The uncut Italian 35mm Suspiria print lives up to the hype! If you are reading this blog and considering getting a ticket to a screening in a city near you, stop reading, get your ticket now, and then finish reading this post. I’ll wait.
Indulge me for a few paragraphs while I tell you about how I first saw Suspiria, because I’m also going to tell you why you should see this screening even if you’ve seen Suspiria in a theater in the United States before.
For fifteen years I had dreamed of seeing Suspiria in a movie theater. By the time I discovered the film in the late 1990's I resigned myself the fact that it might never happen. The film was almost twenty-five years old and to my knowledge, fairly rare. None of my friends had seen Suspiria. I first saw Suspiria when I rented it from Two Boots video store down the street from my apartment in New York City in the late 90's. Two Boots short-lived Pioneer Theater had shown it once in 2003 for Halloween, but I was out of town and missed it. Ten years later, in 2013, I took a class in Italian cinema at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I had just finished Italian language 1 and my professor was starting her first Italian film studies class, so, of course, I signed up. Six weeks into the class one of the students said that Suspiria would be playing next week at Anthology Film Archives — very close to where I live. That screening opened a world of art-house theater to me and introduced me to life-long friends. Since that initial screening in 2013 I was able to see Suspiria three more times in a theater.
In the years between 2013 and 2015, my husband and I went to Rome and visited director Dario Argento's store, Profondo Rosso. Argento's long-time writer collaborator, Luigi Cozzi, happened to be in the store that day. I bought a Suspiria poster signed by Barbara Magnolfi, the actress who plays Olga in the movie. In October of 2014, I met author Maitland McDonagh whose highly respected book, "Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento,"sits proudly on my bookshelf. I'm thrilled to call her a friend. Last October, actress/Opera singer, Coralina Cataldi - Tassoni, made an appearance at Anthology Film Archives to talk about her role in Demons 2, and I got to ask her about her experience both as an Opera singer and her work with Argento and Lamberto Bava. Could any die-hard fan be more blessed?
So when my friend Alan wrote me to say that an uncut Italian print of Suspiria would play at Metrograph, I thought, "that sounds great," but I didn't feel like I would die if I didn't get to see it one more time. Tickets sold out almost six weeks in advance. Every time we went to a Suspiria screening someone in our movie group would wonder aloud if we'd ever see an uncut version as a print in the US. The consensus was — “highly doubtful.” Obviously, beautiful prints exist in Italy because I’ve heard about them from Italian friends, but I’d never seen one of Suspiria. I DID, however, manage to get one of only two tickets left for the Metrograph screening.
Tickets sold out almost six weeks in advance!
This print is absolutely beautiful, especially considering it's been sitting somewhere for forty years. There is something about this version that feels different, even from the 25th Anniversary edition I own which is supposedly uncut and has the Italian language track. Somehow the film just flows so much better. The colors are only minimally faded. In terms of quality it's the most pristine I've seen, so the hype about the condition of the print is very accurate. Metrograph's large screen, complete with balcony, made this, without question, best experience I've had seeing this film. Metrograph even gave Suspiria pins as souvenirs. I am so glad I got to see this uncut 35mm print exactly as it was intended to be seen on it’s fortieth anniversary.
If you love this film or are a horror fan, make it a priority to catch this as it makes its way across the US to select art-house theaters. I would also highly recommend buying your ticket as early as possible because, as I said earlier, tickets sold out 5-6 weeks in advance. It almost makes me wonder if someone in the Argento camp leaked this print just in time for its fortieth anniversary and the up coming remake to remind fans what it takes to earn a “Maestro of Horror” title.
Indie Wire's article on the Suspiria print and even MORE dates added as per
Bloody Disgusting site. Film Society of Lincoln Center will be running a series on films released in 1977. Suspiria is listed as part of the series but I am not sure if it is the uncut print. Look for that series here. It plays Saturday August 5th at 8:45pm. It is listed as 98 minutes long so it's possible that it's the uncut version.
7/28 – 7/30/2017: The Metrograph, New York City, NY
8/11/2017: Roxie Theatre, San Francisco, CA
8/23 – 8/25/2017: Gateway Film Center, Columbus, OH
9/1/2017: The Denver Film Society, Denver, CO
9/7/2017: The Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
9/16/2017: The Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN
10/14/2017: Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA
10/26 – 10/27/2017: Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA
Late Fall: Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
11/18/2017: Alamo Drafthouse, Littleton, CO
11/24/2017: Alamo Drafthouse, Yonkers, NY
12/2/2017: Northwest Film Center, Portland, OR
12/13/2017: Suy-Ray Cinema, Jacksonville, FL
1/12/2018: Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, NY
1/18/2018: The Charles Theater, Baltimore, MD
1/27/2018: Hollywood Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
2/3/2018: Coral Gables Art Cinema, Miami, FL
2/17/2018: The Little Theatre, Rochester, NY