Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Suspiria
2018 · Luca Guadagnino · Suspiria on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch how muted and cold the color palette stays. (light)
Mukdeeprom shoots almost entirely in ash, ochre, and gray, a deliberate inversion of the saturated Technicolor look most witch films reach for.
Payoff: The palette is withholding on purpose, so notice what color it lets in. In the reading: affective colour. The reading calls this a colour-image: a palette that absorbs a scene's feeling instead of decorating it.
Notice the sudden snap zooms and whip pans throughout. (camera)
The camera recalls 1970s genre cinema with jolting push-ins and quick pans, and mirrors recur constantly in the dance studio as a visual motif.
Payoff: The restless camera keeps the whole film feeling one beat away from losing control.
Watch the choreography move like it has a purpose beyond dance. (staging)
Damien Jalet's movement, especially the recurring piece performed in blood-red rope costuming, is built to look functional rather than merely expressive or decorative.
Payoff: The dancing looks like it is doing something to someone, not just expressing a feeling.
Listen for radio bulletins about kidnappings interrupting quiet scenes. (sound)
News of the RAF kidnappings and hijacking drifts constantly into the academy through radios, keeping 1977 Berlin's crisis present even in the most domestic moments.
Payoff: The outside world never actually leaves the building, even when nobody mentions it.
Watch Tilda Swinton's face stay imperious no matter what happens. (performance)
Swinton plays Madame Blanc with commanding, controlled authority throughout, a stillness that gives the company's rehearsals an undertone of real power.
Payoff: Her calm makes the dance company feel like it answers to her alone.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch how the film rations its color, and how often mirrors appear in the dance studio.