By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz | Dakota Johnson | Doris Hick | Ingrid Caven | Jessica Harper | Malgorzata Bela | Mia Goth | Sylvie Testud | Tilda Swinton
Country: italy, united_states
Year: 2018
Running time: 152
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034415/reference
Thom says: “I was truly thrilled to recall that this received 6 Chlotrudis nominations for year-end honors in 2019. While it failed to win any of the coveted awards the recognition was noteworthy and well-deserved. Inbal Weinberg for Production Design, David Kajganich for Adapted Screenplay, Walter Fasano for Best Editing, Tilda Swinton for Best Supporting Actress, Luca Guadagnino for Best Director, and Best Film. Bless the committee members that supported these nominations. Naturally, Guadagnino needs no introduction as I first discovered him at the 2009 TIFF with his brilliant I AM LOVE, seen by quite a number of our reporters. His 2 earlier features THE PROTAGONISTS (1999) & MELISSA P. (2005) are inaccessible as far as my inquiries have transpired. But his following films have all been top-of-the-line for this partial reviewer. A BIGGER SPLASH (2015) & CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017) were both seriously artistic masterpieces. While I had the highest expectations for this film I have to note that the despised Mick LaSalle Head Film Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle chose this film as one of his 10 WORST FILMS OF 2018. And there was also the bald truth that this was an adaptation of cult director Dario Argento’s 1977 SUSPIRIA which undeniably is the inspiration for this vastly superior version. For many fans Argento is considered the master of Italian horror over the past few decades, but, alas, I’m not one of them. His serious lack of decent script writers usually make for a muddled miasma of mediocrity, even assuming you like horror films. And I can confidently tell you this isn’t a snap decision, for I have unwisely seen all his major fare. Anyway, SUSPIRIA was by far his best film, but here the heightened atmosphere of these most horrific happenings make for a splashy, mad, dynamic thrill ride through depravity of the darkest, sinister aura. Tilda Swinton as the head of the prestigious Markos Tanz Dance Company, Madame Blanc, in Berlin, where American ballerina Suzy comes to apply, is as brilliant as ever. She also has two other roles as Dr. Klemperer, the male psychotherapist who becomes entwined in the demonic unfolding through his taking on the case of a distraught Company student; & the mysterious Helena Markos. The proceedings are indeed grotesque and extremely unsettling so for the squeamish this is not the film for you. After Suzy is accepted at the Company she soon becomes the lead dancer and on her rise to the top a number of the students are hideously twisted into death-like contortions. There’s some kind of nefarious coven operating in the background that are planning the worst kind of plots. The rest of the cast are all memorable and nearly the entire cast is female. It was great to see Ingrid Caven back on the boards as the wicked Miss Vendegast. She was once married to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, my favourite all time director. She’s been acting steadily over the years but few of her films come my way. Also, so fabulous that Guadagnino cast the original Suzy Bannion from the 1978 film, Jessica Harper in a small role.”