Sleepless
2001 ‘Non ho sonno’ Directed by Dario Argento
Synopsis
Creepier than Jack the Ripper
An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer whom has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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I've seen this film described as a return to form for Dario Argento but really Sleepless is like a best of album. In many ways this is a backhanded compliment but the film certainly has enough merit, especially for those who are fans of Argento's '70s output, to be worth a watch. Sleepless, whilst not quite a return to form, is still a welcome improvement over his output in the 1990s and it also signalled a return to familiar ground for Argento, using themes and motifs from his best giallo. Yet whilst it is good to see him returning to the genre, and he clearly still knows how to make these films compelling, it does occasionally feel like he is…
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Sleepless is stylish at times and has the usual bad acting common to Argento films (although Max von Sydow raises the bar slightly). It contains some creatively gory moments of horror, including a victim getting repeatably stabbed in the face with a clarinet, but generally lacks the charm of his earlier works.
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Not one of my favourite Argento films, but it was decent nonetheless. Worth a watch if you're trying to see all of his films, but he has some which are much better
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Hoped that Max Von Sydow would be able to lift up a post-Opera Argento movie to tolerable. Sadly those hopes were dashed rather quickly.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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One of the better latter day Argento movies and probably one of his most violent. Argento is never really one to shy away from a brutal death scene, but there are moments here that caught me by surprise... including one death, which I can't describe without it sounding like a Kenneth Williams style innuendo...but a woman gets a french horn repeatedly rammed into her mouth. Ooh er.
But yeah, a decent giallo, with a good performance from Max Von Sydow.
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Argento is dead they said. And then he made non ho sonno, an awesome giallo flick. Once again we were all full of hope. But after sleepless Argeno failed even harder than before. It's a pity. :-(
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Argento evokes his early giallo successes to varying degrees. Max Van Sydow is the only good actor in this film but he is not given much to work with. But to be honest coming to Argento for characterization is like going to a steak house for vegetarian food. It is all about spectacle and theme. So if you are new to Argento, I would point to his key 70s works and then come back to this.
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Not perfect, but a pretty decent giallo!
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I've seen this film described as a return to form for Dario Argento but really Sleepless is like a best of album. In many ways this is a backhanded compliment but the film certainly has enough merit, especially for those who are fans of Argento's '70s output, to be worth a watch. Sleepless, whilst not quite a return to form, is still a welcome improvement over his output in the 1990s and it also signalled a return to familiar ground for Argento, using themes and motifs from his best giallo. Yet whilst it is good to see him returning to the genre, and he clearly still knows how to make these films compelling, it does occasionally feel like he is…