From Robert Daniel, Birmingham, AL:
"Deep Red" (Dario Argento, 1975): The scene opens a floor-level shot. We hear a stabbing sound and a loud scream. The knife falls in from the left and the child's feet rush in from the right. Then the screen goes black for the credits. I guess I counted this as an opening shot because the camera does not move, nor isthere ever a cut. It is one short, continuous take.
The whole giallo is based on this event. It is the murder of a parent in front of the child (whose legs we see). Most of the film happens 15 or so years later, with the child as an adult. The string of brutal and creative murder set-pieces all relate back to what happened in this shot.
The shot is made more effective by the fact that a very eerie child's nursery rhyme is playing in the background. Rumor has it that the nursery rhyme music was played before in an episode of "Davey and Goliath"!
JE: Thanks, Robert -- and thanks for sending in the frame grab, too. I can't believe I haven't seen this major Argento (one of those embarrassing gaps for me), but it's been in my Netflix queue for a long time. I'm gonna have to bump it up to the top now.
Yes you must see this Argento film if you haven't yet. Personally speaking I think this is the best of his films. Most site Suspiria but to me this is much more intriguing, atmospheric and it never fails to rattle me. The opening scene is a great one (especially the disturbing children's tune) but never to be forgotten is the "puppet" scene. Interestingly enough Argento supposedly made it in part as a response to Blow Up (both star David Hemmings) in the same way that Rio Bravo was conceived by Howard Hawks after objecting to High Noon.
Thanks Mark! Yes, the puppet scene definitely made me jump. Without giving too much away for those who have not seen it yet (JE), the child's drawing and the painting/mirror images are also extremely creepy.
Also, I agree with you. Suspiria is a great horror film, but I feel Deep Red is Argento's best work.
So, was Scorsese referencing this shot in The Aviator with that floor level shot of Faith Domergue's feet when she walks out on the stage?
JE: Maybe he's just a foot man. Actually, I recently re-watched Fassbinder's great "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" (shot by Scorsese's longtime DP Michael Ballhaus -- though he didn't shoot "The Aviator") and it has some (hilarious, kinky) shots of women's feet from floor level. Fashion designer Petra is wearing this bondage-gear outfit worthy of Theda Bera, that binds her calves so that she walks like a geisha...