§1.0 - Points 1.0–1.13: THIS BLOG'S CONTENTS:
1.1 - THIS BLOG'S TITLE:
1.2 - PART III. FURTHER STILL ON DARIO ARGENTO'S THE THREE MOTHERS' TRILOGY—THE FILM: 'MOTHER OF TEARS: THE THIRD MOTHER, 6 SEPTEMBER 2007, 141:38 MINUTES', DIRECTED BY DARIO ARGENTO; A BLOG, 30 JULY 2024, BY CRAIG STEVEN JOSEPH LACEY.
1.3 - THIS BLOG'S LISTED SECTIONS AND NUMBERED POINTS:
1.4 - §2.0: Points 2.0–2.10: THE DISCLAIMER /1.5 - §3.0: Points 3.0–3.3: THE DATES OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND ON-LINE PUBLICATION /1.6 - §4.0: Points 4.0–4.15: A GIALLO FILM STRETCHED IN TO THE HORROR AND APOCALYPTIC SUB-GENRES /1.7 - §5.0: Points 5.0–5.19: THE FILM'S GIALLO OBSESSIONS WITH FEMININE SEXUALITY AND THE TYRANNY OF NO PRIVACY /
1.8 - §6.0: Points 6.0–6.19: CROSSING-OVER GENRES AND DIMENSIONS OF SPIRITUAL REALITY /
1.9 - §7.0: Points 7.0–7.14: COMMENTS ON THE ÆSTHETICS OF DARIO ARGENTO'S THREE MOTHERS TRILOGY /1.10 - §8.0: Points 8.0–8.13: MATER LACHRYMARUM AND HER SON THE ANTI-CHRIST /1.11 - §9.0: Points 9.0–9.17: A CHILDLESS MATER LACHRYMARUM /1.12 - §10.0: Points 10.0–10.26: REGARDING MATER LACHRYMARUM'S RED TUNIC AND THE FILMS: 'PROFONDO ROSSO, 7 MARCH 1975, 126 MINUTES', 'IN FABRIC, 18 SEPTEMBER 2018, 118 MINUTES', 'CRUELLA, 18 MAY 2021, 134 MINUTES' AND 'MADAME WEB, 12 FEBRUARY 2024, 116 MINUTES' /1.13 - §11.0: Points 11.0–11.7: AN AFTERWORD //
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§2.0 - THE DISCLAIMER—Refer to the Points 2.0–2.10 /
2.1 - All rights reserved © Craig Steven Joseph Lacey, 4 December 1976–, Australia. 2.2 - Changing the content or re-publishing this blog is strictly prohibited. 2.3 - This blog is protected by the: 2.4 -Privacy Act 1988 of Australia, against unauthorized access to Craig Steven Joseph Lacey's Samsung Galaxy A05s, and Google account; 2.5 - Cybercrime Act 2001 of Australia, against computer fraud or internet fraud; 2.6 - Copyright Act 1968 of Australia, against intellectual property theft; 2.7 - Universal Copyright Convention, circa 1952; 2.8 - Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, 9 September 1886. 2.9 - Fines and/or prosecution will apply according to Australian and International law in reference to unauthorised access and use of this blog published through the Blogger app of Google.com and the author's storage device(s) with the data. 2.10 - There are five composite images in total, including thirteen film stills in-set from: Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother / Mater Lachrymarum: La Terza Madre, 6 September 2007, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 141:38 minutes, directed by Dario Argento—acknowledge that the film stills are provided as two images in a composite, vertical format, except for one composite that incorporates three film stills.
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§3.0 - THE DATES OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND ON-LINE PUBLICATION—Refer to the Points 3.0–3.5 /3.1 - This blog was started 30.07.2024 and completed 30.07.2024. 3.2 - Researched and composed, 24.07.2024 to 30.07.2024, by Craig Steven Joseph Lacey at Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia, 4000. 3.3 - Word count: 6,530 and characters count: 39,555. 3.4 - Last up-dated: 05:05, 18.08.2024, Australian Eastern Standard Time.
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§4.0 - A GIALLO FILM STRETCHED IN TO THE HORROR / APOCALYPTIC SUB-GENRES—Refer to the Points 4.0–4.15, listed directly beneath.
§4.0 - A GIALLO FILM STRETCHED IN TO THE HORROR / APOCALYPTIC SUB-GENRES—Refer to the Points 4.0–4.15, listed directly beneath.
4.1 - The "giallo" film: Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother / Mater Lachrymarum: La Terza Madre, 6 September 2007, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 141:38 minutes, directed by Dario Argento, is based on a script by Dario Argento and the contemporary, American film-makers of the horror genre: Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch. 4.2 - Jace Anderson's and Adam Gierasch's influence on this film of Dario Argento's is palpable, as the last of the Three Mothers Trilogy film stretches the giallo genre towards horror, specifically the sub-genre of the apocalypse, the most horrific yet profound of subjects. 4.3 - To briefly mention an example of the Jace Anderson's and Adam Gierasch's suburban horror / slasher sub-genre script for: 4.4 - Toolbox Murders, 19 March 2004, premiere at Hamburg Nacht der 1000 Schreie, Germany, 95 minutes, directed by Willard Tobe Hooper, that is a re-make of: 4.5 - The Toolbox Murders, 17 February 1978, El Paso, Texas, 93 minutes, directed by Dennis Donnelly. 4.6 - The two films mentioned above at point 4.4, are reminiscent of the film made at a similar time as Dennis Donnelly's film of 1978, viz.: 4.7 - A Day of Judgment, circa 1981, 92 minutes, directed by Charles Reynolds, in which one man visits a town to unleash "end time", such as the figure of the grim reaper as the agent of The Last Judgment, though "in reality" is a serial killer representative of the slasher sub-genre. 4.8 - There is the American horror film of the 1970s, such as: 4.9 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 11 October 1974, the United States of America, 123 minutes, also directed by Willard Tobe Hooper, which celebrates a type of de-symbolized apocalyptical event rendered in every-day terms; it is the apocalyptic sub-genre rendered in ætheistically minimalised terms: on the door-step of the neighbourhood—at which point the difference emerges to this more recent film: Mater Lachrymarum: The Third Mother, 6 September 2007, with neo-pagan / Satanic symbolism retained. 4.10 - Dario Argento's film of 2007 partially draws upon Judeo-Christian eschatology, possibly most derivative of: The Book Of Daniel of the Christian Old Testament with allusions to "the abomination" as "the desolator", and: The Book Of Jeremiah 20:10: 'For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side'—in which a bleak vision of terror permits that no hope may be entertained. 4.11 - Further, the Mayan cultural forms of savage violence and barbarism and the celebration of "the end of the world", arguably finds representation in such films as: 4.12 - Apocalypse Now, 19 May 1979, premiere at Cannes, 147 minutes, 70 millimeters, directed by Francis Coppola, or; 4.13 - Apocalypto, 8 December 2006, 138 minutes, directed by Mel Gibson. 4.14 - The narration of: Apocalypse Now, 19 May 1979, 147 minutes, of on-going battle, of war itself, as a type of secular or power-focused 'armageddon'—refer to: 'And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon, Revelation 16:16'—that is, historically defined rather than supernaturally, viz. the Vietnam War, 1 November 1955 until the fall of Saigon, 30 April 1975, nonetheless involved something of a modern confrontation of Western World Christianity to Eastern World sun-worship religions and cosmologies. 4.15 - Yet the savagery and horror of the human heart seems to have the greatest correlation to the Mayan jungles of not only Cambodia / Vietnam but Guatamala and generally South America, in which dwell the very symbols of the bestial and wild, such as: the ape, leopard, snake, crocodile, etc., beneath a sky with a moon, stars and sun, as portrayed by: Apocalypto, 8 December 2006, 138 minutes, and further with an archaeologically / anthropologically informed narrative, the gore of Dario Argento's stylistic and imaginary films seem less shocking.
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§5.0 - THE FILM'S GIALLO OBSESSIONS WITH FEMININE SEXUALITY AND THE TYRANNY OF NO PRIVACY—Refer to the Points 5.0–5.19, listed directly beneath.
5.0 - There are moments of the first two giallo films' psychologically claustrophobic atmosphere in this film that is evocative of female sexuality, particularly regarding the anxiety of rape, such as when Sarah Mandy, acted by Asia Argento, becomes invisible at a train station's book-shop, only to be almost pinned-in to a corner of a set of library shelves by the detective, Enzo Marki, acted by Cristian Solimeno. 5.1 - Refer to the two film stills from Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother, 6 September 2007, 141:38 minutes, which involve Sarah Mandy being incidentally pinned in to the corner of book shelves to evoke giallo's claustrophobia.
5.2 - Juxtaposed to the witch, Mater Lachrymarum's often naked and licentious coven, giallo's standard fragility of female sexuality is lost—and the later lesbian sex scene involving the white witch, acted by Marta Colossi, and, Elga, acted by Silvia Rubino, concur something of the expression of female sexuality, rather than repression, though it is symbolically punished. 5.3 - Nonetheless, this film arguably retains Dario Argento's "giallo frisson": primarily through Sarah Mandy's characterisation of naïveté and Catholic puritanism or frigidity as resistant to a type of sexual defilement, viz. the spoiling (not deflowering) of the stereo-typical Christian / virgin, a central complex of Catholicism. 5.4 - The often unsettling content of giallo films are predicated on the attack of the Satanic blasphemers upon Christianity: the virtuous life of the Christian, such as symbolised by the virgin maiden, and the Madonna proper, are shown in states of moral compromise that involve survival situations in which moral debasement is almost impossible to deny. 5.5 - Yet adult sexuality is in expressiveness not necessarily immoral: the main text of the bible, the New Testament, writes of no judgment upon sexual expression—though the inference through Jesus Christ is, it ideally be a matter of love rather than lust and sado-masochism: because love is the central tenet of Jesus Christ's doctrines. 5.6 - On which point, the witches of Lachrymarum's catacomb appear to prolapse from the giallo script, engaged in bizarre sexual acts as rituals imitative of physical sensuality, because they are amongst other things, junkies, whose pleasure is foremost provided through a syringe. 5.7 - Refer to two film stills beneath of Mater Lachrymarum's catacomb, where Sarah Mandy stumbles upon a scene of an opposite sex, sibling couple, tied, naked together, covered in lacerations, and a female couple in which one partner appears to suck through a tube fæces from the other partner's anus.
5.8 - There is then the observation to make, there are matters obvious in the film that require no explanation, that is, to those of the cult of the Anti-Christ who could count as among the majority of the film's audience. 5.9 - A Christian has become something of a spy it would seem—I am classed as something of an outsider who "peers in", after all "peering in" is the great offering of film per se, from voyeurism through to probative insight, though eavesdropping has something further to do with it too. 5.10 - On which point, the subject of the first two films: of a private interiority of space set against a further secret interiority of space is only slightly represented in this final film—there is a brief moment shown in which: 5.11 - A dæmon appears in a camera's lens as photographs are taken for the Catholic church regarding the excavation of the coffins; 5.12 - One of the golems spy through a hole at Giselle Mares, acted by Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, at the Museo di Roma as she opens the coffins; 5.13 - Mater Lachrymarum's secret catacomb, beneath the desecrated Roman mansion, entered through a stone door with glyphic buttons to press and automate access. 5.14 - Refer to three non-contiguous film stills vertically placed directly beneath that show a dæmon in the camera lens at the excavation site, a dæmon at Museo di Roma's spy hole and Sarah Mandy's hand pressing the stone button marked with a swirling swastika to open the secret passage.
§6.0 - CROSSING-OVER GENRES AND DIMENSIONS OF SPIRITUAL REALITY—Refer to the Points 6.0–6.14, listed directly beneath.
6.1 - During the scenes in which Sarah Mandy's love interest, Michael Pierce, acted by Adam James, pursues her, since he has become the undead, is intercepted by Sarah's deceased mother, Eliza, from the spiritual plane, who wrestles with Michael Pierce, who is aflame, and takes him in to a type of inter-dimensional worm-hole, that could be an allusion to his passing to Heaven, such that it is inferred, a good person made undead retains the acceptance by Heaven. 6.2 - Refer to two film stills directly beneath in which Sarah Mandy witnesses the spirit of Elisa pull the flaming Michael Pierce in to an inter-dimensional hole.
6.3 - The scene is reminiscent of the action of "supernatural crossing-over" in to the real world as portrayed by the earlier film: 6.4 - Constantine, 7 February 2005, premiere at Paris, France, 121 minutes, directed by Francis Lawrence. 6.5 - The character and plight of 'Constantine', acted by Keneau Reeves, are quite separate from biblical accounts—there is an historical association by reference to the name of Emperor Constantine who is claimed to have Christianised the Empire of Rome, and further characterisations of the Devil / Lucifer, the archangel Gabriel, the dæmons: Mammon and Balthazar, and the symbolism of the spear of destiny, but there exists folk-lore realms of hidden, magical dimensions amid the urban-scape, where figures of Haitian voodoo, viz. Baron Samedi as Papa Midnight, manage a bar where can be found dæmons, vampires, witches, etc.—and refer to: "Fairy Tale Sources And Rural Settings In Dario Argento’s Supernatural Horror" by Peter Vorissis in: Literature Volume 3.4, 2023, pages 457–472, for further consideration of folk-lore symbolism in giallo filmic contexts—that is, there is no orthodox expression of the Second Coming in such cultural texts. 6.6 - If it was not for the depth of Christian biblical cultural and historical context from which this film of 2007 draws its narrative, it would be of that B-grade category, that is, the biblical apocalyptic sub-genre's symbolism is profound and aptly suited for sublimity and glorification, such as found in the earlier films: 6.7 - The Seventh Sign, 1 April 1988, 97 minutes, directed by Carl Schultz, or; 6.8 - End Of Days, 24 November 1999, 122 minutes, directed by Peter Hyams. 6.9 - The Book Of Revelation, 7 September 2006, 119 minutes, directed by Ana Kokkinos. 6.10 - The three films mentioned at points 6.7–6.8 pursue a more orthodox line of Christian representation of the apocalypse, specifically relating to Jesus Christ's Second Coming, whereas Dario Argento's films are unorthodox, possibly perverse, particularly in a representation of the Satanic, though ultimately, Mater Lachrymarum and her coven are destroyed within the narrative of the film. 6.11 - The Australian film: The Book Of Revelation, 7 September 2006, 119 minutes, arguably is Satanic: with allusions to the three witches of this Three Mothers Trilogy involved in hexing Daniel to thereafter curse his life. 6.12 - A better representation of a properly Christian interpretation of the Second Coming is evident in the film: 6.13 - Left Behind, 31 October 2000, direct-to-D.V.D. premiere, and 2 February 2001, theatrical release, United States of America, 100 minutes, directed by Vic Sarin; 6.14 - Based on: Left Behind: A Novel Of The Earth's Last Days, circa 1995, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, 28 April 2011, Re-print, Tyndale House Publishers, 496 pages, ISBN: 9781414334905.
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§7.0 - COMMENTS ON THE ÆSTHETICS OF DARIO ARGENTO'S THREE MOTHERS TRILOGY—Refer to the Points 7.0–7.14, listed directly beneath.
7.1 - Arguably, there is an effect of æsthetics to cause for a Baroque style to emerge, viz. a "giallo Baroque" in the grand-scales of the apocalyptic mixed with giallo. 7.2 - I have argued in my previous blog that the apocalyptic revelation is resisted under the "auspices" of: Mater Tenebrarum of: Inferno, 7 February 1980, 107 minutes—the earlier two films of the Three Mothers Trilogy are distinctly confined within domestic and/or school or prisons institutional settings in which anxiety and sexual ambiguities are pervasive. 7.3 - Mater Lachrymarum's inconsolable grief and angst, her beckoning of war and genocide, causes for the apocalypse as a convulsion comparable to: The Book Of Revelation of the Christian New Testament—as something that cannot be known until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ makes all known. 7.4 - The end of everything is not exactly what Mater Lachrymarum, acted by Moran Atias, desires; she seeks for the return of the Age of Magic and in its sacrilegious turning away from the gospel, a decadence or opulence of effect is caused, if not a monstrance. 7.5 - The scenes involving Sarah Mandy's stay with Marta Colussi, the lesbian, white witch, depicts a sex scene between Marta and Elga, of which Sarah Mandy is not part, supposedly leads to Mater Lachrymarum's familiar, the golem as a man, who is partially shown to climb down a rope that is, as in the magic trick, hung in the air, to cross-over the apocalyptical genre as from a magical fantasy genre, to then establish a further cross-over of the giallo-horror genre—that is, by shoving a spear up Marta's vagina and out her mouth—an horrific killing if ever there was one. 7.6 - More to the point, the naturalism of representation of the scenes of magical / supernatural characters walking in on scenes beyond reasonable explanation: for example, Mater Tenebrarum later walks in to Marta's house after she is murdered, is contrasted to the standard conventions of magical fantasy, such as the possibly ironic reference to the magic trick of climbing down a rope hung in mid air, then transformed in to horrific fatalism by an almost ritualistic killing of grotesque carnage. 7.7 - Arguably there is an overly ornate admixture of filmic metaphors and conventions: from giallo, the supernatural thriller, apocalyptic and horror genres, that cause for a summative æsthetical effect of the "Baroque": an extravagant style of art and architecture from 17th-century Rome that uses aspects of contrast; movement; exuberant detail; deep colour; grandeur; surprise; to achieve a sense of the sublime from the banal—a critical observation made by Maitland McDonagh on Dario Argento's films, but mostly in reference to the technical matters of camera angles, transitions, and unusual perspectives: page 3, "Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento" in: Film Quarterly 41.2, 1987. 7.8 - The decadent contrast and pastiche of stylistic metaphors used to possibly over-come the more clichéd, tired aspects of the genres, particularly the film's premise of the "curse of the mummy" in opening a burial site, and the subsequent series of horror-based subjects, viz. the gory spectacles; witches; familiars; the undead; ghosts; magic; the end of the world, etc., with a recurring symbolic use of the colour of deep red, achieve this Baroque effect. 7.9 - There is, however, a campness to Dario Argento's giallo films which renders them being at risk of becoming comical absurdities, such as of the black comedy of "the dark ride", but a type of art-house flare for innovative re-styling has mostly elevated his films out of the category of travesty, viz. "B-grade schlock", such as in the æsthetic correlation of the trilogy as listed directly beneath: 7.10 - Suspiria, 1 February 1977, 99 minutes: Pop æsthetics mixed with the mediæval village and Neo-Classical styles in giallo form ⟶ giallo Baroque. 7.11 - Inferno, 7 February 1980: 107 minutes: the Gothic night-mare and the Victorian-styled city / ghetto in giallo form ⟶ giallo Baroque; 7.12 - The Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother, 6 September 2007, 1:41:38 minutes—the supernatural thriller and apocalyptically horrific in giallo form ⟶ giallo Baroque. 7.13 - Arguably, giallo Baroque is an equivalence to "the monstrance", the tribute to absolute power as a monolith or the carnivalesque conglomeration, often obscence, that is in an inexplicable way, represented by this film in a very briefly cut and edited moving shot within the subsequent scene to the killing of the white witch, where a pillar of the dead is shown, that is, both a monstrance and conglomeration, is tracked for slightly over a second's duration. 7.14 - Here is the film's apocalyptic prolapse that exudes with the feeling of disturbed frenzy, sado-madochism and bleak chaos: it is supposed to herald the end of the white witch's protectorate and all those within her territory at Rome, but they have been desolated and transformed in to the obscene pillar under the orders of Mater Lachrymarum: alluded to by the monstrous statue.
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§8.0 - MATER LACHRYMARUM AND HER SON THE ANTI-CHRIST—Refer to the Points 8.0–8.13, listed directly beneath.
8.1 - Arguably, a matter of censorship has emerged regarding the legend behind the exhumed coffins, which I will briefly discuss here in this blog. 8.2 - During the film's opening sequence, a cardinal is shown to over-see the excavation of a grave that is peculiarly placed outside the cemetery on a hill over-looking the village Andorno Micca of the region of Piedmont of the Biella province, approximately 70 kilometres north-east of Turin, and two caskets are shown, one an infant's size, the other adult size, peculiarly covered in Aramaic or Occultish glyphs and further chained together. 8.3 - Refer to two film stills beneath that show the site of excavation and the two caskets. 8.4 - After the brutal murder of the art restorer Giselle Mares, acted by Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, and Sarah Mandy's witnessing of the three golem-type monsters with a baboon, one of the curators, Michael Pierce, also Sarah Mandy's love interest, drives to the village, Andorno Micca, and then to a nearby hospital where Monsignor Brusca, acted by Franco Leo, is dying. 8.5 - The monsignor's acquaintance, Father Milesi—acted by Tommaso Banfi—advises Michael Pierce of a legend regarding a similar discovery of a casket and urn, discovered, circa 1814, at nearby Aosta, when the spirit of devastation rose up to take possession of wolves and rats that killed everyone, even the volunteer nobleman, Oscar De le Vallé, who died after carrying "the urn" to Rome—and that urn allegedly was chained to his coffin. 8.6 - Refer to two film stills in: Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother, 6 September 2007, 102 minutes, hand-rendered illustrated panels, tracked by the camera, from 22:50–23:49 minutes, as Father Milesi conveys the legend. 8.7 - It is a legend and not verified history, and the container with the casket is not really an urn, such as an urn typically is considered: a type of ceramic pot, and further, the so-called urn of the excavation is the perfect size for an infant. 8.8 - Yet there is the further point to make, Mater Lachrymarum could be interpreted as a latter day incarnation of the Egyptian goddess, Isis, whose role was funerary in organising the dead, a role found in Mater Lachrymarum who resides in a catacomb and calls out for death, but the similarity ought to extend to Isis's role as the mother of Horus, and she is depicted with her son almost comparable to the Madonna and Infant Jesus Christ. 8.9 - It is therefore plausible that the exhumed coffins are of Mater Lachrymarum and her son, the infant Anti-Christ, whose coming presages the end of the world, viz. the back-ground subject of the film's narrative. 8.10 - While Mater Lachrymarum's cadaver is found in her casket, the infant's casket is emptied of the body and substituted for the three golem-type / dæmonic statues, an ornate dagger and red tunic: artefacts which are inferred to identify with the Anti-Christ, whose appearance is otherwise suppressed in this narrational version. 8.11 - The absence of either Jesus Christ or the Anti-Christ in this otherwise Day of Judgment legend may be attributed to a symbolic, female desire to break free from the chains of mother-hood—the witch is after all, a radical reversal of the Madonna, who is revered as a constant symbol of the bond between mother and child. 8.12 - There are the scenes within the film of 2007 of mothers killing their children, such as at The Ponte Sant Angelo / Bridge of Saint Michael, a young mother throws her healthy infant, suddenly and violently, over the bridge in to the River Tiber, and then is over-come with tears, such as to indicate she has enacted the curse of Mater Lachrymarum, viz. Mother of Tears. 8.13 - A similar inversion of the role of the mother having a caring, strong bond with her infant is portrayed at the Abbey of Sant'Antonio di Ranverso, the film's only other location shot outside Rone—at Buttigliera Alta, the Metropolitan City of Turin—where a mother uses a meat cleaver to cut her toddler's body in to parts, then, on the steps, cut in to the head of Padre Johannes, acted by Udo Kier, after earlier cutting his throat.
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§9.0 - A CHILDLESS MATER LACHRYMARUM—Refer to the Points 9.0–9.17, listed directly beneath.
9.1 - As has been mentioned in my earlier blogs of: <thoughtsdisjectamembra.blogspot.com>, the Italian film director Dario Argento's Three Mothers Trilogy, made over four decades, involve narratives derived from: 9.2 - Thomas De Quincey's "Suspiria De Profundis, circa Spring 1845", in: Blackwood's Magazine, Edinburgh: Blackwood, ISSN 0006-436X; later published: 5 September 2003, Penguin; first edition, English language, paper-back, 352 pages, ISBN-10 0140439013, ISBN-13 9780140439014. 9.3 - Specifically, the poetic prose chapter: 'Levana And Our Ladies Of Sorrow', refers to Mater Lachrymarum / Mother of Tears as the eldest, most powerful of the three sisters—that she is a Madonna: '...let us honour with the title of “Madonna”, [page 157]', an esteemed woman of great resources, yet who is also: '[she] ... that night and day raves and moans, calling for vanished faces, [page 156]'. 9.4 - Mater Lachrymarum is rich and powerful yet still dissatisfied, because it is inferred she is moved by revenge for: "her children"—'[s]he stood in Rama, where a voice was heard of lamentation—Rachel weeping for her children, [page 156]', and refusing to be comforted, is Thomas De Quincey's reference to: The Book Of Jeremiah 31:15: 9.5 - 'Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more”'—from: The Book Of Jeremiah 31:15, English Standard Version. 9.6 - The night-time, moon and tears are further associated in: The Book Of Lamentations 1:2, "How Lonely Sits The City", paraphrased beneath, which uses images echoed in Thomas De Quincey's text: 9.7 - 'She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies'—from: The Book Of Lamentations 1:2, English Standard Version. 9.8 - Yet, while sympathy may be extended to Rachel / Mater Lachrymarum for her loss, there is the point, she will receive no supplication; only revenge may sate her wrath—as Thomas De Quincey writes in reference to Mater Lachrymarum, she inspires in those she hates: '[mourning] forever', and further: '[wakening, particularly in blind people] to a darkness that is now within a second and a deeper darkness, [page 166]'. 9.9 - Lachrymarum is that figure, comparable to Rachel who has lost all her people, but as Lachrymarum is shown the chance to re-start her people by having a child, only to have her hope taken away from her, for the mother and child are indicated as murdered, that is presumably the basis of the unearthed coffins of the first sequences of: Mother Of Tears: The Third Mother, 6 September 2007. 9.10 - Found buried together, their promise to end the Christian Age by Mater Lachrymarum's grief and son the Anti-Christ, to realise her unquenchable dissatisfaction to quell her wrath and seek revenge by genocide, is placed upon whoever breaks the seal of the coffins, that is the apocalyptic curse precipitated by the putative "tomb raider", in a manner reminiscent of the Egyptian pharoah's tombs or the curse of the mummy—an association that further connects her to Isis. 9.11 - The recurring allusion to Isis further exists in reference to the film's presence of an alchemist, Guglielmo De Witt, acted by Philippe Leroy, to whom Sarah Mandy turns for advice and Guglielmo De Witt provides her with a text: the pseudo-biblum discussed in my previous blog: The Three Mothers by E. Valleri. 9.12 - Arguably, the text is an allusion to the Hermetica, viz. a text by Hermes Trismegistus: Prophetess To Her Son Horus, of which fragments only exist, but is referenced by the Greco-Egyptian alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis, flourished 300 A.D, such as: "On The Letter Omega", in: Thrice Greatest Hermes Part 3, 25 July 2002, by G.R.S. Mead of the Theosophical Society, Kessinger Publishing, English Language, paper-back, 244 pages, ISBN-10 0766126145, ISBN-13 978-0766126145. 9.13 - The aspects of the Anti-Christ are mostly omitted from Dario Argento's film of 2007: the narrational set of the reversed Second Coming of the Anti-Christ has been entertained in various films, such as: 9.14 - Rosemary's Baby, 12 June 1968, 137 minutes, directed by Roman Polanski, or: 9.15 - The Omen, 6 June 6 1976, 111 minutes, Britain, directed by Richard Donald Schwartzberg. 9.16 - Where the yet-born Adrian constructs Rosemary's life for her in: Rosemary's Baby, 12 June 1968, 137 minutes, Mater Lachrymarum has unshackled herself of her son, it would seem, possibly erasing the fact there ever was a chain connecting her to him. 9.17 - Similarly, Damien is something of a changeling being a substitution at birth, and a dream of a standard, healthy family is ruined by a boy who cannot but steal the main focus of attention as everyone around him are subject to his darkness in: The Omen, 6 June 6 1976, 111 minutes.
§10.0 - REGARDING MATER LACHRYMARUM'S RED TUNIC: AND THE FILMS 'PROFONDO ROSSO, 7 MARCH 1975, 126 MINUTES', 'IN FABRIC, 18 SEPTEMBER 2018, 118 MINUTES', 'CRUELLA, 18 MAY 2018, 134 MINUTES' AND 'MADAME WEB, 12 FEBRUARY 2024, 116 MINUTES'—Refer to the Points 10.0–10.26, listed directly beneath.
+++10.1 - Within Mater Lachrymarum's catacomb her red tunic is returned to her from the excavation, further identifying her to the buried figure—it is implied she recurs in cycles of time, similar to a system of reincarnation, yet not reincarnation—and it is the tunic, an under-garment worn by both men and women that appears to reinstate her with her old powers. 10.2 - The red-coloured tunic covers her from the nudity of the de-identified slave—she has been something of a slave to her cause and coven—but the colouring of a distinctive "poppy red" further connects her to sensuality, the blood of violence and war, and a desirousness for and control of opium. 10.3 - The colour of poppy red is reminiscent of Dario Argento's symbolic use of the colour in his earlier film: 10.4 - Profondo Rosso / Profound Red, 7 March 1975, 126 minutes, a film that narrates a legend caused by the perfidious Mater Lachrymarum. 10.5 - One of the distinctive visions of Dario Argento's film of 2007 is the portrayal of Mater Lachrymarum as a vampire—Moran Atias is quite simply "vampy" with her dark hair and eyes and poppy-red lips: there is indicated an Aramaic cultural syncretism of categories of cultural text: biblical / Afro-Asian religions and folk-lore narratives, viz. the witch and vampire, as if to disguise her true affiliation and identity. 10.6 - The aspect of opium use and addiction may be part of the haze through which few may see through; a point of which is typically erased in the films based on the Three Mothers: but to return to Thomas De Quincey's text: Confessions Of An Opium Eater, circa 1824, there exists a lateral connection to opium and the Three Mothers, other than the poppy-red colour coding. 10.7 - Through the mind-altering effects of opium, Mater Lachrymarum presumably is able to cast magic upon her coven, but it remains another aspect to the narratives of the Three Mothers Trilogy, which is censored or submerged in the texts: a similar treatment of the Anti-Christ son regarding the film of 2007. 10.8 - Instead the red colour is registered symbolically as the two faces of lusty seduction and the zeal for victory; something of a marker of the femme fatale as celebrated by film, such as by the American comedy: 10.9 - The Woman In Red, 15 August 1984, 86 minutes, directed by and featuring Gene Wilder, an American romantic comedy film directed by Billy Wilder, that features a billowing red dress and string bikini as points of seduction. 10.10 - On which point compare: The Seven Year Itch 3 June 1955, premiere at New York City, 105 minutes, directed by Billy Wilder, in which Marylin Monroe's white dress exploits the conceit of the virgin / child. 10.11 - The pit-falls of succumbing to seductive beguilement are, in the case of Mater Lachrymarum, avoided when she, as acted by Ania Pieroni, briefly appears at a music lecture and the back of a taxi at Rome, during the film: Inferno, 7 February 1980, 107 minutes, and there she attempts to beguile Mark Elliot, acted by Leigh McCloskey, who leaves for New York, who is able to destroy Mater Tenebrarum. 10.12 - Continuing in the giallo genre's supernatural, film noir treatment of red garments is the quite recent British film: 10.13 - In Fabric, 18 September 2018, premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, 118 minutes, directed by Peter Strickland. 10.14 - Refer to the theatrical release poster in the hyper-link for the film, in which the red dress reveals not only the skin of the wearer, but the ligaments, bone and muscle tissue. 10.15 - The red dress is the centre of murders and fires, yet remains invincible, seemingly invested with talismanic powers, perhaps, as an approach to constructing feminine identity avec the witch, the fabric is fetishised as endowing clothing with the mystery of identity, often elusive to "opium eaters", but really clothing can be deceptive as disguise and perishable when compared to other substances, such as brick, stone or iron? 10.16 - The mobs of witches that scout round Rome, in search of Sarah Mandy, are all fashioned in 1980s New Wave: witch Katerina, of Mongolian ethnicity, acted by Jun Ichikawa, wears Japanese / Korean facial make-up to further the cultural ambit of reference and involvement. 10.17 - The "yoke of the egg" is the core substance of which the three mothers are made and known, a point of which is played upon in the films as a resistance to real, historical personage, as though the three golems are one and the same as the three mothers, formed yet unformed, inhabit worlds of secrecy and strange conspiracy as half-souls, an unborn state that allows them to slip through hidden doors or use skeleton keys. 10.18 - As Thomas De Quincey wrote of Mater Lachrymarum: 10.19 - 'This Sister, the elder, it is that carries keys more than papal at her girdle, which open every cottage and every palace... By the power of the keys it is that Our Lady of Tears glides, a ghostly intruder, into the chambers of sleepless men, sleepless women, sleepless children, from Ganges to the Nile, from Nile to Mississippi, [page 157]'. 10.20 - Mater Suspiriorum is revealed only to disappear as an apparition within Dario Argento's first film of the Trilogy, and Mater Tenebrarum appears only incognito: now Mater Lachrymarum appears as though she has always been somewhere at the periphery of history, as arguably women have always been with the children. 10.21 - Mater Lachrymarum's lair is beneath the surface, a subterranean setting: plausible as an emptied-out, group-sized, cult-based catacomb, where the cult is possibly of Isis, the Ancient Egyptian funerary goddess, who exist in partial life, as the undead, who are supposed to attain life upon Judgement Day; though the film is equivocal in communicating this central notion, as to remain indulgent in the pleasures of gothic vanity; in the excesses of deep red—worn unapologetically. 10.22 - At the risk of ridiculing what is profound in Dario Argento's Three Mothers Trilogy, there is some resemblance to the Disney-produced film: Cruella, 18 May 2021, premiere at El Capitan Theatre, 134 minutes, directed by Craig Gillespie: witch-craft and slavishness to fashion correlate to an unconscious demand for a whole, intact body. 10.23 - To expound on this point further, there is indicated a threat of dismemberment to the bodies of Mater Lachrymarum / Cruella, that clothing, viz. the red tunic, "magically" sates the desire of the restored image of the mutilated body: the torso, trunk or core of the body, that without limbs and head is yet further suggestive of the form of Dagon's torso, the Ark (Judaism), or Kaaba (Islam)—an image of suffering far from the "civility" of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 10.24 - Dario Argento's film of 2007 that metaphorically tints life in red is, however, not communicated as liberating; quite the contrary: by "painting the town red", that is, partaking in blood-baths, liberation is entertained, but true liberation involves the disciplining of the passions of the instinctual, including the sin of wrath. 10.25 - It is a conclusion with which it is believed Dario Argento himself has concurred, because each of the three Mothers are killed, and the most recent film's theatrical release poster uses a still taken from the film, that conflates the metaphors of Lachrymarum's powers: "cob-webbing": mummifying in cyclic rituals, and "cracking porcelain": scarring her victims' face / body and identity. 10.26 - Further, the more recent, dark fantasy, adventure genre of film: Madame Web, 12 February 2024, premiered at Regency Village Theatre, 116 minutes, directed by S.J. Clarkson, comes to mind, in which parallel or concurrent existences are portrayed in a manner that escapes Dario Argento's exaltation of giallo based conventions: the Marvel Comics' stable of comic-book styled heroes and fiends are flexible in their far-fetched, cartoon-type modality, or such films are cartoons rendered "realistically", and are incomparable to the discourses of profound, eternal religion, even when such discourses are possibly blasphemed.
11.0 - AN AFTERWORD—Refer to the Points 11.0–11.7, listed directly beneath.
11.1 - There is scarcely any research on Dario Argento's Mater Lachrymarum: The Third Witch, 6 September 2007, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, 141:38 minutes; that is, I have made comments based on my own observations.11.2 - The absence of film-based criticism regarding Mater Lachrymarum: The Third Witch, 6 September 2007, itself, is peculiar: Dario Argento's films typically draw critical attention. 11.3 - While not especially great films, the Three Mothers' Trilogy of films are culturally significant on an international scale and worth commentary—though, perhaps Mater Lachrymarum does not agree?! 11.4 - Suspiria, 1 February 1977, Italy, 99 minutes, has garnered the most critical attention and that attention is further reinforced by the re-make: Suspiria, 1 September 2018, Venice, 152 minutes, but it is directed by Luca Guadagnino, not Dario Argento. 11.5 - As previously commented, I was labeled and persecuted as a changeling and that persecution continues here at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: for I wrote a similar blog on this film approximately five years ago, only to have my phone and data stolen, but I am hoping since that time, with the passing and assent of the Human Rights Act 2019 of Queensland, Australia, I can have my work published on-line without it being unofficially censored. 11.6 - Further, I intend to publish another on-line blog of film and cultural criticism on: Suspiria, 1 September 2018, premiere at Venice, 152 minutes, directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by David Kajganich. 11.7 - As an ever-compromised Christian, I further comment that my sincerest recommendation is read the Christian bible: <https://www.blueletterbible.org/>.
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