[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

OPERA - Obviously all Dario Argento's work is quite operatic, if that means his films are made up of impressions and gestures so loud they seem constantly on the verge of breaking out into a yodel (not an operatic term, but I am a philistine). Fittingly, this one's about a bloated high tech modernist version of MacBeth complicated by some bloody off-stage killings, and, as always, the star is the camera, floating through a multitude of unlikely iterations of space and movement. He's lucky when he can get performances that match his lust for mad stylistic excess - not sure that's the case here, the film seems split between its startling visuals and drab characterisation, but do you care? I don't, 'Opera' is disjointed and zany but above all visionary, and, whether it's showing us a mass raven onslaught, a blue tinted trip down a spiral staircase or a random pulsating brain, it's not often I watch something that makes me go "yeah!... huh?" pretty much minute after minute.

Ooh, i must dig that out to watch this October. An atmospheric classic not seen for ages.