‘Suspiria‘ and a few other of Dario Argento‘s films that became the classics of today have represented a turn towards extreme of the horror genre. By pushing the level of bloody violence and sexuality, either implicit or explicit, the Italian director has teared up all the ratings lists and the code books of the big studios. ‘Suspi is today considered a cult film and a reference film. I saw it over four decades after the production and I came to the conclusion that this film is a combination of extremes. From many points of view it is trash, from others an excellent artistic achievement, almost a masterpiece, dare I say.
The story takes its inspiration from the gloomy European romanticism and perhaps even from its older sources such as fairy tales from the 17th and 18th centuries, which are at the origin of many ‘horror’ films, especially those belonging to German expressionism. There are a few conventional patterns that are followed in this film too: the young traveler who discovers a foreign space dominated by mysterious evil forces, the huge houses or manors with hidden cottages haunted by the ghosts of the past, the legends about witches and their influence over the ages. Jessica Harper, the actress cast in the role of the young American dancer who travels to Germany to discover that the famous dance school she attends hides many bloody mysteries, is chosen to look like a teenager, a few years younger than her colleagues, a Snow White in a dangerous and crushing world. When the bodies begin to accumulate, the script chooses to deal with the psychology of the girl and her confrontation with the mysteries around and less or not at all with the police investigation or any other attempt to explain what is happening using the logic of our world. Even the intervention of psychologists adds elements to the fantastic and not the rational dimension. Psychology associated with witchcraft, or maybe even a modern form of witchcraft? Not a bad idea!
The story itself, however, may be less important in ‘Suspiria‘ than the context. Dialogues sound mostly ridiculous, and the acting fails (or may not intend) to inject in them any truth. However, I noticed the presence of Alida Valli, one of the great stars of Italian cinema from the 1940s and 1950s. What is more impressive than the story is the way it is told. The sets make up a fantastic and oversized world, dominated by yellow, orange and red – the color of red wine recommended as a tonic, in fact a metaphor for the blood that often springs up in many of the violent episodes with which the film is sprinkled. From here comes the inspiration for the fantastic sets of the later films of David Lynch or Wes Anderson. In most of Dario Argento‘s films his obsession with death and sex is present, here the balance is decisively on the side of death, the feminine attraction being repressed and sublimated within the age and fragility of the heroines. From a visual point of view, the film is a feast. The cinematography uses and combines masterfully the capabilities of film processing that preceded by decades the computer effects. The soundtrack adds to the visual experience, being a mixture of free jazz, electronic music and characteristic sound effects. The film is a landmark in the history of the horror genre, a mix of trash without excuses with literary inspirations, apparent amateurism and cinematic mastery. All the reasons that made ‘Suspiria‘ a cult film are valid.