Three Mothers Redux: Kathy Acker, Pina Bausch, Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino's 'Suspiria'

Article sample: 

Amongst the 260 odd pages of Kathy Acker’s 1993 experimental novel My Mother: Demonology, somewhere near the front of that iconic postmodern feminist writer’s book is featured a chapter called 'Clit City'. Framed from the outset as her reimagining of the 1977 Eurohorror classic Suspiria, that film’s director is lovingly acknowledged as she states on its first page that the chapter is 'dedicated to Dario Argento, of course'. Structurally, many of the key elements of Argento’s films are there, indicated by subheadings such as 'I go back to school', 'The eradication of maggots', 'One murder leads to another', and 'A bat and I become friends'. But in her own unique style, Acker reimagines Suspiria as something uniquely her own; visceral, queer and confronting in a way that was so representational of Acker’s broader artistic practice.

About Senses of Cinema:

Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially-produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms. As an Australian-based journal, we have a special commitment to the regular, wide-ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present. Senses of Cinema is primarily concerned with ideas about particular films or bodies of work, but also with the regimes (ideological, economic and so forth) under which films are produced and viewed, and with the more abstract theoretical and philosophical issues raised by film study.