Director Luca Guadagnino will spent the rest of the year deservedly basking in the acclaim for “Call Me By Your Name.” However, next year he’ll be back in the spotlight, with horror fans giving him plenty of scrutiny about his redo of the classic “Suspiria.” The project is packed with talent, with Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Mia Goth, Chloë Grace Moretz, Lutz Ebersdorf and Jessica Harper leading the cast, and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke providing the score. All involved have a high bar to hit, but instead of thinking of this as a remake, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about it as a reimagining (to borrow an overworked, Hollywood term).
Speaking with AlloCiné, Swinton defended her decision to star in “Suspiria,” and says that Guadagnino is cooking up a fresh take on the material.
“It’s another version, not a remake. It’s important to say it because we are ardent admirers of the film of Dario Argento, and it is impossible to [remake] this film,” she said (with some Google Translate help). ” I accepted [it] because it will be a completely different movie! It’s inspired by the same story, but it goes in different directions…. It’s semantics, of course, but I think people really have to understand that this is not a remake, because the word “remake” gives the impression that we want to erase the original, and the opposite is what [we’re trying to do]. It’s going to sound a bit grandiloquent, but it’s like when Francis Bacon [painted] ‘Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X.’ This is not a remake of Velázquez. It’s the biggest compliment, because it’s like saying to the original: ‘You inspired us with these ideas, not because you failed, but because it was strong enough [that we can take it away] and work in a different space.’ ”
In other words, the original “Suspiria” is so amazing, it inspired Guadagnino and co. to weave their own, inspired magic.
Something to think about as we await the movie which is set to debut sometime in 2018.