The art of Dario Argento
Italian art trio Malleus – Lu, Poia and Urlo – cite their influences as “Expressionism and Symbolism, Art Nouveau and Surrealism, Pop Art and Psychedelic Art; comics, photography, cinema and literature”.
For the last 10 years they have been creating handmade silkscreen poster art related to rock concerts. They run a record label, Supernatural Cat, and Poia and Urlo play in the heavy psych band Ufomammut.
They are also – like all of us at Civilian – huge Dario Argento fans. Argento is the man who fashioned the “giallo” genre of horror film, defined by its often spectacular art house visuals as much as its surreal and inventive sadism. Not to mention a flair for electronica (Argento’s own band, Goblin, has been a huge influence on contemporary composers).
They were approached by Dark City Gallery in the UK, which specialises in limited edition art movie and rock posters, to create a series based on the Italian horror master’s work. Their resulting Dario Argento posters are a thing of beauty – and also serve to highlight how many of the originals hold their own in terms of graphic style and innovation.
“We think our prints are very different from the originals,” they say. “We tried to dig into the movies to find some alternative influences, different from the usual vision of Argento’s movies. We like the ‘golden period’, especially the early years, of Dario Argento’s filmography – the atmosphere, scenography, photography and framing of his movies are very peculiar and intriguing, so it’s been exciting to work on this series, it’s been a good challenge for us. Moreover, as Italians is good to discover how much he’s appreciated all around the world.” C
Malleus: “Suspiria is full of bright primary colours. The Technicolor explodes through the deep blacks. There are great visual contrasts, more than in any other Argento movies. The story is multifaceted, and we wanted to incorporate that within the final image.”
Malleus: “Some of the original posters were totally beautiful, above all Suspiria by Mario De Berardinis – it’s a real masterpiece of design.”
Malleus: “In The Bird with the Crystal Plumage we tried to represent the duality of victim/murderer. In many of Argento's movies these two characters are closely related, and our Dario Argento poster symbolises that connection.”
An original Dario Argento poster for the Italian release of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
The US Dario Argento poster for The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Hitchcock is often cited when Argento is introduced to American audiences.
The Malleus poster for The Stendhal Syndrome: “The main character in The Stendhal Syndrome is played by Argento's daughter, Asia. We all wanted to have her in the poster in what is, in our opinion, the most iconic scene of the movie. So here is the insane hair cutting at the mirror, with the colours exploding all around.”
The original poster for The Stendhal Syndrome. By the 1990s, the distributors of Argento's work clearly weren't putting the effort in. In later years, many would argue that Argento wasn't either...