A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
The story follows Jack, a highly intelligent serial killer, over the course of twelve years, and depicts the murders that really develop his inner madman.
French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD.
Director:
Gaspar Noé
Stars:
Sofia Boutella,
Romain Guillermic,
Souheila Yacoub
Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities, take fate into their own hands, and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.
Director:
Steve McQueen
Stars:
Viola Davis,
Michelle Rodriguez,
Elizabeth Debicki
Circa 1969, several strangers, most with a secret to bury, meet by chance at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one night, everyone will show their true colors - before everything goes to hell.
Director:
Drew Goddard
Stars:
Jeff Bridges,
Cynthia Erivo,
Dakota Johnson
A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other. Set against the background of the Cold ... See full summary »
In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne (Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Weisz) governs the country in her stead. When a new servant Abigail (Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.
Susie Bannion is a young American ballerina who travels to Berlin to study dancing at the Markos Tanz Company, one of the world's most renowned schools under Madame Blanc's management. On her very first day, one of the students who had been recently expelled from the school is murdered. As this appalling happening does not seem to be an isolated occurrence, the brilliant new student soon begins to suspect that the school might be involved in the homicide. Her mistrust heightens when Sarah, one of the girls at the school, tells her that Pat, before being killed, confided to her that she knew and guarded a terrifying dark secret.Written by
Domingo Alvarez
Rated R for disturbing content involving ritualistic violence, bloody images and graphic nudity, and for some language including sexual references| See all certifications »
Apart from "Lutz Ebersdorf", the two detectives and a small handful of minor roles, many without speaking roles, the entire cast of Suspiria (2018) is female. Given his comments that this interpretation's visual style is inspired by the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this could be seen as director Luca Guadagnino's tribute to Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), which was comprised of an entirely female ensemble. Also indicative of this Fassbinder tribute is the casting of Ingrid Caven as housemother Miss Vendegast. In the early 1970s, Caven was married to Fassbinder and appeared in many of his movies. See more »
Goofs
When Dr Klemperer is escorted out of the building after the big horror scene, they walk on the Western site of the Berlin Wall, and the other (Eastern) site is all darkness. In reality in 1977, all-night floodlights would have been blazing... See more »
Quotes
Susie Bannion:
[to Madame Blanc, communicated telepathically]
It's all a mess. The one out there...
[spoken]
Susie Bannion:
The one in here... the one that's coming. Why is everyone so ready to think the worst is over?
See more »
Crazy Credits
Just before the credits end, Susie reappears and makes a small gesture to the camera. See more »
Released in 1977, Dario Argento's giallo classic Suspiria (1977) has a plot you could fit on a stamp - a young American dancer goes to a famous Dance Academy in Germany, only to find it's a front for a witches coven. By no means is it a good film, with terrible acting, a dire script, and laughable effects, but it's immensely enjoyable, mainly because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Luca Guadagnino's remake is the polar opposite - it has an intricate plot covering all manner of themes and topics, featuring several new characters, and setting everything against a complex socio-political background; the acting and effects are excellent; it takes itself very, very seriously; and it continually tries to prove to the viewer that it is much more than a piece of kitsch horror. The real question, however, is not how similar or dissimilar it is to Argento. The real question is whether the film is a beautifully mounted insightful exploration of female sexuality, a celebration of a self-contained matriarchy set against the destructive chaos of a failing patriarchy, and a psychoanalytical investigation of national trauma and World War II guilt, or is it an overlong, dull, self-important, incoherent mess, that in trying to be both feminist and feminine somehow ends up being both misogynist and misandrist?
Set in "Divided Berlin" in October 1977, the film begins with Patricia Hingle (Chloë Grace Moretz, who appears to be cornering the market in rubbish Hollywood remakes), a student at the prestigious Helena Markos Dance Academy arriving at the home of her psychoanalyst, Dr. Josef Klemperer (Tilda Swinton, credited as Lutz Ebersdorf). Terrified and not making much sense, Hingle tells Klemperer she has discovered something sinister about the Academy and is now in fear for her life. Meanwhile, Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), a Mennonite from Ohio, arrives at the Academy hoping to audition. Impressed with her abilities, lead choreographer Madame Blanc (also Tilda Swinton, channelling Pina Bausch), admits her to the Academy, and Susie quickly finds herself dancing the lead in the Academy's upcoming piece, Volk. Elsewhere, Klemperer is trying to find out what happened to his wife, Anke (Jessica Harper, who played Susie in the original), who disappeared in 1944, whilst also investigating the Academy, enlisting the aid of Susie's roommate, Sara Simms (Mia Goth). Meanwhile, the coven holds a fractious election for leader.
Set in October 1977, the events of the Deutscher Herbst (German Autumn) are constantly on the fringes of the narrative, with street demos, bombings, and radio reports of Ulrike Meinhof's death in police custody in May 1976, the imprisonment of Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, the activities of the far-left, anti-imperialist terrorist group Red Army Faction, the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181, and the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer. And it is in relation to politics where we encounter the first, and most certainly not the last, of the film's problems. Guadagnino, working with screenwriter David Kajganich, employs a pseudo-Jungian approach to show that the country's political turmoil runs parallel to the struggle for control of the coven. The once harmonious group has now devolved, just like Germany, into factionalism, backroom political manoeuvring, subterfuge, and animosity. But to what end does he make this parallel? What is he trying to say? Rarely have I encountered a narrative which employs such blatant yet inconclusive and vague political contextualisation. None of the other political symbols amount to much; they certainly don't inform any grand thematic statement or political thesis. Guadagnino bombards the viewer with empty historical and political themes which do nothing for the central storyline, functioning instead as decoration; trivialising and disconnected.
Also important in relation to the film's politics is Vergangenheitsbewältigung ("Overcoming the past") - essentially, Germany's attempt to come to terms with World War II and the Holocaust. This is primarily seen in Klemperer's search for his wife, which throws up another problem. Klemperer, who is not in Argento's original, is a surrogate for the audience. Nothing wrong with that, it's a standard screenwriting technique used to facilitate more organic exposition. However, Klemperer is a distracting and painfully on-the-nose device to afford Guadagnino a vehicle for a political subplot, which is superfluous to what is happening in the coven. Every reference to Anke could be removed from the film, and it would work just as well. In fact, it would work better. In a story ostensibly about the Feminine, it's rather troubling that the emotional core is male.
Which brings us to another theme; femininity (if not necessarily feminism). Susie is told by head matron Tanner (Angela Winkler) that the academy ensures the "financial autonomy of our girls"; speaking of Nazi Germany, Blanc says the regime wanted women to "close their minds and keep their uteruses open"; Susie is reminded that "before the war, Germany had the strongest women". As Klemperer is played by Swinton, the film effectively has an all-female cast (apart from two cops whose main scene involves the witches hypnotising them and mocking the size of their genitalia). Guadagnino isn't interested in idealising female empowerment, telling Jezebel, "if we talk about the Great Mother, we cannot deny the terrible mother. True feminism is something that doesn't shy away from the complexity of the female identity."
But does the film imply that a powerful group of women is something to be inherently feared? Partly. Indeed, the very theme of witchcraft itself (perhaps the purest historical manifestation of the patriarchy's fear of female agency) carries an undercurrent of misogyny, which is not helped by the nudity and repeated violent objectification of the female body. There's a very thin line between condemning the male gaze and recreating it, and it's a line which Suspiria frequently crosses (for an excellent example of a film which recreates the male gaze for the purpose of satirising and ridiculing it, see Coralie Fargeat's Revenge (2017)). Maybe the problem here is simply that a story inherently about matriarchy, female empowerment, and the importance of motherhood, is a story a man can't tell very well. I'm reminded of Sofia Coppola's remake of The Beguiled (2017), of which she argued, "this story had to be directed by a woman. The essence of it is feminine, it's seen from a female point of view." Suspiria also has a feminine essence, but it doesn't have a female point of view, and one can't help but wonder what a talented female director like Coppola, Mary Harron, Patty Jenkins, or the genius that is Lynne Ramsay would have made of this material.
However, even aside from these problems, there are a plethora of other issues. The character of Blanc is poorly written, and is stripped of agency towards the end of the film. As for the matrons, apart from Tanner, none receive an iota of characterisation; they are simply a jumble of non-individualised extras. The same is true of the dancers. There's a cliché-riddled scene showing Blanc telepathically channelling nightmares to Susie, full of images of skulls, worms, rotting flesh, etc. Nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. Finally, the film is immensely silly in places. For example, the much-talked-about climax is presided over by what can only be described as a female Jabba the Hut wearing sunglasses.
From an aesthetic point of view, there's a great deal to admire, as one would expect from Guadagnino. Walter Fasano's editing is wonderfully disjointed and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's compositions are fascinating, often putting the camera in such a position as to purposely give a less than perfect view of a particular space. Combined, these two techniques are disorientating and frequently defamiliarising, rendering mundane geographical as foreboding and unknowable, almost protean. Contributing to this sense is the blocking, particularly the recurring motif of staging conversations so that one character is off-screen, only visible to the audience via reflection. Especially noticeable is the film's colour, or lack thereof. Whereas Argento's original was awash in garish and exaggerated reds, purples, blues, greens, and yellows, Guadagnino's remake was conceived as "winterish", with as limited a use of primary colours as possible; grey, beige, and brown predominate. Giulia Piersanti's costumes are also superb, with Susie's wardrobe noticeably changing from conservative dresses and sweatpants to more revealing tank tops and shorts as she gains in confidence.
Self-indulgent like little else I can think of, Suspiria is absolutely convinced of its own profundity. Far, far too long and far too self-serious, its themes and messages are poorly iterated, it's insanely dull for long periods, and it's badly unfocused. It's almost an hour longer than the original, and, honestly, it uses that hour to say precisely nothing of interest. The simple fact is that the slight story at the film's core (a coven of witches using a dance academy as a front) is unable to bear the massive weight of themes and narrative diversions heaped upon it; the vehicle just can't carry the message. Its politics are no more insightful than tabloid headlines, and serve only to detract from what is supposed to be the narrative's focus. Ultimately, it has little to say about femininity, feminism, political protest, the Holocaust, Cold War Germany, or World War II guilt, but it damn sure works hard to convince us it has a great deal to say about such topics. As cold as the Berlin winter it depicts, Suspiria is equal parts emotionless, mechanical, and dull.
12 of 18 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Released in 1977, Dario Argento's giallo classic Suspiria (1977) has a plot you could fit on a stamp - a young American dancer goes to a famous Dance Academy in Germany, only to find it's a front for a witches coven. By no means is it a good film, with terrible acting, a dire script, and laughable effects, but it's immensely enjoyable, mainly because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Luca Guadagnino's remake is the polar opposite - it has an intricate plot covering all manner of themes and topics, featuring several new characters, and setting everything against a complex socio-political background; the acting and effects are excellent; it takes itself very, very seriously; and it continually tries to prove to the viewer that it is much more than a piece of kitsch horror. The real question, however, is not how similar or dissimilar it is to Argento. The real question is whether the film is a beautifully mounted insightful exploration of female sexuality, a celebration of a self-contained matriarchy set against the destructive chaos of a failing patriarchy, and a psychoanalytical investigation of national trauma and World War II guilt, or is it an overlong, dull, self-important, incoherent mess, that in trying to be both feminist and feminine somehow ends up being both misogynist and misandrist?
Set in "Divided Berlin" in October 1977, the film begins with Patricia Hingle (Chloë Grace Moretz, who appears to be cornering the market in rubbish Hollywood remakes), a student at the prestigious Helena Markos Dance Academy arriving at the home of her psychoanalyst, Dr. Josef Klemperer (Tilda Swinton, credited as Lutz Ebersdorf). Terrified and not making much sense, Hingle tells Klemperer she has discovered something sinister about the Academy and is now in fear for her life. Meanwhile, Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), a Mennonite from Ohio, arrives at the Academy hoping to audition. Impressed with her abilities, lead choreographer Madame Blanc (also Tilda Swinton, channelling Pina Bausch), admits her to the Academy, and Susie quickly finds herself dancing the lead in the Academy's upcoming piece, Volk. Elsewhere, Klemperer is trying to find out what happened to his wife, Anke (Jessica Harper, who played Susie in the original), who disappeared in 1944, whilst also investigating the Academy, enlisting the aid of Susie's roommate, Sara Simms (Mia Goth). Meanwhile, the coven holds a fractious election for leader.
Set in October 1977, the events of the Deutscher Herbst (German Autumn) are constantly on the fringes of the narrative, with street demos, bombings, and radio reports of Ulrike Meinhof's death in police custody in May 1976, the imprisonment of Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, the activities of the far-left, anti-imperialist terrorist group Red Army Faction, the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181, and the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer. And it is in relation to politics where we encounter the first, and most certainly not the last, of the film's problems. Guadagnino, working with screenwriter David Kajganich, employs a pseudo-Jungian approach to show that the country's political turmoil runs parallel to the struggle for control of the coven. The once harmonious group has now devolved, just like Germany, into factionalism, backroom political manoeuvring, subterfuge, and animosity. But to what end does he make this parallel? What is he trying to say? Rarely have I encountered a narrative which employs such blatant yet inconclusive and vague political contextualisation. None of the other political symbols amount to much; they certainly don't inform any grand thematic statement or political thesis. Guadagnino bombards the viewer with empty historical and political themes which do nothing for the central storyline, functioning instead as decoration; trivialising and disconnected.
Also important in relation to the film's politics is Vergangenheitsbewältigung ("Overcoming the past") - essentially, Germany's attempt to come to terms with World War II and the Holocaust. This is primarily seen in Klemperer's search for his wife, which throws up another problem. Klemperer, who is not in Argento's original, is a surrogate for the audience. Nothing wrong with that, it's a standard screenwriting technique used to facilitate more organic exposition. However, Klemperer is a distracting and painfully on-the-nose device to afford Guadagnino a vehicle for a political subplot, which is superfluous to what is happening in the coven. Every reference to Anke could be removed from the film, and it would work just as well. In fact, it would work better. In a story ostensibly about the Feminine, it's rather troubling that the emotional core is male.
Which brings us to another theme; femininity (if not necessarily feminism). Susie is told by head matron Tanner (Angela Winkler) that the academy ensures the "financial autonomy of our girls"; speaking of Nazi Germany, Blanc says the regime wanted women to "close their minds and keep their uteruses open"; Susie is reminded that "before the war, Germany had the strongest women". As Klemperer is played by Swinton, the film effectively has an all-female cast (apart from two cops whose main scene involves the witches hypnotising them and mocking the size of their genitalia). Guadagnino isn't interested in idealising female empowerment, telling Jezebel, "if we talk about the Great Mother, we cannot deny the terrible mother. True feminism is something that doesn't shy away from the complexity of the female identity."
But does the film imply that a powerful group of women is something to be inherently feared? Partly. Indeed, the very theme of witchcraft itself (perhaps the purest historical manifestation of the patriarchy's fear of female agency) carries an undercurrent of misogyny, which is not helped by the nudity and repeated violent objectification of the female body. There's a very thin line between condemning the male gaze and recreating it, and it's a line which Suspiria frequently crosses (for an excellent example of a film which recreates the male gaze for the purpose of satirising and ridiculing it, see Coralie Fargeat's Revenge (2017)). Maybe the problem here is simply that a story inherently about matriarchy, female empowerment, and the importance of motherhood, is a story a man can't tell very well. I'm reminded of Sofia Coppola's remake of The Beguiled (2017), of which she argued, "this story had to be directed by a woman. The essence of it is feminine, it's seen from a female point of view." Suspiria also has a feminine essence, but it doesn't have a female point of view, and one can't help but wonder what a talented female director like Coppola, Mary Harron, Patty Jenkins, or the genius that is Lynne Ramsay would have made of this material.
However, even aside from these problems, there are a plethora of other issues. The character of Blanc is poorly written, and is stripped of agency towards the end of the film. As for the matrons, apart from Tanner, none receive an iota of characterisation; they are simply a jumble of non-individualised extras. The same is true of the dancers. There's a cliché-riddled scene showing Blanc telepathically channelling nightmares to Susie, full of images of skulls, worms, rotting flesh, etc. Nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. Finally, the film is immensely silly in places. For example, the much-talked-about climax is presided over by what can only be described as a female Jabba the Hut wearing sunglasses.
From an aesthetic point of view, there's a great deal to admire, as one would expect from Guadagnino. Walter Fasano's editing is wonderfully disjointed and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's compositions are fascinating, often putting the camera in such a position as to purposely give a less than perfect view of a particular space. Combined, these two techniques are disorientating and frequently defamiliarising, rendering mundane geographical as foreboding and unknowable, almost protean. Contributing to this sense is the blocking, particularly the recurring motif of staging conversations so that one character is off-screen, only visible to the audience via reflection. Especially noticeable is the film's colour, or lack thereof. Whereas Argento's original was awash in garish and exaggerated reds, purples, blues, greens, and yellows, Guadagnino's remake was conceived as "winterish", with as limited a use of primary colours as possible; grey, beige, and brown predominate. Giulia Piersanti's costumes are also superb, with Susie's wardrobe noticeably changing from conservative dresses and sweatpants to more revealing tank tops and shorts as she gains in confidence.
Self-indulgent like little else I can think of, Suspiria is absolutely convinced of its own profundity. Far, far too long and far too self-serious, its themes and messages are poorly iterated, it's insanely dull for long periods, and it's badly unfocused. It's almost an hour longer than the original, and, honestly, it uses that hour to say precisely nothing of interest. The simple fact is that the slight story at the film's core (a coven of witches using a dance academy as a front) is unable to bear the massive weight of themes and narrative diversions heaped upon it; the vehicle just can't carry the message. Its politics are no more insightful than tabloid headlines, and serve only to detract from what is supposed to be the narrative's focus. Ultimately, it has little to say about femininity, feminism, political protest, the Holocaust, Cold War Germany, or World War II guilt, but it damn sure works hard to convince us it has a great deal to say about such topics. As cold as the Berlin winter it depicts, Suspiria is equal parts emotionless, mechanical, and dull.