That is all this film is. I stopped it at 20 minutes, deleted the files, emptied my bin and restarted my computer. Utter garbage this is. Poor dialogue, uninspiring plot, and worst of all... do I even need to say it? Did the goblin record himself dropping pots and pans in the kitchen or something? The people who dig this film might as well dig their own graves right now because in the world that I live in this deserves no praise.
Just saw a pristine 35mm print of Suspiria at a film festival, and about twenty minutes into it, I thought to myself, "Is it just me, or is this just a bunch of noisy trash?" Imagine my delight when I see this commenter using exactly that phrase! Argento is one of those cinematic "sacred cows" like Ridley Scott + George Lucas whom you are supposed to revere, worship and adore, even though a close look at their work reveals thru deserve none of it. As for Argento, if Suspiria is considered his masterwork, then he is just a loud, pretentious, woman-hating hack who's a little too in love with color gel lighting. It's like you gave a naive but well-intentioned college film student free reign and a blank check to make the ultimate thriller. Not only does Suspiria have no interesting plotlines or characters, but for all its blood and screaming and colors snd noise, the damn thing is boring! And that godawful music adds the final nail in the coffin. I'm very glad I saw this "definitive" print of Suspiria, because now I understand why I always thought Argento was an overrated hack.
The thing about Suspiria is that you can be a fan of the movie and still agree with some of its detractors regarding various aspects of it, mainly because they're not lies. It's just in how you interpret and react to those qualities. If you think loud scores and garish colors are obnoxious, you'll obviously have issues watching Suspiria (or most Argento films, for that matter) but it doesn't mean someone else can't love the film FOR those exact reasons. I like that Argento is never making Hollywood thrillers because those are far too concerned with the three act structure to be innovative. This is something that only European cinema can really get away with, as American producers sap the artistry out of nearly everything they touch with their demands on following traditional structures and dumbing films down to where everything has to be explained. I remember seeing It Follows recently and being shocked by how many people on imdb were confused by certain scenes in the film when it was not at all ambiguous--the absence of seeing a character take a piss, for example, is not indicative that they don't have normal bodily functions, but people expected a fairly straightforward thriller like It Follows to not even cut to another scene without saying to the audience "She slept with this person!" It's pretty ridiculous how we want everything explained to us now. Suspiria and Inferno aren't concerned with the same things most American thrillers are focused on and I think, as a result, the ambiguity and seeming lack of direction results in a more organic movie. It doesn't feel as stilted. Suspiria has always seemed like a love project to me and not some cold, dead piece of film churned out by some Hollywood director just looking for a paycheck. There's clearly an intimacy going on between the film and its director that cannot be separated. You can always tell when you're watching a film whether the director loved the project or not. In Argento's films, it shows.
Well said. It's amazing how many on these boards lack this 'egalitarian' attitude toward film, and spend their time trashing films just for the sheer enjoyment of it.
BTW, I thought the Goblin soundtrack was the best part; it couldn't be 'noisy' enough for my ears...