Deep Red

Profondo Rosso [aka Deep Red]

Well, after the (comparatively) low point of Four Flies…, the week got right back on track with the superb Argento masterpiece that is Profondo Rosso. This is a film very much in the Bird with the Crystal Plumage vein; it’s giallo murder mystery through and through. On top of that, it’s done extremely well.

Here, more than anywhere, I’ll have to tread very carefully in not giving away spoilers. Deep Red, you see, has a more carefully constructed plot than most Argento films and, as well as not knowing to the very end who’s responsible, we actually care! It’s a film that is more perfectly balanced than his other movies. Phenomena, for all that it was a great watch, has a very long period of almost-nothing-happening through the middle (although the awesomeness of the end makes this easy to forgive!), but Profondo Rosso is a much more polished piece. Information is given away little by little, red herrings and genuine clues are tumbled together into a mix that is never less than enthralling (Enthralling seems a little too fancy a word, but I’m aware that I’ve called nearly every Argento film this week ‘compelling’…). And never fear, the end certainly lives up to the standard set by the rest of the film!