Suspiria

Suspiria in a Swimming Pool

The Russian synchronised swimmers just did their routine to Goblin’s creepy and wonderful score to Dario Argento’s Suspiria!

Amazing.
(video via AVClub)

Last night, after a week of Argento film’s, I got to see his spellbinding masterpiece Suspiria on a cinema-screen in the National Media Museum as part of the Bradford International Film Festival. I’d obviously wound myself into a bit of a frenzied excitement about it through the week and it certainly did not disappoint.

Every time I hear someone say they choose to watch films at home rather than at the cinema, mostly due to all the other film-goers, I think to myself “You’ve just been going to the wrong films with the wrong people!”. Last night’s audience had almost all seen the film before and sat in captivated silence, tittering nervously at the occasional gentle comic moments and - even before fun - audibly anticipating oncoming moments of horror. If a bad crowd can ruin a film, a great crowd can make one. Not that Suspiria needed any help in that respect…

My first and only minor gripe is that it was very sadly the cut version. This was an original cinematic print taken from the Media Museum’s extensive archive and so was a print of the X-rated version that the BBFC approved in 1977, after demanding 1m13 of cuts (Cut info at Melon Farmers). Now, to those not familiar with horror film, particularly of BBFC-butchered horror film of a couple of decades ago, 1m13 might not sound very much. It also might not sound so important if I tell you that the full extent of the cuts involved removing a series of close-ups of stabbing, someone struggling through barbed wire and a dog biting a man’s throat. Cuts, however, do make a difference to the rhythm and pacing of a film. Suspira is a film that, like so many Argento, thrives on the atmospheric build-up, to the point that the death scenes actually become a kind of release. For a couple of them to be dramatically shortened here was a shame.

Still, whilst that was the downside to it being an original theatrical print, there were certainly upsides. The first (and some would reject this) was that the image did have a wonderfully scratchy look. Anyone who’s seen a film in cinemas that was filmed entirely in HD-digital knows how clinical and sterile it can look (I’m looking at you Public Enemy!) and, whilst I’m not suggesting scratchy is the way forward, there was certainly something enjoyable about watching a 70s film I thought I’d never see in a cinema, complete with all the visual wear and tear that a 30 year old 35mm reel has experienced (even if carefully looked after by the Museum)

The second benefit was the sound. The sound! Anyone who’s seen Suspiria, an Argento film or evne read any of my blog from this week will know that sound makes up an enormous part of Argento’s films. Suspiria is (arguably) the very best of these, scored again by the ever wonderful Goblin, and positively throbs, jangles and crashes at you. Original print, combined with cinema sound system made it an utterly fantastic experience that I’m sure I’ll never be able to repeat (especially as most commercial releases saw the soundtrack savagely remixed).

The film itself is a whirling, semi-nonsensical, breathtaking journey of colour and sound, moving from the giallo murder-mystery into something a whole lot more supernatural, with savagely brilliant results. I really don’t want to say too much more about the actual film, save to say that it is pretty much the best example of all the techniques I’ve been seeing this week in all his other films. It’s not perfect (the scene-with-the-bat is awful) but it’s brilliant, beautiful and should be seen by everyone.

Argento Week's FINALE!

Of course, all that Dario Argento film watching wasn’t just for fun, it was all to build up to the fantastically exciting screening of Suspiria tonight in the Bradford International Film Festival. It’s hardly going to be worth me reviewing it - I love the film so much already a review will probably be just a string of superlatives and smiley faces - but I’m hoping that, given the big screen treatment, I’ll find even more to love about it!

Dario Argento week!

CC licenced photo by Brian Eeles via Wikimedia

This Sunday, the National Media Museum, as part of the Bradford International Film Festival’s Widescreen Weekend - a festival strand devoted to screening classic examples of gorgeously presented films - are showing Suspiria by Italian director Dario Argento.

Now I love the Dario Argento films I’ve seen. More than that, I consider Suspiria one of my favourite films ever. Although the story might not be anything too remarkable, the visual style and the brooding music add up to create one of the most beautiful, tense and atmospheric pieces of film I’ve ever seen. And I never thought I’d get to see it on a big screen!

Needless to say, I am slightly very excited!

So, between now and Sunday, what better way to anticipate the event than by watching seven other of Argento’s films? And writing about them here, of course.

Over the next seven days, I shall watch (in an as yet undecided order)
Profondo Rosso, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Opera, 4 mosche di velluto grigio, Tenebrae, Cat O’ Nine Tails and Phenomena.

Buy Tickets to Supiria
Check out the Bradford International Film Festival

Poster Hunt #10 - Suspiria & Giallo

Whilst most of the posters I’ve selected for Poster Hunt have been classic style, painted scenes, I thought that this time I’d go for a more modern, minimal look: clean lines and bold block colours.

So here we have two posters, the first for Dario Argento’s Suspiria (a truly fantastic film, I recommend it highly) and the second for his much more recent Giallo (which I haven’t seen and which received very mixed reviews)

Regardless of the quality of the films though, the posters are certainly both gorgeous.