“There are some messages I put inside the film so people can easily understand what inspired me for the film.” – Dario Argento, Director of Suspiria
“With Suspiria we left the natural world behind us in order to achieve a totally artificial style.” – Luciano Tovoli, Cinematographer of Suspiria
Suspiria (1977) is the classic horror film directed by Dario Argento. It is probably his most famous film and certainly the most beloved. The film is all spectacle and style. Argento was interested in the image and what the image suggests–narrative be damned. The film is also all about color (using the dated but beautiful three-strip Technicolor process – think of the color in films like Singin’ in the Rain or The Adventures of Robin Hood). Although Thomas De Quincey work Suspiria de Profundis (1845) was a very loose starting point, Argento used Disney’s Snow White as an inspiration for the film’s look. Mix that with homages to German expressionist films, as well as artists like Oskar Kokoschka and M.C. Escher, and you have the fairytale reinvented.
“I think the camera was always my obsession, the camera movements. Because for me it’s the most important thing . . . ” – Dario Argento
The story of Suspiria is almost irrelevant. Essentially, it is about an American girl who goes to study dance overseas but finds herself crossing a coven of witches occupying a German ballet school. That is about it. There is no pretense of a normal world that turns on its head. Here, “Alice” has already gone down the rabbit hole. The story is always secondary to the art of each shot. The storytelling is visual as opposed to language driven. And forget about the dialogue. As with many European films of the seventies, the actors in any given scene were likely to be speaking different languages, resulting in the entire movie being dubbed after the fact. Initially, Argento was interested in the girls of the ballet school being little girls (8-10 years old), but producers pushed him to focus on older girls–young adults. However, Argento was able to maintain certain aspects of the girls being younger than their physical ages. Besides their behavior, this included visual clues like door knobs being at face level (a la Alice in Wonderland).
In addition to all the visuals, Suspiria is probably best known for its title theme song and the sound used throughout. Featuring the Greek instrument, the bouzouki, the score sounds like fairy tale gone wrong. Unlike the way many films are scored, the soundtrack, by the band Goblin, was created before filming began. The film’s soundscape creates an “infernal atmosphere.” The sound all through the film is overwhelming – in a good way. If you are interested in what the band Goblin looks and sounds like, I found this video (only the first piece of music is from Suspiria and the interviews are in Italian without subtitles, but it is a fun six minutes).
Countless films and artists have used Suspiria as an inspiration. The most recent example is Darren Aronofsky’s The Black Swan. Despite the seminal place it would eventually find in the film making world, Suspiria was Argento’s first supernatural horror film. Before Suspiria, Argento was the king of giallo (Italian thrillers). There are several other places you might have come across Dario Argento’s name. He was one of the writers (along with Bernardo Bertolucci) on the Sergio Leone masterpiece Once Upon A Tine in the West (1968) and he also co-wrote and produced George A. Romero’s zombie classic Dawn of the Dead (1978). He is also actress/director Asia Argento’s father.
“I think that already a lot of generations know Suspiria, so I really don’t care about its remake.” – Dario Argento
There is rumored to be a remake of Suspiria that will be directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express). And when the news first broke in 2008 of a possible remake, Natalie Portman was rumored be its star (she does star in the forthcoming David Gordon Green helmed Your Highness along with 127 Hours star James Franco). At the moment, IMDB lists the Suspiria remake as being released in 2012.
If you can get past the artificiality of Suspiria, you are in for a feast of color and sound. If you are looking for a tight story or realism, abandon hope all ye who enter.
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