Dario Argento
Suspiria

The name Dario Argento, especially in Italy, is often synonymous with "Deep Red" the Thriller/Mystery that for its unique narrative and directorial style is still studied today in international film schools... a true cult of world cinema, but despite this, it should be remembered that Argento (the director that many Americans rightly envied us for) is not just the author of the triumphant "Deep Red" or the director in the twilight of the terrible "The Card Player." Italians have yet to understand that Argento's best film is to be found elsewhere... precisely in "Suspiria" a masterpiece of direction and cinematography, a film that did not achieve much success at home but was considered a milestone in the rest of the world, still cited and "copied" by a myriad of Horror directors, a recent example is the use of cinematography in the film "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," openly inspired by the Italian Director... indeed the use of colors and various lighting on the set present in "Suspiria" are so ingenious and spectacular that I'll start reviewing this film by discussing this aspect... the cinematography.

Dario Argento, in an interview reported on the DVD, admits that as a child he was terrified by fairy tales like Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, etc... He wanted to create cinematography that reminded of that unreality present in fairytale stories: strong, vibrant, heavy and almost blinding colors, reminiscent of old Walt Disney cartoons (the fairy tales), all obviously reinterpreted by Argento in a Horror key, to create these incredible scenic effects the director had to retrieve an old technicolor camera long out of production and modify it to make it even more vivid in color... obviously, at the time there were no computer touch-ups, so everything seen on the screen was filmed live! A genius cinematography that we will never see again on the screen! Incredible colors accompany the viewer's eye throughout the duration of the film, ranging from bright red used in place of darkness to purple, to blue... surreal colors essential for creating that unrealistic and at the same time disturbing atmosphere that the director aimed for. Some strokes of genius worth mentioning are the intermittent red lighting that lights up every time the killer strikes their victim! Or the wonderful scene in which one of the teachers at the school turns off the light and the background with the white curtains lights up in red revealing the shadow of the witch in the background... I could go on indefinitely, there are so many photographic pearls in this film, and for this alone it would be worth buying the double DVD restored in superior quality. But let's get to the actual film:

After his initial Thrillers/Mysteries with which he gained international fame, Dario Argento decided to change film genre and venture into the world of supernatural horror/Thriller, given that he had a strong passion for American and European Horror cinema (of the time), he decided to venture into this world choosing "witchcraft" as the theme, another subject that caught the director's attention after his journey in Europe and Italy in search of a subject... More than witchcraft, Argento was attracted by Witches, evil women who draw their well-being from the evil of others, performing spells, malevolent rites, and demonic cults... A topic that until then had been exploited in a rather light manner and mostly in a comedic version...

And so the passions of Dario for fairy tales and Horror join in this "chilling" subject that quickly took form in a screenplay by Daria Nicolodi (along with the director himself), soon emerging a fairytale yet malicious story that tells the story of a group of witches who after hundreds of years continue unbeknownst to society to operate for evil, hidden behind a seemingly peaceful and serene dance school.
Susy Benner is a young student who moves to Germany to perfect her dance studies, and finds herself in this school where she will soon discover the horrible secret thanks to some classmates who have started to become suspicious about the strange behavior of the school's teachers... the girl's innocence and her instinct will soon lead her to discover the chilling reality of the world of witchcraft hidden right in her sweet dance school.

Actress Jessica Harper gives us an intense performance as Susy, her expression of an innocent girl and her sweet, naive eyes manage to give that fairytale touch and at the same time increase the viewer's fear as they empathize with her purity in front of the forces of evil... worth noting are the astonishing performances of the teachers at the school who manage to express a truly unique sense of mystery and unease! Unsuspected (or almost) by day... wicked and possessed by night! They are truly frightening!

Suspiria is a true masterpiece of direction! There is not a single identical shot in the entire film (as Argento himself emphasizes in interviews) the camera makes anthology-worthy movements and in certain shots we are presented with true acrobatic filming! Like the spectacular tracking shot from top to bottom simulating a bird's perspective attacking its prey, or the beautiful sequence shots that start from the girl's nails and explore the entire room... The details in this film are meticulous, there isn't a single shot out of place, every object is filmed from multiple angles and even the pace of scene changes are always scrambled and never predictable... The editing (stunning!) continuously changes pace, it's slow almost non-existent, then speeds up in a fraction of a second during a plot twist or in the most particular shots.

If in the scenic field we are faced with a work of art in the musical field Argento has outdone himself! Thanks to the usual collaboration with the Goblin, the director delivers his most successful and spectacular soundtrack... Long before the advent of modern music videos Argento creates the deafening soundtrack! Which is no longer a background to the scenes but is placed on the same level as the images, that is always present, deliberately repetitive, almost as if it were an anticipation of the music video... We are faced with the most beautiful song of Dario Argento's filmography, unsettling, annoying (not in a negative sense, but intended as disturbing on a psychological level), made of incomprehensible demonic whispers and childish voices, a sort of demon music box... The union of this music with the sublime cinematography and the impressive direction give us a first-class film, unique and inimitable. A rare pearl that even the director himself has not been able to match with his subsequent works... indeed, as he himself admits, Suspiria was his most complicated work technically... it can only be done once! And he did it! Stunning!

Another revelation made by the director himself is that the editing of this film occurred almost entirely live! That is, the shots were filmed in chronological order and the effects were done on set at the moment!!! The editing in the studio took only ten days!!!! (films back then were edited over six months!) tell me if this isn't genius!
Speaking of the Horror component Dario Argento gives us moments of high fright without the need to use excessive splatter, the blood scenes are not exaggerated and the killer's executions are more played on the scenic and psychological side than on pure gore... there are nonetheless raw moments like the shot of the knife sticking into the exposed heart or the throat delicately opening with the sharp razor... but they are still few scenes... the true anguish is characterized by the protagonists' acting and the situations pressing on the viewer's mental side, one scene above all is the "terrifying" death of the girl trapped in a tangle of wire! In this case no blood is needed, the terror is caused by the psychological side of the scene, the girl only screams and struggles in the wire but becomes increasingly trapped... the idea of being trapped (and in terror) while a killer hunts you is much scarier than a severed head or a mangled body... which if done badly causes more laughter than fright... this film is 90% played on atmospheres and 10% on the blood component, monsters, witches, killings, had it not been for the music and the cinematography/direction we would probably be facing a banal medium-splatter horror film of the 70s... Suspiria is instead a "triumph of direction" (quote), a true work of art that we have been envied for worldwide, and we should be proud to have a director with such extraordinary talents as Dario Argento... who however, it must be said, has deteriorated over time... maybe because as I have already said, films like this cannot be made anymore for various reasons, or perhaps because with the passing of the years people's tastes change or simply the genius vein runs out... he has shown it with his latest works (The Card Player and company). A real Shame! I hope one day we will find the good old Dario Argento again inspired by a valid screenplay and written by the right people... For now, we can only console ourselves by going to buy his old films in his nice little shop in Rome called "Deep Red" and hope for his great return.

For all those who want to watch a high-class auteur film, I recommend watching this masterpiece.

More trivia about the film:

The first screening of Suspiria in Japan was shown in a stadium in front of 30,000 people!

The film was originally set in a girls' school, the majors refused, and Dario Argento despite the adult age of the students (around 18/20 years) wanted to create a childish environment by making his actresses behave like children and modifying the set to make the actresses appear smaller... for example, he raised the door handles to give the effect of a child seeing the handles at eye level!

The film is full of details hidden with meticulous care... for example, there is a scene where a seemingly normal bloodstain is shown for a moment... in reality, the stain has the shape of a witch!

The Italian previews were "terrifying" people left the theater disgusted and terrified... the film did not have much success in Italy, but it was recognized as a work of art in the rest of the world.

A viewer, after watching the DVD version of Suspiria literally went mad to the point of calling the director GOD ARGENTO!?
...and that viewer is me!!!!!!!!!