Toronto-born film critic Lianne MacDougall, girlfriend of famous director Quentin Tarantino, has recently admitted to plagiarizing her reviews. Tarantino is no stranger to accusations of plagiarism himself, as his films are well-known for taking bits and pieces from various film genres, in a style that film critic Mike White mockingly calls “Tarantino’s ‘collage style’ of art.” Writing under the penname ‘Lianne Spiderbaby,’ she was ousted by White on his blog Impossible Funky. Impossible funky it was, as White was able to demonstrate the extent of MacDougall’s plagiarism, which you can read below.

Here is Lianne’s review of Argento’s Suspiria (1977) from July, 2013 – everything hyperlinked leads to directly plagiarized material, courtesy of Mike White’s post:

Without a doubt, Suspiria is Dario Argento’s best film (some of you may not feel the same, but I stand behind my choice), and one of the most atmospheric and artistic films ever made in the horror genre. It is the first in Argento’s “The Three Mothers” trilogy, which also includes Inferno and The Mother Of Tears. Argento was at the top of his proverbial game when directing both Suspiria and Inferno as they defy everything you’ve come to expect from horror films. Not only are they brimming with suspense and incredibly stylized violence, they are absolutely beautifully filmed.

Suspiria defines the horror film as a work of visual art. Scenes are lit with bright reds, greens, and blues making them look more like moving paintings than film. It’s a masterpiece of visual filmmaking. Suspiria also includes one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time. Goblin, who would score numerous other films for Argento, provide a haunting score and one that uses strange human vocals, the sounds of whispers and gasps to compliment the music. It’s an artistic choice that lends itself well to the film. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Suspiria without Goblin’s soundtrack. The 1977 giallo classic is an experiment with lighting, mise-en-scène and sound.

Rightly considered the pièce de résistance of Dario Argento’s filmmaking career, the movie is sparse and plain as it follows a young American dancer named Suzy (Jessica Harper) through the stressful demands of a prestigious ballet academy. Over the course of the film, Suzy slowly discovers that the ballet studio is run by a nasty coven of witches.

But it’s the beginning sequence that sets Suspiria apart from all the rest — it starts out late in the night during a raging storm. A young woman runs screaming from the exclusive Frieberg ballet school. We see her hurtling, screaming through the woods, illuminated by lightning. After she arrives at a friend’s apartment she peers through a window into the tumult, only for an arm to smash through one window pane and, in a loving, extended shot, suffocate her against the other. While her friend drums hysterically against the locked door the gloved hand repeatedly stabs the girl. In the next shot the stabbing continues, this time in full close up as the fiend winds a rope around the shrieking victims legs. Then, we cut to the friend running into the lobby of the apartment building for help. As she looks up towards a stained glass ceiling, the victim’s head crashes through it in a hail of glass shards followed by her body. We cut to the blood-drenched corpse, suspended by the rope dripping blood onto the floor. Finally Argento pans the camera to reveal his next horror: the falling glass has impaled the friend to the ground, crucifix-like, the largest sliver having split her face in half. This is horror beauty at it’s finest!

As you can see, it’s pretty much all lifted. MacDougall’s posts have been removed from FEARnet and she reportedly tweeted her remorse saying, “I apologize for the plagiarism in my work. I am leaving journalism behind for a while. I’m so very, very sorry to everyone esp (sic) those I’ve wronged.”

[via The Star]

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Jeremy Schipper is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @jeromeoschipps.

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