The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (4K Remaster) - Arrow Video

[ravenus]

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
• 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

UK street date: June 19.

[ravenus]

I'm hoping this limited edition sells out fast so they announce a regular edition. Most of the limited content is just "stuff" (poster, art-cards), and I don't know what you could fill 60 pages with on a single movie that doesn't go into the realms of over-analysis and critical masturbation. At least with some of the other LE's you had bonus films, different cuts of a film, more extensive extras, soundtrack CD...this one does not seem to have much by the way of worthwhile LE content.

[LordCrumb]

If they are going to re-release all their back catalog again in 4K remasters, then I hope the next one is Frankenhooker

[leoganzi]

R.I.P Storaro version !

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by leoganzi

R.I.P Storaro version !

Maybe they could fix The Last Emperor next now Sotorarovision is kaput.

[Anthony Thorne]

I don't know what you could fill 60 pages with on a single movie that doesn't go into the realms of over-analysis and critical masturbation.

The authors chosen make me fairly confident that won't be the case. Howard Hughes has written a number of volumes on spaghetti westerns, and he's a very engaging, unpretentious and enjoyable writer. Jack Seabrook previously wrote a book on Frederic Brown, so we'll presumably be learning more from him about THE SCREAMING MIMI, the novel BIRD is based on. Michael Mackenzie knows his giallos very well. The book should be a lot of fun, and this looks like a very solid set.

[ravenus]

Thanks for your comments about the writers, it'd certainly be interesting to know about the source novel. Mike Mack knows his giallos to be sure, but I sometimes feel he attributes a little too much cerebral process and symbolism (Has he written spoken about the recent deliberate giallo tributes like Amer, Berberian Sound Studio etc, would want to know his views on those). I would be more interested in seeing some contemporary (1970, I mean) reviews or interviews concerning the film. Hmm, you ARE tempting me to make a large vacancy on the shelf for this one

[kem71]

I wonder if this new release will be totally uncut? I read on Facebook the infamous "right, bring on the perverts" scene was slightly cut on the original Arrow Bird with the Crystal Plumage blu ray.
Best case scenario: maybe it will still be cut on the new UK version but totally uncensored on the US version.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by kem71

I wonder if this new release will be totally uncut? I read on Facebook the infamous "right, bring on the perverts" scene was slightly cut on the original Arrow Bird with the Crystal Plumage blu ray.
Best case scenario: maybe it will still be cut on the new UK version but totally uncensored on the US version.

It wasn't cut on the prior release. I didn't fancy picking up a Vittorio Storaro butchered version so can't speak from personal experience but according to dvdcompare, no dialogue was missing. However on the Blue Undergroud blu-ray, the line was incomplete - the word "right was missing from "Right, bring in the perverts." That must be what the Facebook post was referring to.

[atamo]

Originally Posted by kem71

I wonder if this new release will be totally uncut? I read on Facebook the infamous "right, bring on the perverts" scene was slightly cut on the original Arrow Bird with the Crystal Plumage blu ray.
Best case scenario: maybe it will still be cut on the new UK version but totally uncensored on the US version.

According to dvdcompare, it's the BU release that was missing part of that line, but the Arrow was complete. I don't have either to check.

Edit: SymbioticFunction beat me to it!

[kem71]

Excellent! Thanks guys for verifying it was actually the BU Blu-ray that was cut and not the Arrow. I actually remember reading that somewhere as well and I also was aware of the framing issues on the original Arrow Blu-ray.
Now, I am just hoping the limited edition sells out fairly quickly so then Arrow will release a standard edition. I'm just not a big fan of fancy, bulky packaging and swag like posters, postcards, etc. The booklet sounds interesting I must admit but I'm sure it's something I would only read once.
So come on all you hardcore Argento collectors buy that limited edition.

[crazyman]

Who knew Howard Hughes was an Argento fan?

[tenia]

Originally Posted by ravenus

I don't know what you could fill 60 pages with on a single movie that doesn't go into the realms of over-analysis and critical masturbation.

1 lengthy interview, 1 production diary, plenty of pictures.

The Donnie Darko LE book is 90 pages and there is pretty much no "over-analysis and critical masturbation" at all, for instance.

[leoganzi]

BU's Stendhal also had some incomplete sound on the English and Italian dub tracks.
The one is that the key dialogue was missing on the English track, the scene where Marco and Anna talk about for the phone numbers, Anna's line was bizzarley missing on the English track.
That is:

[Show spoiler]"He told me that his name was, but I don't believe him."
"Sure"

Secondly, the other one is the sound of Anna's screaming from the murder scene in the car and Her screams were suddenly "choked off" as soon as the blood spatters her face.

I still have the old Italian Medusa DVD release and it has the correct audio, so I can confirm it.

[eddyw78]

Will this new release mean that the now OOP Blue Underground disc will be no longer worth the silly money it goes for on eBay?

[Pecker]

I may have missed something, but why are there two discs?

It's a relatively short film (96 minutes), so even with the bitrate running at full welly, there should be more than enough space left for everything else, unless the interviews and documentary are in full HD and several hours long each.

Someone else can do the maths to prove me wrong.

[rossbirks]

Originally Posted by Pecker

I may have missed something, but why are there two discs?

It's a relatively short film (96 minutes), so even with the bitrate running at full welly, there should be more than enough space left for everything else, unless the interviews and documentary are in full HD and several hours long each.

Someone else can do the maths to prove me wrong.

I'm guessing the second disc is a DVD and this is a dual format edition like most of the Arrow LE sets .

[SymbioticFunction]

Yeah, like the Donnie Darko limited edition, it's a dvd/blu-ray combo. Will remove the dvd and replace it with the Blue Underground bd since I want to retain that older version for the enjoyable Alan Jones and Kim Newman commentary track.

[Pecker]

Do we know for sure if there'll be a vanilla version out later?

[kem71]

Originally Posted by Pecker

Do we know for sure if there'll be a vanilla version out later?

When the LE sells out a standard edition will most likely be released. Nothing has been officially announced yet, of course.