The only way I can describe Death Laid an Egg (La Morte ha Fatto l'Uovo, also known as Plucked in some circles) is as what David Cronenberg, Jean-Luc Godard and Nicolas Roeg might come up with if they all got together to make a giallo. With its baffling combination of body horror and transformation, avante garde sensibility, and non-linear editing, this, perhaps more than any other film in the genre, is deserving of the label of "art film". A claustrophobic fever dream that never even pretends to play by the rules, its primary merit is its no holds barred wierdness, although unfortunately this also ends up being the reason for its downfall.

On paper at least, the plot is your typical mystery fare, albeit with a few unexpected twists. Marco (Jean-Louis Trintignant) has married for money, which comes in the form of the chicken farm owned by his wife Anna (Gina Lollobrigida). It's a state of the art affair, employing all manner of high-tech machinery and avant garde music to get the chickens in the correct psychological frame of mind. Marco, however, has a few sordid secrets up his sleeve. Not only is he carrying on an affair with Anna's cousin Gabriella (Ewa Aulin), he also take regular trips to a hotel, where he indulges in the murder of prostitutes. Nothing is quite as it seems, however, with multiple conspiracies brewing beneath the surface, and everything eventually explodes in a cocktail of mind games, backstabbing and, yes, headless chickens.


It all sounds simple enough, but what ends up on screen is considerably more complex. This is achieved mainly through the film's bizarre editing pattern: it's not so much that the film is played out of sequence, but rather that elements from one scene will seep through into another, while various inexplicable mid-scene cutaways give the narrative a strangely fragmented feel. When this works, it's extremely effective, such as in a scene where Gabriella, driving along a motorway with Marco, tells him of her parents' death in a car crash. Their conversation is intercut with a series of rapid shots: the sounds of screeching tyres, a man lying face-down in the concrete, spinning wheels, a bloodied woman stumbling away from a burning car... It works because it's unnerving, and the sudden smash cut to Marco and Gabriella kissing in a tranquil forest somehow comes as a shock since it's juxtaposed with such gruesome images.

It's not always so successful, though, with the first scene in the film summing up how not to do it. The images this time are considerably less narrative-oriented: a man administers eyedrops; another combs his hair in front of a mirror; a blonde woman, face obscured, wearing only a bra, paces back and forth impatiently; vehicles travel along the highway; a man puts a plastic bag over his head; a hand produces various knives from a suitcase... Some of these images are later paid off as the plot develops, but the vast majority are unmotivated and come across as an exercise in form over content. This is not necessarily a problem - Suspiria, as I've stated on numerous occasions, is nothing if not form over content, but it works because it draws us into its colourful and magical world and follows its own rules. Death Laid an Egg, however, also wants to be taken seriously as a tightly-woven murder mystery, and as a result the various editing tricks serve mainly to distract us.


What the editing does accomplish, however - aided by Bruno Maderna's bizarre score, which somehow manages to be incredibly annoying and completely appropriate at the same time - is a distinct feeling of unease. An atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia pervades throughout the entire film. One gets the sense that these people are trapped, and the air is so thick with menace that you can virtually feel the sweat dripping from their foreheads. It also helps that the bulk of the film is shot either in harsh sunlight or noticeably artificial shadow. Watching it is thirsty work, and somehow that seems completely appropriate.

Earlier, I described this film as something akin to the results of a collaboration between Cronenberg, Godard and Roeg. I suspect that most people would consider a collaboration between these three filmmakers to be interesting rather than satisfying, and that descripton definitely applies to Death Laid an Egg. It's a fascinating piece of work with a very distinct atmosphere, but the experiment, if experiment it is, is not particularly successful. This is a rare and unique giallo that deserves to be seen by a wider audience, but it's no classic.


DVD Presentation

As befits a title with the label of "cult film", Death Laid an Egg is difficult to track down. Blue Underground was at one point planning to release it in the US, but that deal appears to have fallen through, meaning that the only legitimate release is a rather expensive and not particularly satisfying Japanese DVD. It's presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and I can't for the life of me work out whether this is correct. The look of the film is very claustrophobic, and the framing is continually very tight, with some of the compositions going so far as to look outright "wrong". Whether or not this is all part of a grand plan to unnerve the viewer is impossible to say given the lack of conclusive information, but, suffice to say, I would not be surprised to learn that the film was originally exhibited in a wider aspect ratio. For what it's worth, Tim Lucas' review in European Trash Cinema (circa 1989) refers to his video copy being cropped "from a Techniscope original" (implying an intended ratio of 2.35:1), but, given that that article dates back to a period where films of this sort were virtually unattainable in their original ratios, and information regarding their technical specification even harder to come by, I doubt that this can be considered conclusive.

In any event, the problems with this transfer go far beyond the questionable aspect ratio. The source is a PAL master, which has been converted to NTSC, resulting in some very distracting ghosting and poor definition. This, in addition to it being non-anamorphic, results in a considerably less than ideal presentation. Additionally, I suspect that this version of the film has been cut. The admittedly unreliable IMDB quotes a running time of 101 minutes, which, when factoring in the PAL speed-up inherent in this release, should give a running time of around 97 minutes. The DVD, however, only lasts for 87 minutes, which, in conjunction with a handful of clumsy jumps in the music and scenes ending abruptly (which, again, could be intentional, given how outright bizarre the film is), draws me to the conclusion that something is missing.

The audio comes in English and Italian flavours, both preserving their original mono mixes in Dolby Digital 2.0. Of the two, the Italian sounds slightly better, although neither are great. There is a lot of background hiss, and some distortion in the higher frequencies, while the lip sync looks a little off at times (even accounting for the fact that, like most gialli, the film was shot in English and later post-dubbed). Optional subtitles are provided in Japanese.


Extras

The extras are neither particularly numerous nor particularly noteworthy. In addition to cast and crew biographies (in Japanese), we get a reproduction of a Japanese 3-page flier presumably dating back to the time of the film's original release, which is so small that the text would be illegible even to a Japanese speaker. A gallery featuring 11 posters, all but one of them Italian, is also included, in addition to the Italian theatrical trailer. Most frustrating is the fact that this trailer, while still interlaced, is both anamorphic and a native NTSC transfer rather than a standards conversion, and as a result looks considerably better than the film itself. Not only that, it includes shots not present in the film on this DVD, such as one of a topless Ewa Aulin drying her hair in front of a window, which again lends credence to my theory that the DVD was culled from a censored print.


Overall

Although I would consider Death Laid an Egg absolutely essential viewing for anyone with an interest in gialli, the problematic nature of this DVD's presentation makes it difficult to recommend, particularly given the high price tag. Unfortunately, it seems to be the best we're going to get for the time being, since the usual rights issues would appear to be preventing a wider release.

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