Death Laid an Egg (1968)

Death Laid An Egg is truly a one off. While it does qualify as an early example of the giallo, more than anything it's a very weird art film. Director Giulio Questi seems to have been highly influenced by the New Wave, so the aesthetic is often very much at odds with the one we are used to in most other gialli. It seems more indebted to Jean Luc Godard than Mario Bava most of the time. There is even one very disturbing scene of a car crash that feels like a direct descendant of the bizarre and disturbing imagery from Week-End. This scene like many others utilises a very bold editing technique that pre-dates the similar work of Nicolas Roeg. There is no doubt that visually this is a very fascinating film. It mixes both surrealism and pop art to create a very weird atmosphere. But the oddness is certainly not limited to the aesthetics. The musical score by Bruno Maderna is very experimental indeed and very persistent. It fills most of the film, its avant-garde nature ideally suited. Then of course we have the setting. A chicken farm where bizarre scientific experiments are the order of the day is hardly a typical set-up for an Italian thriller. Moreover, in one gloriously oddball science fiction moment we discover that the scientists have developed a kind of headless and wingless chicken creature which they hope will make them very rich by turning the animal into nothing more than a hideous ready-made blob of meat. This sort of horrific surrealism isn't a far cry from the kinds of thing David Lynch would put into Eraserhead. But in this film it does have an obvious point, as it raises the question of where the moral line is in producing genetically modified animals for food. It's not exactly common-place for a giallo to raise important issues.Inside all this weirdness is a drama about a man, his wife, her assistant and a publicity agent from the egg people. It turns out that they are having different illicit relationships behind the other's backs. And there are different plots to do away with each other. On top of this the main man is seen at the beginning of the movie committing an act of brutal violence where he murders a woman in a motel room in a bravura opening scene that is expertly inter-cut with many edits of scenes showing a plethora of other odd and fetishistic behaviour happening simultaneously in the same motel. I guess the implication is that behind closed doors everybody is socially deviant in some way. As the film progresses this murderer and adulterer is shown to be the only one with the morality to reject the idea of the monster chickens. Overall there are several layers of complexity here and this has to be a re-watchable film for this reason. It's very much for people with a taste for the left-field and the bizarre. It's ridiculous it hasn't been given a proper DVD release.

With the sixties in full swing, and mind-altering drugs an integral part of the arts scene, it comes as no surprise to find that a large amount of the cinematic output from this era is more than a little bit 'out-there'. The makers of Death Laid an Egg must've consumed more than their fair share of LSD, 'shrooms and Marijuana. 'cos with its spaced-out visuals, experimental discordant soundtrack, wild editing and pretentious dialogue, it sure is one bizarre cinematic trip!And whilst I found the mix of European art-house cinema and proto-Giallo plot line seriously irritating and incredibly dull, it's not hard to see how this unusual effort has garnered a cult following among those who enjoy 'psychadelic' films.Set in and around a high-tech chicken factory, the film follows several characters whose lives intertwine with deadly consequences. Marco (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is husband to the beautiful factory owner, Anna (Gina Lollobrigida), but is also knocking off sexy blonde Gabriella (Ewa Aulin) who also has a connection with young publicist Mondaini (Jean Sobieski), who is called in to promote the benefits of chickens. Add a weird scientist who is developing headless and wingless fowl that yield more meat for maximum profit, and the roster of strange characters is complete.I can see this movie appealing to fans of the avant-garde (those who enjoy the work of Lynch or Jodorowsky, for example), but the whole thing is just too screwy for my (admittedly jaded) tastes. If I'm ever tempted to watch Death Laid An Egg again, I think I'll be getting myself some of those hallucinogenics I mentioned earlier, in order to make the whole experience more interesting.I give DLAE 2/10 (just missing the absolute lowest score, thanks to tasty Ewa Aulin and the freaky genetically enhanced headless chickens).

Giulio Questi's early giallo is very different from the genre, but it can be called giallo since it has a mystery audience has no idea about until the very end. But the mystery doesn't involve the identity of the possible murderer but the various and altering relations between the characters. Marco, Anna and Gabrielle live together and work together, in a huge chicken farm / factory owned by Anna. Soon it is clear all three, plus their friends, have another things in their minds; they act what they don't say and vice versa. This gives the director Questi a great opportunity to handle topics of greed and money that easily blind.The way how Questi handles his theme is very satiric, thus making the film close with Mario Bava's Reazione a catena / Bay of Blood 3 years later. Both films have serious theme about man's ability to turn violent in his search for monetary benefit and freedom and both films discuss this satirically, with maximal effect since comedy is often at its best when the subject stays serious and universally important. As a pure giallo mystery, the film is also quite rich since the audience has no idea what is going on until the very end when it is revealed. Questi uses very interesting editing technique that makes many of the scenes "broken", using flashbacks, dreamy/nightmarish moods and so on. This forces us to dive deeper inside the characters and their varying points of views.The film has also an interesting topic about man's subconscious and instincts. Main character Marco is considered "morally corrupt" due to his unusual sexual preferences. But at the same time Questi shows how much there is inside human brain, needs, wills, desires, we don't necessarily want to talk about in fear of unacceptance or being classed as "sick." We are not as civilized, as perfect, as the moral codes of society try to suggest when they go after "the morally sick" Marco. There's also a very harrowing and unforgettably absurd scene at the experiment lab of the factory. The doctors have created a manipulated type of chicken that would be commercially extremely profitable to the factory while at the same time the manipulated monsters are a plentiful spitting at nature's face. Marco is against this, against the others around him while he has been named "morally wrong" and bad. Questi had important things and questions in mind and also the ability to turn them into a film.Real themes in a giallo thriller are quite rare and Questi has done it very well. This is among the earliest but also among the very best of the giallo.

A fun, if more convoluted than usual, giallo. My copy seemed to end rather abruptly and with much in the air. Not sure if that was how it was supposed to end or what but nonetheless, I enjoyed it and especially enjoyed Ewa Aulin, who was quite the hottie.