Bird With The Crystal Plumage

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! SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS • 4K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Films • 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) • Restored original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks • English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack • Audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films • Black Gloves and Screaming Mimis, an interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger exploring the film’s themes and its relationship to both the giallo and Fredric Brown’s novel The Screaming Mimi • The Power of Perception, a visual essay on the cinema of Dario Argento by Alexanda Heller-Nicholas, author of Devil’s Advocates: Suspiria and The Giallo Canvas: Art, Excess and Horror Cinema, reflecting on the recurring theme of perception and the role of art in Argento’s filmography • Crystal Nightmare, an interview with writer/director Dario Argento • An Argento Icon, an interview with actor Gildo Di Marco • Eva’s Talking, an archival interview with actor Eva Renzi • Original Italian and international theatrical trailers • 2017 Texas Frightmare trailer • Image galleries • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative