Monday Morricone Madness!!!
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)
Ennio Morricone is most famous for his work with Sergio Leone. Si? The films of Dario Argento are most closely associated with the music of Italian prog-rock monsters, Goblin. No? However, if we set aside these widely known and universally acclaimed creative partnerships for a moment, it may come as something of a surprise to see how many times Morricone and Argento themselves have collaborated.
Their paths first crossed when the then-film critic Dario Argento, along with the already established director Bernardo Bertolucci, were roped in to help dream up the epic, majestic and inventive scenario for Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (Argento, Bertolucci and Leone writing a film together! Who do we get doing that these days? Matt Damon and Ben Affleck?). Ennio Morricone did the legendary, haunting score for that film, of course, and after it’s release, Argento presumably pulled Il Maestro to one side and asked him if he might consider writing a spot of music for his first film. Morricone agreed, and it would be the first of five collaborations between the two.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is Dario Argento’s first film, and it is also one of his very finest. The giallo genre (covered in some detail here) was already established and had been popular in Italy for some time by 1970, but the release and subsequent phenomenal success of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is generally credited with ushering in the golden age of the giallo in terms of box office returns, and also of creating a profile for this somewhat bizarre and niche genre overseas. After the critical and commercial success of his first film, Argento’s name (along with that of his mentor, Mario Bava) would become synonymous with the giallo genre, and it is a field he continues to operate in (to some extent or other) to this day.
But a very large part of what makes Dario Argento’s giallo films so great is that they are as influenced by the director’s own particular, peculiar traits as they are by those of the genre itself. Often referred to as the “Italian Hitchcock”, that nickname is perhaps most relevant as a clue to Argento’s dark and masterful talent, rather than for indicating any similarities between the two director’s films (which are most often only superficially similar, anyway). Dario Argento at the very top of his game can conjure up films which both dazzle the eye and assault the senses in ways that the viewer will find both awe-inspiring as well as terrifying. He is a modern master of perverse, suspenseful storytelling, and the undisputed king of the cruel, calculated set-piece. Much of his unique and fiendish brilliance is already on full display on his very first feature.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, like all giallos, is a bloodier, kinkier take on the classic murder mystery format popularised by American writers such as Fredric Brown (on whose short story, The Screaming Mimi, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is partially based). The mystery here revolves around American writer Sam Dalmas, who having been living it up and getting very little work done in Rome, is getting ready to head back home to the States (a trusty giallo standby; the bewildered foreigner abroad). Dilly-dallying back to his flat one night, Dalmas happens to walk past an art gallery where he witnesses a woman being attacked by a masked assailant with a knife. Attempting to break into the gallery to save the woman, the American is accidentally trapped in between two glass sliding doors and forced helplessly to watch the attack. Fortunately, the woman survives, but after the police arrive and free him, the previously homeward bound Sam has his passport taken off him and is told to go nowhere as he is now a valuable witness. With little else to do, he tries to unravel the mystery of the attacker’s identity, who could well also be the same knife-welding maniac currently partaking in a manic murder spree all over the city. It isn’t too long before Sam gets a little too mixed up in the mystery and finds his own life is in danger.
A classic giallo scenario then, but that brief synopsis alone should give a hint as to how much of a vintage Dario Argento masterpiece The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is. Only Argento would dream up such a diabolical means for having his protagonist helplessly, horrifically trapped and forced to watch a brutal attempted murder (this is another source for the Hitchcock comparisons; they are undeniably two of cinema’s most enthusiastic voyeurs). And anyone who has seen Profondo Rosso will recognise an Argento speciality in his having Sam seeing a key piece of evidence at the scene of the crime, but not quite being able to remember what it was, and having it haunt his mind until the truth is finally revealed during the brilliant, bloody climax. Unlike Profondo Rosso, however, Argento is not yet so accomplished as to be able to stand the giallo on its head completely, so instead he makes The Bird with the Crystal an exemplary, textbook example of the genre for the most part, and peppers it with skilfully orchestrated sequences of nail-biting suspense. My personal favourite scene from the film is one in which Sam chases a yellow mac-clad would-be assassin into a hotel lobby, only to find it is unexpectedly filled to capacity with men wearing similar yellow raincoats!
Dario Argento would make two more excellent giallos straight after The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; The Cat o’ Nine Tails, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, both of which Ennio Morricone would return to compose the music for. Argento would then take a break from the horror/thriller genre to make his now impossible to find western, The Five Days, before returning to the giallo with bloody zeal on Profondo Rosso in 1975. That incredible comeback would mark the beginning of Argento’s partnership with Goblin, but he and Morricone would regroup for two further projects in the 90s, The Stendhal Syndrome and an unorthodox take on the tale of The Phantom of the Opera. Sadly, although Morricone’s music for both of these films is rather fine, they are two of Argento’s weakest and most mishandled efforts.
The soundtracks to all three of Argento’s early giallos make for fantastic listening, but The Bird with the Crystal Plumage almost certainly represents the pinnacle of the Argento-Morricone partnership. What do you reckon, Aneet?
It certainly does Alan!
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is one of Morricone’s ground-breaking and intriguing soundtracks to date. It’s certainly one of the most important in regards of the relationship between Argento and Morricone, as only a year later the two would have a major falling out over the soundtrack to Four Flies on Grey Velvet which led to Goblin becoming Argento’s main composers.
Breaking the conventions of your usual horror score of screeching strings and winds with the breathy innocence of a solo woman’s voice – the solo woman being the wonderful Edda Dell’Orso and what sounds like the Swingle Sisters on lithium, contrasting both against another resulting in a swirling, percussive soundwash. Morricone perfectly compliments the crazy screen happenings with hypnotic intensity. From the spine chilling stalker scenes to the upbeat jazz/rock tracks for the chase scenes – every scene has added suspense and a sophisticated edge that took the movie to levels way above your average giallo.
What makes this score so spectacular is its haunting individuality and its influence on other composers and filmmakers. Alex Cox once commented on the similarities of this score with Pino Donaggio’s score to Brian DePalma’s 1984 warped Hitchcockian-inspired thriller ‘Body Double’. With both films reliant on the visual and the sound to compliment each other in order to enhance the plot as well as the rather violent nature of the films he has certainly got a point. DePalma would later use Morricone as his composer in his later career (these films being ‘The Untouchables’, ‘Casualties of War’ and ‘Mission to Mars’), which only adds to the illustrious list of directors that the Maestro has worked with.
So hopefully me and Alan have persuaded you to go out and buy both the film and soundtrack. If you’re still not convinced here’s the slightly scary title theme. Once again we salute you Maestro! See you next week for another instalment of Monday Morricone Madness!
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