Sleepless

Rating:
Summary: ARGENTO'S BEST SINCE "OPERA"!!
Review: "Trauma" was a disappointment. "The Stendhal Syndrome" was a serious waste of time. "The Phantom of the Opera" was uninspired. Prior to those three films, watching a film directed by Dario Argento was an event. You knew that you would see a film that would creep you out, hear one of the most fantastic rock musical scores and of course see one of the most brilliant cinematic minds in history (whether the mainstream crowds would accept his work or not).

I approached "Nohosonno" with very low expectations. Thinking that the Dario Argento I had once looked up to was now just a shell of his former self.

I'm glad to say I was wrong. From the beginning to the end, Argento masterfully weaves a brilliant and suspenseful tale of murder (with the help of Italian best selling mystery novelist Carlo Lucarelli).

From a technical standpoint, its as visually gorgeous as ever thanks to the great cinematographer Ronnie Taylor (dp of "Gandhi", and "A Chorus Line" and friend of Richard Attenborough).

The acting is well above the Argento norm, with a great performance (as one can expect) from the legendary Max Von Sydow. It seems that Dario has finally gone abut casting actors as he has also cast Chiara Casselli of "My Own Private Idaho."

The story revolves around a retired police chief, whose promise in 1983 to a young boy (who witnesses his mother's murder but does not see the killer's face), that he will find the murderer if it takes the rest of his life. Seventeen years later, the murderer has long since been thought to be dead, the murders begin again, centering around a strange nursery rhyme about a farmer who can't sleep murdering the animals on his farm. With each beautiful victim, a cut out of an animal is placed on the scene and the victim is murdered in the fashion that the animal was in the rhyme. Only a strange discrepancy in the murder of our protagonist's mother lies the truth about the murders.

My only complaint is that Dario's beautiful daughter Asia does not appear in the film! She, however, is the author of the nursery rhyme.

Definately worth viewing!! Check it out!!

Rating:
Summary: I should have listened and ordered from England
Review: A fine performance from von Sydow, some dazzling setups by Argento, great music by Goblin, all to no effect because Artisan has chosen not to take original composition ratio seriously. A lousy pan-and-scan. Great movie, lousy edition. A waste of my money. Better than nothing? Maybe that's what the second star is for.

Rating:
Summary: I should have listened and ordered from England
Review: A fine performance from von Sydow, some dazzling setups by Argento, great music by Goblin, all to no effect because Artisan has chosen not to take original composition ratio seriously. A lousy pan-and-scan. Great movie, lousy edition. A waste of my money. Better than nothing? Maybe that's what the second star is for.

Rating:
Summary: Dario Strikes again!!!
Review: A long awaited release, since the not-so-hot, "Phantom of The Opera", and "Stendhal Syndrome".

Argentophiles Unite! Dario somewhat goes back to his roots here, with his earlier masterpieces, such as "Suspiria", "Profondo Rossa"(aka: Deep Red), etc. Although this one does not achieve the caliber those ones did, it's still a decent movie in it's own right.

It has some touches of his earlier "giallo's", but drags on a little, due to the acting, which is'nt so hot. Except for the great Max Von Sydow, and a decent performance by old-time Argento, and Italian Cinema great, "Gabriele Lavia".

Like I said, the movies a little slow in places, but it will keep you guessing until the end, of who the killer is, or isn't? It is a pretty clever script and contains various twists until the very end.

I'm in the US, and was subjected to the horrible Artisan release of the movie. But soon obtained a region-free, Pal to NTSC format player, at a very good price mind you, from right here at Amazon,then got the UK version from MIA. All I can say is WOW!!. You can't even compare the difference. First of all it's in beautiful Anamorphic Widescreen. Something Artisan said their US release was going to be, but gave us the crap we were sort of subjected to buying instead. It has a decent selection of xtra's, and that's just disc one. Disc 2 has the documentary, "Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror", also in Anamorphic Widescreen.

Buck for buck, I would say, if you live in the US or Canada, try to find a player this is 1) All region. (Although this particular disc is all region anyway, but there are many other titles worth seeking out besides this release that are Region 2) and 2) Scrap this [stuff] from Artisan and get this UK import fro MIA. You'll be glad you did!

I would give the Artisan release 1 star for the presentation of the movie, (pan & scan), and 4 stars for the movie itself.

The UK Import from MIA, I would give an overall 5 stars, which reflects why I gave this 5 stars in my rating of this movie, certainly not for the US release, sorry.

If the Artisan release is your only choice, then get it, just because it's an Argento movie, and that's about it. Otherwise go for the gold and get the UK MIA release. CIAO!!

Rating:
Summary: SLEEPLESS is a fine return to form
Review: After a string of financially unsuccesful movies (TWO EVIL EYES, TRAUMA, THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, wow!)Daro Argento finally made a comeback in Italy, financially and critically, in January of 2001 with this giallo, SLEEPLESS (Italian Title: NON HO SONNO). I saw this movie when I was on vacation in Italy BTW. I have to say that while it's no masterpiece it's a tremendous improvement over his last few movies.The story starts with the murder of a boy's mother and the detective(Max von Sydow)who vows to the young child to catch the murderer. They think they catch the murderer but nearly 20 years the same kind of murders occur again and the detective teams up with the boy now all grown up to catch the murderer. The script is ok but you will notice some errors and stupidities in it. But the script is the least important thing in an Argento movie. The direction is great! The first 10 minutes include a murder which will have your stomach in knots. It takes place on a moving train and it's quite violent but very effective. Argento opts for more realistic cinematography in this movie but that does not diminish it's power a bit. Instead of using shadows a lot or using an abundance of primary colors he prefers to use total darkness in this movie which actually gives it a harsher tone. The acting: von Sydow is great in this movie. He displays subtle anguish as the haunted detective and he is the best actor in this movie. The rest of the young cast basically stinks, I won't go into a long tirade into how badly they are. And finally the music: the rock score by Goblin is highly effective and pumped up. It feels like a rock concert when the volume is up to 10, albeit a very scary rock concert. It may not be perfect but it's a start. Let's just hope this is a first step that will lead to better movies by Argento.

Rating:
Summary: Better than Sleeping Pills...Sleepless will make you sleepy
Review: After getting hooked on Dario Argento films such as Suspiria and Opera... I was looking forward to seeing his most recent film, Sleepless...particularly because "GOBLIN" was supplying the soundtrack again (Goblin played the soundtrack on Suspiria which actually helped make that film so good)

Unfortunately, Sleepless just drones on and on. The plot is not as suspenseful and the acting is horrible! Wheras Suspiria would kept me on the edge of my seat with uncertainty as to what would happen next, Sleepless bored me to sleep...not once, not twice...but actually 3 times during playback! The Goblin soundtrack rather than heightening the feeling of suspense...is actually quite tame and helps intensify the sleepy feeling...
I was very disappointed with this effort by Dario.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, pity about the DVD
Review: As has been mentioned by those before, Artisan has thoughtlessly given us a full-screen disc which, quite honestly, looks cheap. I've seen better-looking VHS-images.
NOTE that the version I saw WAS UNCUT, but I do not know which version Amazon is selling. The disc itself SAYS UNCUT right on it, and obviously this is the one you want (should you want to bother buying it at all). The film itself is rather graphic, and while not a total return-to-form for Argento, it's certainly a step in the right direction after his last few mis-fires. I'd give the film itself four out of five stars, but this horrid transfer gets only one (yeah yeah, I know, I rounded-off my rating to two stars.... I just can't bear to give an Argento film only one star, even with a transfer this poor...!).

Rating:
Summary: Argento's new deliciously post-modern murder mystery.
Review: At first glance, 'Sleepless' seems to offer further evidence of Argento's disappointing decline since his horror heyday of the mid-70s. The story of a serial killer murdering according to a nursery-rhyme pattern, despite having committed suicide 17 years previously, the subject matter is derivative, the narrative mechanics crude, the reliance on slasher/woman-in-peril tactics uninspired, the relentless focus on female suffering distasteful.

Look a little closer, however, and 'Sleepless' is revealed as Argento's most cunning patchwork thriller in years, revelling in its own hybridity, its deep seriousness punctured by unexpected comedy, its narrow focus inlated by the high-pitched, overblown treatment. It is a masterly genre work (confident in its major set-pieces, unafraid of sensation and gore) that is utterly transformed by its 'high art' allusiveness. The film is splashed with allusions to art. A suspect is named Fabritius, whose namesake's favourite subject matter, the goldfinch, is a surreal sidekick to the detective hero, played with sympathetic world-weariness by Max Von Sydow. This suspect, like Toulouse-Lautrec is a dwarf; his house boasts Mondrian-esque stained windows; a particularly brutal murder is framed against Jackson Pollock-like decor.

This has the effect of stylising and abstracting the genre pleasures - one memorable murder is actually the rather mundane conclusion to endless tracking over a Matisse-like carpet, over which walk feet, costumes and a disarmingly inappropriate vacuum cleaner. The first slasher pursuit sequence, with its vicariously invasive chase-tracking down endless corridors, breaks unexpectedly for near-abstract long shots of the palely illuminated speeding train, giving a Whistler nocturne effect. Compositions are organised around painterly colour planes - indeed, much of the film's pleasure lies in modern subject matter filmed in late-60s colour and framing.

Literary allusions abound too, from Plato (reality undermined by the continuous use of mirrors; sleeplessness suggesting a never-ending waking dream) through classical myuthology (a detective named Ulysses; the serial-killing pattern as an odyssey returning inexorably home; the plot importance of father-son tension) to Grimm, Hoffmann, Borges and Argento's contemporary Calvino (the mix of detective story and the need to find and interpret literary texts). Like Sean Penn's 'The Pledge', 'Sleepless' concerns a detective whose reason and iconic status is disrupted by the supernatural power over him of a promise he once made. Unlike Penn, Argento has a profound understanding of the genre, which he subverts by filming its narratives of reason, order and pattern in the style of a horror film, that genre of unreason, bodily anxiety and the murderous unrest of the past. A bit like Argento himself, back in form with a vengeance.

Rating:
Summary: more like three and a half
Review: Compared to Trauma, this movie should get 5 stars...but on its own it deserves lower. The acting is horrible more often than not, although Von Sydow is always good. Although it isn't quite as an achievment as Deep Red or Suspiria, this is still a triumph when compared to Trauma and The Stendahl Syndrome.

Rating:
Summary: SLEEPLESS gets 5 stars..This Edit gets only ONE
Review: Damn you Artisan Entertainment!
I've been waiting months and months to get my hands on the new Argento classic and Artisan not only delivers a weak Pan And Scan copy of the film, they edit out 90% of the violence. The elaborate and dark murder scenes are a trademark of Argento's films and without them, the film is still great but to us Argento fans, it feels like something is missing. It just goes to show that after over 30 years of making great films, Dario Argento still doesn't get half the respect in America he deserves. Anchor Bay should have gotten their hands on this film first, atleast they are respectful to the film and the fans and are not raping good cinema like Artisan. I say rent this movie for now and wait and pray that a director's cut is released in the near future.