Product Description

Italian Master Of Horror Dario Argento – the director of SUSPIRIA, DEEP RED, TENEBRE and OPERA — returns to the thriller genre with this sly and sexy tribute to The Master Of Suspense. Elio Germano stars as Giulio, a nerdy film student and lifelong voyeur who begins to believe that two lovely young strangers may have conspired to commit a brutal murder. But when reel obsession leads to real danger, one question alone holds the key to terror: DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? Elisabetta Rocchetti, Chiara Conti and Cristina Brondo co-star in this bold giallo co-written by Argento and Franco Ferrini (PHENOMENA, THE CARD PLAYER), featuring a masterful score by Pino Donaggio (DRESSED TO KILL, CARRIE, TRAUMA), gore effects by Sergio Stivaletti (CEMETERY MAN, DEMONS), and filled with the classic touches of two true masters!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89269 in DVD
• Brand: GERMANO,ELIO
• Released on: 2006-08-15
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com
Shot in Turin, the center of silent-era Italian cinema, Dario Argento's Do You Like Hitchcock? is half a tribute to German Expressionist horror, namely The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and The Golem, and half an homage to Argento's hero, Alfred Hitchcock. As the first feature in the Masters of Horror series made for Italian channel RAI, however, the film suffers from a made-for-TV stiffness, despite DP Federico Fasano's (Scarlet Diva) Hitchcock-ian shots, beautiful use of red and blue lighting, and Pino Donaggio's suspenseful score. Do You Like Hitchcock's? plot references several Hitchcock films, most directly Rear Window. Film student Giulio (Elio Germano) notices two girls, Federica (Chiara Conti) and Sasha (Elisabetha Rocchetti), haggling over a Hitchcock video in his local video store, then spies on them after learning that Sasha lives in the apartment across from his. Upon witnessing, through binoculars, the murder of Sasha's mother and dedicating himself to the case, Giulio’s snooping endangers his life, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend Arianna (Cristina Brondo). Giallo often lacks original story, but Dario Argento has famously elevated his films' erotica and stylized violence by creating characters crippled by Freudian neuroses. Relatively speaking, Giulio, the film student with a runaway imagination, isn't as compelling as Argento’s typically complex femme fatales. Do You Like Hitchcock? includes a female criminal, to make it more classically Argento-esque. But if anything, the film begs an interesting question: mustn't the victim's sex appeal in good Giallo also be fetishized? --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

Argento Pulls A DePalma
Folks may gripe about Argento's output over the last decade or so, but he certainly hasn't lost the knack for a good concept. I don't expect another Deep Red or Tenebre, and why should I? With a ton of great movies under your belt over more than 30 years, not everything is gonna be primo.
Do You Like Hitchcock? is a little murder mystery Argento made for Italian television. No, it's not the most original of concepts because the whole theme is based on another director's ideas. But at the same time, that's also what makes it original. It's both an homage as well as an Argento film.
The film follows a kind of dorky film student(is there any other kind?) who becomes suspicious of a sexy neighbor. At a local video store he witnesses a meeting between his neighbor and another attractive woman who both come to rent the Hitchcock film, Strangers On A Train. He suspects that these two woman have come to a similar arrangement as the two male characters in the Hitchcock film(and if you haven't seen Strangers On A Train, shame on you!). And in the Argento(and Hitchcock) tradition, our protagonist plays detective and snoops and spies, getting in over his head when he finds out that there is indeed a murder plot going on. No one believes him of course and he finds himself a target.
This is a relatively common type of scenario with Argento, but this time the Hitchcock influence is cited. It's the actual catalyst for the mystery. Argento also mixes in a bit of Rear Window and even a tad of Vertigo. For a made for T.V. movie, it's very above average. Not as violent as the average Argento film, but it is a bit bloody for the first murder. Like I said before, don't go expecting Deep Red, but Argento fans should get a bit of a kick out of it.

"Rear Window" in Turin: Well-Made Thriller from Dario Argento
Dario Argento`s new film arrives with the slightly tongue-in-cheek title: `Do You Like Hitchcock?' The film is not only homage to the master of suspense films, but it also is a surprisingly good thriller cleverly developed from the concepts in several of Hitchcock classics such as "Rear Window" and "Strangers on a Train."

Giulio is a film student living in Turin, who occasionally watches Sasha, beautiful woman living in the room across the street. One night Sacha's mother is brutally murdered. Apparently it was done by a robber, but Giulio alone knows some secrets anyone else does not know. One of them is that before the murder she was having a conversation with another lady at a local rental video store, and both of the women seem interested in Alfred Hitchcock films.

You don't need any more summery of the plot, nor Giulio. Being a film student Giulio knows the story of most of the Hitchcock movies, and can predict what may happen next. He rather stubbornly insists on his theory that his girlfriend does not take seriously, and gets involved in the case more than he should.

First let me tell you something about the director's trademarks. Dario Argento's lavish visual style is certainly here, but you don't find much gore or violence. You will still see the close-ups of seemingly unimportant things (like a key in the keyhole) and will find the film's opening chapter unnecessary, but Argento fans would find the master's distinct touch in them. You also hear the curiously enticing music of Pino Donaggio, but Argento's technique is more restrained than usual. The script is more tightly written, but except for several thrilling moments (like Giulio riding a motorcycle running in the rain), the film fails to build up the tension we expect from this kind of suspense.

Still the film is largely well-acted (even though English-dubbed) and entertaining, will certainly keep us guessing until the end. Worth watching if you like either Argento or, of course, Hitchcock.

Finally!!
Thank you Anchor Bay! We Americans can FINALLY see Argento's latest feature-length film. It is embarrassing how long it takes some foreign films to get released here in the States! It's going on 2007 now, and this movie is from early 2005; it's almost two years old, and it just now got released here! Oh well, at least we get to enjoy it now. Argento wanted to pay tribute to The Master's (Hitchcock, obviously) canon of work, which is a really fun idea since Argento is considered to be "the Italian Hitchcock." Interestingly, Argento chose Pino Donaggio to do the soundtrack for this one instead of The Goblin's Claudio Simonetti, as Pino is famous for scoring Brian De Palma's "Hitchcock" films. Simonetti was reportedly very sore about that.

Argento fans will be pleased to hear that Do You Like Hitchcock? is a cause for rejoicing, as it happens to be a real return to form for the maestro of horror. Argento deftly blends multiple references to many Hitchcock films into one his tightest, cleverest, and surprisingly, most comprehensible and straightforward plots to date. The film cleverly weaves together elements of Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, and Vertigo into one neat little plot, and wraps it all up with a main character who is a film student studying German Expressionism (a school which obviously had an impact on Argento's cinematic style) and who loves Hitchcock. Fans will be made ecstatic by the fact that the movie thankfully contains the greatest number of "Argentoesque" scenes of any of his recent films, including the most-welcome return of the brilliant cinematography we've come to expect from the man (and which was mostly lacking in The Card Player, a film for which he experimented with natural lighting). Never fear that it was made for Italian television, for it still contains way more nudity and gore than most American R-rated theatrical releases. Interestingly, Do You Like Hitchcock? is one of the only of Argento's giallos that is not in some way a loose remake of Bird With the Crystal Plumage, regarding a protagonist who misperceives or misremembers something and then must solve not only the mystery of the crime, but the psychological mystery of what it was he actually saw, etc.