Suspiria

Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi wrote the script for girls of ten to twelve. By Argento’s account the financiers balked at murdered children, so the parts went to adults a month before shooting, yet the dialogue stayed nearly as written. That is why the school’s door handles sit at head height: the set was built for a child’s eye. The oddly childish speech is not weak writing but the residue of a dropped cast. Luciano Tovoli shot on Eastman 5254, a stock already hard to find, and built the colour on set: coloured velvet and tissue paper in front of arc lamps, light bounced off mirrors, nothing left for later treatment. Prints came off Technicolor’s dye transfer line in Rome, which closed in 1978, making this among the last films finished that way. Goblin’s score existed before shooting and was played on set. Almost all dialogue was dubbed afterwards; the school investigation after the first murder keeps its live sound. Jessica Harper turned down Annie Hall for this, and American prints lost eight minutes. A good fit if you want the murders staged as set pieces with the music at full volume rather than as a puzzle to solve. Not for a viewer who will snag on grown characters talking like children and read it as bad writing.