Suspiria (2018)

[EvaDK]

I was positively surprised. It's not really a remake of Argento's film, both films can co-exist just fine.

Think of them as two separate works covering the same narrative, through the lenses of two directors with different sensibilities. Guadagnino's film explores story, characters, the lore of the three mothers and the Berlin backdrop. Argento's film primarily uses striking visuals, score and editing to convey the same story beats.

[blueman_Richie]

Can anyone comment on the state of the in-film subtitles?
Are they in their correct red and blue drop shadow form?

[blueman_Richie]

In case anyone else wants confirmation, the subtitles are burned-in and in the correct colours (red/blue).
The disc is region B locked.

[NormanicGrav]

I picked up my copy of Suspiria alongside Under the Silver Lake at HMV earlier today.

Mini-notes for those interested:

• Audio options include DTS-HD MA 5.1 and DTS-HD MA 2.0.
• Subtitle options include the dialogue translation for non-English languages burnt-in (as mentioned above, I saw the film at the cinema and it's the same colors, it's also burnt in on the Amazon Prime stream). You also have optional subtitles for Hard of Hearing.
• Region locked to B format.

On-disc extras include:

• Making of Featurette (00:03:55) - Dolby Digital 2.0 audio
• The Look Featurette (00:03:55) - Dolby Digital 2.0 audio
• The Secret Language of Dance (00:04:11) - Dolby Digital 2.0 audio
• The Transformations of Suspiria (00:04:26) - Dolby Digital 2.0 audio

Photos of the Blu-ray release (mixed in with Under the Silver Lake):

[Show spoiler]

Now apparently earlier releases from MUBI are BD-R format. Unfortunately, I have no way of confirming whether Suspiria is the same (I did have a laptop that supported a BD-drive but it broke so my current one only has an external DVD-drive).

[blueman_Richie]

Suspiria (and Under the Silver Lake) are both regular pressed blu-rays.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by NormanicGrav

On-disc extras include:

• The Secret Language of Dance (00:44:11) - Dolby Digital 2.0 audio

Runs to 04:28 on YouTube are you sure this isn’t a typo?

Is MUBI the first label to advertise their streaming service on the printed inside cover? Although I have seen flyers come with Lionsgate releases advertising Starz Play.

[NormanicGrav]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Runs to 04:28 on YouTube are you sure this isn’t a typo?

Is MUBI the first label to advertise their streaming service on the printed inside cover? Although I have seen flyers come with Lionsgate releases advertising Starz Play.

Yep that's a typo, cheers for spotting that. I honestly thought the first two bonus extras were typos as well since they had the same runtime.

[Hedrox]

You can usually tell a burned BD from a pressed one just by looking on the back.

[Scarecrow756]

Remaking Suspiria is a dicey proposition. Daria Argento’s 1977 film is a towering and effective mood piece. It straddles the line between being a nightmarish Technicolor fairy tale and feeling like a nasty snuff film conjured by its supernatural antagonist. Even with its dramatic shortcomings, it still remains one of horror cinema’s most grandiose creations.

To its credit, Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 re-imagining is equally as startling and visionary. Taking the essential narrative spine of the original, the new film is about aspiring American dancer Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) who enrols at a prestigious German dance academy. Under the tutelage of the company’s artistic director, Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), Bannion is trained to become a more expressive and self-assured dancer. In reality, the young woman is being groomed for a ritualistic ceremony for a coven of witches.

Rather than presenting a heightened fable with primary colours bleeding onto the screen, Guadagnino employs a cold and stark colour scheme that exists somewhere between Kubrickian pristineness and documentary realism. The choice is crucial for serving the film’s 1977 West Berlin setting. In an interesting left turn from the original, the political turmoil in the midst of the German Autumn is frequently mentioned by characters in the narrative (in addition to radio and television broadcasts).

Consequently, the film has a pervasive historical weight. The choice feels like an interesting commentary on the events of the academy. The central dance piece (Volk) could be considered an embodiment of the German people and the witches’ infighting represents a war for whether or not the people have control of their artistic expression.

Tilda Swinton appears as three characters in the film. The choice is equally interesting in illustrating an internal battle for the German soul. Helena Markos (elected head witch of the coven) seeks to carry on the atrocities of the country’s blood-soaked past by preying on the young and innocent. Whereas, Dr. Josef Klemperer chooses to be the sole individual who will no longer turn a blind eye to the savagery. This is due to his experiences with his wife and the Holocaust. This is made all the more palpable when he says in the third act, “There are a lot of guilty men in Germany, I am not one of them.” Blanc exists in the middle as a complicit instigator, who in a sense is carrying out the orders of a ruling power much like many of the men and women who served under the Nazi regime.

At the same time, the instructor’s relationship with Bannion encapsulates the film’s preoccupation with motherhood. Blanc’s teachings about opening oneself and being part of something larger are as applicable to a young woman dealing with the problems of the external world as much as dancing. With this in mind, Bannion’s journey is equally about an awakening of maternal instincts and a literal ascension to motherhood.

Swinton casts the biggest impression as Blanc. Her maternal outpouring is illustrated in sweet and caring gestures that feel like an extension of her art form. As the young Bannion, Dakota Johnson impresses with a versatile physicality that lends her sequences with raw visceral power.

In fact, some of the film’s most striking moments wield Bannion’s swift movements as an instrument of the witches’ will. One particular cross-cutting sequence disturbs in contrasting the euphoria of creative expression and the literal physical damage it has on a dancer’s body.

Aside from its nightmarish imagery and harrowing instances of cross-cutting, Suspiria truly got under my skin with its subdued moments. Like Roman Polanski, Guadagnino understands how to turn seemingly ordinary situations into instances of acute uneasiness. One sequence has an impressive continuous long shot that travels the full length of a kitchen. Throughout, we see dishes being clean and plates being put away. Whilst this is occurring, we hear a meeting between the members of the coven, who are voting on their new leader.

The sequence takes one of the appealing aspects of the original film, which was this sense of the witches pervading every corner of the film, and filters that feeling through a prism of normalcy. The scene is additionally elevated by Thom Yorke’s beautifully haunting score that serves as a good replacement for Goblin’s assaultive prog rock music.

In many ways, Suspiria feels like the heir to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Like the 1980 film, it has a surreal moment that defies comprehension. At the same time, it also shares that film’s understanding of the horror coming from a slowly creeping dread of the supernatural having complete sway over the mundane. Like Kubrick’s film, Suspiria presents the audience with a puzzle of a movie and invites them to fit its various pieces together.

This undoubtedly makes Suspiria an ambitious horror film. It may be trying to some, baffling to most, but for those who are seduced, it is a persistently engrossing and unnerving experience that admirably attempts to combine*historical weight and primordial pathos.

[darklightzg]

I think it tweaked my interest enough, not really as a remake of the 1977 version more a different take on the same story. I know I'm splitting hairs but all the same I think it probably warrants a second watch. Regardless of that I did feel Tilda Swinton's trio of roles was distracting and not in a good way. Seemed totally pointless and self-indulgent on the filmmaker's part, outside of the most obvious role where they weren't trying (very badly) to disguise her with make-up and prosthetics.
I can see how it would polarise an audience, as it does take itself way too seriously and am doubtful it's going to be in many people's top 10 (or even 50), now or in future.

[Hedrox]

Honestly, if I went into this movie blind I would have never guessed she played 3 roles, in fact I had no idea it was her as Helena Markos until after seeing the movie.
Did her playing 3 roles add anything to the movie? Nope.
Did it affect my enjoyment of seeing the movie? Absolutely not.
Tilda and Luca are very good friends and this was at her request, she did it for the fun of it.

[andreasy969]

I just came here to say that the UK Mubi release of Suspira is "crap" pq wise. It's a filtered mess (which is obvious right away) and the compression sucks as well. The pq is even markedly worse than the Lionsgate (going by caps), which was markedly worse than the German one already.

So it does have the proper subtitles as well, but pq wise I should've just bought the Lionsgate instead. Which is actually quite telling. So if you're looking for a better version that has the proper subs, stay away from the Mubi.

Crap.

[andreasy969]

I really didn't even have to compare with caps, but just did one. So you can compare this one with #1 @ caps:



And will hopefully see what I'm talking about.

[johnlennon696]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

I just came here to say that the UK Mubi release of Suspira is "crap" pq wise. It's a filtered mess (which is obvious right away) and the compression sucks as well. The pq is even markedly worse than the Lionsgate (going by caps), which was markedly worse than the German one already.

So it does have the proper subtitles as well, but pq wise I should've just bought the Lionsgate instead. Which is actually quite telling. So if you're looking for a better version that has the proper subs, stay away from the Mubi.

Crap.

So you'd say the German release is the best Region B to get?

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by johnlennon696

So you'd say the German release is the best Region B to get?

I only own the Mubi, but yes, I think so. PQ wise that is. My Suspiria (2018) history goes like this:

- Lionsgate meh, I'll wait for the Gernan Koch UHD
- Koch UHD looked meh to me on the caps and has subs issues; German BD looked great, but doesn't have the proper subs either
- hoping for something at least in between the Koch and the Lionsgate pq wise and with the proper subs with the Mubi
- got the proper subs but worse pq than Lionsgate

The Mubi doesn't look horrible, but it looks very filtered. Just take this shot from the beginning:



There's supposed to be grain there (I'm sure there is on the Koch BD) - this looks as if it was shot digitally. And it does so almost the whole time. (that's from skipping through the disc)


I also happened to "find" another matching cap, so here are 2 comparisons (Koch and Lionsgate from caps).

Koch | Lionsgate | Mubi

1.

2.



With the first one Mubi is clearly the worst of the bunch (which doesn't surprise me based on what I am seeing here), with the second one it's at least better than the Lionsgate (but still clearly worse than Koch).

As I said: Crap. Might still stick with it now depending on the movie.


I also bought the Mubi "Under the Silver Lake" BD btw and that one looks good to me. There's also no grain to be scrubbed away with that one...

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

I just came here to say that the UK Mubi release of Suspira is "crap" pq wise. It's a filtered mess (which is obvious right away) and the compression sucks as well. The pq is even markedly worse than the Lionsgate (going by caps), which was markedly worse than the German one already.

So it does have the proper subtitles as well, but pq wise I should've just bought the Lionsgate instead. Which is actually quite telling. So if you're looking for a better version that has the proper subs, stay away from the Mubi.

Crap.

So maybe MUBI should stick to acquiring/distributing films, running their streaming service/SVOD platform and acting like MoviePass/Limitless/Unlimited than putting films onto disc?

Or are Silver Lake and Border much better in terms of encoding?

I’d be curious how Prime Video compares as sometimes streams aren’t the most adept at handling grain structure.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

The Mubi doesn't look horrible, but it looks very filtered. Just take this shot from the beginning:



There's supposed to be grain there (I'm sure there is on the Koch BD) - this looks as if it was shot digitally. And it does so almost the whole time. (that's from skipping through the disc)

Koch BD:


If it wasn't for the subtitle problems, the Koch BD would have been perfect. It was a pain in the ___ to modify the subtitle track.

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Koch BD:

[Show spoiler]

If it wasn't for the subtitle problems, the Koch BD would have been perfect. It was a pain in the ___ to modify the subtitle track.

Thanks for the cap. Matches what I thought when looking at my Mubi exactly .

[Hedrox]

This has me worried that Mubi's Under the Silver Lake BD might have similar issues. Still not sure which country has the best edition for that movie.
As for Suspiria, the Koch UHD will do, I can deal with the problematic subs.

[levcore]

Under the Silver Lake looked fine to me, i didn't like the movie though and i traded it in immediately.