Fordham Graduate Film Group Screens Suspiria

In a packed screening room on October 30, the Fordham Graduate Film Group watched Dario Argento's visceral, balletic horror masterpiece, Suspiria (1977). The group, formed in 2014 and currently led by Elizabeth Light and Caitlin Cawley, convenes once per semester to screen a critically relevant film.

This semester, Suspiria was a huge hit – attendees reveled in Argento's vivid mise-en-scene, ominous soundtrack, and surreal fairy-tale of an American dancer in a labyrinthine boarding-school run by murderous witches. A long and lively discussion then touched on the intersections of horror and fairy-tale, Argento's “three mothers” film sequence, Deleuzian sensory effects, disability and historical space, and sensory motifs throughout the film.

Fordham Film Group's primary goal is to provide a space for such viewings and conversations, incorporating current film studies and critical theory while also giving grad students the opportunity to socialize, theorize, and build community. Past screenings have included Portrait of Jason, Let the Right One In, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. The Film Group is funded annually by the English department and supported by two invaluable faculty mentors, Moshe Gold and Shonni Enelow. The group's cross-disciplinary, bi-annual gathering is open to all graduate students with an interest in cinema. The Film Group's next screening will be in Spring 2018. Stay tuned! For more information, please email Liz Light (elight1@fordham.edu). (Poster image: Matt Ryan)