I’ve written before about my appreciation of Thomas De Quincey.
What I didn’t know until recently is that De Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis (a Latin phrase meaning “sighs from the depths”) was the inspiration for Dario Argento‘s “Three Mothers” film trilogy, Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), and Mother of Tears (2007).
Suspiria de Profundis originally appeared in installments in Blackwood’s Magazine during the Spring and Summer of 1845. Wikipedia tells us that De Quincey “altered its content and added material when he included it in his collected works (1854 and after); and portions of the whole were not published until the first volume of his Posthumous Works in 1891.”
In a June 7, 2008 review on Cinefantastique, Steve Biodrowski says, “Suspiria de Profundis is a further elaboration on the theme of Confessions (of An English Opium Easter). Rather than educating the public on the details of opium use (how many drops are necessary to achieve relief from pain, how difficult it is to ween oneself from the habit), De Quincey instead focuses on spiritual effects, offering up a series of mystical visions with all the conviction of a Biblical prophet.”
Leave a Reply