Trauma Movie Download

8 / 10

Trauma Workprint/Italian Cut. My 32nd birthday viewing.
Easter 2013:

After viewing the very good theatrical cut of auteur film maker Dario Argento’s Trauma, I got told by a poster on the IMDb Horror board (RIP) of a “workprint” version that they had. Excited from details I read online, I exchanged E-Mail addresses and got told it would be sent in a few days. As those days turned into weeks, I got messages from the poster saying he would send it any day now, until IMDb closed the boards down and he disappeared with them.

February 2019:

Since leaning of the “workprint” cut,I had read over the years that there is also an “Italian Cut” featuring additional footage not in the other cuts. Marking my birthday the last few years with a “new” Argento viewing,I decided to take a gamble by looking round online,and was thrilled to end the trauma by finding both cuts.

View on the Workprint/ Italian Cut:

Scattered across two different cuts, (talk about not making it easy) the additional 12 minutes of footage cleans up a number of rough edges left in the cinema version, as additional extension of scenes (such as Parsons visiting a pub) unveils various missing paths Parsons and Aura took to solving the murder case. Making their first encounter take place much earlier than in the “normal” cut, director Dario Argento displays a surprisingly subtle touch in the initial establishment of Aura’s rebel edge, and a drug problem which lingers with Parsons and won’t break until he solves the murders and reunites with Aura.

Original notes on the “theatrical” cut script: 7

For what is,perhaps his most personal (which includes a rather weird,un intensionally off-putting topless scene featuring Argento’s 18 year old daughter Asia,and also a mean spirited swipe against his former,white witch performing partner Daria Nicolodi) film,the screenplay by Dario and co-writer’s T.E.D. Klein,Ruth Jessup,Franco Ferrini and Gianni Romoli disappointingly contrasts Argento’s confident directing with a script that is far too nervous in deciding which direction it would like to go,which leads to the Giallo element of the movie sadly being left as an separate entity to the rest of the film (something that is also not helped by an oddly comedic score from Pino Donaggio.)

On all the other aspects of the film (from parts of the “theatrical” review, now with the addition footage my rating is 7 for “theatrical” cut, and 8 for “Italian/Workprint.”

Surprisingly keeping away from changing his directing style for his first (and up to now only) solo film to be made in the US,director Dario Argento closely works with cinematography Raffaele Mertes to give the movie an extremely atmospheric wet mist appearance,which helps to create a strong sense that the mysterious killer (and the media reports) are causing the fear temperature of the residents to go up to a scouting hot heat.Along with the wonderful “wet mist” appearance,Argento also shows a real eye in his great stylised directing for claustrophobic,closed off locations,with scenes involving Parsons searching round the killers house/ basement having a very chilling feel,due to it looking like David is inadvertently cornering himself,as the killer prepares to strike and inflict trauma.Read More