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The Bird With the Crystal Plumage [1971] (NTSC)
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| Custom Reviews: | |
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| ONE OF CINEMA'S GREATEST DEBUT FILMS | |
|  | Walking home after work, Sam Dalmas, (Tony Musante) witnesses an attack on Monica Ranieri, (Eva Renzi) at a museum gallery. Inspector Morosini, (Enrico Maria Salerno) and Alberto Ranieri, (Umberto Raho) arrive on the scene, and Sam is taken into custody as a witness and possible suspect. Trying to solve the murders with girlfriend Julia, (Suzy Kendall) as the spree continues, he becomes the target of a black-gloved maniac who is at the center of the killing spree around town. Becoming incensed in solving the crimes, he follows the clues and eventually discovers the true motive of the killer and tries to avoid becoming another victim.br /br /The Good News: One of the best Italian horror films of all time, this really has a lot going for it and is itself a great film. The main aspect of the film is that it lays the groundwork for all the typical motives found inside the giallo sub-genre. There's the traumatic initial murder, the artistic outsider who feels compelled to play detective after witnessing the crime, upon after-thought, something is not as it seems, the blurring and confusion of gender distinctions; and the murder by a black leather clad maniac are all present. That these would be exploited so frequently shows their resourcefulness, and here they work wonders, each being a critical reason why the film works so well. The main three elements, the outsider happening upon the crime, the black-bestowed killer, and the traumatic opening murder all come together in the mind-blowing opening kill, where through a huge plate-glass window, a killer attempts to murder a woman on top of a stairway, and then flees the scene, leaving the attempted victim to plead for help, only for them to become trapped in the building's security devices. It's a marvelous scene that is so breathtaking in it's execution and concept that it's hard to describe how well it works, and the fact that it's in the opening five minutes of the film makes it a hammer-blow to the viewer even more so. There are so many reasons to love this scene, it's just a spectacular scene. The later attempts at suspense are no less effective, and are just as great. A chase through a darkened bus terminal is monumental for having a large variety of great mini scenes inside of it, such as the hunt through a buses headlights, the various attempts to escape by climbing over a wall, and the initial entry into the situation, which holds a couple of great moments inside it as well. There's also the traditional scene where the killer violently hacks through a door to get at a victim trapped inside the room, and this one is no less intense or stunning as the others throughout any other film. The fact that there's no escape possible other than stopping the killer adds to the intensity, and the various modes of stopping it from occurring are pretty novel and play out pretty well. The murders themselves are pretty great. One of the murders provides a jump scene, as the victim watches through POV after they extinguish a cigarette off to the side when the killer suddenly appears in the doorway in front of them unnoticed. Even the flashy kill, where through the POV it's shown the killer using a straight-razor for the job is a nice little touch, and one that adds to the great feel for the film. Even the pacing for the film is great, as it never really lets up at all and constantly keeps us involved, since there's really no tangents off into something else that serves little purpose. It's also incredibly straight-forward, as the clues offered are for once useful in deducing the identity of the killer and are thoughtful on their own. The use of flashbacks as a major clue is handled the best, and makes for some nerve-wracking scenes as well. The denouement revelation of the killer is quite a shock, and is really not expected. With all the other Argento efforts in top form here, there's really very few parts in here that don't work.br /br /The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. The one big thing against this one is that it isn't as gory as it could've been, as the murders are pretty bloodless and several aren't even shown on screen but are happened upon at a later point. It's not really a gripe, but considering that it had a brutal tone to the killings, it's a disappointment when they aren't like they could be. The sleaze is also toned down compared to what it could be, even though one victim is killed in a nightgown and completely stripped before being killed. There's also no real nudity to speak of other than the see-through nightgown, and it's a weird turn for the more violent and sleazy ones to follow. Otherwise, there isn't anything else wrong with this one.br /br /The Final Verdict: One of the best examples of the giallo around, this is also one of the better Italian films around. There's good reason why it spawned so many imitations, and there's really nothing in it that doesn't feel wrong. Highly recommended to just about everyone, and most important of all to European horror fans and Argento disciples most of all.br /
| | | The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is not particularly gory, but it does establish a blueprint for most of Dario Argento's later work, with the crucial misunderstood attempted murder both referencing Antonioni's Blow-Up and prefiguring the killer-in-plain-sight twist of Deep Red. Best of all is Argento's mastery of vivid color and the Scope frame (the gallery window is even designed at an exact 2.35:1 to match the screen ratio). It still lacks the bravura and panache that would distinguish Deep Red, Suspiria and Inferno, and the best that can be said of the performances is that they don't get in the way: Tony Musante's hero and Mario Adorf's cameo as a cat-eating artist pass muster, as does Enrico Maria Salerno, the Italian voice of Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's westerns (the perverse side of my nature thought Eastwood could at least have returned the compliment by dubbing him into English), but Suzy Kendall definitely looks better than she acts and some of the supporting cast pull out most of the stops. Still how can you not love a film with lines like "How many times do I have to tell you, Ursula Andress belongs with the transvestites, not the perverts!"br /br /Blue Underground's new Region 1 NTSC DVD is some 30 seconds longer than the previous VCI issue and boasts superb picture quality and a choice of English or Italian tracks (it was shot in English, as per all of Argento's films). The extras aren't plentiful enough to justify a second disc - some 47 minutes of interviews, including an inadvertently revealing one by Eva Renzi pretty much badmouthing anyone who ever offered her a part for destroying her career - but if you don't have the film it's worth picking up for the remastering alone.br /
| | | This is the first Dario Argento film I have seen and chose to see it first because it is his directorial debut. Unlike the films he is best known for, namely horror, this film is more of a suspense thriller. The plot surrounds the murders of three women in Rome and an attempted murder of another women. The attempted murder is witnessed by an American tourist who then becomes involved in the police investigation when they confiscate his passport. The direction is excellent and right up until the final scenes you have no idea who the killer really is. This film may look a bit dated now compared to some of the polished, modern hollywood productions. However the film is still excellently put togehter and well worth seeing before you see other films by Dario Argento.
| | Excellent early-Argento slasher/mystery. | |
| | As other have noted, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage was Argento's first stab (no pun) at the horror genre, and it's surprising to see how quickly his trademark style and key cinematic concerns fell into place. The film begins with ominous shots of a shadowy figure slipping on black leather gloves, running his fingers seductively over a collection of huge, shimmering knives, inter-cut with some menacing shots of a young woman walking through town, as if being photographed by an unseen foe. This is Argento establishing a sense of foreboding and mysterious dread before plunging into the plot, so to speak, as we're introduced to our central character (a jaded American writer taking a relaxing Italian break with his girlfriend) and the world in which he inhabits.pMuch of the film hinges around a Hitchcockian set piece, in which our hero, walking past a jewellery-store late at night, witnesses an attack on a young woman by an assailant dressed completely in black. Our hero tries to help, but finds himself trapped between the two glass security doors, forced to watch impotently as the attacker escapes and the girl starts to bleed. This is really an exceptionally well-directed scene by the young Argento, as he establishes a set of themes, characters and locations that will be revisited from different perspectives throughout the course of the film, as our hero and his allies in the police-force try to piece together the mystery surrounding the attack, and it's links to a series of related murders over the past few months.pThe mystery element of the film really works and kept my attention throughout, with Argento really understanding the genre and playing with the audiences preconceptions of Hitchcock and Agatha Christie... and so on. The music here, by Ennio Moriconne, adds another layer to the story, often undercutting (as opposed to under-scoring) the dramatic tension of the scene, creating a sense of unease and disarming confusion for the characters, that isn't entirely dissimilar to the themes and ideas used by Goblin for Argento's more famous films. Another interesting element here is the cinematography, with The Bird With The Crystal Plumage benefiting greatly from the skills of now-legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who uses colour, composition and mise-en-scene exceptionally well, with a number of scenes and set pieces prefiguring his exquisite work on films like The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris and Apocalypse Now.pA number of scenes here standout as absolutely brilliant (the first attack included), with Argento creating a sense of real danger... often by having the lights cutout during key-scenes or utilising slight camera moves to play with the audience's sense of perspective and character point of view. The chase through the early morning streets of Rome - replete with a hit-and-run; a shoot-out in a disused bus-depot; the hunter turns hunted; and a great pay-off as the assailant finally disappears into the crowd - is an exceptional creation handled superbly well by the young filmmaker, whilst another scene, which has a young woman wander blindly into a darkened elevator, only to be sliced to pieces by the same dark-figure clutching a straight-razor (incidentally, this scene was pillaged shot-for-shot by director Brian DePalma for his film, Dressed to Kill) is great moment of tension and terror, and a great burst of gore in an otherwise restrained early endeavour.pThe final act of the film offers up a satisfying double-pay-off, in which Argento allows the film to play into the audience's suspicions, only to then pull the rug-out from under us, with a twist ending that I for one certainly didn't see coming. Here, Argento elaborates on the ideas behind the title and the multitude of bird-symbolism scattered throughout the film (most notably, the first attack scene, in which the victim, Monica, lies bleeding and helpless in front of a statue of a bird's out-stretched claw, or the high-angle "over-the-city" shot, as our hero searches the streets for his girlfriend) whilst simultaneously building on that previously vague scene involving the bizarre, reclusive artist.pThe acting throughout the film is strong, and the dubbing (so prevalent in all Italian films of this era) is less distracting than I was expecting. The narrative is strong and completely compelling, with Argento drawing us into his scintillating cinematic web, and leading us, much like his central character, down a number of blind alleyways and narrative cul-de-sacs. Though it's certainly less violent than some of his subsequent work (and this DVD version is cut by about a minute or so) there's still a real sense of terror and suspence created by the offsetting music and the overall use of camera, composition, and staccato editing. In a way, it seems like a "how to..." guide for the rest of his career, but that's perhaps a little unfair. For me, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage is a riveting, revolving enigma of a film that shows a young filmmaker establishing his style and ideology in a way that is absolutely impeccable.
| | | This film is great it deserves the 4 stars I gave it. It is a wonderful debut from a brilliant film directer. But this UK version is cut. Why? I dont know the BBFC said they would have no problem releasing it uncut. Oh well. pThe film is great thought using many of the cinematic techniques and tactics that would be so brilliantly portrayed in his later films. This film shows a talent in the making and at the time a man who even Hitchcock feared would take him down.
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