Dario Argento Week: Suspiria

Hey all and welcome to Day 1 of Dario Argento Week and I don't mind admitting  this next film has scared the crap out of me.  No kidding, from the elaborate pace, to the story, to the musical scores made by the progressive band Goblin, this film is just damn creepy and widely accepted as Argento's finest work.  From the imposing sets to the sinister death scenes this flick should keep even today's gore fans on their toes.  This is Suspiria.

Hmm, disturbingly lit in here but probably nothing wrong with that.

Miss Tanner: I had no idea you were so strong willed.  I can see that once you make up your spoiler about something, nothing will change it for you.  My compliments.







Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper of Phantom of the Paradise, Love and Death, Aspen, Big Man on Campus, It's Garry Shandling's Show and Mr. Wonderful) is an American ballet student that has flown in to Freiburg Germany to enroll in a prestigious dance academy, however arriving in the middle of the night she cannot gain access into the school and decides to spend the night in town.  As she goes to leave a young girl, Pat Hingle (Eva Axen of Ludwig, Orpheus 9, The Golden Mass, This Is the Night and Death at Work) is leaving the academy muttering to herself and irate is all hell.  Pat decides to stay at a friend's apartment while she works out what she will do with the rest of her life...  what remains of it, as no sooner she is done with her shower a lunatic crashes through the window smothering her face against a pane of glass while simultaneously stabbing her over and over before disemboweling her.  Pat's friend hears the ruckus and decides to investigate by pounding on the door, crying for help and then hearing nothing at all.  Bound with cable from the building, Pat is dropped through the stain glass ceiling and left to hang while Pat's friend is impaled with glass shards and metal below.  That is the thirteen minute mark, people so you just know there is going to be more to it than a random nutter.

Won't...  make... recital...  bleh.

The next morning, Suzy makes her way back to the academy and is met by Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett of The Housekeeper's Daughter, The Man I Married, Man Hunt, The Wife Takes a Flyer, Girl Trouble, Scarlet Street and Dark Shadows)  lead instructor Miss Tanner (Alida Valli of The Third Man, Senso, Eyes Without a Face, A Simple Heart, Inferno and Angel of Death) welcome Suzi in as Miss Tanner shows her around.  After meeting Sarah (Stefania Casini of For Love One Dies, Blood for Dracula, The Golden Mass, The Climber and Bloodstained Shadow) and Olga (Barbara Magnolfi of The Suspicious Death of a Minor, Ready for Anything, The Sister of Ursula and Cut and Run) and arranges to live off-campus rather than at the dormitory.
 
After a surreal encounter in the kitchen with the academy's cook, Suzy feels faint and awakens in a room hours later, where she has been moved in against her wishes.  Her doctors tell her she is not used to the climate and should have a glass of wine daily.  Reverse intervention!    The upside for Suzy that she becomes fast friends with Sara since they are roomies.   Strange happenings seem to keep occurring and people has suddenly up and left the academy with no rhyme or reason as Suzy starts to suspect this academy may be more than the brochure led her to believe.

A few notes on this film now.  Argento's original idea for the ballet school was to be populates with young girls no older than 12.  Due to the extreme violence in the screenplay the studio producer and father Salvatore Argento was stubborn in his belief that the film would be banned so the age limit was raised to 20 but the dialogue was not altered so the naive behavior and comments sound almost childlike.  Argento and the band Goblin composed the score together and he arranged for the band to play as loud as their speakers could manage on set and suddenly to bring about a truly startled and scared performance from his actors,
The screenplay was inspired by Daria Nicolodi's (writer/actress and Argento's lover) grandmother who claimed to have fled in the middle of the night from a German music academy because witchcraft was being secretly held there.

Katie Couric before morning coffee!