What Is a ‘Giallo’ Film and How Does ‘Suspiria’ Fit the Genre?
Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s classic is in theaters now
Brian Welk | October 26, 2018 @ 11:32 AM
Last Updated: October 26, 2018 @ 11:33 AM
1977's "Suspiria" (Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” may prove to be one of the most confusing, if not polarizing movies of the year. The bloody mind-bender features multiple “secret” performances from Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson and a challenging, elliptical score from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke to boot.
But amid all the deliciously vexing things about the film, one of the words you may have heard thrown around in reference to it is the word “giallo.” As in, “Suspiria” is a remake of Dario Argento’s giallo horror classic.
So what the heck is “giallo” and what does it have to do with “Suspiria?”
In short, a “giallo” film (plural is “gialli”) is essentially an Italian exploitation film. They’re hyper-stylized crime movies that often include gory murders, erotic themes and masked killers with black leather gloves. As is true of another Italian sub-genre inspired by American cinema, the Spaghetti Western, composer Ennio Morricone often makes an appearance.
Not only that, giallo films are similar to American slasher and exploitation films in the sense that they’re often lush, colorful and even trashy movies that make for howlingly good midnight cinema. Filmmakers such as Brian de Palma, Nicolas Winding Refn, Eli Roth and now Luca Guadagnino, have borrowed from the genre in their own films and cited some of its directors as inspirations.
The name “giallo,” which translates to “yellow” in Italian, refers to pulpy, cheap, paperback crime novels that were identifiable thanks to their bright yellow book colors. While they were first published in the late 1920s as translations of British detective stories, they didn’t gain popularity until post-war Italy thanks to a ban from Mussolini.
So while the term “giallo” itself was originally applied to a wide swath of stories from even American or British origins, it’s come to be associated specifically with Italian crime movies that developed in the ’60s and continued in popularity through the ’70s and early ’80s. Films like Lucio Fulti’s “A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin” (1971), Mario Bava’s “Blood and Black Lace” (1964) and Dario Argento’s “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage” (1970) set the tone for this particularly lurid genre.
As for “Suspiria,” while Argento’s film is widely considered a classic, there’s a healthy debate as to whether the 1977 film can even be called a “giallo.” Argento is certainly a father of the genre. But “Suspiria” leans on horror elements and paranormal thrills in a way that’s atypical of other gialli. Search for the term on Google, and it’s easily the first result. And that hasn’t stopped critics reviewing Guadagnino’s remake from labeling it as such. But even lists of essential gialli films will omit it in favor of other Argento favorites, like “The Cat o’ Nine Tails” and “Four Flies on Grey Velvet.”
Just add it to the list of things making “Suspiria” so polarizing. Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” is in theaters now in New York and Los Angeles and opens wide on Nov. 2. You can also stream the original “Suspiria” on TubiTV.
The Evolution of Tilda Swinton, From 'Orlando' to 'The Human Voice' (Photos)
Tilda Swinton is basically the David Bowie of film, a multi-faceted, eccentric chameleon who is equally comfortable in experimental, art house cinema, character-driven indies as she is in massive blockbusters. It helps that she's a spitting image of the late Bowie, too. In a 30-plus-year career, between acting, performance art, theatre and more, it's less about Swinton being increasingly adventurous and more about how even mainstream audiences have come to accept her frequent innovations and daring transformations. Here's how Swinton has evolved.
"Caravaggio" (1986)
Tilda Swinton's first film was the experimental drama "Caravaggio," kicking off a long, working relationship with director Derek Jarman. It's a fictionalized look at the life of Michelangelo and also is the film debut of actor Sean Bean.
British Film Institute
"Orlando" (1992)
Swinton landed the lead role in Sally Potter's Elizabethan-era drama "Orlando," an adaptation of the Virginia Woolf book. It was the first example of Swinton exploring androgynous characters on screen, for which she's come to be known.
Sony Pictures Classics
"The Beach" (2000)
Swinton kicked off a string of bigger budget studio projects at the turn of the century, starting with a small part opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Danny Boyle's adventure "The Beach," as well as Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky" in 2001. She appeared in "Adaptation" with a very sweaty Nicolas Cage in 2002 and was eventually opposite Keanu Reeves in "Constantine" in 2005.
Twentieth Century Fox
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" (2005)
For the adaptation of C.S. Lewis's iconic "Chronicles of Narnia" novels, Swinton played the villainous White Witch, bringing her icy glare, exotic fashion sense and intensity to the otherwise campy children's fantasy. It's as though Swinton saw David Bowie in "Labyrinth" and thought, "I need to do that." Swinton would reprise her role in several of the film's sequels.
Walt Disney Pictures
"Michael Clayton" (2007)
Swinton won an Oscar for Tony Gilroy's legal drama "Michael Clayton" opposite George Clooney. Her performance is as clean cut and precise as her "Narnia" performance is crazed and intense. But as Karen Crowder, she shows a lot of range as a legal executive, who's both powerful and in control while desperately trying to hide that she's in way over her head. She'd follow up this part with several other prestige roles, including the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading" and David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," both opposite Brad Pitt.
Warner Bros.
"I Am Love" (2009)
Tilda Swinton is neither Italian nor Russian, but in "I Am Love," her second film with Luca Guadagnino, she spoke in a Russian accent and learned Italian for the part. She gives a measured, soul-searching performance in Guadagnino's lush, colorful film as part of a family of Italian aristocrats, navigating family dynamics, inheritance and infidelity.
Magnolia Pictures
"We Need to Talk About Kevin" (2011)
By far Swinton's most devastating and emotionally intense performance, in Lynne Ramsay's "We Need to Talk About Kevin," she plays a woman who has been changed by motherhood and is now plagued by her own worse fears and impulses. Her son Kevin seems to have loathed his mother from the day he was born, but both Swinton's performance and Ramsay's handling of the material leaves doubt, mystery and suspicion as to whether Kevin is truly vindictive or if she has actually been neglectful his whole life.
Oscilloscope Pictures
The Maybe (2013)
Swinton made a lot of noise with the press and with art critics by literally not making a sound. For hours at a time, Swinton came to the Museum of Modern Art to sleep inside a glass box. The piece, called "The Maybe," was Swinton's way of evoking quiet contemplation and thought. She wasn't the first performance artist to sleep inside a museum, and in fact, her 2013 rendition was a remake of when she performed in 1995 with artist Cornelia Parker.
M Liao/Flickr
"The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" (2013)
We already knew Bowie and Swinton were kindred spirits, and in this music video for Bowie's song "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)," the two actually play a married couple. Floria Sigismondi's video along with Bowie's song flips the celebrity-obsessed culture idea on its head, with tabloid stars parading around the streets like zombies infecting the minds of perfectly wholesome couples. It's a fiendishly surreal piece of satire, and Swinton fits the part beautifully.
Vevo
"Snowpiercer" (2013)
Swinton brings a devilish sense of humor to Joon-ho Bong's dystopian and otherwise grim "Snowpiercer." She plays another androgynous-looking authority figure aboard a perpetually moving train, spitting and fidgeting with her glasses as she condescends to people at the back of the train she views as lower class citizens.
Radius-TWC
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014)
Swinton is hilariously ancient and nearly unrecognizable as an octogenarian patron bedded by Ralph Fiennes's character in Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel." She learned how an old woman might apply makeup and lipstick in order to make her character realistic and funnier, and she played ball when Wes Anderson requested "more liver spots" on her face.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
"Doctor Strange" (2016)
It turns out even Tilda Swinton isn't above starring in a Marvel movie. As The Ancient One in "Doctor Strange," she donned a shaved bald head and a zen confidence as she manipulated time and space. The part was a gender-flipped take from the comics, but her casting was also maligned as being white washed.
Marvel
"Okja" (2017)
Swinton reunited with Joon-ho Bong to give another characteristically bonkers and satirically twisted performance, this time as twin sisters Lucy and Nancy Mirando. She channels Ivanka Trump as the head of a food conglomerate, chewing the scenery with a gaudy pink suit, bleached blonde bangs, a wicked glint in her eye and a giddy laugh as she delivers nonsensical corporate PR speak.
Netflix
"Suspiria" (2018)
When "Suspiria" first premiered, Swinton denied that she was playing three roles in the film, including one of an elderly psychologist under pounds of makeup and prosthetics. Both she and director Luca Guadagnino insisted that the role was played by first-time actor Lutz Ebersdorf. They even read a statement from Ebersdorf when "he" couldn't attend the film's premiere. But months later in a semantic twist, Swinton revealed she wasn't portraying the character in "Suspiria," but she was in fact portraying the actor who plays him in the film.
Tilda Swinton, left and right, in "Suspiria" (Photo credit: Amazon Studios)
"The Human Voice" (2020)
Swinton gives a one-woman show in "The Human Voice," Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar's colorful English-language debut. The short film is a liberal adaptation of a Jean Cocteau play as she acts up a storm waiting for her lover who is about to leave her to call. It's arguably the best performance ever put to film in which the lead actress is wearing Apple AirPods for the majority of the runtime.
El Deseo - Iglesias Más
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The experimental, often androgynous British actress has gone through many transformations on screen
Tilda Swinton is basically the David Bowie of film, a multi-faceted, eccentric chameleon who is equally comfortable in experimental, art house cinema, character-driven indies as she is in massive blockbusters. It helps that she's a spitting image of the late Bowie, too. In a 30-plus-year career, between acting, performance art, theatre and more, it's less about Swinton being increasingly adventurous and more about how even mainstream audiences have come to accept her frequent innovations and daring transformations. Here's how Swinton has evolved.
British Film Institute
