Technicolor Nightmares: Suspiria plays at the drive-in tonight, 6/12

June 12, 10:12 AMLA Alternative Movie ExaminerMarvin Miranda

What can be said about Suspiria (1977) that hasn't already been said?

In a recent interview with legendary Italian director Luigi Cozzi, Cozzi would tell me the following about his one-time writing partner, ". . .Dario creates a new way of making giallo and it's a real leap forward. . . a major leap forward into terror."  He was referring to Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970), but he could have as easily been referring to Suspiria instead.  In fact, it would be with several giallo films, (or "Italian murder mysteries/sexy thrillers") that Argento seemed to push the boundaries of what is defined as "terror."  Suspiria, however, is a masterpiece of the sublime that transcends mere horror genre categorization.

Perhaps Argento's own famous quote about Suspiria might shed a kaleidoscopic light, "We were trying to reproduce the color of Walt Disney's Snow White (1937); it has been said from the beginning that Technicolor lacked subdued shades, was without nuances—like cut-out cartoons."  And with such ambitions Suspiria is indeed like a Walt Disney Technicolor cartoon by way of, well, Dario Argento, as its color palette of reds, greens, blues, and yellows evokes earlier giallo master director Mario Bava (who would later pop-up in Argento's Suspiria sequel, Inferno (1980), to lend his touch in a surreal underwater sequence that would be Bava's last work on film) and the cinematography of Hammer Films' Freddie Francis, with a spattering of M.C. Escher black and white that at times provides a background resembling a chess board, its pieces craftily manipulated in its foreground.  But Suspiria's beauty isn't without its beast as it transcends the horror genre while simultaneously reveling in it.  The gore (yes, you should cover your eyes) is so graphically cartoonish to the point of abstraction, the equivalent of Cindy Sherman finding the beauty in a puddle of puke.

The plot?  Oh, yeah:  girl boards at ballet school.  Murders happen. 

But what meager nonsense of a plot there is is only an excuse for Argento to do visually what Italian prog-rock group, Goblin, is doing aurally throughout the soundtrack, i.e., providing a sensual experience that's somewhat like infectiously melodious bubble-gum pop filled with a gooey, creepy center, all sugarcoated flamboyantly and lurid.  (No surprise that Argento famously filmed his masterpiece only after hearing the electro clashing and clamoring of Goblin's critically-acclaimed music.)  Argento records the most banal of everyday occurrences (the opening and closing of airport doors, a light bulb going out, a child and caretaker) as if they were the most harrowing experiences ever imagined.  And in the hands of Argento, they are. 

But for my money, the biggest revelation is literally the last shot of actress/heroine Jessica Harper as she escapes through fire and brimstone.  Never mind what's happening behind/all around her.  Study her face right before the credits roll.  In my mind, the most self-reflective and exhilirating shot in the history of cinematic fiction, reminding us that, in the end, it's only a movie. . .it's only a movie. . .it's only a--

Brings a smile to my face. . .

If you've seen it before, see it again from the comfort of your car, and if you've never seen it--oh, and I do enviously hope that some of you are seeing it for the first time--see it before the Natalie Portman remake hits the theaters next year.  And what will that be called?  Snow and the Seven.

Suspiria is playing tonight at the Masters of Horror Drive-In Series at the Steve Allen Theater in Los Feliz.  It's preceeded by Phantom of the Paradise at 8pm.  Both movies star guest Jessica Harper. 

For more info: visit http://www.steveallentheater.com/, watch the trailer here: Suspiria Trailer.  Or just go see the movie, already!