blonde actress (then the wife of producer Angelo
Twentieth- Century Fox, who had had an unex-
Rizzoli) was at the top of her game at the box-
pected hit with Suspiria, and the company se-
office, dividing herself between auteur films (Di-
cured worldwide distribution rights to his new
menticare Venezia, 979, by Franco Brusati) and
film. First, the director and his crew moved to
commercial cinema (Mani di velluto, 979,
New York to shoot some exteriors and the Cen-
alongside Adriano Celentano). But the film
tral Park scene and faced many issues due to the
didn’t have a strong lead for the American mar-
union laws. Then, on May 2, 979, shooting
ket: McCloskey had worked almost exclusively
began in Rome for a total of 4 weeks, at the De
on TV, and his main claim to fame had been
Paolis In.Ci.R. Studios and R.P.A. Elios studios
Tom Kotani’s The Bermuda Depths (978)—not
(where the façade of Rose’s palace was built).
exactly an earth- shattering title.
The Public Cinematographic Register in Rome
Reportedly, Argento kept the ending a se-
reports April 6 as the official beginning of
cret for his cast as well: Giorgi told the press that
shooting, but a more plausible start date for the
the last page of her script bore the line “You will
U.S. shoot seems to be May 7, 979. Claudio Ar-
know the ending when we shoot it.”3 The
gento and others claimed that the New York
actress’ claims must be taken with a grain of salt,
shooting went on for “two weeks, ten days,
given that her character is killed off way before
something like that”7 and articles of the period
the climax. But Veronica Lazar confirmed that
mentioned that filming in New York had lasted
she learned about the true nature of her charac-
two weeks.8
ter only near the end of the shoot. It was typical
The newspapers gave ample coverage to the
of Argento to take precautions in order not to
making,9 and highlighted the film’s complexity
give away too much of the plot, so as to maintain
and high budget, which made it a “horror kolos-
his reputation for unpredictable twist endings.
sal”—the French- German term colossal, or
Speaking of which, when Suspiria came out, in
kolossal, being a typical expression used in Italy
Milan there were some amusing attempts at boy-
to label big- budget movies, and accordingly Ar-
cotting it: an unknown hand had written in
gento was rather intimidated at first by the com-
spray under the posters the line “THE MUR-
plex production machine.0 Moreover, the many
DERER IS THE HEADMISTRESS”—a laughable
special effects took lots of time and money. The
attempt at a spoiler if there was one. Argento
director had even considered shooting some
was amused by the fact, and often recalled the
scenes with electronic cameras (as Antonioni
anecdote in interviews and in his memoir as
would do with the 980 made- for-TV movie Il
well.4
mistero di Oberwald, with Luciano Tovoli as
Suspiria had been Argento’s “first act of
d.o.p.), but eventually he changed his mind as
murder” toward the genre that he had perfected,
the results were unsatisfactory; some scenes in-
the giallo, and after breaking “the most deep-
cluded in the script were discarded because of
rooted taboo” he had found himself experiencing
technical reasons.
“not guilt, not anxiety or fear, but freedom.” In-
Argento put together a cast that included
deed, freedom is Inferno’s most evident trait,
1980: Inferno 2
thematically and stylistically. In contrast to Sus-
4. A flight at crazy velocity (either shot at a very
piria’s relatively straightforward narrative, In-
low number of frames a second or removing frames
ferno adopts a more volatile approach. “It is as
if it was an ensemble of stories which slip into
. Panning shot from above a bed. A woman is
one another,” he wrote. “Over the course of the
lying on it. Next to her, two or three people. Halfway
through the panning shot, the woman arches her
narration the characters take a direction and
back, stiffens, and dies. But the camera is already
then suddenly the viewers realize that whoever
going away.
they thought was the protagonist is actually a
6. A girl is putting her neck into a noose. She
marginal figure, and the story changes shape
jumps into the void, hanging herself.
under their very eyes.” Rather than a homage
7. Very fast zoom in on the facade of the building
to Psycho—to which the unexpected early death
where Sara lives.6
of Rose (Miracle) has been compared—this nar-
rative scheme brings to mind Luis Buñuel’s Le
Argento filmed only part of it, cancelling
fantôme de la liberté (974), which had utilized
some shots (#, #2, #4, and #) because, accord-
a similarly episodic framework.
ing to d.o.p. Romano Albani, “they didn’t fit with
Such freedom of approach is exemplified in
the scene, they weren’t useful.”7 Yet the director
the film’s most abstract scene, where we get to see
regretted not having shot #, which he described
Death at work, portrayed as a child’s game, before
as “the POV shot of a lightning bolt which starts
Carlo (Lavia) and Sara’s (Giorgi) murders. A hand
from the top of the clouds and hits the city,”8 a
cuts out the heads of four childish human figures
decision forced by the special effects he had to
on black paper, and a series of deceases (human
work with not being up to the idea.
and animal) ensue, within the space of a few sec-
Never one to lose a chance to play with his
onds. The rhythmic montage, which recalls the
public image, Argento stressed Inferno’s uncon-
opening scene of Macchie solari (97, Armando
ventional structure in interviews by claiming
Crispino), riffs on the Soviet montage theory—
that it was “difficult to understand even for me,
which Argento had employed in a satiric way in
the author, to the point that during the shoot I
Le cinque giornate (973)—by connecting appar-
often have to reread the script in order to clear
ently disconnected images by analogy, and thus
up my mind.”9 When asked about the film’s
emphasizing their common denominator: death.
theme, he replied: “My movie wants to explore
It’s a stunning variation on the myth of the Parcae
and find the key of the big secrets of life and
(or Fates), the female personificat
ions of destiny
death.”20
who controlled the metaphorical thread of life of
As in Suspiria, Argento reconnects with
every being: Clotho spun the thread, Lachesis
the world of fairy tales. The director himself
measured it, Atropos cut it short with her shears,
acknowledged this, referring to his film as “a
choosing how and when someone would die.
thrilling fairy tale.” Not only does the sequence
The scene was longer in the script, and de-
where Sara ventures into the basement of the li-
scribed as follows:
brary—only to find a menacing, ogre- ish figure
intent on cooking something presumably un-
While the music acts as an accompaniment, rhythmic
healthy and most certainly horrible (a magic po-
as well, a series of 7 scenes start. They will be very
tion? an unfortunate human victim?) in a boiling
brief, 3 seconds each. And the camera will fly over
cauldron—hark back to typical fairy tale cliché,
the images as if on the run, so as to appear as an aerial
but Argento admitted that the fate of Sara herself
flight over a series of episodes.
references Sleeping Beauty: “[she] pricks her fin-
. The moon, up in the sky, is obscured by a huge
ger, and in that precise moment she enters a sort
black cloud. The black cloud fills the screen. It’s
of parallel world—enchanted and haunted—
shaken by a blinding white lightning. The camera
from where she will never come back.”2
flies against the lightning. More bouts of lightning
Dream—or nightmare—is Inferno’s driving
cross the sky. The screen turns white, while it looks
force. Characters behave according to a dream-
as if the camera has thrown itself in the middle of
like logic and find themselves in nightmarish
the lightning bolt and…
2. Three cats mew and brawl in a corner of the
situations. The film’s oneiric quality is best
courtyard.
summed up by the surreal sequence—shot in a
3. A big green lizard with a triangular mouth has
water tank at the De Paolis studios with Gian-
caught a moth bigger than it, which struggles as it is
lorenzo Battaglia as cameraman—in which Rose
being savaged.
dives into a small pool where she lost her key,
22 1980: Inferno Italian lobby card for Dario Argento’s Inferno (1980), depicting one of the film’s surreal highlights: Rose (Irene Miracle) diving into an underwater room underneath her building and discovering a fascinating yet deadly submerged world.
only to find herself in a huge underwater room,
for unusual areas and geometries to emerge. Per-
fully furnished and replete with a rotten corpse
haps Argento was thinking of Aldous Huxley
which pops up unexpectedly, changing the tone
and Carlos Castaneda’s works on the subject of
of the scene from wonder to horror. Argento
altered and enhanced perception through
likely got the inspiration from Jean Cocteau’s
drugs? With its fleeting image of a calm sea,
Orphée, although another antecedent is the se-
Mark’s dream—another last- minute addition
quence in Caltiki il mostro immortale (99, Ric-
absent in the script—is another puzzling mo-
cardo Freda, Mario Bava) in which Bob (Daniele
ment that defies narrative logic. Is it a symbolic
Vargas) dives into a pool inside a cave and dis-
moment, depicting Mark’s subconscious? Or
covers human remains on its bottom. Albani
merely an abstract parenthesis in which Ar-
complained that the scene didn’t come out as
gento’s imagination runs loose, free from the
striking as it could have been, for the water was
limits of storytelling?
rather too muddy due to the underwater shoot,
In this absurd universe where actions,
the fake dust on the submerged furniture and
events and especially deaths are connected to
so on. He asked Argento to reshoot it the fol-
each other according to a logic that escapes ra-
lowing day, but the director was immovable.22
tionality but cannot be attributed to chance, the
Despite these imperfections, Argento’s develop-
Fantastic element comes from the “visionary de-
ment of the scene is something extraordinarily
struction of any established order, which recom-
beautiful, and its manipulation of Cartesian
poses itself only in the unity of measurement of
space is exemplary.
the single shot”23 Or, as Kim Newman put it,
The sequence makes a pair with the explo-
“every sequence is a meticulously orchestrated
ration of the tunnel under the floor undertaken
mini- symphony of camera movement, stylized
by Mark (McCloskey). These are surfaces and
lighting, sound effects, music and found ob-
volumes that could not and should not exist,
jects… . Argento makes ordinary events myste-
doors of (unprecedented) perception that allow
rious, exciting, erotic or horrifying. Previously,
1980: Inferno 23
the murders in Argento’s films … have all been
De Quincey’s 84 book Suspiria de Profundis.
set- pieces. Inferno is all set pieces, and thus all
The buildings were actually thresholds to Hell—
of a piece.”24
a concept not dissimilar from The Sentinel (977,
Argento had chosen New York because it
Michael Winner), but developed in a strikingly
would offer “a poetic setting” to his movie, but
original way. Even more than in Suspiria, the
what appears in Inferno is the director’s ideal vi-
house as architectural emanation of evil has a
sion of the Big Apple: a depopulated night city,
central importance in the story. The three houses
a surrealistic, almost abstract vision, even more
are not only “the repository of all [the Mothers’]
so if one thinks that Rose’s apartment building
secrets” but have a life of their own, and their hu-
was actually an invention on the part of the pro-
manization is made explicit in a line of dialogue.
duction designer—even though inspired by an
“This building has become my body, its bricks
existing edifice, namely St. Walburg’s Academy,
my cells, its passageways my veins, and its horror
a Roman Catholic school for girls in the Late
my very heart,” Varelli’s voice confesses: a
Gothic Revival style built by the architect John
baroque extremism of Shirley Jackson’s Hill
W. Kearney and completed in 93.2 The
House or, even more appropriately, Richard
concept the director had for New York in the
Matheson’s Hell House.
film is best explained by a scene he had devised
To give this dreamlike world of cries and
but eventually discarded and never shot, similar
whispers its own lights and shadows, the
in t
one to the one about “death at work”: an un-
director concocted a rigid and original color
known hand (possibly Mater Tenebrarum’s)
scheme with his director of photography Ro-
picks up a crystal ball with a tiny miniature of
mano Albani, formerly Luciano Tovoli’s assistant.
the Manhattan skyline in it, and starts shaking
Argento wanted Inferno to have a different look
it, causing a thunderstorm. The image recalls
than Suspiria, but just as striking. This time the
the beginning of Citizen Kane (94), with
dominating colors would be violet, lavender blue
Charles Foster Kane’s hand dropping the crystal
(or periwinkle) and raspberry. “I only wanted
ball; and like Kane’s “Rosebud,” Inferno’s New
two basic colors, all the tones of blue and pink—
York is a child’s memory, or perhaps a child’s
and so it was,” Albani explained. “There is only
dream—not a real city.
one red spot in the film, in the library scene,
But Argento’s Rome was an unorthodox
when someone calls Giorgi with a mysterious
vision too, not unlike the visual mosaics of dif-
voice… . Dario was very happy, very enthusiastic
ferent cities he put together in his previous
about this choice: ‘Yes, yes, let’s not make it a
films. The Rome setting is relegated to a few
kaleidoscope like Suspiria, let’s make something
scenes shot at the so- called “Quartiere Coppedé”
different.’”26 Even the blood was not red, but dark
(Coppedé district)—not an actual district, though,
blue, almost black, as in the scene of Rose’s death
but a group of buildings in the Trieste district in
by guillotine.
a mixture of Liberty, Art Déco and references to
Some elements pay explicit reference to Sus-
Greek, Gothic, Baroque and Medieval art. It was
piria, namely the taxi ride in the rain (the cab
designed in early 900 by architect and sculptor
driver is even played the same actor, Fulvio Min-
Gino Coppedé, a visionary just like Varelli who
gozzi, whom Argento cast as a “lucky charm” in
left the project incomplete on his death in 927.
all of his films up to Phenomena), the presence
The exterior of the library where Sara ventures
of Alida Valli, and the architectural ornaments
is actually the same building as the one seen
of the New York building. Another element of
in La ragazza che sapeva troppo (963, Mario