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Described by DVD Times as essential viewing , this final instalment in what is unofficially referred to as Argento s Animal Trilogy (following The Bird With The Crystal Plumage and The Cat O Nine Tails ) is a classic of the giallo genre, featuring music by Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone (The Untouchables; The Mission; The Good, The Bad And The Ugly) and starring Michael Brandon (Captain America: The First Avenger; Dempsey And Makepeace), Mimsy Farmer (The Black Cat; More), Jean-Pierre Marielle (Micmacs; The Da Vinci Code), Bud Spencer (They Call Me Trinity) and Francine Racette (Au Revoir Les Enfants; The Disappearance).
Going about his everyday life of band rehearsals and socialising with his wife, Nina (Farmer), and their hip friends, rock drummer Roberto Tobias (Brandon) notices he is constantly being followed by a strange man dressed in black. He decides to turn the tables on his stalker and follows him into an abandoned theatre, where a confrontation between the two ends with Roberto accidentally stabbing the man, who falls into the orchestra, apparently dead. Suddenly, a flash of light alerts Roberto to a figure in the upper wings of the theatre, where a mysterious person wearing a bizarre puppet mask and brandishing a camera has been taking photos of the fatal struggle. Roberto flees the scene, but the next day receives the dead man s ID card in the post. Naturally assuming it has been sent by the unknown witness, he becomes immediately concerned by the lack of any blackmail demands and is haunted by the question of what it is the masked figure wants from him. Roberto s fear and paranoia increase, and the mystery deepens, when his and Nina s housemaid is found murdered in a local park and it becomes apparent that an intruder has had access to their apartment.
Special Features:
- Introduction to the film by Luigi Cozzi.
- New, exclusive and extensive recent interview on the making of Four Flies On Grey Velvet with writer and assistant director Luigi Cozzi.
- Original English audio remastered in HD exclusively for this Shameless release from the original magnetic soundtrack and available for the first time since the film s original theatrical opening in the 1970s.
- Shameless re-build edit of the complete version of the film including four inserts of previously missing footage known amongst Argento fans as the legendary missing forty seconds (the inserts are in Standard-Definition quality). The Blu-ray will allow for seamless branching of the four inserts giving viewers two versions of the film: one all HD without the re-inserted scenes and one longer version including the inserts.
- Restoration of all individual damaged frames, most notably with respect to the removal of the black diagonal frame line (caused by the film jumping the high speed camera gate) in the final car crash sequence.
- Optional Italian audio version in HD with English subtitles.
- Italian and English trailers.
- Alternate English opening and closing credits.
Review
As A Work Of Celluloid Skill, Four Flies On Grey Velvet Has No Equal. (9 Out Of 10) --Popmatters.com
As A Work Of Celluloid Skill, Four Flies On Grey Velvet Has No Equal. (9 Out Of 10) --Popmatters.com
Customer Reviews
Long lost in a prolonged rights battle and unseen for years, Dario Argento's Four Flies On Grey Velvet may come from his most consistently inspired period but it's still such thin and often tedious stuff you'd half suspect he was keeping it hidden himself out of embarrassment until you realize that he's happy enough for the far worse Phantom of the Opera and The Card Player to still be out there. The chief problem is the disjointed and unconvincing plotting, but Michael Brandon's insipid performance as the unlikeable and uninterestingly passive musician being blackmailed after accidentally killing someone shows up just how rickety this one is without a charismatic or proactive figure to hold it together. It's not without its compensations and a couple of striking pieces of imagery - a recurring sequence of a Saudi execution and an ultra-slow motion car crash - although Argento seems to be expending far more energy and visual flair into purely expositionary shots like letters being delivered or phone calls being made than the surprisingly few setpieces. Too often he relies on cheap gimmickry, be it Jean-Pierre Marielle's camp gay private eye ("Oh, you heterosexuals!") who has never solved a case or the old `image caught on dead person's retina' plot device, while the main character treads water. The less said about the clumsy comedy (much of which comes from brutally beating an Arab postman), the better. There's an appealing performance from Francine Racette that partially offsets Mimsy Farmer's hysterical overacting and a cameo from Bud Spencer that briefly threatens to liven things up but it's far more forgettable than it has any right to be in that unwelcome I-think-I'm-dropping-off-to-sleep kind of way. Even a second viewing of the film with lowered expectations feels like clearing out the garage: you might find the odd item of interest but for the most part it's just a tedious chore.
The Region 1 NTSC DVD may have much better picture quality than the bootleg copies floating around, but aside from being a slightly cut version the sound quality on the English soundtrack is very poor, making Brandon sound even more bored than he is to begin with and most of the women ironically sound like female impersonators. The Italian soundtrack is much better - but since only a brief section of the film is subtitled in English that's not going to be much help for most viewers. Not much in the way of extras either: English opening and closing credits, stills gallery, the Italian trailer, a US TV spot and a copy of the US trailer that's been mastered from what looks like an atrocious seventh-generation dupe video source.
Completing Argento's notorious 'Animal' trilogy of films, FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET will keep you hooked to the set and hanging on the edge of your seat. The plot is one of the strongest in giallo cinema and has plenty of red herrings and one hell of a twist ending! See if you can work it out - I'm sure you wont. Acting is top-notch, the music by Ennio Moriconne is superb and Argento's direction is at it's peek. This truly is a marvelous film.
The Shameless Blu-Ray (and DVD) comes with plenty of extras from reversible artwork and an incredible audio.
I highly recommened this release to all Argento fans and those who enjoy cult cinema. Don't miss it!
is a director ahead of his time. Ideal for those who like their films non mainstream
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