Iconic Personality: The Public Image of Dario Argento

Dario Argento's reputation extends beyond his successes in the cinematic realm. Right from the outset of his career, Argento's films were marketed leveraging the meticulously constructed reputation he had amassed over the years. Consequently, it is crucial to thoroughly investigate the formation of this director's public identity. Often overlooked by academic studies, the evolution of the Italian director's public image now emerges as the outcome of intricate and deliberately planned strategies. This process can be studied and comprehended through his interactions with television. Through appearances on programs such as Door Into Darkness for Rai and hosting the show Giallo alongside Enzo Tortora, Argento became "comparable to a true rock star" (M. Chiani, 2021) as his "face became familiar to a vast global audience" (L. Cozzi, 1997), deliberately projecting himself into a role akin to that of Alfred Hitchcock (R. Kapsis, 1990), thereby becoming what I will term an iconic personality. This research aims to explore, through the analysis of television programs, interviews, archival materials sourced from major Italian libraries, and contemporary articles, the mechanisms that contributed to solidifying his position among the world's most renowned genre directors. By focusing on cultural media and reception studies, the primary objective is to innovatively outline, through the gathered material, the (re)construction of Argento's figure and its impact on the contemporary collective imagination.