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L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1969)

Director: Dario Argento

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Now king of the spaghetti slasher, Argento made his directorial debut with this tightly constructed thriller in which an American writer is witness to an attempted knife attack, and then finds himself obsessed with tracking down a serial killer whose next victims could be himself and his lover.. There are some extravagant false leads, but tension is well sustained with the aid of Vittorio Storaro's stylish 'Scope photography and a Morricone score. Particularly effective are the opening attack, viewed through a maze of locked windows, and a scene with the victim caught on a stairway suddenly plunged into darkness. Certain elements seem to have been an influence on Dressed to Kill and The Shining, but Argento himself zoomed into more and more abstract shock effects, neglecting the Hitchcockian principles observed here.

Author: DT

Time Out Film Guide


User reviews of this film

  • Stephen Pearce said...
    Posted on Jul 14 2011 10:03 For me "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage"is one of the finest horror films Dario Argento has ever made.It is also one of the extraordinary directorial debuts in cinema history.
    Even 40 years on it still scares and impresses you in equal measure.
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