Sometimes you have to accept a movie on its own
terms. Many critics would mention
I Walked With a Zombie as an example. Like
these critics, I feel that the mood it creates is what is
important. Mood is more important than the plot, at least
as important as the characters.
Suspiria is even more of an extreme case, with
characters and plot not well developed at all.
But in many ways these two movies could not be
more different. It’s like comparing Mozart to
Foxey Lady (Jimi Hendrix). One is subtlety
itself, one grabs you by the throat. Both movies have their
share of faults and both have the courage of their convictions,
something I respect.
If you were forced to pick a category, you
could say that Suspiria is about witchcraft.
Yet the movie barely scratches the surface of history,
practices, and folklore in witchcraft.
This won’t come as a big surprise if you’ve
seen other movies by its director, Dario Argento. You might
describe some as “murder mysteries” but you’d be disappointed if
you watch them for the detective work. Finding out the
murderer’s identity and their dark secrets isn’t a big deal.
Not much explanation for anyone’s “motivation.”
What you do get is a beating, from the
pounding, surging music, from the endless bright red and blue
colors, from the voices veering wildly from soft conversation to
screaming, from the facial expressions, especially the eyes wide
with terror.
Not just the brilliant red and blue colors, but the
way Suzy is made to look
tiny; her courage is even more memorable
Suspiria was said to be an
influence on John Carpenter’s original
Halloween and it probably was. But while
these movies were made about the same time, there are
serious differences. In Halloween,
the frequent, jumpy camera movements and close shots of people
standing alone and vulnerable keep you on the edge of your
seat. Most of the time these are false alarms. Only
you can’t relax because enough of them are the real thing.
Suspiria, too, sets you up
for some major violence. Unlike Halloween,
it’s no great surprise that the violence comes. When and
how it comes is the big surprise. (You do get some
false alarms too.) In my opinion, both of these movies broke
rules when they came out. Halloween
appeared to over-use the false alarms,
Suspiria appeared to over-use both the lead-ups
and the scenes of gore. Both changed film styles.
Neither movie is for everyone.
For instance, it’s not easy to take
Suspiria’s plot seriously. Suzy Bannion, an
American ballet student, travels all the way to Germany to attend
one of the world’s best dance academies. The night she
arrives, a student is killed inside the school. The police find
few clues to the murderer’s identity.
Suzy has no interest in living at the school
and immediately finds an apartment to share near-by. But
during her first dance practice, she passes out.
She wakes up in a room at the school. A
medical “expert”, Professor Vertegast, says she must rest for a
week and take a specially prepared diet, including red wine with
every meal. The headmistress tells Suzy that her roommate
Olga has generously brought all her things over, so that Suzy can
move in. (Exactly what Suzy did not want to do.)
That night, fly maggots drop from the
ceilings by the hundreds in each student’s room. The
headmistress, Madame Blanc, blames a shipment of spoiled food
stored in the attic, the floor above the rooms. Not exactly
what you expect at a world-class school you have travelled 3,000
miles to attend.
sleeping quarters
It sounds far-fetched and it is. But the
plot does the job. Suzy is the only character you have a
chance to identify with, and she never gets the opportunity to
plant her feet on the ground. From the minute she walks out
of the airport into a driving rain, she moves from chaos to…more
chaos. Her hair tangled from rain and wind, she hails
cab after cab. They pass by as if she is invisible.
The driver who finally stops for her appears to be sealed
off, like a tomb.
When she arrives at the school, no one will
let her inside. A girl runs by her in terror. The only
words Suzy catches are “secret flowers.”
Next morning, Suzy returns to the school.
The headmistress is friendly enough, but you sense something
false about her. She announces that the student murdered
last night was Pat, the girl Suzy saw running away. For most
of the remaining story, it is clear that Suzy’s special diet is
drugged, as though the school authorities want her as sedated as
possible.
Okay, clearly not the best of story lines.
But what is so memorable about
Suspiria’s style?
You already sense it the minute the airport
door opens. The wind blows Suzy’s clothes so hard they rise
insanely; she looks as though a ghost has literally grabbed her.
Intense music begins to play. The sound is like a
harpsichord, possibly synthesized. Seven notes repeated
over and over, loud. Then whispering voices,
La la la la la la la, in time with the melody, even
louder.
Suzy’s cab reaches the school, as the rain
still pours down. The outside walls an intense red color.
You see Pat run past Suzy. Suddenly Pat
is in a forest, with endless thin white trees.
Then Suzy is gone in the cab, and Pat is
somehow back inside the school. She is dressed in white,
but the bright red walls and lighting all but turn her clothes the
same red. The style of the lobby is like some exaggerated
art-deco.
Pat is alone again in her room. She
stares out the window at a bright blue night. Just as the
red color in the hallway practically drowned out every other
color, now blue does the same here. Pat looks further out,
then sees a pair of eyes in the blue night. Nothing else,
just eyes. Then madness…chaos. You will want to see it
for yourself
No doubt, critics have analyzed the roles of
the bright reds and blues, and the use of white in
Suspiria. Blue dominating the screen
definitely highlights many violent scenes, such as Sara’s (Suzy’s
best friend) desperate attempt to escape a room on the top floor.
While a killer tries to use a razor to lift the latch, Sara
focuses in on a lone white window in the upper right part of
the screen. White appears to represent peace, salvation… a
way out. Another, much quieter scene shortly before this:
Suzy and Sara, both in white suits, alone in the school’s huge,
ancient swimming pool. Like the window in the later scene,
they are virtually the only white parts of a scheme that would
otherwise be solid blue. In this overwhelming blue,
they float like white angels.
.
Suzy and Sara; angels in a sea of
evil
One advantage of using the witch theme in the
under-developed plot: it gives Argento the freedom to allow
anything to happen with no explanations. The maggots.
A faithful, peaceful guide dog suddenly turning on his blind
owner. A room at the top floor of the school filled
thigh-deep in razor-wire, wall to wall. An evil figure, his
or her identity never revealed, stalking the school, carrying a
straight razor.
Again, a vulnerable creature in a landscape with unseen
predators
I don’t know if Argento wanted, or chose the
American actress Jessica Harper
(Inserts, My Favorite Year) for the role of Suzy.
But Harper turns out to be very good. Her voice
doesn’t betray much of her feelings; it remains calm throughout
most of the craziness she goes through. For a long time, you
aren’t sure if that calm voice reflects Suzy’s passivity, or her
strength to endure all she is forced to go through. In
contrast, her large, expressive eyes provide most of the clues to
her soul.
Suzy–overwhelmed, terrified…but unwilling to be intimidated
But when Suzy finally finds herself without help and alone, you
see her courage. Not only is she ready to venture into the
forbidding top floor, (where she imagines her one friend, Sara,
either captive or dead) she is willing to take on the witch whose
spirit still controls the school. Like John Carpenter
soon afterwards, Argento was willing to take his style into
uncharted waters. This movie has its faults but it is an
original vision. And it grabs you by the throat as he
intended.