Four Flies on Grey Velvet
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Four Flies on Grey Velvet (4 Mosche di velluto grigio) is a 1972 Italian mystery thriller film. Directed by Dario Argento. Screenplay by Argento, from a story by Argento, Luigi Cozzi, Mario Foglietti, and Bryan Edgar Wallace (uncredited). Distributed by Paramount Pictures, produced through a joint French-Italian effort. 104 minutes, rated PG.
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[edit] Cast
- Michael Brandon...Roberto Tobias
- Mimsy Farmer...Nina Tobias
- Jean-Pierre Marielle...Gianni Arrosio
- Bud Spencer...Godfrey
- Francine Racette...Dalia
- Calisto Calisti...Carlo Marosi
- Marisa Fabbri...Amelia
- Fabrizio Moroni...Mirko
- Oreste Lionello...The Professor
- Aldo Bufo Landi...Pathologist
[edit] Music
Deep Purple was considered for the score but this film was scored by the world famous composer Ennio Morricone noted for his scores in Sergio Leone films (in which Argento co-wrote Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West) and had previously worked on Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, but due to disagreements would not later work with Dario Argento again until the scoring of The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) which starred his daughter Asia. They collaborated later on the The Phantom of the Opera (1997) which starred Jullian Sands.
[edit] Trippy Technology
Within a major point, as a plot device, a technique was used within the movie to give a clue to the killer, where up to a few hours after death the image of the last image seen is burned into the retina. Argento was origoinally reluctant feeling it too out-there for the giallo genre, but was later convinced when he was shown by Carlo Rimbald how it would look in the film.
Predating Argento's own Stendhal Syndrome, The Matrix, and many Hong Kong films, a slow motion bullet effect is used in the film.
To film a car crash, a camera that could produce a triple digit amount of frames per second and twelve cars were used to get the effect shown in the film.
[edit] Lack Of Availability
This film is the third in Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy in the early 70's that started with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Cat O Nine Tails. It currently is the only film of his that is unavailable on VHS or DVD, either domestically or internationally with the exception of the long out of print obscure French VHS. Digital bootlegs show up on P2P sites with poor quality in image and sound. The rights to this film (at least in America) are owned by Paramount, which has chosen not to release it. However, there are rumors of an American release by Blue Underground and a German release by Dragon.
