The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
Introduced by Cinematic Void programmer Jim Branscome!
All ticket proceeds from this screening will be donated to Los Angeles fire relief efforts. Thank you to our friends at the American Genre Film Archive for helping this to happen.
In 1970, Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria) indelibly redefined the “giallo” genre of murder-mystery thrillers with The Bird with Crystal Plumage—a mind-bending mix of murder, obsession, and art.
A staggeringly assured first feature, this film establishes the key traits that define Argento’s filmography, including lavish visuals and a flare for wildly inventive and brutal scenes of violence. With sumptuous cinematography by 2005 Coolidge Award winner Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) and a seductive Ennio Morricone score, this landmark film has never looked better in this 4K restoration.
ABOUT JANUARY GIALLO:
"Every January, we like to pour ourselves a glass of J&B whiskey, sharpen our straight razor and slip on those black gloves to celebrate our favorite horror sub-genre, the Giallo. For those of you who don’t know, a Giallo is Italy’s answer to murder mysteries and thrillers that was kicked off by Mario Bava with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (aka Evil Eye) in the early sixties. While filmmakers like Umberto Lenzi made some excellent Giallos in the late sixties/early seventies such as Orgasmo and Knife of Ice, the sub-genre became popularized by Dario Argento with The Girl with Crystal Plumage. Throughout the seventies, Argento along with Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Luciano Ercoli, Aldo Lado and many more made several visually stunning and viscerally violent cinematic excursions. The word Gialllo means ‘yellow’ in Italian, which was the color of the pulp and crime books that some Giallo took inspiration from. Although stylistically, the Giallo shares DNA with the German Krimi Films, the sub-genre took some wild turns mingling with occult, Gothic horror, Poliziotteschi, and psychedelia elements that created many unique variations." - Cinematic Void
