The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) (Remastered)

[Akijama]

NEW UK/US TITLE: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) Limited Edition

A film which redefined the ‘giallo’ genre of murder-mystery thrillers

North American pre-orders links should be live soon!

Release Dates: 19/20 June

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 limited edition from Arrow Video!

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:

• Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the camera negative in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
• Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
• English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
• The Power of Perception, a new visual essay on the cinema of Dario Argento by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of Devil’s Advocates: Suspiria and Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study
• New analysis of the film by critic Kat Ellinger
• New interview with writer/director Dario Argento
• New interview with actor Gildo Di Marco (Garullo the pimp)
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring
• 6 Lobby Card reproductions
• Limited edition 60-page booklet illustrated by Matthew Griffin, featuring an appreciation of the film by Michael Mackenzie, and new writing by Howard Hughes and Jack Seabrook

[Hedji]

Anyone know the edition size?

[kylec123]

Looks like I'll be getting rid of my old Arrow Bird With The Crystal Plumage release.

[MifuneFan]

AKA the screw you Storaro! edition

[Member-222782]

No reason now to hang onto my Blue Underground BD (unless there are extras that won't port over).

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by cine74

No reason now to hang onto my Blue Underground BD (unless there are extras that won't port over).

I'm holding onto mine until I can see some screencaps of the Arrow, just in case it's been tealed or something.

[themp3000]

Time to ditch the VCI blu. Oh thank goodness!

[javi92]

Awesome that this is US too. Indiegogo backing paying off.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

I'm holding onto mine until I can see some screencaps of the Arrow, just in case it's been tealed or something.

If Arrow do it Deep Red style, they're actually more likely to correct this kind of thing that to end up with this kind of issue.

But still, I'll do the same and wait until having more details. Just in case.

[Boggle]

Aw man! This sucks!

j/k don't hurt me

[20th Century Boy]

These may be the last years of physical media but it's going out with a bang. Great news this.

[Mister B Gone]

oh heeeeeeeeell yea

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by cine74

No reason now to hang onto my Blue Underground BD (unless there are extras that won't port over).

There probably are. With Zombi, for example, the BU version was loaded and NONE of the extras lined up with the Arrow. It was well worth owning both purely for extras.

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by tenia

If Arrow do it Deep Red style, they're actually more likely to correct this kind of thing that to end up with this kind of issue.

But still, I'll do the same and wait until having more details. Just in case.

Yeah I don't expect it to look wrong as they tend to give the Argento gialli the extra attention required.

[kem71]

Am I correct to assume that Arrow will also eventually release a standard Blu-ray edition? Not sure I want to pay extra for fancy packaging and extra swag I don't need like a poster and lobby cards. I'm assuming if they release a standard edition it will just be missing the booklet, poster, and lobby cards and will have all the other extras?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by kem71

Am I correct to assume that Arrow will also eventually release a standard Blu-ray edition? Not sure I want to pay extra for fancy packaging and extra swag I don't need like a poster and lobby cards. I'm assuming if they release a standard edition it will just be missing the booklet, poster, and lobby cards and will have all the other extras?

After the LE sells out.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Hedji

Anyone know the edition size?

4,000 each for the US and UK

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

After the LE sells out.

It's hard to know how long that will take without knowing the numbers. Based on the number of copies of that Phantasm box, I'm wondering if they're going to crank up the number of this one too past the Deep Red number as it's a pretty big title and Deep Red sold out very quickly.

EDIT: Oh man, 4000 each for the UK/US? I don't think the LE is going to sell out for a very long time.

[El_Fez]

Oooh, consider me in. Arrow does great work and I'm loving the Giallo that I've been seen up. A great genre and I'm sad that it's taken me this long to discover it! I'll pick this up straight away.

[kem71]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

It's hard to know how long that will take without knowing the numbers. Based on the number of copies of that Phantasm box, I'm wondering if they're going to crank up the number of this one too past the Deep Red number as it's a pretty big title and Deep Red sold out very quickly.

EDIT: Oh man, 4000 each for the UK/US? I don't think the LE is going to sell out for a very long time.

Damn. Well, I guess all of us Argento fans that are too cheap to buy the fancy limited edition are going to have to wait awhile to buy the standard edition.