Output details

'Fear at 400 Degrees: The Cine-Excess of Suspiria.'

Mendik’s research for Fear at 400 Degrees focuses on the gender representation strategies of Italian director Dario Argento and analyses the director’s contested authorial intent against the background of European marginal film patterns which have been under-theorized to date. Mendik uses the case study of Argento’s 1977 film Suspiria alongside a range of other Italian film from the era to examine critically how the director’s challenging film style and controversial and troubling images of sexual violence affected the wider critical reception of his work. This is the latest stage in Mendik’s research from his monograph Tenebrae (Flicks Books, 2000), part of his RAE submission of 2000, through to the co-edited volume Alternative Europe (Wallflower Press, 2004), part of his 2008 RAE submission. These new research arguments are integral to the structure of this documentary which distinctively interweaves academic, film critique and production perspectives. This approach enables synthetic engagement with issues relating to critical reception, stylistic construction, and gender controversies in Suspiria and Argento’s wider cinema. In connection with these, the examination also touches on popular cinematic representations of 1970s Italian terrorism (Anni di piombo) and the possible subversive lesbian subtexts they contain. The documentary was released in the UK in September 2009 as part of the UK DVD release of Suspiria distributed by Nouveaux Pictures, before being later distributed across Australia along with the Autralian 2012 DVD release. Fear at 400 Degrees generated national press coverage in the UK for its critical revaluation of Argento’s film, and in 2010 the documentary was selected for screening at international film festivals including the DAMS Film Festival, Rome, the Sitges Film Festival, Spain, and the Cyprus Days Film Festival.

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