CERN CineClub - The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Wednesday 8 Apr 2015, 20:00 → 21:40 Europe/Zurich

503/1-001 - Council Chamber (CERN)

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

(L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo )

Directed by Dario Argento (Italy, 1970) 96 minutes

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a 1970 Italian giallo film directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. The film is considered a landmark in the Italian giallo genre. This trend-setting thriller put Dario Argento on the international map and began a flood of imitative mystery-horror hybrids which dominated Italian genre output in the early 1970s. Tony Musante, best known for the television series Toma, portrays an American who witnesses the murder of a woman at a trendy Rome art gallery. Before long, Musante finds himself targeted by a mysterious killer. The film is an uncredited adaptation of Fredric Brown's novel The Screaming Mimi, and hints at the flamboyance which would become Argento's trademark. This and Argento's subsequent two films Il Gatto a Nove Code and Quattro Mosche di Velluto Grigio are impressive and haunting psychological thrillers.

Original version Italian; English subtitles