This book is dedicated to Dario Argento, one of the best known and most loved Italian directors in the world, the undisputed master of the horror genre.
The enormous success of his cinema is due to its visionary power, the search for an aesthetic dimension which is reached through excess, the paradox generated by the gaze of the protagonist of the story that often collides with that of the spectator, both dazzled by a “staging” that deceives, that makes you dream – or fall into a hallucinatory dimension – when you think you are watchful and can dominate reality.
An “idealist” cinema, as defined by the director himself, made of nightmares, dreams, visions, untouched by the grey reality.

Contents
I’m very Pleased
Dario Argento

An exhibition dedicated to Dario Argento
Domenico De Gaetano and Marcello Garofalo

CAPITOLO 1
Critical Essays

Technicolor blood. In praise of Dario Argento
Mick Garris

For an Imagery of Visual Delirium
Domenico De Gaetano

Argento: The Image in the Mirror
Marcello Garofalo

The Imaginary Geography of Dario Argento’s Cinema
Stefano Della Casa

The Female Villains of the Story
Piera Detassis

Argento’s Soundtracks
Roberto Pugliese

Dario Argento and Cinema as Form of Cosmopolitan Terror
Alan Jones

Nitrato d’Argento: Passions and Landmarks from Other Cinematic Models
Domenico Monetti

CAPITOLO 2
The Movies and Their Creative Universee

CAPITOLO 3
Working with Dario

“Susy, do you know anything about witches?”
Stefania Casini

Just a way of looking at things
Franco Bellomo

Dr. Caligari and the Mummy’s Shroud
Luigi Cozzi

I’m not the only one who’s dreaming about it
Claudio Simonetti

Coffee residue that lasts a lifetime
Sergio Stivaletti

Chronicle of a successful collaboration
Luciano Tovoli

Between what’s absurd or possible, tertium datur
Antonello Geleng

A normal person, yet…
Stefano Oggiano e Gabriele Farina

CAPITOLO 4
Thematic Frames

Evil Must Be Recounted
Grazia Paganelli

Shape and Feeling
Fabio Pezzetti Tonion

Argento-Symphonie
Matteo Pollone

Statements by Quentin Tarantino, William Friedkin, Mick Garris, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jessica Harper, Tim Burton, Banana Yoshimoto, Asia Argento, Adriano Celentano, Guillermo del Toro, Vittorio Storaro.

Argento Bulgari Inferno
Dario Argento

A Bulgari Snake Sliding Into the “Inferno”
Lucia Boscaini

CAPITOLO 5
Interview
Biography
Filmography