Trivia / Suspiria (1977)

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Stefania Casini jumped at the offer to play Sara, as she was a huge admirer of Dario Argento's films.
• Based on a Dream: The final part of the film was based off a dream Daria Nicolodi had while staying in Los Angeles. In the dream, it was a real panther that exploded; in the film, it's just a porcelain one.
• Billing Displacement: Udo Kier is visible in one long scene, and briefly heard over the telephone for another, and that's the extend of his appearance. However, some of the foreign posters and covers for the film bill him as highly as third, and in the position of the male lead, despite virtually every other male character of note in the film having more screen time than Kier's character. Other covers bill Alida Valli right after Harper, and Stefania Casini isn't billed on the cover at all, despite being billed as the second female lead in the film itself. Still others bill Joan Bennett right after Jessica Harper, and don't bill anyone else at all on the cover.
• California Doubling: Set in Germany but filmed in Rome, save for a few choice exteriors. Even so, the town in the film is identified as Freiburg, while location filming was done in Munich.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Sweden: Escape from Hell
• Creator Backlash: Joan Bennett regretted taking part, not realising how slow the filming process would be compared to America. She was especially annoyed at having to report to hair and make-up at 12:30 one day and then having to wait five hours to shoot a scene where she had just one line. She also disliked the gore and violence in the film. Despite this, she managed to befriend both Jessica Harper and Alida Valli, the latter of which frequently took both women (and Bennett's husband) out to dine at different restaurants during filming.
• Creator Breakdown: Quite chillingly. Argento contemplated suicide for a few days after finishing the movie.
• Creator Couple: Director Dario Argento and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi were together at the time.
• Dawson Casting: A somewhat bizarre example. Argento originally wanted the characters to be 12 years old, but the studio vetoed this idea because they were worried it would get the film banned. As a compromise, Argento hired actresses in their 20s, but retained the childlike dialogue from the script. He also made sure that all the doorknobs in the film would be above the actresses' heads, to make them seem smaller in comparison.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Jessica Harper was genuinely unnerved during the climax. All the explosions were going off near her, helping with how scared Suzy is supposed to look.
  • Stefania Casini got tangled up in the fake wires, so Sara's panic is real.
  • The creepy music was composed in advance and played on set to enhance the actors' performances.
• Faux Fluency: Rudolf Schündler, the West German actor who played Professor Milius, could not speak any English or Italian, so in the scene where he talks with Suzy about witches, Jessica Harper could not understand him as he was speaking in German. Harper later quoted that she tried very hard to keep a straight face as not to flub her lines and that also, he would lightly tap on one of her legs with his foot just out of frame to cue her to speak when he was done finishing his own lines.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • Germany: Suspiria: In the Claws of Evil
• Looping Lines: As was custom in Italian cinema, the dialogue was dubbed in later through ADR. As a result, there were three different languages being spoken on set (English, Italian and German). Udo Kier is dubbed for the American release.
• Stunt Casting: Joan Bennett in her final film appearance was cast because of her association with Fritz Lang, whom Dario Argento admired.
• Uncredited Role: Lela Svasta is uncredited for her appearance as Helena Markos. She was not an actress but a 90-year-old former prostitute found in Rome.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Argento originally planned for the schoolgirls to be much younger than they were in the final product. His father, the producer, pointed out that the film would never be released anywhere if they went with that. He still had the sets constructed slightly too large, so as to maintain a sense of childlike desperation. The same script was used, which explains some of the childish behavior (like the "names of snakes" scene) the girls engage in.
  • Daria Nicolodi was supposed to play Sara, but she became ill shortly before shooting was to begin, so Stefania Casini was brought in on short notice. Nicolodi appears as a background extra in the airport and provides the Italian dub for Helena Markos.
  • Jessica Harper turned down a role in Annie Hall to play Suzy.
  • Tina Aumont turned down a role due to a scheduling conflict.
  • Barbara Magnolfi (Olga) revealed that there was an additional scene that would've given some closure to her character, where she would be performing with the Bolshoi while the students watched. She believes Olga was a young witch-in-training, hence her interest in Suzy. The scene was cut for pacing reasons, and never filmed.
• Written by Cast Member: Daria Nicolodi was originally supposed to play Sara, but an illness relegated her to a cameo and dubbing Helena Markos's voice.

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