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| A macabre painting makes up this poster for Dario Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage |
An American writer witnesses a murder attempt one night in Rome, while he is claustrophobically locked inside a glass section in an empty art gallery. The police denies him departure from the city, as he gets increasingly entangled in the web of what proves to be a complicated serial killer.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is written and directed by debuting Italian master filmmaker Dario Argento (Suspiria (1977)), unofficially adapting Fredric Brown's (What Mad Universe (1949)) novel The Screaming Mimi (1949). The English title is a literal translation of the original Italian title.
It is an impressive, highly suspenseful debut, a crime thriller with horror elements, made in the Italian giallo subgenre: The word means yellow and comes from the popular, Italian, yellow-covered pulp crime novels that the films most often adapt. They combine mysterious, brutal serial killers with scores of suspicious characters in thriller puzzles with grisly murder scenes, often filmed in the killer's POV, and mostly targeting attractive women.
There is very little to criticize about the film: Some of the editing transitions are a bit primitive, but for many lovers of Italian cinema from the period, they are merely charming in their abruptness. SPOILER The ending takes after Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) in explaining away the killer's psychology, which I don't find to be very fitting ends to such incredible films in both cases - but the damage is minimal.
Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now (1979)) photographed the film with Argento's eminent, expressionistic-creative approach, - especially the murder scenes are mercilessly depicted, - and Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)) has made the perfect, very funky and at the same time anxiety-provoking, nightmarish score. Even the acting performances, which are often not great in Argento's films, (mostly because he is more interested in the visual side of directing), are solid throughout The Bird With the Crystal Plumage.
Argento's direction and script are fantastic here: Surprises keep coming, and memorable scenes follow each other like pearls on a string, SPOILER such as the scene with the hunt for the yellow jacket, the one with the artist who eats cats, the zoo scenes, and the fall from the apartment window scene!... This film is, in short, awesome!
Related posts:
Dario Argento: The Phantom of the Opera/Il Fantasma dell'Opera (1998) - Argento's Leroux adaptation is a kicker mostly for stout fans
Demons/Dèmoni (1985) or, Cinema of Death! (co-writer/producer)
Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death! (co-composer)
The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971) - Solid genetics-themed giallo murder puzzle
Documentary about Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror (2002) - Bio. doc. of Dario Argento
Cost: Reportedly 500k $
Box office: Uncertain but likely at least 3 mil. $
= Uncertain but most likely a huge hit (projected return of 6 times its cost)
[The Bird With the Crystal Plumage premiered 27 February (Milan, Italy) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 1969 in Italy, including in Rome. The film was reportedly a hit in Italy, grossing 1.65 bil. ITL, reportedly around 1 mil. $, and in Spain, where it reportedly sold around 1.3 mil. tickets. It was released in North America in 1970 and in many more markets that year and the two following years. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Argento returned with The Cat O'Nine Tails/Il Gatto a Nove Code (1971). Tony Musante (The Yards (2000)) returned in The Anonymous Venetian/Anonimo Veneziano (1970); Suzy Kendall (Torso/I Corpi Presentano Tracce di Violenza Carnale (1973)) in Darker than Amber (1970)). The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage?
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