Premiered at the Venice Film Festival September 1,2018
a Luca Guadagnino film
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
1977 West Berlin, an American girl, Susie, attends a dance Academy run by witches. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist suspects something is going on at that Academy after interviewing a young lady who escaped from there.
Blaine: Luca Guadagnino was only 14 when he saw the original 1977 version of “Suspiria”. Luca wasn’t allowed to see that movie because it was a scary movie and he was underage, but he sneaked a video version of it in his room and watched the whole thing. Luca was amazed with what director Dario Argento did with this movie and he felt it was an empowering film. “Suspiria” inspired Luca rather than scare him and it made him want to make his own version. In 2007, Luca bought the rights to do a remake of “Suspiria” and he almost lost it to Miramax studios. Luca couldn’t make “Suspiria” at the time because he already had enough on his hands with all these other films he was planning to make. Then Luca wasn’t interested in directing “Suspiria” anymore and he almost handed it off to David Gordon Green (Halloween), who would have done it, but he felt it was too big of responsibility to make something like this. “Suspiria” was one of Luca’s passion projects and it would have been a mistake to let someone else direct it. Luca got the urge to want to direct “Suspiria” again as the project was in development. He kept thinking about blood and that is what made him want to go back. Luca got attached to directing “Call Me By Your Name” and while he was shooting it he was also prepping up for “Suspiria”. A few months after “Call Me By Your Name” had wrapped, Luca had begun shooting “Suspiria”. He was working on two different projects at once. The original “Suspiria” was about an American ballet dancer who travels to Germany to take a spot at an elite dance school. Strange things happen at that school. Luca decided to have his version of “Suspiria” take place the year the original film was released, 1977. By late ’77, West Germany was going through the German Autumn. People were being kidnapped and murdered there.
Luca and Tilda Swinton had known each other since ’93 and at that time Luca was already talking about making his own version of “Suspiria”. Tilda and Luca got to work on a lot of projects together, “The Protagonists”, “I Am Love” and “A Bigger Splash”. “Suspiria” was their fourth movie together and Tilda got to play three different characters. One of Tilda's characters, Madame Blanc, was once a dancer, but now she is the dance instructor. When Susie first auditions for the academy, Madame Blanc senses something about her that she has never felt before. Madame Blanc knows Susie has a passion for dance and she grows a huge liking to Susie the more time they spend together. Blanc has never been that close to a student before Susie. Susie also tells Blanc the story that she went to three of Blanc's shows when she was still dancing. Susie journeyed far in order to see those shows. Susie wouldn’t miss a show for the world and Blanc is touched by that.
Dr. Josef Klemperer, the psychiatrists who has suspicions about the Academy, was played by an actor named Lutz Ebersdorf. But the fact is Lutz doesn’t exist. Lutz is not an actor, he is just a made up person and he was used to keep something secret. The real actor who played Dr. Josef Klemperer was Tilda Swinton. Tilda thought it would be a good idea if the audience didn’t know she was playing a man in “Suspiria”. A lot of people were fooled thinking Lutz Ebersdorf was a real person. Tilda made it convincing she was someone else through her performance and the prosthetics she wore are so life like and detailed. There’s a scene where it shows Dr. Josef Klemperer completely nude and that had to have been a double. That or the makeup department did one hell of a job with the full body prosthetics. Either way. Dr. Josef Klemperer’s story is his wife went missing some time ago and he doesn’t have a clue what happened to her. The scene I was most impressed with Tilda Swinton’s performance as Dr. Josef Klemperer was at the end of the film, when the character is getting devastated when he learns a terrible thing happened to his wife. The news is too much for him to hear. A month after “Suspiria” had it’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Tilda Swinton confessed that she played Dr. Klemperer. She was still able to fool people in thinking Lutz Ebersdorf was a real person because not every one heard the news. Tilda thought it would be best for people to figure out that she played Dr. Klemperer for themselves. Tilda’s third character is Mother Helena Markos, who is the elder witch of the coven.
Luca had worked with Dakota Johnson before on “A Bigger Splash” and what he likes about Dakota is that she is a sharp actress. Dakota Johnson did ballet when she was a kid and she had been dancing as she grew up, but “Suspiria” required things that her body was incapable of doing like a quadruple pirouette. Dakota had to go through a lot of training for months. She would work with a lot of professional dancers who taught her a lot. The dancing in the movie requires you to be flexible, really good on your feet and moving your body all over the place. The work Dakota did on her body was really intense. One of the things Dakota learned was this tiny movement work out where the muscles in your body get tight and long and it was painful. Everyone had trained from 6 to 8 hours a day all week. Mia Goth had never danced before, but what she was practicing was very empowering and it felt so good that she didn’t want to give up dancing after “Suspiria” wrapped.
The academy has just lost it’s lead dancer, Olga, and Susie volunteers to be the new lead, although she has to prove she is worthy enough to be the lead by doing a dance that is very dangerous. But Madame Blanc is able to help by transferring the talent and skills from Olga into Susie using a spell. The injuries Susie could have gotten while doing the dance are inflicted on Olga. Olga gets thrown around the glass room she is in and the bones in her body get dislocated. It’s a voodoo spell. Olga is injured in the worst ways you can imagine. Terrible things happen to a person trying to flee the Academy. I like how that scene cuts back and forth at a fast pace with Susie dancing, while Olga is being tortured and it cuts to several different angles. Olga was played by Elena Fokina, who is a dancer in real life and all those movements in that scene were done by her. No CGI effects were needed and no wires.
It was a real pleasure for Mia Goth to be working with her favorite director Luca Guadagnino and she felt welcomed to be apart of his team. Luca also made Mia believe in herself. Mia loved playing a woman with courage. Her character, Sara, is Susie’s closest friend at the Academy. Sara starts off as this calm woman who is happy all the time. Then Dr. Josef Klemperer shows up and informs Sara about the girl who escaped the Academy, Patricia Hingle, and that she suspected witch craft was going on in the place. Sara doesn’t believe it at first, but when she hears a noise coming from downstairs she starts to grow suspicious about the Academy. Sara finds a secret entrance to a chamber underneath the Academy and she sees something that proves Dr. Josef was right. Sara is now the concerning type. Mia had fun shooting that sequence because Sara is figuring out the truth.
The original 1977 version didn’t have a grand dance moment and Luca decided his version would have the girls putting on a show for the audience because he felt that dance needed to be a process of witchcraft. Dakota got stage fright while shooting that sequence. She’s never danced in front of a crowd before. The dancers wear these outfits made from rope designed to represent blood dripping down. Sara goes back down to the chamber to snoop some more and she finds Patricia Hingle rotting away. The witches have spells around some of the rooms like a security system and these holes show up on the floor and Sara can't see them. Her leg falls in one of the holes and it snaps. Witches show up and heal the wounded leg. They could have killed Sara or made her suffer, but instead they chose to heal the leg and bewitch her because the girls are dancing upstairs and there is one dancer missing. The show must go on.
Jessica Harper had starred in the original “Suspiria” and when she was informed that a new version was going to be made she thought it was a bad idea. But when she learned Luca Guadagnino was going to direct, that turned things around. Jessica loves Luca’s work and she knew he would bring something unique to this new version of “Suspiria”. Jessica got a call asking if she would like to make a cameo in “Suspiria” and she said yes quickly. The role they had in mind for Jessica was Dr. Josef Klemperer’s missing wife, Anke. Jessica was also asked if she could speak German and she said yes to that too, but she was lying. Jessica would do anything to be in “Suspiria” even if she had to lie her way in. Jessica quickly learned how to speak German.
Towards the end of “Suspiria”, there is a scene that is very terrifying to watch because it shows a lot of blood and Sara’s insides are being pulled out of her belly. Susie gets to see the Coven’s ritual in the underground chamber and everyone is naked or half naked. Some are dancing and few are suffering while being stuck in a trance, rotting away or having intestines being pulled out of them. The witches are pure evil and I hate what they have done to innocent women like Sarah and Pat Hingle. Just seeing what Sarah and Pat are going through makes me feel like I could pass out and I'm a guy who can handle seeing someone's insides being pulled out on film. But with "Suspiria" it's dfferent. I guess the reason is because I like Sara. Dr. Josef Klemperer is there to suffer. The Head witch is to take over Susie’s body because she is diseased and she looks like a dead frog. Blanc can’t let Susie be involved with the ritual because she cares about her too much and for that the Head witch has Blanc’s head decapitated and blood is just coming out of that neck like a fountain. Blanc’s head is still slightly attached to the body. Susie reveals that she is more powerful than the Head witch. This whole time Susie acted like she was just this student who’s only desire is to dance. Susie also acted liked she had no clue what was going on at the Academy, but turns out what she was really there for was to claim the Academy. Susie summons Death and he has witches’ heads blow up like a bomb and blood is splattering all over the place. The tint of the scene turns red when Death shows up. While Death kills most of the witches, Susie opens up her chest and shows her insides and I don’t know what that was about. That whole scene is one of the most horrific scenes I have ever seen and it made me squeamish as I was watching it. It takes quite the imagination and a strong stomach to bring a scene that is so insane to life and it must be what made Luca get back into the director’s position. It always made Luca happy every time a new pack of fake blood was brought on set. He would tell everyone to add more blood to the scene as they were shooting. In the end, Susie takes over the Academy and Dr. Josef Klemperer is set free. Susie erases Klemperer’s memories so that way the Coven can remain a secret. Working on “Suspiria” sent Dakota Johnson to therapy because of all the f****k up things that go on in it. “Suspiria” inspired Luca Guadagnino to make it into something worse from the original film....and when I say worse I mean scary.
