Profondo rosso (Deep Red). 1975. Italy. Directed by Dario Argento. Screenplay by Argento, Bernardino Zapponi. With David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril. 4K digital restoration by Cinecittà; courtesy Cinecittà. In Italian/German/Hebrew; English subtitles. 126 min.
In this giallo masterpiece—which bridges Dario Argento’s early trilogy of psychological thrillers (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o’ Nine Tails, Four Flies on Gray Velvet), the supernaturalism of his midcareer Suspiria and Tenebre, and the Grand Guignol shock tactics of his late-period splatter movies—the director’s bravura use of disorienting camera angles, hallucinatory sounds, mirror images, and razor-sharp edits is put to the service of a particularly nasty, inventively choreographed series of murders that David Hemmings (still carrying the swinging-London stylishness of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up) has to solve. Carlo Rambaldi’s special effects—an electromechanical puppet, a fake mummified body, mannequins and artificial bodies (for decapitation purposes)—proved to be a perfect match for Argento’s morbid acrobatics and Goblin’s haunting soundtrack, and drew the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis, who brought Rambaldi to Hollywood to work on his adaptation of King Kong.