The Bird with the Crystal Plumage The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
1970 ‘L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo’ Directed by Dario Argento
Synopsis
A stunning portrait in psycho-terror!
In Italy, the American writer Sam Dalmas (Tony Musant) witnesses an attempt of murder of the owner of an art gallery, a couple of days before his foreseen return to the United States of America. He decides to stay with his girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall) and help the police in the investigation, while the serial killer stalks Julia and him.
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I've not seen a film by the Italian horror icon Dario Argento before, so where better to start than with his directorial debut the masterfully clever and superbly chilling giallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
From the moment it begins Argento’s gripping narrative carries all the suspense of a Hitchcock feature, but the Italian director’s style is more original than referential. He seamlessly combines familiar horror techniques with his own unique blend of filmmaking – that includes sporadic jump cuts, stylish cinematography and a typically unusual and operatic Ennio Morricone score – to provide scares in the most elemental manner.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage will definitely appeal to the fans of suspense-filled horror thrillers, but the viscerally unsettling atmosphere at its core makes it a terrifying classic that everyone should try and seek out.
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Eccentric artist fails to sell his paintings, so to save money on food, breeds cats in a rabbit hutch.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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A visual and thematic blue-print for Dario Argento's entire oeuvre, although it lacks the stylistic and aural complexity of his baroque masterpieces (Profondo Rosso, Suspiria, Inferno). A stunning debut feature, which stands up to repeated re-viewings, even when you know who the killer is.
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I'm a bit weird. I've seen three Argento films before this one (Suspiria, Tenabrae and Deep Red) and liked all of them. And yet it's taken me years to get around to watching another one. I suspect about 6 years, maybe more, since I rented Deep Red. I went through a phase of watching giallo movies and my favourite of those is Tenabrae. You'd think this would have driven me into watching more Argento movies. I can't really explain it. I suspect there are just too many films out there and I get caught up in something else and lose my way.
Anyway, Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a fine film. A whodunnit that slaps you in the face…
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Kicking off a Dario Argento run with his debut and a fine one it is at that!
It's creepy, suspenseful and hugely influential for it's time but above all, it's well shot. Many neat sequences and reveals make this a fantastic debut effort. Couple that with the beginnings of a man who has since combined haunting scores with great film making time after time and the stage is set for a classic!
Oh, and if that's not enough, a fairly fine looking Suzy Kendall makes it all the more enjoyable!
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A word of note, those watching the Arrow Films release. The English dialogue and subtitles differ in quite a few places telling an ever so slightly different interpretation of a few scenes. I chose to watch it with both of these for that reason.
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good early argento. lotsa motifs and nice looking but sort of boring until a crazy woman shakes things up
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Meh. I mean, I understand that it's Argento's first time in the director chair, but I think it's probably true that I'm not a fan of 1970s Italian giallo. The plot is quite good, but stylistically it just falls flat for me. It feels like a much lesser Hitchcock.
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A great horror thriller... Twisting whodunnit story mixed with some quite uncomfortable and brutal violence. Reminded me of the Hitchcock film Frenzy
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Excellent Giallo or even just Crime thriller from Dario Argento. Does it matter that I guessed the killer from very early on? Or that it is not as deep as some later Argento films. I don't think so. The story is actually very simple and there are some brilliant scenes. The characters in this film are unique and seem very genuine. As far as scares go, well, there's a sufficient amount of blood. I wasn't bored at all during the run time and as someone who watches a lot of films, I can't always say that. Enthralling.
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Even though this was Dario Argento's debut feature it is remarkably well made; extremely confident, bursting with cinematic flair and bags of atmosphere in what was to become his trademark style, for good and for bad. Like the later "Deep Red" and "Suspiria" he is scores highly on the visuals and atmosphere - several scenes are beautifully shot and cleverly conceived - for example the opening attack inside a white art gallery, the protagonist trapped between two huge glass walls able to watch but unable to help or hear the screams of the injured woman - but low on basic plot logic, a competent script and character motivation, and it is full of the violent misogyny rife in the Giallo…
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Eccentric artist fails to sell his paintings, so to save money on food, breeds cats in a rabbit hutch.
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Argento's first movie is also one of his best. A great mystery film, you will be hooked until the final reveal
Check out the review soon on my blog:
horrorqueenreviews.blogspot.co.uk/ -
A solid thriller with great pacing and unexpected twists.
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I'm a bit weird. I've seen three Argento films before this one (Suspiria, Tenabrae and Deep Red) and liked all of them. And yet it's taken me years to get around to watching another one. I suspect about 6 years, maybe more, since I rented Deep Red. I went through a phase of watching giallo movies and my favourite of those is Tenabrae. You'd think this would have driven me into watching more Argento movies. I can't really explain it. I suspect there are just too many films out there and I get caught up in something else and lose my way.
Anyway, Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a fine film. A whodunnit that slaps you in the face…