I'd
like to begin by saying thanks for your interest in this website dedicated
to Italian horror maestro Dario Argento. This is a page just
about me, here you can find useless information about the webmaster.
Thanks to John for taking the above photograph.
My name is Sandy Richardson, I was born on the 25th
April 1974, that makes me a Taurus. I'm loyal, stubborn
and trustworthy. I always try and keep my promises (even though I'm
sometimes late delivering on them).
I'm from England, I live in a small town called Rugeley,
it's in the county of Staffordshire which is based in the Midlands.
I've lived here all my life at three different locations and I like
it very much.
I'm a vegetarian, an atheist, I don't touch drugs, smoke cigarettes
or gamble.
I'm not much of a drinker either.
I like traveling and hope to go to different
countries in the future, perhaps to film festivals.
Occupation
:-
Production
Op. Part Time Student.
Brief List of Hobbies :-
Dario Argento & Goblin.
Mario Bava & Italian horror scene. Movies.
World Cinema.
Arthouse. 8/16 bit computer/console Emulation.
Video Games.
Poetry. Art. Reading.
Graphic Novels and Comics.
Mountain Biking.
In
Depth Look at my Hobbies :-
Cinema
One of my biggest loves
is probably watching and studying movies and cinema. I am a huge fan
of World Cinema from the silent era of the 1920's right through to
the current day.
I love hundreds of movies, from many different genres.
From Buster Keaton's The General, The Wizard of Oz
and It's A Wonderful Life
to Once Upon A Time In The West, Apocalypse Now,
and Mulholland Drive.
I had always been interested in films that were different, that tested
the boundaries of the imagination. Films which were journeys into
the incredible, the strange and mysterious.
So when I encountered Dario Argento's hypnotic, fantastical
films, I immediately liked them. I never knew that they would have
such an effect on me. I now love his films with a passion.
Because I have spent so much time researching and watching the director
responsible, my love of Argento has flourished into something I couldn't
have dreamed of or expected. I love so many aspects of his films and
the way that he works, that I can say with ease that he is my favourite
of all film directors.
I met someone about five years ago who helped further my introduction
into the realms of horror cinema. I owe this person a great deal of
gratitude because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have had a clue
where to start. Thanks James.
Another Italian director whose films I admire a great deal is the
late Mario Bava. Bava influenced a number of today's top directors
including Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton.
Two of my favourites are Bava's Black Sunday (a.k.a The
Mask of Satan) and his superb giallo Blood and Black Lace.
World
Cinema
It was the films of the late Akira Kurosawa that first introduced
me to the wonders of World Cinema and my favourite actor, the late
Toshiro Mifune. A large body of Kurosawa's films are masterpieces,
his Rashomon is another one of my favourites. This led to me
looking at other countries for films and picking up a number of arthouse
titles.
Video Games
During my childhood I was lucky enough to have
been the proud owner of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k computer.
I have the fondest of memories from this period and I loved that little
black box. The computer had small grey rubber keys.
Back to Skool was one of my favourite games at the time.
My first ever computer was a Commodore 16, it only had 16k.
It was a good machine considering the lack of RAM, and I had a lot
of fun with it. But all my wishes came true when I finally got myself
a Spectrum.
Obviously I still like playing video games occasionally. I still have
Spectrum and Commodore Amiga computers, a SEGA Megadrive
with Master System Convertor, Nintendo 64, SEGA Dreamcast,
Playstation 2 and XBox.
I rarely play games on my PC.
Emulators
You can download a large number
of 8/16 bit computer/console emulators, these are widely available
on the internet and cover many different platforms.
There's even an emulator called MAME, it's a multiple arcade
machine emulator that simulates all the best coin-ops.
Just type "emulators" into any half decent search
engine, you should soon be enjoying many of these golden oldies.
Poetry
I
really loved English when I was at school, this is one of the few
subjects I excelled in. Mathematics was another thing, I hated the
subject. All those figures made my head ache, I just couldn't seem
to think with a level head. Math's was definetly my weakness.
I
did well in English and English literature, I especially liked the
works of Aldous Huxley.
It
comes as little surprise that I continue to write poetry. I also dabble
in art.
Here's a short example :-
"Build
me a woman
A brazen goddess of beauty
A portrait of light
One who dwells in pictures and mirrors
And develops and tastes the fruits of life
As time concludes
Touch me."
Graphic
Novels and Comics
When
I was young, a neighbour gave me her son's old comics.
There was a sizeable collection, the majority of which were issues
of 2000AD. I really enjoyed reading them.
Years later I stumbled across the sci-fi comic again in a local newsagents.
I was surprised it was still available. The quality of the artwork
was outstanding, so I purchased a copy. Since that day I collected
the comic each week without missing a single issue. It was only recently
that I decided to stop!
If it wasn't for the comic 2000AD, I wouldn't have been the
Argento fan I am today. I read a winter special which had a list of
the top horror movies. Suspiria was listed and I found the
tape shortly after in my local video store's bargain bin.
2000AD is easily one of the best comic doing the rounds, the
writers and artists involved are incredibly talented.
I had also read graphic novels, Alan Moore's V For Vendetta
is a masterpiece and so too are a number of Neil Gaiman's books,
his Sandman
series for example.
But nothing could prepare me for the epic Preacher from
Garth Ennis, which is easily the best series of graphic novels
I have ever read.
Favourite directors :-
Dario Argento,
Michele Soavi, Mario
Bava, Sergio
Leone,
John
Carpenter,
David
Lynch, Tim Burton, David Cronenberg, Michael
Mann, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Martin
Scorsese, Akira
Kurosawa,
Yausjiro Ozu,
Kenji
Mizoguchi,
Shinya Tsukamoto, Miike
Takashi,
Takeshi Kitano, Kim
Ki-Duk,
Ingmar Bergman, Guillermo
DelToro, Alejandro Amenabar, Darren
Aronofsky.
Favorites films :-
Heat -
dir:- Michael
Mann
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly -
dir:-
Sergio Leone
Manhunter
- dir:-
Michael Mann
Aliens
(Special Edition) -
dir:-
James Cameron
Once Upon A Time In America -
dir:-
Sergio Leone
Rashomon -
dir:-
Akira Kurosawa
Blade Runner (Director's Cut) -
dir:-
Ridley Scott
The Thing -
dir:-
John Carpenter
Taxi Driver -
dir:-
Martin Scorsese
The Devil's Backbone -
dir:-
Guillermo DelToro
Why
no Dario? Simply because each one of his films are among my favourites.
Favourite
Books
I have two favourite books, the first is Thomas
Harris' Red Dragon, the second is Clive Barker's
Cabal.
My favourite horror author is probably James Herbert.
Other favourites include Edgar Allan Poe, his short The
Tell-tale Heart and his poetical work are old favourites, I also
like H. P. Lovecraft, Dean R. Koontz and the short stories
of Stephen King.
I prefer to read graphic novels more than anything else, so I hold
authors like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore in the highest
regard, I feel that these two writers are amongst the best in the
world today in this medium.
Favourite
Music Artists:-
Goblin, Claudio Simonetti, YES, Ennio Morricone,
Tangerine Dream, Klaus Sculze, Lisa Gerrard,
Dead Can Dance, Kitaro, Pink Floyd, Talk Talk,
Radiohead, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode,
Joy Division, Love, The Pixies, AIR, Massive
Attack, Moby, The Smiths,
Morrissey, U2, R.E.M, Suede, James,
Clannad.
My love of the cinema
of Dario Argento...
I was reading a special winter issue of the comic 2000AD about
ten years ago. It featured a section on the best horror films. There
was one title that seemed really interesting called Suspiria.
The featured still was of a picture of a young girl holding what looked
like a dagger, that girl was Jessica Harper and that dagger
was in fact a crystal peacock's feather.
I hadn't a clue who the director of that movie was at the time.
I found the video soon afterwards in the bargain basket at my local
video store. What I didn't realise at the time, was the ex-rental
tape I was about to purchase for £3.99 was going to change my
life. This was my first real introduction to Italian horror maestro
Dario Argento.
What I watched on that tape was breathtaking, I don't think I had
ever been so impressed by a horror movie in my entire life.
I thought Suspiria was a masterpiece and still do.
Years
earlier I watched a strange film but I couldn't recall the title,
I remembered it distinctly because it was so different.
It wasn't like a traditional horror movie at all, it was like an adult
fairly tale with dream logic and exciting and unusual murder sequences.
That film was the cut version of Phenomena, retitled Creepers,
I just didn't know it at the time. I remember enjoying it and thinking
there was nothing else quite like it, it was very unique. So Creepers
was the first film I ever saw from Argento.
I found out both of these pictures were directed by Argento, and from
that moment I was hooked.
I'd like to thank Nick Dawe for his support and friendship.
I'm a contributor over at the website Dark
Dreams and moderator
of it's forum.
Click here
to view My DVD Collection.
e-mail
:-
giallo_webmaster@yahoo.com
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