Thursday 3 December 2015

Suspiria, 1977, Review.

Fig 1, Suspiria, 1977 Poster
Suspiria, Directed by Dario Argento and released in 1977 is an Italian Horror, Mystery movie that has more horror than mystery. Just like all horror movies with gore, violence, and insane killers, this movie doesn't disappoint on that aspect but is completely disappointing story wise. There is no mystery and no real story and no character development what so ever in this film. This movie is basically to see who can out beat each other with the most gruesome deaths.

The movie follows protagonist Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) an american dancer who moves to Freiburg to join a Ballet school only to find out the morning upon her arrival a fellow ex student was murdered along with a friend. This leads to several other murders all done in unique ways, also the soundtrack for the movie is really immersive and impressive, that it really pulls you in along with the camera moments it really makes it a memorable moment, although the music does not keep you surprised, from when you hear it once you get surprised and a sudden shock but once you hear it again you can kind of tell when the murder is going to happen plus the song is a definite sign of an impending death, so you can tell it's coming.

The set designs for the movie are really biased color pallet wise. The only colors we see are different shades of red and hints of blues when ever their is suspense or when a character is put in a situation that could be life threatening. The only times when you see anything relating to the normal world is during the day or the scene where Suzy goes to meet Dr Frank Mandel (Udo Kier) about her friend Sara (Stepahni Casini).
Perhaps the reason why Argento chose these colors and set designs is to, quote one source, to distract the audiences attention so they won't notice the bad story telling.
'Argento's skilful use of unsettling, intense colour and stunning set designs adequately obscure the film's numerous structural flaws.' - Film 4.
The set design are interesting but unfortunately not enough to distract from the story and several effects.

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4
Fig 5
Fig 6
Fig 2-6 many shots of the lighting and colors used in the movie. The colors give a, not enchanting more of a unearthly look, you have this girl who has flown from everything she knows to a new land so she is going to feel isolated, so these colors show that especially the moment at the start of the movie with the automatic doors at the airport they played the creepy electric rock music only when the doors were open, so again giving the sense of alienation. So you do have to give props to Argento on making the character feel isolated and alone.

Fig 7
Fig 8
Fig 7-8 the only times in the movie where it seems like normal place.


Image Bibliography:

Fig 1;
http://img08.deviantart.net/7398/i/2011/288/5/9/suspiria_film_poster_by_lorado69-d4cxfgu.jpg

Fig 2;
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w4jiuRwnKzY/TzqJ1blYY9I/AAAAAAAAAII/suJWsjTFz-8/s1600/Picture+17.png

Fig 3;
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0AarlGPFaZQ/S-Zp-4zmWRI/AAAAAAAABRk/cBGnVKWV3S4/s1600/PianoMedio34_1h18m23s.png

Fig 4;
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qnvsekYF7X8/U1jAC-wxTgI/AAAAAAAAU4Y/ElYY4pO4hNE/s1600/suspiria03.png

Fig 5;
http://www.popoptiq.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/suspiria6.jpg

Fig 6;
http://www.webalice.it/antoniobigliardi/suspiria93.jpg

Fig 7;
http://www.jaredmobarak.com/wp-content/filmstills/suspiria01.jpg

Fig 8;
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3HuRi6sxXx8/VVn_vW-79fI/AAAAAAAAMmU/-QClOSI287U/s1600/BMWTowersAndMuseum1__Suspiria.jpg

Bibliography:

Film 4, October 19 2008;
http://www.film4.com/reviews/1976/suspiria

1 comment:

  1. Hi Ben,

    Wow, that was quite a negative review! I'm not sure if that was because you absolutely hated the film, or if you were trying to get another point across... Anyway, which ever is the case, for the purposes of these reviews, you should really try and focus on the aspects of the film that are interesting and useful in relation to your current project. You have discussed the lighting, colour and sound which is good, but all the good stuff is overshadowed by the strong negative tone that you have written in. You can still include the negative, but if you word it slightly differently. it puts the emphasis back on the more interesting aspects. So for example, instead of saying that the story had no storyline and character development as if that us a bad thing, you can make it so that this is the very thing that gives the film its mystery. So for example,

    'The very lack of an apparent storyline and minimal character development, both add to the mystery of the film...'

    Don't forget that you also need at least 3 quotes from different sources to support your writing; in this case, you may have found that by looking at some different sources, you may have found a way to give a more balanced voice to your review.




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