Dario Argento Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Dario Argento was born in Rome in 1940 and during his childhood was confined to bed due to rheumatic fever. This allowed him to develop a strong interest in reading, especially cinema and crime books. Read the full biography

Dario Argento was born in Rome in 1940 and during his childhood was confined to bed due to rheumatic fever. This allowed him to develop a strong interest in reading, especially cinema and crime books. As a student of the Piarists at the Nazarene college, Argento was restless and curious. At sixteen, he left home and headed to Paris, where he lived for a short time as a homeless man. Returning to Italy, Argento settled in Rome and began working as a film critic for the left-wing newspaper PAESE SERA. Here, he had the opportunity to meet some great personalities from the world of entertainment, such as the Beatles, and immersed himself completely in the French New Wave and avant-garde. Argento judged the films of John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock to be masterpieces, a position that led the newspaper editor to call him back several times. Argento also wrote for the French CAHIERS DU CINEMA. After Cinecittà requested his services as a screenwriter, Argento made his directorial debut with "Excuse me, are you in favor of the opposite?" (1967), "Today to me, tomorrow to you" (1968) and "Cemetery without crosses" (1969). These were some of the first Italian thrillers, featuring the directorial style of maestro Mario Bava, Fritz Long and, of course, Hitchcock. Critics were divided over the excessive use of blood in Argento's style. A peculiarity of Argento was his inclination to play the roles of assassins in his films. Starting in 1973, he also dedicated himself to the production, both of his own films and those of other directors, such as Romero, Lamberto Bava and Michele Soavi. Argento's filmography is generally divided into two phases: the initial one, in which he used apparently logical-rational scripts, with a series of crimes committed by a murderer who is unmasked at the end of the film. Starting from "Profondo rosso", the fantastic elements have prevailed in Argento's films, and the visual factor has become central thanks to a mix of baroque emotions and a soundtrack that ranges from classical music to the most obsessive rock.