Christy by Request — Suspiria

• 15 Apr 2018
• Posted by Christy
•   Christy by Request , Reviews

You guys told me “Suspiria” was a deliriously strange movie, but you didn’t warn me about the blind pianist who gets his throat ripped out by his own seeing-eye dog.

Long before that shocking, gruesome moment, though, we’re on edge from the very start in Italian horror master Dario Argento’s 1977 cult favorite. Merely the title sequence alone — with its curved, oversized letters, set to the tinkly sounds of the band Goblin’s deeply creepy score — sets the tone for the unsettling fairy tale we’re about to watch.

Somehow, I’d never seen “Suspiria,” so I’m really glad it came up as this week’s Christy by Request selection. It’s the suggestion of Christian Smith in Spokane, Washington (@THErealCML1688 on Twitter), who tells me it’s his favorite film of all time. No pressure.

Plus, I’d planned to see “Suspiria” at some point anyway in preparation for the remake coming out later this year from Luca Guadagnino, the director of “Call Me By Your Name,”  “A Bigger Splash” and “I Am Love,” whose work I adore. Supposedly, his film is more of a “reboot,” which seems apt. It’s hard to imagine anything resembling Argento’s bold, lurid vision — which was extremely of-its-time tonally and aesthetically — coming out today.

Argento’s film is all about rich, Technicolor splashes of red, blue and green — colors that might seem cheerful, but they create an inescapable feeling of menace. It’s as if he’s expressing the characters’ visceral emotions through blocks of light: dread early on, which leads to suspicion, then eventually abject panic and the drive to survive. Argento accomplishes so much simply through lighting (working with veteran cinematographer Luciano Tovoli) and music — which goes a long way to compensate for the stilted dialogue and awkward character interactions. (Something else to look forward to in Guadagnino’s version: The great Thom Yorke of Radiohead has composed the score.)

“Suspiria” takes place at a prestigious German ballet academy. Our conduit to this elite, cloistered world is Suzy (Jessica Harper), a wispy, wide-eyed American who finds herself in danger as soon as she lands and sets foot outside the airport. (Goblin’s score cleverly drops in and out as the automatic glass doors open and close, beckoning her to a world of evil.) A rush of wind blows Suzy’s scarf across her shoulder, there’s a thunder clap and boom: The sky opens up and rain pours down, making it tough to get a taxi.

Once she arrives at the academy — which is an ornate jewel box in such a deep shade of red, it looks like a set from “The Nutcracker” rather than a real place where people train and live — she finds she can’t get in. Later, of course, she’ll long to get out. But a fellow dancer has issued a warning to her before frantically fleeing into the storm, which becomes important later.

Despite Argento’s specific artistry, “Suspiria” is a straight-up slasher flick, which means people are going to get it, one by one, at the hands of a mysterious and elusive killer. Working from a script he co-wrote with his longtime partner, Daria Nicolodi (otherwise known as Asia Argento’s mom), Argento holds nothing back, starting with the first slaying. We don’t just see the knife go into a young woman’s torso. We also see it penetrate her heart before she’s dropped from a stained-glass ceiling and left to hang from a cord around her neck in the middle of an entryway. It’s incredibly gory but also almost clinical, as if the deaths themselves aren’t as important as the mood leading up to them.

Not long after she arrives at the academy, Suzy begins to suspect that things are a little off. Maybe it’s the special, restrictive diet she’s placed on, which includes a nightly glass of red wine. Maybe it’s the look of crazed intensity in the eyes of Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), who oversees the curriculum in her crisp blazer and tight updo. But once Suzy faints during a dance class and is medicated, every sensation becomes even more heightened and hallucinatory.

It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s imagined the longer she’s there. The maggots that drop down from the ceiling and rain onto everyone’s heads, writhing all creepy-crawly in the blue moonlight: Are those real? Or the startlingly noisy sound of water going down a drain in the sink? Or the bat that flies in through the bathroom window, hilarious and horrifying at once as its sharp, white teeth nip away at Suzy’s head? The sound it makes when she smashes it on the floor with a stool is not quite a crunch and not quite a squeak, but something in between that’s chilling.

Argento toys with us and our expectations of what’s feminine and refined in a place like this, not just narratively but also through the use of inventive and often off-kilter camera angles. He’ll choose an overhead shot of Suzy and her roommate Sara (Stefania Casini) in the deep blue of an indoor swimming pool, or he’ll shoot through the inside of a wine glass or a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Hallways seem longer and more foreboding. Bedrooms grow smaller and more confining. We are exploring this place from every angle, even as it seems to be closing in on us. The whole thing is like a fever dream inside a building that seems to be breathing, with extreme primary colors that are simultaneously lively and sinister.

But the fear and violence aren’t restricted inside these walls. One of the most striking shots of all comes when the dance school’s blind accompanist, Daniel (Flavio Bucci), walks home alone at night with the help of his trusty and ever-present German shepherd. He stops in the middle of a quiet and empty town square, surrounded by foreboding columns. The place is massive and there’s absolutely nobody else there — and, seemingly, nothing is wrong — but what happens next is shocking, and it shatters the spare, minimalist calm of the moment.

You may have noticed I’m talking a lot about the film’s technical muscularity, and haven’t said much about its performances or dialogue. That’s because they are uniformly stiff and unnatural — only partly because many of the actors were speaking various languages which were later dubbed into English. The expository conversation between Suzy and Udo Kier as a psychiatrist friend of Sara’s, who describes the history of witchcraft at the dance academy, is a prime example. Maybe, though, the uncomfortable nature of the characters’ exchanges was intentional — yet another method of showing us what a bizarre and inhuman place this is.

Harper’s reactions as Suzy exposes the academy’s dark secrets in the film’s final minutes are wildly theatrical. She staggers, arms flailing, from one room to the next as things are breaking and exploding all around her: furniture, lamps, windows, walls. She’s such a bitty, bird-like thing, it’s a wonder she can withstand the whirlwind of it all — but then she flashes the strangest smile as she escapes the burning building alive. It’s not quite satisfying, but it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and it’s definitely unforgettable.