Four Flies on Grey Velvet
(4 mosche di velluto grigio)
With Michael Brandon, Mimsy Farmer, Jean-Pierre Marielle.
Italy /France, 1971, 35mm, color, 104 min.
In English.
“I would definitely describe it as an extreme case of homicidal mania.”
The third and final film in Dario Argento's unofficial "animal trilogy," Four Flies on Grey Velvet exhibits many of the daring visual techniques and attention to atmospheric details that would be explored and perfected by the director in future films. Even the initial labyrinthine story—a musician is stalked by an unknown killer who is blackmailing him for a supposed accidental killing of another stalker—is not what it appears to be. Amid dazzling sets and tour-de-force visuals, Argento forgoes plot accuracy and madly decorates his complex nightmare in experimental, countercultural drapery and over-the-top story devices like a police camera which can capture from corpses’ eyes the last image they have seen.