nick121235

I'm shocked that this movie was released in 1972??? It looks so much later. That's half compliment (obviously it is very well done to be able to transcend its time) and half disappointment. I must confess that I prefer my films to look like grainy, cheap, early 70s flicks. However, I like the way this film looks warm and expensive, high quality, and both completely modern and like a 1950s technicolor film. It's really nice.

The movie is really good, yes. But it's a little overrated. People act like this is one of the best films ever made but Suspiria is flawed?? I expected a thriller, and this is a drama. But that doesn't mean I wasn't able to enjoy it. Some of my best friends are drama movies. I DO think this is an incredible film but I still think it's slightly overrated, it's not the best movie of all time and neither is Citizen Kane. How do people not understand that Psycho or Touch of Evil top those movies?

Okay, that's my rant. Now, this movie is actually pretty incredible. It manages to, despite not really being a thriller, give you a very visceral reaction to several key scenes in the film. It slowly builds these moments up until you're on the edge of your seat and it does it in a way that's different from most thrillers (no tense music or fast back and forth shots that might indicate people on the brink of being caught) so that you don't even realize you're supposed to be scared but it just comes up nonetheless. This film is genius in that respect.

The drama part is actually really good as well. Honestly it does get you really invested into the members of the family, but despite the three hour runtime I felt like it left a few threads unfinished. Perhaps if the pacing had gone up slightly and they'd cut the part about what happened while Michael was in Italy they could have gone deeper into the dynamics between the sister and her husband or given us more investment with the middle brother. But maybe that's just my preference, and following Michael in Italy did allow us to see him more as the main character. I guess I wouldn't have minded if the film was 4 hours in order to go deeper into everyone, and that's how you know it's a good movie.

Like I said, great movie, it's just the people who love it act like it's the most important thing ever made in the history of media, which kinda turns me off. It's certainly good, but there's still many films ahead of it.

This is how I imagine Hitchcock's films might have looked had he dialed things down a bit and continued to live in into the 90s (it was released in 88 but looks more recent than that). It's sleek, modern, understated yet finely and carefully curated, every scene and line put together like a well-oiled machine; it's reminiscent of his earlier films noir before Vertigo shook him up. It feels like Polanski took quite a bit from The Man who Knew too Much here, he moved it to France proper and now it is the wife that's missing but there are little cues here and there that reference that movie- and I have to say that it really works. He even references some of the other classics, such as the Maltese Falcon being replaced here with the statue of liberty- a nice ironic touch.

It's really the air of paranoia and stress pervading the film is that pushes it the extra mile, though. Being in an emergency situation where you feel the authorities aren't taking you seriously is already extremely stressful, but in another country where people don't speak your language is downright terrifying! Polanski's Chinatown is most often cited as a quintessential example of the neo-noir, but this film is just as good if not better. It's softer than most noir films. Lighter, with a new wave feel, and yet still very tense and gripping. I didn't appreciate this film enough on my first viewing, but I've since gotten a lot more into noir and I now can recognize some of the reasons why this film is so good. Unfortunately, really good neo-noirs are hard to find, but thankfully this one works!

Ultimately this is a perfect example of neo-noir in the style of new wave; it has a fluid feeling, more natural performances in contrast to the theater acting of classic noir, camera techniques that give a sense of movement, a slightly surreal atmosphere that doesn't take itself too seriously, and gorgeous shot-on-location photography that often features modernist architecture. This is a great movie, and the few things that hold it back from being perfect don't detract from the enjoyment.