Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino, 2018)

[Persona]

I just watched this on Prime.

I mean, I didn't hate it. I found it compelling and interesting enough that I went along with it even if I wasn't exactly engaged or enthralled by it. There are moments where the filmmaking really hits--and then those moments just get streeeetched out for another five minutes or whatever and you lose the effect. But the film still kind of dangles you along.

The design and cinematography were cool for the most part, the editing of certain sequences definitely has its own modern dance rhythm thing going, but towards the end it all goes very heavy-handed and schlocky and the weird frame rate shots in the red light were just ugly. I think Luca was going for hypnotic or something but it just feels rough. Yorke's score had its moments, particularly the main theme used with the Volk dance, but there were other times where the score was kind of egregiously distracting and not enhancing what we were seeing. Really think there should have been no Yorke singing until the credits.

It's definitely a movie that has more than a few groaner moments. I get why people call it "pretentious," but I don't know. lt's a pretty obvious movie in a lot of ways, it just makes a lot of wacky choices about how to tell its story and tries to stuff multiple other stories in at awkward angles. Like many modern films, its plot is needlessly complicated. Think back to how much time we spent with you-know-who stealing the you-know-what and giving it to one of Tilda Swinton's characters and then what happens with that. There is so much like that in the movie. If God is in the details he's wondering how to get out of them in this flick, because these details be a hot mess. Maybe that's the point, a literal hell of storytelling. Well okay then.

The final shot before the credits was a total WTF lol moment for me, not because it's some bonkers shot but because it's so sentimental and irrelevant to the vast majority of the movie that I simply had to laugh that Luca thought that THAT should be the final shot. Like he basically could not figure out what he wanted the last shot to be and picked some random idea out of a hat. The post-credits shot is almost as bad.

[Big Ben]

I just watched this on Prime.

I can only really speak for myself here but I've always seen Suspiria as something that existed on the plane of "lyrical sense" rather than "logical sense". Both Suspiria's are certainly not Shakespeare but I don't think they need to be because they're so good at evoking mood. The new Suspiria however is an odd duck for me because while I like it a great deal it sort of exists on it's own level of oddness. What I mean is, is that's absolutely bonkers to the point I remember having an "Oof" moment to myself (I'm referring to the police scene.). I don't think the original, or Guadagnino's film should be taken all that seriously. That's a half assed cop out yes, but these types of things generally fall apart with even the smallest amount of coherent thought goes into looking at the plot.

It's interesting that you say the music is distracting in Luca's film because that's actually something I'd accuse the other film of being more egregious at, particularly in the opening scene in the Academy. The original's score is an oppressive cacophony of mumbling synth music that really sets the mood but it's so omnipresent I thought it was a bit distracting. Please don't take my statements as a criticism of the score per se however, as I love Goblin's work here. It's just really, really loud.

What is of interest to me however is what you thought of the films political interweaving because I've still not made my mind up on it really. I understand contextually why it's there but I'm not really sure the atrocities of the Nazi Regime are exactly analogous to a Coven of Witches although I'm certainly open to being told I'm full of baloney here.

[moreorless]

I would argue the original is as much a music video to its soundtrack as the reverse. The appeal of the whole thing is as you say "lyrical" with plot details obviously being secondary to the atmosphere it makes and the basic idea of someone venturing into this strange environment and facing its evil nature.

I'v still yet to see the remake but trying to turn such a film into something that functions on more of a plot basis seems a bit wasteful to me, I'd have preferred to see it in the hands of someone like Peter Strickland who I'd guess would have looked to work in atmosphere and more base level drama.

[nitin]

The music to the original does enhance the mood of that movie though, in the remake, particulary the music that plays over the ‘red’ does the opposite IMHO.

[Slaphappy]

The political context dealt with several issues. One was radicalized and egoistic feminism created by times of extreme patriarchy

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and finally purging that toxic femininity from within.

Another important one was grief and quilt left by nazi era and WW2 and how divided and messed up Germany did not make peace with it's past and how that made it impossible to heal up. The final shot was puzzling, but it still felt organic regarding the themes and the story. I don't think there was a coherent message involved, but the themes were there just for the emotional, ideological and mythological trip.

Argento took the idea of The Three Mothers from Thomas de Quincey, who wrote an essay speculating about personalities of three goddesses of sorrow. Argento made them into complete bubblegum versions.

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In his trilogy they were just three alchemists who had figured out immortality and some other supernatural perks few hundred years ago and taken cool alteregoes and gathered cult following.

Guadagnino goes back to the roots.

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In his story Mater Suspiriorum (Mother of Sighs) is an actual goddess of sorrow. Her coven in Berlin has gotten corrupted while it was laying low during the oppressive and extremely patriarchal nazi era and now serves the needs of few of it’s members, mainly the immortality project of coven’s leader Markos.

I think Guadagnino was very clever in how he played with elements of both de Quincey’s text and Argento’s movie and how he combined them with the historical context of divided Berlin.

Here’s a link to de Quincey’s essay (page 29) in case someone’s interested:
http://public-library.uk/ebooks/28/2.pdf

[knives]

Man, I absolutely loved this movie. It has its flaws, the scene with the cops ruined some
Themes, but the good qualities overwhelmed that for me. The ending in all of its animated glory made me smile like a mad man.