Numerous films have become unbalanced by (mis)edits from the middle and end, but I have yet to encounter a film so slightly but firmly changed from a cut from the opening minutes like “Deep Red”
Mere seconds into the Italian version(and taken out of English cut), a 60 second scene shows our protagonist talking to his band, praising but also steadfastly encouraging them with “Very clean. Very precise. Needs to be more trashy”.
This succinctly shows our hero to be a man of knowledge but also appreciates the seedy and hidden parts of society. Scenes later when he gets involved in a murder case, we the audience understand exactly why he gets in so deep. He appreciates the garish side.
This line and aside also deeply resonates on a macro level with the director Dario Argento. He is relentless in his pursuit of beauty (women, fashion, interiors) but is equally obsessed with the theatre of death. He is not afraid to mix breathtaking splendor with ghastly gore and punishment.
Taken together on both a film and director level, this is the “Lubitsch touch”, a deft act of manners that reflects the world its in. It’s Argento barring his soul in a little pocket of misc en scene.
Amusingly, it’s a brilliant bit of compact storytelling that the narrative nuts and bolts fetishists want from Argento. Well, he put it in, and the American distributor took it out. Who fooled who?
These sixty seconds improve the film tremendously. The version of “Deep Red” with this opening (as well as other material) shows it to be Argento’s masterpiece. And how each second matters so much in dreams of beauty.
