Arrow Video - Inferno - The Archive

[nekromantik]

I not seen Inferno but love Suspria

So am looking forward to seeing Inferno, once I seen Inferno il watch mother of tears even though I heard its quite bad.

[bgart13]

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.

[User1138]

Originally Posted by phelings

Is a cat eating a mouse "animal violence"?

In my opinion? nope!

But then again I am also of the opinion that the scene with the mouse in the Abyss woulldn't classify as such either.. and yet it repeatedly does when the submissions hit the desks at the BBFC. The same goes for horse falls and supposed dog fights in nearly 50 year old episodes of Lassie that are cut for video submission.

I'm not responsible for how they decide upon their definitions.

If they choose to determne that any scene where an animal is hurt or killed as the result of a violent act being carried out against it by another party, regardless of species, then who am I to say any different. The end result is the same whether it be Inferno, The Abyss or any of the ultra-violent titles listed elsewhere on these pages.

[dan]

i find the bbfc's policy regarding animals to be ambiguous at best, it seems as unclear to them as it does to us, what passes for for one film can be cut in the next, but then this has always been the way of their policies

[User1138]

Very true.

But then when you consider how vague the VRA legislation (I believe that the common quotes some years ago was there there was no "shopping list"), you rely upon an individual's own opinion of what falls within their guidance (not just animal related) and what does not.

Was it not James Ferman himself who said that if he had a chance to reconsider making cuts to films, he would have given serious consideration of cuts to Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting after their release?

[Almar@Cult Labs]

Ok folks this thread has become so heavy with debate on six seconds and whether to support or not that the film has become rather lost in the debate. I lived with Inferno cut on VHS for many years and loved it all the same and have spent since 1999 trying to persuade companies in the industry here in the UK to put it out on DVD and then Blu-ray. Now that it's happening there's a chance for people to discover a film that deserves to be on UK shelves.

We've now created a whole section devoted to Inferno - in it you can carry on the BBFC debate if you wish but there will also be other threads to talk about other aspects of the film!