Born in Florence, the outspoken Daria Nicolodi had already appeared in a quite a few films before Dario Argento cast her as the female lead in 1975’s Deep Red.  Nicolodi would spend the rest of her career being closely associated with Argento, both as Dario’s partner and as the mother of Asia Argento.  Dario and Daria had a notoriously volatile relationship.  While one can sense Argento falling in love with Nicolodi while watching the way he films her in Deep Red, she is noticeable in her absence from Suspiria despite the fact that she is generally acknowledged as being the one who came up with the idea of the film.  (Angered that, despite the collaborative nature of their partnership, Argento did not offer her the lead role in Suspiria and instead offered a supporting role that Nicolodi felt was not particularly interesting, she instead accepted an offer from Mario Bava and gave what is generally considered to be her best performance in Shock.)  She appeared in Dario’s subsequent films, through Opera.  She eventually split with Argento and continued her film career, playing Asia’s mother in Scarlet Diva.  Daria Nicolodi also became a popular and witty interview subject, one who was always good for a few shocking quips.  While Daria could be very critical of Dario in those interviews, she was also often the quickest to defend his talent as a director.

Daria Nicolodi appeared in a lot of horrifying scene but today, I want share this rathe gentle scene from Deep Red, in which Daria’s journalist playfully challenges David Hemmings to a little arm-wrestling.  It is scenes like this that make Deep Red one of the greatest examples of the giallo genre.