Which movie is Argento at his balls out surrealist best?

Ok. So it's pretty much agreed that as far as unrestrained Argento goes Phenomena and Inferno are the two that travel furthest in to what the fuckville.

So which one is Argento at his unrestrained best? I'm not talking about which is his best film is overall but what one takes it to the limit in a more effective way?

For me it's Inferno all the way. Phenomena is a snooze fest.

Yeah, definitely Inferno. Phenomena is much easier to understand/the plot is more straight forward.

Weird question.

INFERNO is easily more surreal, but PHENOMENA is more of a real movie with a lot of WTF?
moments.

I love them both but both movies have different agendas.

Anyone can fill a movie with random surrealness, with just barely enough motivation to fill in the gaps, as in INFERNO. But to weave the odd with a narrative with well delineated characters is tricky business, and ol' Dario pulls that off in PHENOMENA.

Inferno does much much more for me. I love the scenes like the cutting of the paper men etc. It's a lot more abstract and although has less of a narrative the weirdness serves more purpose than in Phenomena. Phenomena to me just seems like a big joke almost.

Weird questiono? You're the reason I made this thread.

Colonel Mortimer wrote:

Inferno does much much more for me. I love the scenes like the cutting of the paper men etc. It's a lot more abstract and although has less of a narrative the weirdness serves more purpose than in Phenomena. Phenomena to me just seems like a big joke almost.

Weird questiono? You're the reason I made this thread.

Weird coming from you.

I like 'em both, but I think PHENOMENA has a bit of an edge.

It's just so gleeful in it's loonyness.

Anyone care to guess how I voted?


You'd have to vote for INFERNO just on the basis of the question. There's nothing even remotely surrealist about PHENOMENA... it's just stupid and pointless.

dolemike wrote:

INFERNO is easily more surreal, but PHENOMENA is more of a real movie with a lot of WTF?
moments.

I love them both but both movies have different agendas.

I feel the same. Inferno definitely fits the "surrealist best" bill more. Phenomena is just a fun & crazy movie I could watch over and over.