Luca Guadagnino has dropped another project

by Cláudio Alves

Back when Luca Guadagnino first announced his plans to remake Suspiria, many were skeptical – me included. Why would we need a new take on the material when Argento's 1977 classic is such a candy-colored masterpiece? It turns out that Guadagnino was idiosyncratic enough to get away with it, proposing such a distinct vision that comparing it to the other movie feels beside the point. Hence, when the director told the world he'd helm a Scarface remake from a Coen Bros. script, the consensus was more hopeful than before. Well, that picture is officially off of Guadagnino's schedule, joining the ranks of many a dropped project…

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Alida Valli @ 100: Star of The Third Man, Suspiria, and Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case

by Brent Calderwood

Alida Valli, who was born 100 years ago today in Pola, Italy (now part of Croatia), became a legend of Italian cinema in classics ranging in style from Luchino Visconti’s operatic epic Senso to Dario Argento’s supernatural slasher Suspiria. In a career that spanned 68 years, international directors were repeatedly drawn to her dark, inscrutable beauty and haunted green eyes. She's still admired by film lovers worldwide for three noir-tinged movies she made while abroad: The Third Man opposite Orson Welles (where she gets one of the most famous screen exits in history), Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case, and the French horror film Eyes Without a Face.  

In 1947, producer David O. Selznick invited Valli to Hollywood, hoping to repeat the success he’d had with two of his other European “discoveries,” Ingrid Bergman and Vivien Leigh. He gave her the full star treatment, even briefly abbreviating her name to the one-word “Valli” à la “Garbo” and having Hitchcock helm her first American picture...

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Horror Costuming: Suspiria

A special miniseries for Halloween by Cláudio Alves

Costume sketches by Giulia Piersanti

As cinephiles, we're often too quick to condemn the idea of the remake. But remakes can often be illuminating. A good remake is a conversation made of echoes refracted through cinema and cultural history and time, as valuable, in its own way, as the original picture.

Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria is perhaps the supreme example of this. Instead of replicating Dario Argento's 1977 post-Giallo masterpiece, Guadagnino and his team have created an entirely new work that further explores themes only glanced at in the first movie. Even its look is excitingly different, autumnal and chilly where the previous film was carnivalesque and hot-blooded. One could write about the perfection of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's cinematography or Inbal Weinberg's scenography, but, today, you're invited to reflect on the work of costume designer Giulia Piersanti…

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Horror Actressing: Mia Goth in "Suspiria"

by Jason Adams

To tell the truth it's been taking me a coven's worth of willpower not to use this "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series week after week as an excuse to go through the cast-list of Luca Guadagnino's  Suspiria one by one by one and highlight every single woman in the film -- there's nary a weak link in sight, everybody is serving something special, and that's a lot of every-bodies given how deep that cast-list runs. 

Thankfully I'm not alone in my obsession, and one of my favorite horror writers on the entire internet, Stacie Ponder at Final Girl, has devoted the entire month of October to doing just that. She's not just talking the stellar cast though -- every day she's dissecting themes and images and if you ask me proving to the naysayers (of which those of us who adore the film know there are many, more many, than there are lovers) that Guadagnino gifted us with a profoundly rich and moving horror masterpiece, aching up to its eaves with feeling.

Anyway Stacie's impelling piece last week on the love relationship between Susie (Dakota Johnson) and Sara (Mia Goth) finally managed to break my back with respect to holding out on talking this movie -- specifically I've had nothing but Goth's work on my mind for seven straight days. And what a blessing that's been...

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We Need to Talk About Suspiria / Third Tilda's a Charm

Please welcome guest contributor Maggy Torres-Rodriguez

Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. So if you’re looking for a flick to throw on, kick back and re-- really have your stomach churn, this is it. BUT before we get into that, can we first take a moment to talk about Dakota Johnson’s Met Gala dress (pictured above)...

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