Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon)
is a drummer in a rock band who has noticed a man following him for the
last several days. Angered by this, he confronts the stranger in an
abandoned theater to find out what he wants. The man claims he does not
know what Roberto is talking about, and pulls a switchblade. The two
struggle, and Roberto accidentally stabs the man, who falls into an
orchestra pit, lifeless.
To make matters worse, someone in a bizarre puppet mask has been hiding
in the upper wings of the theater and takes incriminating photographs of
Roberto holding the bloody knife. Roberto flees, but the next day he
receives the dead man's ID in the mail. It becomes apparent that the
masked figure has no interest in going to the police, and instead wants
to drive Roberto mad with fear and paranoia. But why?
So, anyone with an inkling why this blog is called "A Quiet Place in the Country" will find it unsurprising that I finally write something about Dario Argento... well never one to let people down I thought it was about time one of my obsessions was made public... Gialli!
Some of you may be asking "What the hell is he going on about now?", well the term giallo derives from the series of mystery/crime pulp novels first published by the Mondadori publishing house in 1929, entitled Il Giallo Mondadori, taking their name from the yellow cover. Published as cheapish paperbacks, the success of the "giallo" novels soon established the word giallo in Italian as the widespread translation of the English "mystery".
The film genre that emerged from these novels in the 1960s began as
literal adaptations of the books, but soon began taking advantage of
modern cinematic techniques to create a unique genre. These films,
particularly such '70s classics by directors like Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento or Mario Bava, are only defined as "gialli" in the English language usage of the term; in Italy they are usually described as thrillers or, as a genre, "Thrilling" or "Giallo all'italiana".
Out of the aforementioned directors Mario Bava was the true originator with such classics as Blood & Black Lace [1966] and Black Sunday [1960] but the true genre master will always be Dario Argento.
With Four Flies on Grey Velvet, plus his two earlier gialli The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Cat 'o' Nine Tails Argento not only brings to an end his 'animal trilogy' but also closes the door on his traditional giallo roots and moves into things more supernatural and horrific with such classics as Suspiria, Deep Red and Phenomena.
Now to take this movie out of context of Argento's canon of work would be dismissive and misleading Four Flies
is by no means a masterpiece, but then again with tiny budgets, and
average equipment his early films were never going to be cinematic
epics, but what he has always lacked in budget and script he more than
makes up for in tight plotting and unique visuals. Argento
is more concerned by form over content, the aesthetic over the linear
and what appears on screen usually leaves anyone, with even a modicum of
understanding in the constraints of cinematography, quite frankly
breathless.
The camera is used as a tool to describe the killers
compulsion and modus operandi so effectively
that the viewer is drawn into the killers world and starts to
experience it from the protagonists perspective. Naturally this tends to
leave the actors with not much to do in terms of script, and non more
so than Michael Brandon, who is wooden and lacking any power as Roberto,
thankfully full credit goes to a truly understated performance by Mimsy Farmer as Roberto's beleaguered wife Nina.
With a strong supporting cast (including comedy genius Bud Spencer, in a rare straight role) and some plot twists and McGuffins that would make Hitch proud it all adds up to a solid traditional psychological thriller... the difference being... this is Argento, which means flowing camerawork (way before steadicam), snappy editing and a glorious score by Ennio Morricone.
Arrow video has done a fine job of remastering one of the few remaining original prints for Blu-ray, but this is still pretty much the same version from the previous DVD release, with a whole slew of new extras and a lovely poster for any fans wall!
For anyone who has not watched an Argento movie before I encourage you to dig into some of his later work first, maybe Suspiria or Opera, but for any true Argento fan this has been a long wait to finally get a transfer that is worth watching, so don't hang around go out and buy it now... no I mean it... DO IT!
Movie: 5/5 (would you expect less?)
Edition: 4/5 (the best yet...)
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