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Arrow Films
In 1970, young first-time director Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria) made his indelible mark on Italian cinema with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – a film which redefined the 'giallo' genre of murder-mystery thrillers and catapulted him to international stardom.
Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante, We Own the Night), an American writer living in Rome, inadvertently witnesses a brutal attack on a woman (Eva Renzi, Funeral in Berlin) in a modern art gallery. Powerless to help, he grows increasingly obsessed with the incident. Convinced that something he saw that night holds the key to identifying the maniac terrorising Rome, he launches his own investigation parallel to that of the police, heedless of the danger to both himself and his girlfriend Giulia (Suzy Kendall, Spasmo)…
A staggeringly assured debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage establishes the key traits that would define Argento's filmography, including lavish visuals and a flare for wildly inventive, brutal scenes of violence. With sumptuous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) and a seductive score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West), this landmark film has never looked or sounded better in this new, 4K-restored edition from Arrow Films!
- Arrow Video
- 98 mins approx
- 15
- Italian
- English
- 1
- Arrow Video
- Dario Argento
- Tony Musante
- Suzy Kendall
- Enrico Maria Salerno
- Eva Renzi
English, English SDH
- 1970
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage 4K UHD
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Arrow Films
In 1970, young first-time director Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria) made his indelible mark on Italian cinema with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – a film which redefined the 'giallo' genre of murder-mystery thrillers and catapulted him to international stardom.
Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante, We Own the Night), an American writer living in Rome, inadvertently witnesses a brutal attack on a woman (Eva Renzi, Funeral in Berlin) in a modern art gallery. Powerless to help, he grows increasingly obsessed with the incident. Convinced that something he saw that night holds the key to identifying the maniac terrorising Rome, he launches his own investigation parallel to that of the police, heedless of the danger to both himself and his girlfriend Giulia (Suzy Kendall, Spasmo)…
A staggeringly assured debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage establishes the key traits that would define Argento's filmography, including lavish visuals and a flare for wildly inventive, brutal scenes of violence. With sumptuous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) and a seductive score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West), this landmark film has never looked or sounded better in this new, 4K-restored edition from Arrow Films!
- Arrow Video
- 98 mins approx
- 15
- Italian
- English
- 1
- Arrow Video
- Dario Argento
- Tony Musante
- Suzy Kendall
- Enrico Maria Salerno
- Eva Renzi
English, English SDH
- 1970
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
Where reviews refer to foods or cosmetic products, results may vary from person to person. Customer reviews are independent and do not represent the views of The Hut Group.
Top-tier Argento
Argento, Morricone, Storaro... Some major talent was on display in this stunning directorial debut. This 4K UHD makes it seem like you're watching a brand new print. Lovely !
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Textbook Giallo
The textbook Giallo movie. All the tropes (though not as campy, supernatural or gory as the genre would become). A leather clad killer, lots of red herrings, an investigation swerving left to right. Even if the clues and twists don't make sense, stylish directing and dreamy logic carries it. 4K restoration of this and it was gorgeous. HDR is something else in these kind of colourful movies. Giallo is my happy place and this was super satisfying. Even if the genre went totally off the rails with more outlandish plots (and the camper and more left field the better sometimes!), this movie lays a lot of the ground work for that and is just a solid, if a bit pedestrian, investigation. Though not without its bizarre red herrings, non sequitur twists, and dips into Sci fi.
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Beautiful presentation of the film by arrow
Interesting but not one of his better films
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A great looking giallo that keeps you on your toes.
Having watched a good amount of Murder She Wrote in the past, where entertainment often comes from over-the-top characters and outlandish situations but has rather trite direction and cinematography, "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage" was a real treat as my first experience with a giallo. With a focus more on thrills than horror, this is a stylish and well crafted film. You are drawn into the story through the main character's perspective, who becomes a witness to a shocking attack. But is their experience how the situation truly played out? And are there details in their fleeting memory that could be key? Their growing obsession with the case mixes with rising paranoia from the personal dangers of digging into it. At a run time of 97 minutes, the film briskly moves along without feeling like it's missing details. Presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the film is looking fantastic in this 4k release. Vittorio Storaro's (Apocalypse Now) cinematography shines with strong colours in both day and night scenes. The HDR grading helped give depth to the blacks in the night scenes in particular to my eyes. If you are interested but on the fence about dipping your feet into the Italian "giallo" genre, this is a fantastic release from Arrow to begin with. It certainly hooked me on the genre!
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Giallo perfection. 4K exemplified.
I had the fortune to see a really nice print of Bird with the Crystal Plumage on the big screen about 30 years ago, and it was a revelation to watch it in Techniscope - a far cry from the awful Vampix video release and terrible ITV screenings. I've owned it on LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, the "interesting" Univisium Blu-ray (sorry guys...) and remastered Blu-ray - but I think you get my drift by now. I've seen it in many forms, but only the 4K edition has given me that exact feeling I had when I saw it on the big screen. The transfer is flawless, showcasing exactly what celluloid can do when given enough love - detail is superb, bringing out textures which were fuzzy even on the best of the other releases. Grain is wonderfully abundant, allowing the aforementioned detail in the first place - it brings to the film to life. HDR grading is skilfully done, allowing HDR-10 and especially Dolby Vision to give the film contrast and a colour spectrum never seen before. If you have even wondered just how BWTCP looked on film, then this is even better! I pre-ordered the Arte Originale edition direct from Arrow when I had the chance, but the standard release contains the same perfect transfer and a plethora of posters and lobby-card repros - some of which are now on the wall of my Man-Cave. Any fan of cool cinema needs this in their collection.
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