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Old 31st May 2010, 03:14 PM
bgart13 bgart13 is offline
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The recent Italian dvd from...Fox?...is quite different from the BU/AB dvds of INFERNO. The color timing is different and there's been arguments about which is correct. I tend to side with Italian transfer, due to it being very similar to a theatrical print I saw here in Chicago. BU's is significantly more saturated, more grainy.

It sorta blows my mind that people prefer it to SUSPIRIA though. INFERNO is segmented, glued together in a way. A lot of it is done more common in tone/style, but still very "Argento", certainly more standard in its filmmaking than SUSPIRIA. There's some really wonderful scenes in the movie, but it doesn't quite gel for me overall. Argento certainly had more fun with INFERNO, at least to me it appears that way. More tongue-in-cheek than SUSPIRIA. And I just don't get the dislike for MOTHER OF TEARS. It certainly isn't in the same class as SUSPIRIA, but I really get a kick out of it. Maybe my expectations were low enough for it...? Of course, I really like PHENOMENA and don't dig OPERA too much. And Leigh McCloskey is a total numbnuts, IMO. The soundtrack gets a bit annoying too, from what I recall. Really wish Goblin had done the soundtrack for it too.

One other thing about INFERNO, a lot of people have the impression that Mario Bava had a lot to do with the effects and film. From what I recall from Tim Lucas' book on Bava, his involvement was not as significant as many seem to think, advising and being involved in discussions of effects/set pieces and making a couple of mattes, but from what I can remember he didn't really have much direct to do on the film. I think the most obvious 'Bava' segment is the end with the appearance of Mater Tenebrarum though. Also the scenes in with the mysterious "creature" who goes after McCloskey's sister & the book (looks like a cave). I could be wrong, as I haven't been up yet for a while. Wikipedia (yeah, yeah...) seems to document more involvement. I think Mario Bava was too old and ill to really have done much for the film though. Perhaps I should read Tim's segment on this again.