In preparation for our two part Horror Best Listing (pre-Exorcist and post-Exorcist which arrives tonight) I caught up with a few classic titles. One of them, briefly discussed on the latest podcast, was Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977). I can't say I took to it exactly, despite being partial to films which boozily strip naked and beg their Production Designer & Cinematographer to f*** them.
slumber parties in horror movies? never a good idea
Suspiria (have you seen it?) starts sort of well, flying right into an unnatural rainstorm with a weirdly off kilter urgency as ballerina Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arrives in Germany to attend an prestigious ballet academy. But those first two kills are so yuck making the intro a mixed bag for me. For its middle section, which I assume is where the film's classic status derives, the movie does little cul-de-sacs in creepy/garish atmospherics punctuated by two perversely inventive murders. But then, oops, time is up. For its last trick, Suspiria speeds through a dud finale with mood-killing exposition (how was Udo Kier ever this young!?) and badly dated visual effects. By the time the credits appear, it's lost pretty much all of its intermittent unnerving power. For me at least; I understand others really do dig it.
After Suspiria ended, my mind wandered to a more general cinematic question: Are there any silver screen ballerinas that are happy?
See, it seems like screen ballerinas are always batshit crazy whether they're...
Suspiria
...possessed by the occult
The Red Shoes
...dancing feverishly as if possessed by toe shoes
Black Swan
...having psychotic feathered breaks
The Turning Point
...or engaging in neurotic Oscarbait-offs.
Can you think of any well adjusted ballerinas in fiction?
And if you can't whose your favorite nutjob ballerina?