intended to give the director's seat to Lucio Fulci, who co-wrote the story with Daniele Stroppa and Argento himself, but Fulci's untimely death prior to filming left the direction to special effects wiz Sergio Stivaletti. One would think, from watching The Wax Mask, that Dario had directed this himself. Stivaletti emulates (successfully, I might add) Argento, but the film moves more quickly than most of the maestro's work. The story's basically an ode to the house of wax films of yore, with a little giallo thrown in. Nothing new, but it is a stylish, visually pleasing film.

Argento's use of colour and lighting give TWM a touch of retro appeal and a heap of horrific atmosphere. His fetishistic images of gloved hands, bondage, needles, broken glass, and water are also inserted lovingly, once again leaving the impression that Dario was at the helm. The acting's not all that bad, though, as usual, the overdubbing is somewhat cheesy. It's a pity Fulci didn't live to direct, as his visual style mixed with Argento's might have produced something magical. The fact that the two were finally collaborating makes it all the more tragic. Still, it's a decent twist on an old story, and a fun watch.

OPERA

(Dario Argento, 1987)

Things aren't looking up for opera singer Betty (Christina Marsillach), an understudy who has just been given the lead role in MacBeth after the original diva had an unfortunate accident (the first of many to come!). An insane fan of Betty's lurks in the wings, waiting until she's alone to tie her up and tape needles under her eyes so that she can't shut them as he mutilates her friends in front of her. Sadism's the name of the game though, and he releases Betty after each killing...

Opera may just be Argento's last great thriller before he Americanized and lost his identity. The plot's a familiar one, but here Dario inserts a little commentary and black humour, no small feat considering his humour normally falls flat on it's face. In Opera he also continues with his fairy tale theme, presenting Betty, like Jennifer in Phenomena or Suzy in Suspiria, as a girl drawn suddenly into an unfamiliar nightmare world. This is again reinforced through camera angles and set design. Another theme further explored is his love of animals, in this case crows, and the uncanny abilities they supposedly possess. Still don't get it, but meh...

Visually speaking, Opera is just as vivid and memorable as Dario's prior efforts. He throws in a couple of new tricks here, creating swooping bird's POV shots, and even a slow-mo closeup of a bullet passing through a peephole. He also managed to insert his/ Mario Bava's trademark coloured lighting. Other than the weak acting and story (used to it by now!), my chief complaint, as in Phenomena, was the juxtaposition of dreamy opera with thrashy metal in the soundtrack. I can see how it might be appropriate in the gore scenes, but it makes the film feel a bit disjointed.

On the plus side, however, there's an abundance of blood and kink onboard, and a cast of familiar Italian horror players, including Barbara Cupisti, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi, and others too numerous to mention. Definitely worth a watch.

TRAUMA

(Dario Argento, 1993)

Bulimic drug addict Aura Petrescu (Asia Argento) is talked out of jumping off a bridge by passing motorist and former drug-user David Parsons (Christopher Rydell). After a very brief lunch Aura runs off, only to be escorted by police back to her parents' house and told she'll be returned to "the clinic" the following morning.

Aura's mother Adriana (Piper Laurie!), a powerful medium, holds a seance that same stormy night and frightens the participants when she becomes possessed and runs off into the woods with her husband in pursuit. Aura follows them only to come upon their decapitated bodies and a figure in black making off with their heads. From the news David discovers Aura's identity and whereabouts, and takes her under his wing. Meanwhile, the killer, dubbed The Headhunter by the press, continues his reign of terror, decapitating his unfortunate victims with a custom-made motorized wire noose. David undertakes the task of unmasking the psycho on his own, which is never a good idea in this kind of film!

Though it does play out like an Argento best-of, and contains some rather goofy moments, Trauma does have it's merits. His fans will recognize a variety of images and themes from his earlier gialli, from toys to insects and lizards, broken glass, water, and of course the old black leather gloves. Trauma doesn't disappoint in the cinematography department either, as would be expected of Dario.

There's some wonderfully tense scenes, and the deaths, though short on the traditional Dario gore, still maintain his mean-spiritedness and black humor. One may find that the stilted acting and oft misplaced comedic bits throughout distracting and occasionally boring, but the end reveal more than makes up for it.
Now, I present to you, the What Was Dario Thinking? segment of this review. It's a bit unsettling that Argento actually filmed his daughter Asia in the nude. And then there's the talking heads; no, I'm not referring to that innovative band from the days of yore, but actual decapitated heads speaking and screaming. See it to believe it! Buy it here.

Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy

The films:
*The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
*The Cat 'O Nine Tails (1971)
*Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1972)
Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy, so-called because of the references to animals in their titles, were his first three films, and not a true trilogy in the sense that there are no connecting stories or characters.

THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE

(Dario Argento, 1970)

Dario made his debut with this stunning little psycho-thriller, and in doing so popularizd a genre introduced to theatre patrons by Mario Bava only seven years prior. Although the "giallo boom" only lasted until the mid-70's, it's influence on modern cinema lingers to this day. Loaded with amazing cinematic style, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage laid the foundation for any future thriller with its trademark use of black leather gloves and straight razors, as well as fetishism of death and voyeurism.

The story unfolds at a brisk pace as writer Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is witness to an attempted murder in an art gallery one night. The event haunts him, as he feels as though he saw something that was out of place at the time, though no attempt to remember just what bears fruit. After learning of a string of recent, similar murders, he and his girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall) are drawn into the mystery and begin their own amateur investigation. This proves to be hazardous for them both as the killer is quite aware of their intrusion.

Bar the usual subpar dub job, the acting herein is uniformly solid. Despite the subject matter, violence, and then-unheard of gore, the story is sprinkled liberally with humor, however dark it may be. Argento got the balance between suspense, fright, and comedy just right, and the story never drags as it does in much of his later films.

On the technical side, which is where Dario has always excelled, TBWTCP was groundbreaking. The extreme close-ups of the killer's eye, the POV murder shots, and Argento's inventive lighting, paired with the chillingly minimal Ennio Morricone soundtrack, made this a brand new experience for theatre goers of the time, and the film has lost little of its potency 41 years since. Highly recommended, and a great introduction to the world of Italian horror and thriller cinema. Buy it here.