Abstract
The first instalment of this two-part analysis of Suspiria and its 2018 remake focused mainly on the original and iconic horror film directed by Italian film director Dario Argento. The 1977 version of Suspiria was presented as a cinematic illustration of trauma, specifically the dynamics of structural trauma as this concept is explicated by historiographer and theorist Dominick LaCapra. LaCapra distinguishes between two manifestations of, or rather two perspectives on, trauma, with emphases on its structural and historical nature respectively. The former endorses an ontological lack that determines human existence and that establishes the existential victimhood of all individuals. Confronted by the “thrownness of being” one might or might not become aware of what this implies, namely that narratives which are presumed to be meaningful merely mask an existence defined by inherent and meaningless absence. The latter term refers to historical events that can be established with reference to historical dates and geographical location and that usually have apparent perpetrators and victims, or at least identifiable causes. The movement that takes place between the various diegetic levels of Argento’s Suspiria and which Genette would describe as narratological metalepsis exposes the artificiality of the film’s diegetic worlds – this was presented as an indirect sign of structural trauma, in that performing the inability to suture meaning as a basis from which to establish the integrity of a meaningful narrative suggests a structural lack and therefore also structural trauma.
The 2018 remake of Suspiria follows another itinerary in that it does not focus on structural trauma, but rather on the specifics of historical trauma, as the memory of and coming to terms with the Holocaust play an important part in the narrative of the film. Luca Guadagnino became famous as a director of renowned art films, but decided to remake Argento’s classic as a modern hommage to the original horror film. He changed the story of the protagonist, Susie Bannion, who in his version does not merely become the victim of a coven of witches in accordance with the original version. Guadagnino’s Susie develops into the true and only incarnation of Mother Suspiriorum, to take up the position as undisputed head of the Berlin coven towards the end of the film. With regard to the cinematography, direction and soundtrack of the film, an obvious discrepancy between the diegetic levels (which according to the argument presented in part one of the study is an indication of structural trauma) is minimal, as all of these elements resonate with one another in a meaningful way – either in terms of narrative drive or of symbolic meaning. Those elements which might indicate a meta-awareness in the film with regard to its own status as an aesthetic construct would be discernible only to those viewers who grasp various references to the cinematic tradition of the 1970s.
The relative absence of discernible metalepsis, which would have denounced the superficiality and constructedness of the film’s narrative meaning, is offset by the presence of the Holocaust in the film. Not only is this a motif in the background of the 1977 Berlin setting (as part of the discourse on Vergangenheitsbewältigung), but one of the seminal characters of the narrative, Victor Klemperer, is a victim of this collective trauma. Klemperer, a practising psychologist, was unable to save his wife, Anke, during the war and has been racked by feelings of guilt ever since. He has devoted a part of his life to the memory of his wife, even though he has no certainty as to the details of her passing during the war. His regular visits to a dacha in East Berlin are his version of vigils for Anke. Although this/his experience of historical trauma is presented in the film, the narrative structure of Suspiria twists this around: The story of Klemperer and his wife is subsumed by the story of Susie and the coven of witches that she represents. The Holocaust is not the only historical injustice in the film, as the main focus throughout the narrative firmly remains the question of gender: the role of women within patriarchal structures that exemplify a long tradition of exploiting them and doing them great injustice.
Women play the most important part(s) in the film: Not only does the main narrative follow the development of the protagonist, Susie, from shy novice to powerful head of a coven of witches, but most of the main characters are women. Even the character of Victor Klemperer, a figurehead for masculine rationality throughout the film, is played by actress Tilda Swinton. The impact of the war and the desperate circumstances the women/witches experienced are alluded to in various ways, which also suggests that the notion of witch is not meant only to have narrative pull, but should also be seen as a symbolic indicator of strong-willed women who often found, and find, themselves in conflict with a world determined by patriarchal structures. As the narrative of the film unfolds, the trauma of Klemperer, i.e. the loss of his wife and his subsequent feelings of guilt, are projected on to the grand historical narrative of women as the victims of men and/or patriarchy. His personal trauma seems to fade against this narrative of gender injustice. Because Klemperer not only failed to save his wife, but as a psychologist continues to diagnose and downplay the symptoms of his female patients from a masculine frame of reference, he is judged by the witches to be perpetuating a system of injustice. The result is that his trauma is subsumed by the greater issue – a fact that is symbolically represented when Susie wipes Klemperer’s memory clean at the very end of the film. His story and identity fade, as the story of the witches and the issue of gender injustice will remain.
With reference to LaCapra’s distinction between structural and historical trauma the narrative of the film maps one trauma on another as the uniqueness of historical trauma disappears in the general notion of gender inequality. The witches perpetuate a narrative of gender injustice in the face of structural trauma, a narrative that subsequently also overshadows the individual memories related to personal trauma. The remake of Suspiria explores the potential dangers of the ways in which historical traumas are negotiated. In that sense the film is not only a remake of the horror classic from 1977, but also a thematic companion piece in its exploration of historical trauma, even as the latter represents the counterpart to structural trauma.
Keywords: diegesis; feminism; gender; Luca Guadagnino; historical trauma; Dominick LaCapra; Suspiria
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Vergestaltings van trauma in Suspiria (2018) deur Luca Guadagnino