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.

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.

MOTHER OF TEARS

(Dario Argento, 2007)

Despite the buzz and excitement surrounding this film's release, it somehow managed to divide and alienate many of Argento's fans. At first glance, Mother of Tears seems almost like a rush job done only to please the fans of Suspiria and Inferno. The majority of the acting in the film is sub-par, even by Argento standards. Daughter Asia Argento, beautiful as she is, has never made a convincing lead actress. Her real life mother, Daria Nicolodi, who was cast as her mother in the film, is given a woefully small (and cheesy, thanks to the cheap CG effects) role. Udo Kier also puts in a brief appearance, but seems rather disinterested in the proceedings.

I guess I should probably tell you what the story's all about, now that I've gone and bashed it to pieces. Mother of Tears is the final installment in the so-called Three Mothers Trilogy, the other two being Suspiria and Inferno. MOT is about the return to life of the sole remaining sister, Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears; Mother of Sighs was killed in Suspiria, and Mother of Shadows in Inferno).

Excavations in a churchyard reveal the casket of Varelli, the alchemist who designed the cursed houses in which the witches dwelt. Strapped to his coffin is a large urn, the inscriptions upon which alarm the priest present, and it is sent away for study. Art restorer Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento) and her colleague Giselle (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni!) are the first the open and inspect the contents. Sarah is sent to find a text on ancient languages, and no sooner is she out of the room, Giselle is brutally (and I mean BRUTALLY) torn open by a trio of hooded demons and an evil monkey. Let that sink in.

Sarah narrowly escapes the ghouls herself (with some help from the other side), and calls in the police, who initially disbelieve her testimony. What she doesn't know is that she and Giselle have brought back to life a very powerful witch who intends to bring about the fall of Rome by driving its populace to madness, murder, and extreme kink! The chaos begins with a handful of isolated incidents, but soon spreads as more and more witches convene on the capitol. For reasons not yet known, Sarah and her boyfriend Michael find themselves targeted by the ruthless forces of Mater Lachrymarum, who kidnap Michael's son and leave a cryptic message scrawled in blood on his headboard.

The symbols in the message take Sarah to Father Johannes (Udo Kier), where she also meets Marta, a psychic who was friends with Sarah's deceased mother, Eliza (Daria Nicolodi). From Marta, Sarah learns that her mother was a powerful white witch who had died fighting Mater Suspiriorum. Sarah is taught (briefly) how to tap into her own innate magical ability (invisibility), and how to communicate with her mother, both of which prove useful. Sarah has little time to rest between stops, however, as Mater's forces are always close, and have a nasty habit of slaughtering anyone who helps her. The only way for Sarah to stay alive is to defeat Mater Lachrymarum herself.

If the story sounds a little derivative, you'd be correct. Dario threw in every cliche, and obviously borrowed more than a few ideas for the creation of MOT, many of them from his earlier films. I may also mention that MOT is choc-full of bad CG effects, and I mean painfully bad. Now that I've gotten the worst out of the way, it's time for praise!

One aspect of MOT that angered many was the lack of the trademark colored lighting previously employed in Suspiria and Inferno. Face it, folks: as much as we love those crazy Argento films of the 70's, they can never be reproduced. Even if they were, there'd be bitching and moaning about how Dario was only repeating himself. If one pays attention, he actually does play with color and lighting, but in a much more subtle fashion. They intensify only towards the end, when Sarah is in the witches' lair.

Argento went with a modern look here, again facing criticism for it. The witches aren't gnarled old hags; rather they look EXACTLY how someone who claims, nowadays, to be a witch would look: Goth-ish makeup, piercings, frizzy hair, and a complete lack of social skills! Still, they are more silly than menacing. Mater Lachrymarum herself, the "youngest and cruelest" and "most beautiful" of the Three Sisters, looks exactly the part.

On the technical side, Dario did make this a good-looking film with many memorable scenes and images. He's never really has a problem with photography and pacing; only the actors and stories seem to suffer in his productions. The gore and creature effects by Sergio Stivaletti are bang-on yet again, with the exception of one rubbery-looking witch-head. Another Argento regular, composer/ musician Claudio Simonetti, provided an unusually lackluster score for the film. I'd wait on viewing this one until you've seen the far superior Suspiria, and its confusingly bizarre sequel, Inferno. Buy it here.

THE CHURCH

(Michele Soavi, 1989)



We open on a fantastic medieval sequence wherein a group of crusaders massacre a village full of witches. The bodies are interred in a mass grave, and a church is built over the site.



We then fast forward to the church in the late 80's, where we are introduced to a variety of characters. There's Evan, the new librarian. Lisa is there restoring a large fresco that depicts Hell. There's the Sacristan and his family. A young Asia Argento plays both their daughter Lotte and a witch killed in the opening. There's also the bishop, Father Gus, and the reverend.



Work with a jackhammer in the cellar of the church has caused large cracks in the walls. While investigating the cracks, Lisa discovers an ancient parchment inside. It piques Evans interest, so he goes to the cellar. A giant cross embedded in the floor falls away, revealing a bottomless black abyss below. Evan is soon possessed, and proceeds to infect (or at least creep out) the rest of the cast.



We are then introduced to an ENTIRELY NEW CAST who are in the church. This time there's a dotty old couple, a teacher and some students, a bridal photographer and his models, and a young couple. Another jackhammer incident in the cellar (a much gorier one, haw!) sets off the church's self-containment mechanism by means of gears, levers, and pulleys. It seems the crusaders knew how to plan ahead! The rest of the film follows each character's attempt to escape possession by varied means, and the inevitable destruction of the church.



The only complaint I have with The Church is the (given) corny dialogue. Everything else about it is right on. To start with, Soavi has created some of the most beautiful and memorable images I've seen, and this film is choc full of them. He used paintings by the great masters and medieval religious art as references for the look of the film, and it paid off. We even catch fleeting glimpses of demons right out the fresco in the church. The creature effects, though a little dated, are still fantastic. Forever stuck with me is the image of Evan as a large winged devil caressing one of the girls and gliding backwards in complete silence. The film may be a little slow at times, but builds beautifully to one of the most awe-inspiring effects: a massive, horned beast made of corpses rising out of the bowels of the church!



Michele Soavi's second directorial effort is one of the best examples of Italian horror. It embodies all that is great within that realm: fantastic imagery with artful flourishes, a soundtrack by Goblin, Keith Emerson, and Philip Glass, and gore galore. Though it was originally intended to be a third entry in the Demons series, Soavi took the film in a completely different direction. Highly recommended.

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