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.
Maggots force the ballet students into temporary 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.