Saturday 13 December 2008

Another World Entertainment Deep Red DVD - the commentary track

The disc also features an informative, insightful and thought-provoking commentary from Thomas Rostock that picks up on all manner of seemingly innocuous details to demonstrate their meaningfulness in relation to Deep Red as a whole and strikes a good balance between the personal, the specific details of the film and its wider place in Argento’s career and ouevre.

Thus, for example, we are encouraged to think about exactly why the seemingly absent minded – or forgetful – Marta should offer Marc a coke rather than an espresso or a whisky (J&B naturally). The answer offered – and it is one I would agree with – is that it accords with his emasculated status, his reduction to the position of a boy rather than a man. It also further expresses Marta's (s)mothering approach towards her son, Carlo, whom she has failed to permit to follow his ‘natural’ trajectory towards normative heterosexual adulthood.

Similarly, we learn that co-screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi had authored a book on Roman ghosts, much like Amanda Righetti within the diegesis.

If the commentary sounds somewhat dry, this may be attributable to the Rostock's speaking in today's lingua franca, English, rather than his own native tongue. I highly doubt that many English-language Argento experts – many of whom Rostock graciously cites – could have done a better job in any case.

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