La morte ha fatto l'uovo
| La morte ha fatto l'uovo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Giulio Questi |
| Produced by | Franco Marras[1] |
| Written by |
|
| Starring | |
| Music by | Bruno Maderna[1] |
| Cinematography | Dario Di Palma[1] |
| Edited by | Franco Arcalli |
Release dates |
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Running time | 90:00[2] |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
La morte ha fatto l'uovo, internationally released as Death Laid an Egg and Plucked, is a 1968 giallo film directed by Giulio Questi. Written by Questi and Franco Arcalli, the film stars Ewa Aulin, Gina Lollobrigida and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
The film concerns a farming couple, Anna (Lollobrigida) and Marco (Trintignant), whose marriage suffers when Anna's sister Gabri (Aulin) visits them. Marco and Gabri embark on an affair, but Gabri has discovered Marco's secret obsession with killing prostitutes, and plans to frame him for murder in order to inherit his farm.
Plot
Married couple Anna (Gina Lollobrigida) and Marco (Jean-Louis Trintignant) run a hi-tech automated poultry farm, breeding boneless chickens. Unbeknownst to Anna, Marco is a serial killer, who lures prostitutes to motel rooms before stabbing them. The arrival of Anna's cousin Gabri (Ewa Aulin) further fragments the troubled marriage, as she and Marco begin an affair and conspire to run away together. However, Gabri is actually planning, with her husband Mondaini (Jean Sobieski), to kill Anna and frame Marco, as they have discovered Marco's secret. What Gabri and Mondaini do not know is that Marco's fixation is not with killing prostitutes, but simply hiring them to role-play murders, letting them go safely and handsomely paid. As such, when Anna's murder is discovered, the police focus their attention on Gabri, suspecting her of committing the murder out of sibling jealousy. Marco and Mondaini struggle at the farm, Marco falling into a machine used to grind chicken feed. Gabri and Mondaini are eventually arrested for Anna's murder, as the farm chickens feed on Marco's ground corpse.
Production
La morte ha fatto l'uovo was directed by Giulio Questi, who co-wrote the screenplay with editor Franco Arcalli.[1] The pair had collaborated the previous year on the spaghetti western film Se sei vivo spara, in the same roles.[3]
Release and reception
La morte ha fatto l'uovo was released in Italy on January 9, 1968.[2] The film has also been distributed internationally under the titles Curious Way to Love, Death Laid an Egg and Plucked.[4]
Writing for AllRovi, Robert Firsching rated the film three stars out of five, and found it difficult to place in a genre, considering it a mix of giallo, science fiction and drug film elements. Firsching described the film as "deliriously strange", noting that it was "a must-see for genre fans"; he also compared it to David Lynch's 1977 film Eraserhead.[2] Luis Canales, in his book Imperial Gina, reports that the film "received lukewarm criticism" upon release, although he writes that both Questi and Lollobrigida were pleased with it.[5] Gian Piero Brunetta, author of The History of Italian Cinema, considered the film to be "worth remembering", comparing it to the works of Luis Buñuel and Michelangelo Antonioni. Brunetta felt the film held several thematic undercurrents, dealing with the conditions of farm labourers and the changing social attitudes towards the class system in Italy.[6] In March 2015 the film was re-released as part of the Malastrana Film Series in the event The Killer Must Kill Again!: Giallo Fever, Part 2 as part in the Anthology Film Archives in New York City over Malastrana Film Series on 35mm.[7]
Footnotes
- 1 2 3 4 "BFI | Film & TV Database | La morte ha fatto l'uovo | Full Credits". British Film Institute. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- 1 2 3 Firsching, Robert. "La Morte Ha Fatto l'Uovo – Cast, Reviews, Summary and Awards". AllMovie. AllRovi. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ↑ "BFI | Film & TV Database | Se sei vivo spara | Full Credits". British Film Institute. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ↑ "BFI | Film & TV Database | La morte ha fatto l'uovo (1967)". British Film Institute. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
- ↑ Canales 1990, p. 175.
- ↑ Brunetta 2009, p. 203.
- ↑ NY! Argento, Bava and more 35mm “Giallo Fever” coming to Anthology Film Archives
References
- Brunetta, Gian Piero (2009). The History of Italian Cinema: A Guide to Italian Film from Its Origins to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691119880.
- Canales, Luis (1990). Imperial Gina: The Strictly Unauthorized Biography of Gina Lollobrigida. Brandon Books. ISBN 0828319324.