“You will not want to live in Suspiria,” Luca Guadagnino jokes when he hears I secretly wish to reside in one of his sun-kissed, sensual films that tickle my taste buds. The contemporary Italian master, whose films exclusively cater to grownups with their emotional maturity and succulently caress, awaken and expand the five senses, was still finishing his remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic when he joined me during the 2017 New York Film Festival, where his sensational film Call Me By Your Name (from Sony Pictures Classics) screened.
“I want to preserve the blast and waves of emotions Suspiria made me feel when I saw it at the age of 14,” Guadagnino says of his hopes for the adaptation. For anyone who has seen at least one of his recent films and experienced the subtle way he transmits intangible frissons of passion to his audience, “waves of emotions” are a safe expectation from Guadagnino’s version of Suspiria, as that “explosion of feelings” is a clear through-line connecting his late filmography.
