BY TODD GARBARINI
The year 1976 was a phenomenal time for films
that went into production. George Lucas’s space opera, Star Wars began principal photography in March; Steven Spielberg,
fresh off the success of Jaws, was
given carte blanche to bring Close Encounters of the Third Kind to
the screen and began shooting in May; and Dario Argento, who became emboldened
by the financial success of his latest and arguably best film to date, Profundo Rosso (known in the U.S. as Deep Red), embarked upon Suspiria, a murder mystery involving a
dance school hiding in plain sight while housing a coven of witches, which
began filming in July. Horror author Clive Barker once described this supernatural
extravaganza as what you would imagine a horror film to be like if you weren’t allowed
to see it. I believe that this is a good description of what is unquestionably
one of the most frightening, entertaining and colorful horror films ever made. Suspiria was edited for its American
theatrical exhibition due to some graphic violence that many would have
considered shocking for its day. Distributor 20th Century Fox was
reportedly so embarrassed by the film that they created a subsidiary company,
International Classics, to release it three months after their phenomenally
successful Star Wars, another film
they had no faith in.
Suspiria opened in New York
on Friday, August 12, 1977 at the long-gone Criterion on 45th and
Broadway before branching out to additional theaters. It’s the first in a
trilogy concerning the nature of Death (Inferno
(1980) and The Mother of Tears (2007)
are the second and third parts, respectively). The film’s quad-syllabic title
quite understandably leaves those who attempt to say it tongue-tied (it’s
pronounced sus-PEER-ee-ah). The word itself
has its origins in Latin and roughly translates into “sighs†or “whispers†and
the film is based upon the writings of British essayist Thomas De Quincey. His
most famous work, Confessions of an
English Opium Eater, was published in 1822. Twenty-three years later he
published Suspiria de Profundis which
is Latin for “Sighs from the Depths†and is a collection of essays, the most
famous of which is Levana and Our Ladies
of Sorrow which Mr. Argento used as the source material for his
trilogy.
In Suspiria,
Suzy Bannion, played by doe-eyed Jessica Harper (who was Woody Allen’s
girlfriend at the time and passed on Annie
Hall because she wanted to go to Italy), arrives in Frieberg, Germany to
begin dance lessons at the famous Tanz Academie (the architecture is copied
from Haus zum Walfisch in Freiberg). From the film’s opening frames, we already
know that we are in uncharted territory as the images are bathed in diffused
primary colors. Upon her arrival
at the airport, things are already not what they seem. Once she leaves the
premises and the glass doors close behind her, she enters a fairy tale in the
form of an unusually violent thunderstorm. Hitching a ride from a taxi
driver played by Argento regular Fulvio Mingozzi (min-GOATS-see), who worked for the director no less than ten times
in both film and television episodes, she makes her way to the school (as a
side-note, eagle-eyed viewers can see the director’s reflection in the glass
partition in the taxi 3:31 minutes into the film and it lasts for two seconds.
He appears, with a large smile on his face, in the lower left-hand corner of
the screen).
Just as she arrives, a hysterical woman, Pat
Hingle (Eva Axen), appears on the school’s doorstep and makes an unintelligible
proclamation before bolting into the deluge-swept streets. Suzy carps with a
woman on the intercom, pleading for entry and refuge from the torrential rain. When
she’s denied, she re-enters the taxi and rides through the Black Forest,
catching a glimpse of Pat as she runs, attempting to make her way past the
trees. What could possibly have set her off on such a perilous journey?
Pat makes her way to her friend Sonia’s (Susanna Javicoli) apartment,
hesitant to disclose what she has come to learn about the school. In what is
considered Argento’s finest hour and the film’s most disturbing and celebrated
sequence, Pat is violently stabbed by some inhuman creature with hairy arms and
long black fingernails and is thrown through a stained-glass window, the shards
of which also kill Sonia. It’s been compared with the shower scene in Psycho (1960) for pure shock effect,
though this one is much more graphic.
The calm following the storm reveals a
strange faculty staff consisting of lead ballet teacher Ms. Tanner (Alida Valli),
headmistress Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett), pianist Daniel (Flavio Bucci), and
Pavlos (Giuseppe Transocchi) the handyman. Suzy is told by the headmistress
that one of their expelled students, Pat, was murdered by a madman the night
before. Wouldn’t that be enough to send one packing their bags? The same scenario
plays out for Jennifer Connelly in the director’s other macabre coming-of-age
horror film, Phenomena (1985), and the
information in that film is met with nothing more than a smile and silence. Unbeknownst
to Suzy, the school is a front for a coven of witches who hold black masses
within the massive building’s stealthy labyrinths. Her suspicions that all is
not right with the school become confirmed when people around her suddenly disappear
or are killed off. Like previous Argento protagonists, Suzy plays sleuth to
gain insight into the bizarre goings-on, especially the teachers’ concerted
effort to hide the directress’s presence from her. When she teams up with Sarah
(Stefania Casini) to find out more about one Helena Markos, more people begin
to die as Suzy learns of a shocking secret that lies behind an imperceptible
door.
Suspiria’s simple premise
permits Mr. Argento to stage some of the most shocking and elaborate death
sequences of his career, all performed in-camera (that is without the use of
opticals or blue-screen technology used later in post-production). The Italian
progressive rock band Goblin provides a phenomenal score that, unbelievably,
was composed before filming began and was played on the film’s soundstages
during shooting to maximize the effect on the performers. It’s an astonishing
concoction with shrieks, whispers and wails, which I always assumed to be
non-diegetic in nature, acting almost as a macabre precursor to the far more
relaxing Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) videos that have taken YouTube
by storm.
Mr. Argento has also put together an eclectic
cast, the bulk of whom are women. Joan Bennett, who appeared in Fritz Lang’s coincidentally
titled Secret Beyond the Door… with
Michael Redgrave (1947) as well as her stint on Dark Shadows, provides the proper amount of sinister air that the
film requires. Alida Valli is terrific as Miss Tanner, the “stern and surlyâ€
ballet teacher, arguably the most memorable in the cast. Jessica Harper, fresh
off her role as Phoenix in Brian DePalma’s wildly entertaining Phantom of the Paradise (1974), appears
naïve but turns out to be anything but as she goes to greater-than-usual
lengths to uncover The Big Secret.
Suspiria is unique in that it
was shot on Eastman Kodak film but printed using the now-defunct three-strip
Technicolor dye transfer process which divided the negative into three individual
color bands of red, green, and blue. By manipulating the intensities of these
primary colors both on the set and in the lab, cinematographer Luciano Tovoli
was able to create some truly horrific and stunning images. The set design is
garish, colorful and must be seen to be believed. The
color scheme seems to have been inspired by Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) and dance film aficionados
will likely also think of Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s stunning 1948
technicolor film The Red Shoes and their follow-up, 1951’s The
Tales of Hoffman (George A. Romero’s favorite film), but the story seems inspired
by Chicho
Ibáñez-Serrador’s La Residencia, a terrific horror opus from 1970 which pits the borstal’s
headmistress, Senora Fourneau (played brilliantly by Lilli Palmer), against a
school of young women in need of reform. There is a predatory air about
Fourneau that carries over to Ms. Tanner in Suspiria.
A case might even be made that Ms. Tanner is a psychological cinematic
equivalent of the malevolent and sadistic Mrs. Wakehurst in Peter Walker’s House of Whipcord (1974). La Residencia has appeared under such
titles as The Finishing School, The Boarding School and here in the
States as The House That Screamed when
it was released on a double-bill with Anthony M. Lanza’s The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant in July 1971.
During the heyday of VHS in the 1980’s, Suspiria was one of the most requested
titles that audiences wanted to see released on home video. For reasons that I have
yet to read, the film’s follow-up, Inferno,
which was denied a full theatrical release in 1980, was released on VHS in
October 1985 under CBS/Fox’s VHS imprint, Key Video, in its full uncut running
time, despite an erroneous time listed on the box! There was no fanfare
attached to what is a beautifully photographed however occasionally confusing
film that delves further into De Quincey’s ancient Roman goddess of childbirth,
Levana, and her three companions: Mater Lachrymarum, Our Lady of
Tears; Mater Suspiriorum, Our Lady of Sighs (she actually appears in Suspiria as the character of Helena
Markos, the Black Queen/school’s directress); and Mater Tenebrarum, Our
Lady of Darkness. Alida Valli even plays a small role in this film. It would be
another four years before Magnum Entertainment would officially release Suspiria on VHS in October 1989 in no
less than three editions. The cover art left little to be desired.
Suspiria was
featured in the horror film documentary Terror
in the Aisles which was released on October 24, 1984 and was emceed by
Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen. Unbelievably, the only shot from the film
consists of Suzy walking down a hallway! How is a film that is revered to be
one of the most terrifying of all-time reduced to such an insignificant shot?
To make matters worse, the documentary fails to identify the movies that it
features scenes from until the end credits.
Suspiria has been released
many times on DVD and Blu-ray both here in the States and internationally, but
Synapse Films has spent several years completely restoring the film to its
original grandeur both aurally and visually in a way that is both mind-blowing
and unprecedented. It simply looks and sounds stunning.
Blu-ray
Features:
Disc One consists of a new 1080P transfer of
a 4K restoration of the original uncut, uncensored Italian 35mm camera negative
exclusively transferred by Synapse Films, with color correction supervised and
approved by Suspiria’s Director of
Photography, Luciano Tovoli. It’s magnificent to behold and a real treat to
anyone who has suffered through the miserable faded and edited 16mm print
making the rounds of the repertory circuit for decades.
The audio consists of the original four-channel,
1977 English language LCRS sound mix not heard since the theatrical release,
presented in high-resolution DTS-HD MA 96kHz/24-bit audio, with newly
translated removable English SDH subtitles. There is also an Italian 5.1
surround mix, with removable English subtitle translation.
Topping off the extras on Disc One are two
audio commentaries. The first is by Troy Howarth, recorded specifically in 2017
for this new Blu-ray, who is an astonishing fountain of knowledge when it comes
to this subject matter. He’s very enthusiastic and a constant pleasure to
listen to, mentioning tidbits that were news to even yours truly. The second audio
commentary consists of mediator David Del Valle with Argento scholar Derek
Botelho.
Disc
Two consists of the following extras:
A Sigh
from the Depths: 40 Years of Suspiria
– This is an all-new, 27-minute, 40th anniversary retrospective on
the making of the film and its influence on cinema. Among those interviewed are
film historian Rob Galluzzo, Argento Syndrome author Derek
Botelho who discusses Daria Nicolodi’s relationship and her significant
contributions to Mr. Argento’s career, Giallo
screenwriter Sean Keller, American Cinematographer magazine editor David E. Williams,
and Blumhouse.com’s editor-in-chief Rebekah McKendry. Their comments include
the notion of “nightmare logic,†the feeling that Suspiria is like falling asleep and watching a nightmare, as well
as the Technicolor process.
Do You
Know Anything About Witches? – This is a 30-minute visual essay on the
film written, edited and narrated by Michael Mackenzie. It’s a fascinating exploration
of not only Mr. Mackenzie’s introduction to Dario Argento’s work and the effect
that Suspiria had on him when Channel
4 in England aired it on television in January 2002, but it also puts the film
under the microscope and provides an in-depth look at not only the minimal
story but its relationship to Mr. Argento’s overall body of work. It’s
regarded, quite correctly, as the bifurcation between the director’s early giallo-style murder mysteries to the
new, supernatural-based, primary color-bathed nightmares for which he is so
adored. My only complaint is the lack of subtitles on this piece.
Suzy in
Nazi Germany
– This is an 8-minute featurette on the German locations from Suspiria, narrated by Marcus Stiglegger.
Again, subtitles please!
Olga’s
Story
– This is a 17-minute interview with actress Barbara Magnolfi (pronounced man-YOLF-ee). Ms. Magnolfi is very sweet
and engaging in her description of how she came to play the small but memorable
role of Olga, Suzy’s roommate. Strikingly attractive, Ms. Magnolfi possesses
far more sex appeal at age 62 than she ever did at age 21 when the film was shot.
“International
Classics†English “Breathing Letters†opening credit sequence from the U.S.
release – runs 1:40
Original theatrical trailers and TV spots –
all the trailers are in near mint condition.
Radio spots – these are a hoot as they
promote Suspiria with Eyeball (1975) as a
double feature!
Alternate All-English opening and closing
credits sequences, playable via seamless branching
Reversible Cover Art created by Joel Robinson
Missing
from the set, however, is the 52-minute 25th anniversary documentary
that accompanied the double DVD set in 2001.
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Suspiria
(2018) – Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Rumblings about a remake of Suspiria go back roughly twelve years.
Aficionados of the Argento opus reacted vehemently once the word got out with
rumors that some almost went so far as to start a petition to prevent it from
being made, a maneuver that is amusing but also seems trivial in hindsight. The
differences between the 1977 version and the 2018 version are so vast that it’s
best to look upon the latter without thinking anything of the former which is
to say the new version is more of an expansion of the original. Whereas Mr.
Argento’s film is bathed in primary colors on a par with Walt Disney and
Michael Powell/Emeric
Pressburger, Mr. Guadagnino’s film is photographed in muted colors to the point
that the film almost feels like a black and white movie shot in color
until the ending when all hell breaks loose. Whereas dance was a backdrop in
the original, this art takes center stage in the remake.
Suspiria’s setting is Berlin
1977 during the German Autumn where the weather is dismal and the country is
divided by a wall as well as tremendous political upheaval, to say nothing of
its Nazi past. There appears to be an air of evil that permeates the city. Patricia
Hingle (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a young student who bursts into the office of
her psychotherapist Dr. Josef Klemperer (Tilda Swinton under heavy make-up)
with a diary of notes she has written about the truth regarding the teachers
whom she studies under at the dance school she attends, babbling about secret
practices and witchcraft. Dr. Klemperer wants to help her but he believes she
is suffering from a deep-seated psychosis and her writings consist of rants
about The Three Mothers: Mater Tenebrarum, Mater Lachrymarum, and Mater
Suspiriorum. She races out of his office and mysteriously “disappearsâ€.
At the same time, Susie Bannion (Dakota
Johnson of Fifty Shades of Grey fame) arrives from Ohio with the
intention of auditioning for the Tanz Dance Academy. From the get-go, Susie is
a natural and befriends a fellow classmate, Sara Simms (Mia Goth). Her dancing
does not go unnoticed by the head choreographer, Madame Blanc. In a true
departure from the original film Olga (Elena Fokina) verbally berates women who
attend to Madame Blanc and accuses them of hiding Pat and for being practitioners
of black magic. She attempts to flee the school but instead ends up in a room
with mirrors on the wall. In a sequence that caused many people to flee the
theater when it was shown at Cinema Con in 2018, Susie performs a violent dance
under Madame Blanc’s observation, with a catch: her movements “inspire†in a
voodoo-like fashion Olga to mimic the movements. Olga is tossed around the
room, her face is contorted, she wets herself, and her body breaks and cracks
until she slumps on to the floor in a contorted mess. She is removed by those
strange women – with large metal hooks. Yikes!
A vote is put before the coven to elect
Mother Markos to be their new leader, pushing Madame Blanc aside. Meanwhile,
Susie does her best to impress Blanc and her dance moves become more violent
and elaborate. She is chosen to play the lead in a performance at the academy,
called Volk, the German word for
“peopleâ€. The fact that she is beginning to fit in so quickly with no formal
training should be a tipoff that all is not what it seems with her.
Following a discussion about the school and
teachers with Klemperer, Sara digs deeper into the school and discovers a
concealed hallway that leads deep within the school, just as it did in Mr.
Argento’s version, wherein the teachers practice their black mass rituals. As
the Volk performance is underway, Sara makes her way into action midway,
dancing in precision with the others. To reveal anymore would dilute the
interesting spin in the film’s denouement, however I will say that the action at
the film’s end is quite bloody and violent.
Suspiria was filmed in late
2016 and early 2017 and received a theatrical release in the United States
beginning on Friday, October 26, 2018 in major cities on the West and East
coasts. Reviews were expectedly polarized, with some praising the film and Ms. Swinton’s
multiple roles and others outright hating it. I found the film to be
exceptional and quite different from its predecessor and unnerving in a foreign
and almost mystical fashion. The score by Thom Yorke, of Radiohead, is nothing
like Goblin’s. It’s quite creepy and melancholic and really gets under one’s
skin.
Jessica Harper appears very briefly towards
the end as Klemperer’s wife in a sequence that truly tugs at the heartstrings. Anyone
familiar with the original will recognize her. I would have loved for some of
the remaining cast members to have appeared in this version.
Lionsgate has released the film on Blu-ray.
Shot on film in Super 35mm, framed at 1.85:1 and mastered at 4K (the original
was lensed at 2:35:1 and anamorphic), and the transfer is beautiful. The sound
design is also very creepy, and with the proper equipment one can take
advantage of the highly stylized and intricate sound design.
The disc is extremely light in the way of
extras which are more promotional in nature than informative. Up first is The
Making of Suspiria which is just under four minutes and has brief comments
from the director (he stresses that his version is about women who are
outcasts) in addition to several of the cast members. Dakota Johnson claims
that it’s the craziest experience of her professional life, which may induce a
smirk coming on the heels of her turn as the protagonist in Fifty Shades of
Grey.
The Secret Language of Dance is a four-minute
look at the work of choreographer Damien Jalet, who admits being intrigued by
the idea of witchcraft being practiced in a dance school. Dakota Johnson and
Mia Goth also provide some insight.
Mark Coulier, the film’s prosthetics artist,
is profiled in the four-and-a-half-minute piece The Transformations of
Suspiria. He shows how the grotesque dance of Olga was accomplished as well
as the film’s crazy ending.
The
disc also sports trailers for You Were Never Really Here (2017), Beautiful
Boy (2018), and Cold War (2018).
Both
films make for an interesting double feature!
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