Death Laid an Egg

(1968) Death Laid An Egg/ La morte ha fatto l'uovo (In Italian with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER/ CRIME

Co-written and directed by Giulio Questi that opens with a man murdering a prostitute with an eyewitness peering in through the window, he also likes to record his victims screams as well as he is killing them. And at this point I kept wondering if that same person who saw him was going to either blackmail or perhaps do some other. We then find out this demented killer is actually an executive, Marco (Jean Louis Trintignant) and that is his wife, Anna (Gina Lollobrigida)who owns the chicken factory/ farm and whatever machinery that came along with it. Marco is perhaps an underling who is more infatuated with Anna's young cousin, Gabrielle (Ewa Aulin) who is also her secretary/ intern/ confidant. We then meet ad exec, Mondaini (Jean Sobieski) who appear to be smitten with Gabrielle making Marco to become jealous. And while this was happening, there's also a scientist conducting experiments on the chickens as well as the eggs built inside the chicken farm, like a Frankenstein chicken.

This is another one of those movies where not what viewers saw at the opening, is not exactly what it's actually happening, for the murdering of prostitutes is a part of Marco's weird fetish for the movie does not explain why he is like that- he is just is. We also do not even get the answer about the sympathy for the family dog for it leaves with more questions than the movie is willing to answer.

I wouldn't label this as a "giallo", there is no particular suspense or scary moments, so don't expect anything like that... it mainly is a criticism on capitalism, mass production and industrial society, within a good story which involves obviously a murder. It may sound a bit Marxist as a statement, and maybe that was Giulio Questi's political view, but seen today it results in a naive but quite original and experimental movie from the seventies. Some moments (the best ones) are truly grotesque and surreal... some very nice actresses and lots of beautiful advertising posters from the time in the background, the actors are very good and generally speaking it is a good and entertaining movie. The only major problem I had was with the music, which is over-used and not pleasant at all... it could work conceptually, but the truth is, after a while you cannot stand it anymore. An interesting movie, surely not to everybody's taste. 7/10

Sort of an absurdist giallo, DEATH LAID AN EGG is about wealthy chicken farm owners, Anna (Gina Lollobrigida), her husband Marco (Jean Louis Trintignant), and their secretary, Gabrielle (Ewa Aulin). Life on the farm is blissful, in spite of Marco and Gabrielle's affair. Of course, neither of the women know that Marco is a serial killer.

Indeed, this is a strange, trippy film, bordering on the psychedelic. The "experimental" music soundtrack -which sounds a lot like someone slamming their face into a piano, while torturing a hyena with a violin- is reminiscent of that heard in A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY.

A perfect example of EGG's lunatic charm comes during a party, where the participants pile all of the furniture into the middle of the living room, and take turns entering another room in order to be "totally honest". This, having something to do with human / chicken behavior (!).

Anyone expecting a straightforward, logical story line might find this to be an excruciating experience. Aside from all of the 60's flash, it suffers from extreme tedium.

However, poultry lovers will rejoice aloud, as our feathered friends are featured quite prominently throughout! Beware of the hideous, pulsating, wingless, headless, mutant, monster chickens! Their gushy deaths will haunt you forever!...

Very odd to see genre beauties Ewa Aulin and Gina Lollobrigida brandishing dead chickens, but this giallo goes out of its way to perplex and stupefy us, thanks to director and co-writer Giulio Questi's vision. The music, usually sweeping and inviting in these kind of films, is a series of tuneless flourishes here, as if Bruno Maderna had been instructed to provide anything as long as it wasn't melodic.

I found 'Death Laid an Egg' too 60s-kitsch-quirky to become completely involved in, although Ms Aulin is ridiculously cute throughout. The story is a thin one, and engages mainly because of the performances. My score is 6 out of 10.

An avant-garde kind of giallo (more like a meta-reflection on the genre, really) that it's all over the place. Like a strange mix of Buñuel and Antonioni cinema with a documentary on acid of the poor conditions of a poultry factory, the plot was a little too convoluted to really keep my attention and I think the film tries too hard to be something different, without really achieving much. It's still an important title in this subgenre, but not for everyone.