not as good as all the hype

hyped garbage

A Brilliant Conflict

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

When the diva of a daring production of Verdi's Macbeth directed by Marco (Ian Charleson) has an accident, the young opera singer Betty (Cristina Marsillach) successfully replaces her. Soon a psychopath obsessed by Betty kills her boyfriend, the production assistant Stefano (William McNamara); her costumer designer Giulia (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni); and her agent Mira (Daria Nicolodi). Inspector Alan Santini (Urbano Barberini), who is her fan, gives protection to Betty, but the murderer always gets close to her. Who might be the killer? "Opera" is a giallo version of The Phantom of the Opera by Dario Argento. The story has many flaws, but technically the film is wonderful. The camera work is fantastic, exploring unusual angles and movements. The cinematography is outstanding using beautiful bright colors. The music score is magnificent. And the special effects with lots of gore are top- notch, with usual murders. The cast has good performances and the film never disappoints. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Terror na Ópera" ("Terror in the Opera")

Numerous friends have tried to get me to appreciate opera over the years; all these many attempts have failed. Call me a philistine if you like, but for me, opera has always meant a fat lady in a Viking helmet yodeling at full blast, or a bearded guy or offputting prima donna shrilling away in a language that I don't understand. Thus, it was with a feeling of decided trepidation that I approached Italian director Dario Argento's 1987 offering, "Opera." On the one hand, for this aspiring Argento completist, the film was a must-see; on the other hand, the film not only takes place in an opera house, but features, on its soundtrack, extensive samplings of Verdi's opera "Macbeth," performed by Maria Callas and other noted sopranos. Yikes! Well, as it turns out, I needn't have worried. Not only didn't I mind the opera music in this film, but I actually (and I cannot believe I'm typing this) LOVED the piece of music that plays over the picture's closing credits! How do you say "a freaking miracle" in Italian? Anyway, perhaps I only needed some incredible images, ghastly carnage and amazing camera work to help the music go down a tad easier. Happily, "Opera" dishes out all three, in spades!In the film, soprano understudy Betty (played by Spanish actress Cristina Marsillach) gets her big break when the theater's main attraction gets struck down by a car. Unfortunately, the curse of "Macbeth" holds true, and Betty's triumphant debut soon segues into a nightmare that Ruby Keeler could never have imagined! Hours after this debut, a hooded madman breaks into her boyfriend's apartment, ties Betty up, gags her, and tapes needles under her eyes, forcing her to watch the multiple stabbings that he/she inflicts on the hapless dude; the first of many similar incidents for poor Betty. In the history of the giallo film, rarely has so vicious and depraved a whacko been introduced to a flabbergasted audience. Offhand, I can only think of the psycho in Paolo Cavara's 1972 film "Black Belly of the Tarantula" (who not only kills his many victims, but injects each with a paralyzing poison before doing so) who compares to this opera nut, whose slayings are not only brutal, but must also be witnessed by another victim. As for these killings, the gorehounds out there should be well content with the various impaled head, knifing and scissoring sequences that the film provides, not to mention a horrendous tracheotomy AND the justifiably celebrated slo-mo shot of a bullet coursing through a peephole before crashing toward its intended victim, Betty's manager (played by Daria Nicolodi, in her fifth of six films for the director). "Opera," besides boasting this celebrated shot, is, overall, perhaps the finest exemplar that I have seen yet of Argento's skill with the camera. Indeed, his camera is rarely at rest, constantly probing, climbing, gliding, exploring, pivoting. Just witness that 360-degree pan around the opera house; the bottom-of-the-sink POV shot; the POV shot from behind the needles taped to Betty's face; the shots of the killer's beating heart; the sweeping trip through the AC ducts; and, most especially, the POV shot from a raven's eye, as it circles around and swoops in the opera house. This last sequence may even top Hitchcock's great avian POV shot above the flaming gas station in 1963's "The Birds," and that's saying something! (Let's not get into the patent ridiculousness of a raven remembering the murderer of a fellow raven and attacking that person in public!) "Opera" is a genuine feast for the eyes, as it turns out, and yes, the ears, as well. It is a deliriously entertaining spectacle, beautiful to look at even when horrendous acts are transpiring on screen. I only wish that I could have seen this one in a theater back when. Between Argento's camera magic and DOP Ronnie Taylor's superb work, the film must have looked truly awesome in the cinemas. Oh...as far as the identity of that killer is concerned, my advice would be to not even try to guess. Like Argento's 1975 classic "Deep Red," "Opera" features a final act coda that should really take you unawares. And as to poor Betty, I CAN spoil things for you a little by revealing that she IS alright physically by the picture's end; her mental condition, I'm afraid, is anybody's guess!The "Opera" DVD that I just viewed, from Westlake, looks just fine, by the way, but only sports a skimpy photo gallery as an extra. From what I hear, the DVDs from Anchor Bay and Blue Underground are far preferable. All in all, though, I'm quite pleased that I decided to spend this night at the opera. Maybe I won't be so timid when I finally catch up with Argento's 1999 take on "The Phantom of the Opera"; when it comes to warbling sopranos, perhaps there is hope for me yet....

If this idiotic piece of turd is among the Argento's relatively high-rated items, then I can't imagine how bad are his subsequent works. Even in his 70's flicks (that weren't that great too, to put it mildly) he didn't care that much about acting and writing decent or (at least partially) logical scripts, but in Opera he simply spat on these "unnecessary" elements. "Picturesque" killings were the only goals to reach, you know. But unfortunately he had to somehow fill the ~100 min film format, hence a great bulk of absurdities, cretinous dialogues ("Are you scared?" - "A little. No, a lot!") and one of the most moronic final twists.Just some gaping moments: 1) If the murderer planned his deeds so painstakingly, then why did he miss the baton-armed wardrobe mistress? 2) What a "clever" idea was to catch the murderer with these ravens flying around the hall! For the dubious price of finding the killa man you just have to scare the whole audience, thus giving the worst possible advert to the theatre. 3) The final "utterly unexpected" resurrection of the Maniac Inspector is beyond laughability. At least he should has taken the key with himself escaping from the burning room. Did you know that even Orion (the American film's distributor) wanted to cut this f**ked out ending, but our Italian master of crap stood his ground.I don't want to bore you anymore, though I haven't mentioned some other great moments of this idiocy-fest like the scene featuring the Nicolodi's headeye shot.If you are into trash horror Z-movies, then you'll enjoy it. If you're a newcomer to DA, then you'd better check his early works.

I watched four Argento movies during the holidays--only because they were available at the Public Library—and it would seem that I got the best ones first. Those are Red Deep and Opera. Not that they are great movies, or even good ones, but compared to the other two—Suspiria and Inferno—they are pretty watchable. They have a plot too-or something that looks like that--and I know that because in them Argento follows the lives and tribulations of their two respective central characters. I don't know about other works of him, but if I judge for what I have seen, just one character in one film (with a real plot) will be enough to leave him with his hands full. Now if he has to worry about two, well, there she is--or was--Nicolodi, to get him out of trouble.I'll say Opera is the best of the whole package, even if I was ready to throw the towel and forget all about it during the second needles--on--the--eyes murder, that of the wardrobe clerk (same old, same old.) The only reason why I didn't do it is because of Cristina Marsillach. She is cute. Not only cute; she's very likable and when doing her Callas number she is almost adorable. So I kept on it and I swallowed the whole two hours of Opera only to keep watching her. Her acting is atrocious, yes, and when in the taxi with Marco after her boyfriend's killing, she looks only just P.O., like someone's thinking: "Oh, what a drag". Like any ordinary girl would be after missing her appointment with the hairstylist instead of one having being brutally forced to witness a horrendous murder. Anyway, I found Opera the most interesting Argento to analyze, if only because here you can see what could have made of him a good, even great director, and at the same time what are the flaws that kept him wallowing in the mediocrity of empty, plot-less, gore feasts.One thing I noticed about him is that he never loses the opportunity to ruin the good subplots, stories, situations, he stumbles upon. For instance, there are in Opera at least two great moments—probably the only ones I'll remember of him ten years from now—which, if correctly followed, could have made for classics of world cinema. The first is--oh, yeah--that beautiful ''bullet through the door, right into the eye''. That was great. That's exactly how I like my murders served: fast, efficient, with no superfluous theatrics or gore. Even better is Betty's reaction to the horror: for the first time she is active, energetic, and even angry--''SOB, you're not going to get me, I'll kill you'!'. That would have made for a superb ensuing sequence of suspense, struggle and pursuit. Instead, he allows the pace to drag, the tension to subside and the whole situation cools off. Then, the appearance of the girl in the vent duct springs up yet another chance to revive things; but once again he ruins it, when the kid's mother expels her from her apartment. The other "classic moment" I'm referring to is that of the crows diving on the public in the theater, looking for the killer of their peers. That was also great, but Argento completely ruins the follow up to this superb bit with the completely unlikely, ridiculous, episode of the vengeful one-eyed killed. Sure, anyone who have just had one eyeball ripped off from its socket by a swarm of enraged crows would feel that self-assured and physically, and psychologically, fit as Santini was by then.The second thing I'd mention is the incredible stupidity of his characters, which make their murders not exactly acts of ruthless violence, but rather the natural result of the mysterious way in which the Darwin Law works. That's why we don't feel sorrow for them when they are cut down because it's their own stupidity which brings about heir demises. In Suspiria, it's not really that they ran afoul of the witches what condemned Daniel and Pat but that they couldn't keep their mouths shut. In Opera the seamstress commits the ultimate nonsense of engaging in some puerile game—or so she thinks-- with a ruthless killer, as if it wasn't a question of life and death for her. Instead of doing what every sensible person would have done in her case, with the man on the floor—something even the Three Stooges know--to get hold of something to tie the guy up, she goes and yanks off his mask. What a dope! Third thing is, Argento's bad habit of getting rid of likable actors, characters, as son as he has presented them to us, offing them or forgetting about them. He did it in Inferno with Rose, Sara, Carol and the surreal Pieroni; in Suspiria he did it with Pat and Sara; and in Opera with Mira, the kid and her mother. That greatly works against the movie.Finally I may add the tacky, phony looking murders. And see that I have said nothing about plots, acting or pacing.In general, I consider Opera much better done than the other films I mentioned. Also, a film where all the usual Argento cinematographic antics—colors, settings, score--find their right place and are not put there just for the sake of it. The crows are a great addition, they are great at helping giving atmosphere to the movie, and I don't think for a moment they were over exposed or that the film looks at times like an episode of National Geographic, as some say. And maybe the most important thing, this is the only Argento where I felt true empathy for the main protagonist, I really felt for Betty, which made me forget all about her bad acting. Marsillec shows, at least to me, how much mileage a director can get from a likable lead, how many things he can get away with.