ITALY

1977 – DCP – colore – 99’

Direction: Dario Argento
Screenplay: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi
Cinematography: Luciano Tovoli
Editing: Franco Fraticelli
Set design: Giuseppe Bassan
Music: Goblin, Dario Argento
Costumes: Pierangelo Cicoletti
Cast: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett
Producer: Claudio Argento
Production: Seda Spettacoli

SYNOPSIS

The first instalment of the Three Mothers trilogy. American dancer Suzy Benner has decided to further her studies at the prestigious Freiburg Academy. She arrives in town in the middle of the night under torrential rain, and at the same moment a mysterious hand savagely murders a former pupil and her friend. The atmosphere in the place soon turns hostile, worm invasions occur, the teachers retreat into a hidden wing of the building at night, and the mysterious headmistress, whom none of the school girls has ever seen, hovers over everything. Suzy begins to feel sick, and anyone who tries to uncover the secret of the Academy is killed by the mysterious murdering hand. As a matter of fact, black magic is practised in the school and the teachers are actually witches.

CRITICAL NOTE

“Dario Argento says that Suspiria was inspired by a fairy-tale by Wedekind. But the film (…) is entirely his own. Only someone who has acquired so much expertise in mastering modern film techniques can indeed achieve such immediate effects, keeping tension high throughout a story that is absolutely implausible but encapsulates many typical elements of the time: the taste for black magic, bloodthirsty violence, macabre and crazy. There are murderers in Suspiria, but we will never see their faces. There are witches who transmit evil forces even to animals, but we shall never know how their queen (…) defeated Time.” (Giovanni Grazzini, Cinema ’77, 1978)