The first scene I chose was the scene in "Suspiria" (1977) where Susie fainted on the bed after Tanner's class. The structure of framing and blocking immediately attracted my attention. The school doctor, Ms. Tanner, and Madame Blanc surrounded Suzy with a triangle, while Suzy was pressed on the bed and forced to drink water, even though she kept refusing to drink water. Ms. Tanner and Madame Blanc held Suzy's arm and pressed her shoulder. The three standing figures had red lights on their faces. In this case, their identities will speak. Ms. Tanner is the chief instructor, and Mrs. Blanc is the principal. They are both authoritative, older, female images that symbolize power and motherhood. Judging from the dynamics of their movements with Susie, how an adult dancer is forced to degenerate into a child in the presence of a threatening parent/maternal character becomes very visually impactful.
The second scene photo here is a shot of Susie hiding behind or inside a curtain to avoid an upcoming unknown threat. The corridor is completely red with beige curtains. Susie's clothes are also roughly the same beige/white. When she puts herself in the fabric, she becomes a part of the decoration, immersed in the building, lined up with the pattern. As we discussed in the lecture, the characters here seem to be framed, and Susie's body is displayed as decorative, visually inseparable from the surrounding buildings, and even becomes a part of the frame. She is powerless in this red-surrounded environment. As a viewer, I can communicate with her uneasy emotions through such visual techniques.
The third scene I chose was a shot of Susie visiting the building of the psychologist Dr. Mandel. The bird's-eye view vividly shows the environment and architectural style completely different from that of Tanzakademie. The guardrails, benches and fences are arranged in a rectangular and symmetrical form. Bright sunlight shines on this campus, everything exists boldly, without any extra decorations. As Schultz analyzed, this constructive lens here shows a rationalist cylindrical university building complex, showing the male architectural style. This huge visual contrast provides a male perspective, plus the expertise that Susie later borrowed from Dr. Mandel, and directly shows how women/witches are seen as vicious, negative, and destructive from the perspective of patriarchy. Sexual.
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