Sunday, November 1, 2009

Some thoughts on Inferno

1:55 PM / Cinema / Comments15 Comments

Inferno

Every year, I promise myself that I'll go on a horror movie binge at Halloween, and every year I come up short. This time round, I have the excuse that, due to October 31st falling on a Saturday, I was working all day and was too knackered when I got home to contemplate a viewing marathon. However, not wanting to let All Hallows' Eve pass unacknowledged, I decided to dim the lights, put my feet up and watch Dario Argento's Inferno.

Inferno is a film that I have a strange relationship with, in that I have to be in the right mood to really enjoy it. Someone once wrote that it was the only film that they loved unconditionally but at the same time could completely understand why others loathed it, and that really struck a chord with me. It's a mesmerising, imaginative and quite otherworldly film, but at the same time so heavily flawed that part of me wants to simply dismiss it as a failure. Its predecessor, Suspiria, while not exactly what you would call mainstream, was far more accessible than this loose sequel, which seeks to capture the atmosphere of a fever dream. Argento was seriously ill during both the writing and principle photography, and some of this actually ends up on the screen in terms of the delirious, nonsensical manner in which events unfold.

Inferno

What inspired me to pick Inferno over the dozens of other horror films on my shelf was reading a review of it my the ever-reliable Mr. Peel, whose blog is one of my favourite haunts for movie reviews. Watching the film last night with his review in mind, I was struck by just how much my own opinion tallies with his:

INFERNO is a fascinating and, in some ways, daring work by its director but at times maybe too disjointed to entirely connect to any sort of emotional state. Still, it's hard to deny how much the very best moments really do linger in the brain long after it concludes and at its best there is a genuine power in there.

Likewise, I absolutely agree with Mr. Peel's assertion that one of the most problematic aspects of the film is that it feels like the middle chapter of a trilogy that was never completed. Argento did, of course, complete the trilogy two years ago with Mother of Tears, but that film was so divorced from Suspiria and Inferno in every respect (be it mood, aesthetics or even time period) that in many ways the story still feels infuriatingly unfinished. Not for the first time, I find myself wondering what the third chapter would have been like had it been made in the mid-80s when Argento was still at the height of his game, rather than a quarter-century later when his batting average had become much lower and his entire approach to filmmaking changed beyond all recognition.

Inferno

Much of the frustration I feel when watching Inferno comes in the form of Leigh McCloskey as the protagonist. He is a bland and ineffective presence, and even taking into account the fact that this was surely Argento's intention, the result is that following his journey of (non-)discovery isn't particularly satisfying. In Suspiria, Jessica Harper was the perfect protagonist: sympathetic, resourceful, vulnerable without being helpless, and easy on the eyes. McCloskey is none of these, and the fact that we are initially introduced to two far more promising contenders - Irene Miracle and Eleonora Giorgi - simply adds to the sense of frustration when McCloskey and his hair take centre stage.

Inferno

And yet it's difficult to deny just how much of Inferno works. The visuals are surreal and stunning, if very different from those of Suspiria. They may seem superficially similar in terms of their foregrounding of bold washes of blue and red, but in many respects the earlier film is far more deliberately stylised. Inferno, by contrast, actually has a more naturalistic look, punctuated by blasts of vivid colour. Some of the set pieces are among the best Argento has ever created, particularly those that involve Irene Miracle going for an impromptu dip in a ballroom submerged in water or winding her way through the labyrinthine corridors of Mater Tenebrarum's New York residence. And even the more batshit crazy moments, which those feeling less charitable than myself would probably blame on bad translation ("heart medicine", anyone?), add something intangible to the overall mood of the piece.

Inferno

Yahoo! Answers has a very succinct definition of the term "fever dream":

The long, tedious, seemingly endless string of dream sequences that often accompanies an illness that includes a fever. Not usually so frightening as tiring and weird -- long hallways, destinations never actually reached, confusion, dense but only mildly significant symbolism.

When I'm in one of my less charitable moods, this actually strikes me as a highly appropriate description of Inferno itself. It's vivid and intoxicating, but at the same time part of me feels a bit fed up and wishes it would hurry up and get to whatever point it is trying to make. Of course, that's probably the wrong way of thinking about it. Argento isn't trying to say anything in particular, but rather to create a mood, a dream world in which things don't have to make sense. More than any of the maestro's other films, Inferno arguably provides the viewer with a direct connection to its director's own warped imagination. It's no wonder many hate it.

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15 Comments

1. FoxyMulder said:

This seems the perfect time to comment on yesterdays Film Four showing of Suspiria that i watched late last night.

I'm not sure about the colour timing since standard definition satellite broadcasts are so horrendous and i was watching on a smaller set since there is no way i can watch an SD UK broadcast on a projection screen as it's so blindingly bad to my eyes.

I note the colour timings from your old blog here. http://whiggles.landofwhimsy.com/archives/2009/03/suspiria_bd_initial_impression.html

I don't remember seeing anything as bad as this. I think the print was totally uncut too.

I forgot how much i really enjoy this film and i am a huge early Argento fan. I really enjoyed Goblins music score for this movie too and part of that score reminded me of the classic watch scene in For A Few Dollars More and of course Argento had a hand in writing Once Upon A Time In The West a few years later.

I note Argento is writing a remake of Suspiria coming out next year. David Gordon Green is co-writing it with him and directing it. great the direcor of The Pineapple Express is remaking a classic movie.
( groan ) I wish they wouldn't but hopefully this will mean a great edition of Suspiria is released on Blu Ray as they can tie in a release with the rubbish remake ( Yah i'm calling it rubbish well in advance of it's release as they will take everything that made the original so good and destroy it )

Anyway if anyone saw the showing last night on Film Four i would love some comments on whether the colour timing was ok since i found it hard to tell as it had been so many years since i last watched it on a grubby VHS in the nineties and no way could that be called a reference point hence i have no proper reference point.


(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 2:32 PM)

2. FoxyMulder said:

At the end of the movie there was perhaps two very quick flashes lasting less than a second which perhaps looked like this in that scene. Very quick though and perhaps less intense. ( Can't remember as it happened so fast and was over so fast )

http://whiggles.landofwhimsy.com/hdcaptures/suspiria9.jpg

I would actually buy a Blu Ray edition of the Film Four showing though as long as it kept the grain intact and was obviously better with regards SD satellite broadcast issues.

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 2:35 PM)

3. Author Profile Page Michael said:

I didn't see the Film Four screening of Suspiria - I actually didn't notice your post about it until this morning - but I suspect they probably used the same version they aired on Channel 4 back in 2002 (which was when I first saw the film). My memory is a little hazy, so I don't remember what the colour timing was like, but it was definitely an uncut print (the announcer at the start advertised it as the first uncut screening of the film in the UK). I doubt it looked anything like that BD release, as that master was only created in 2007.

As for the remake, I don't believe Argento has any involvement with it at all. A while back he talked about taking legal action against the makers of remakes of both Suspiria and Deep Red, but of late he seemed to have mellowed and taken an "if it happens, it happens" attitude.

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 2:42 PM)

4. BobaFett said:

Will this remade really be filmed now? I always hoped that it might be one of those projects where there's talk about it, but that never gets made in the end.

Actually it really hurts seeing a masterpiece like "Suspiria" getting remade. Let's just hope that it's going to be a complete commercial failure and won't get much notice. I'll definitely warn all my friends about watching it and will happily rent out my AB DVD of the original instead, when and if it is being shown at the cinemas here.

It would just be such a shame if in the future many people would connect a shoddy remake with the name "Suspiria" instead of a genuinely imaginative and visually mesmerizing classic.

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 3:15 PM)

5. MCP said:

In addition to the goods and bads you pointed out, what has always fascinated me in Inferno is the compelling, atypical (even for Argento's tradition) use of the musical score.

Although a big name like Keith Emerson was in charge of the soundtrack, during the movie his contribution is mainly low key, more in the "mood, atmospherical music tapestry" field, with no clearly recognizable tunes - the one notable exception being the ending titles theme: a fast, memorable electropop tune which was probably conceived to be used far more extensively through the whole movie.

Instead, two of the most striking and well constructed scenes are tied to Verdi's Nabucco chorus, a famous, powerful lyrical music piece. But Argento is clever in using the tune in all its lenght: the instrumental opening is far less known, but it's indeed as powerful as the main chorus and probably even more "menacing".

For the first time departing from his Goblin fellows, Argento seems to follow two very different musical paths here, maybe as a result of some aftertought and troubled production: none of the two really prevails over the other, but this doesn't detract from the quality of the final result.

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 3:34 PM)

6. FoxyMulder said:

I think you are right about Argento not being involved in the remake. I fleetingly noticed his credit on IMDB but on closer inspection it's the typical credit IMDB gives when a remake is being made and is using the characters from the original movie.

It does say the film is in production still though.

I think you are also right about the Film Four screening. Apart from the low resolution digital satellite issues it did look agreeable to me.

I doubt the original Channel 4 screening was full 2.35:1 and it was probably cropped to 1.78:1 back in 2002. This showing was the original aspect ratio.

The question mark for me is whether Film Four screens in HD and if it was shown that way. I'd love to get this in HD.

Is there any hope of a proper colour timed release in HD on Blu Ray anywhere in the world ?

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 4:06 PM)

7. Author Profile Page Michael said:

MCP:

Interesting observations about the score. I must admit I have a soft spot for Emerson's work on the film - I particularly like his up tempo rendition of Va Pensiero during Eleonora Giorgi's taxi ride.


Foxy:

The 2002 Channel 4 screening was OAR 2.35:1 - I remember it vividly, particularly given how unusual it was, especially in these days. Nowadays, Channel 4 use the OAR whenever possible, but back then they would typically crop 2.35:1 material to 1.78:1.

As for a BD with the proper colour timing, the master Bill Lustig used for the Anchor Bay DVD release (and the subsequent Blue Underground re-release) was supposedly HD, so strictly speaking there's a chance they might use it if they end up releasing it on BD. That said, they might instead go for the newest version, the one with the bungled colour timing. It's a case of "wait and see", I suppose.

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 10:03 PM)

8. BobaFett said:

Regarding "Inferno" I just read that it has been confirmed that a new DVD of the film that will be released by the German label Camera Obscura in January will also contain an Italian language track. I guess the included subtitles will probably only be in German though. They will also have new bonus material on the disc, but no details are known yet.

In any case it'll be interesting to see if they are going to use the master of the Italian DVD or a completely new one. It won't be the AB master, so much has been said so far.

An interesting comment I read from a user on a German forum regarding the color timing issue: He saw a 35mm print of the film and according to him it was closer to the AB release than to the Italian release of the film. The Italian release is much too pale, although the AB colors have been boosted a bit.

You always have to be careful with postings like this on internet forums, but this might be an indicator for the intended look of the film. That the AB colors appear to have been boosted doesn't surprise me, as I always had that feeling, but apparently the general direction of the AB disc's look seems to be correct. That would make sense, as IMO the AB disc better ties in with the look of "Suspiria" than the Italian one does (at least judging from the screenshots I have seen of the Italian DVD). Of course that cannot be considered proof as "Inferno" was shot with a different cinematic process and as a result still has its very own look altough there definitely are parallels to "Suspiria" in its use of color.

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 10:21 PM)

9. BobaFett said:

As there's also talk about the color timing of "Suspiria" in the previous comments I might add - in order not to confuse anyone - that I was only talking about the look of "Inferno" (the colors of which look much more saturated on the AB release than on the Italian one which uses a completely different color palette).

(Posted on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 10:26 PM)

10. Kentai said:

I think Inferno was my first real taste of Dario Argento, and at the time I wasn't all that impressed. It wasn't until after I saw Suspiria and had some sense of context that I began to want to see Inferno again, but I really do want to give it a second try. (I managed to see Opera before Phenomena, too!)

I'm not convinced that Inferno will ever be a favorite of mine, but I'm almost sure there was something there that I just couldn't pick out beneath my sense of confusion and disappointment. Suspiria and Deep Red were what all those years of critical worship had led me to expect from Argento, but Inferno - while beautiful and unlike anything else I'd ever seen - just wasn't the horror masterpiece I was hungry for.

As for the holiday, I tried watching Giallo on Halloween... note the word "tried". Sigh.

(Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 at 4:38 AM)

11. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Bobafett:

I'm awaiting this German Inferno release with great curiosity. If I remember correctly, you originally told me about it some time back, and I must confess I'd actually forgotten about it until you mentioned it again here.

As for the colours - who's to say? I've heard conflicting accounts on both sides of the debate, although it does seem likely that the Anchor Bay release was oversaturated to some extent, indeed perhaps to bring it more in line with the look of Suspiria. (Both were shot on Eastman stock, but a number of IB Technicolor prints were made of Suspiria, and by all accounts provide the best representation of the film's intended look. I had the pleasure of seeing an IB Technicolor print projected back in May and it was a sight to behold. As I've mentioned before, the AB DVD is a very faithful reproduction of its look.)

Incidentally, the screen captures of Inferno that accompany this post are all from the Italian DVD.


Kentai:

Ouch. :D

(Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 at 6:18 PM)

12. MCP said:

@ Michael 7: oh yes, I had forgotten that one - it's for sure another strong part of the score, and also the point where Emerson meets Verdi and their two scores merge. I wonder if the song was planned since the beginning, or if it came later as a sort of tribute.

(Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 at 9:09 PM)

13. Vincent Pereira said:

Great read there, Michael. Incidentally, I was watching the Blu-ray of the original THE OMEN the other day, and I could swear that Gregory Peck's apartment in Rome is the same location used for the library in INFERNO. I've been meaning to do some screen grabs and directly compare them, but the first thing that came to mind when Peck is drives up to the building (this is in the opening 10-minutes or so of the film, when he drives home and tells his wife they'll be moving to London) is that iw as looking at the library from INFERNO in daylight.

BTW, while I'm not ecstatic about a possible SUSPIRIA remake, one should remember that David Gordon Green has directed some very interesting movies. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is the odd man out in his career- it's his only "big" Hollywood movie, all the rest are interesting independent films.

Vincent

(Posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 8:23 PM)

14. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Vincent:

I'm pretty sure it is indeed the same building - I noticed it myself when I rewatched The Omen last year. It also shows up in Mario Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much, I believe.

As for the Suspiria remake... I don't know. In many ways I'm still annoyed by its very existence, but on the other hand part of me is past the point of caring. I'll check out the trailer when it materialises and decide based on it whether I want to bother with the film. I actually haven't seen any of David Gordon Green's films, although the interview he gave where he talked about 'turning Suspiria into something artistic' (or words to that effect) didn't really inspire me to rush out and see any of his work.

(Posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 9:18 PM)

15. Vincent Pereira said:

Green's "indie" stuff has a big Terrence Mallick vibe to it. In fact, Mallick was a producer on Green's third film, UNDERTOW, which also happens to be my favorite David Gordon Green film. You should check it out, you might like it.

Vincent

(Posted on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 4:54 AM)

 
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