The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Argento's first film as director, and the giallo template arrives almost fully formed. An American writer in Rome watches an attack through a gallery window, becomes convinced he saw something he cannot place, and spends the film failing to remember it correctly.

The killer's black gloves, the tourist who sees too much, the trauma explained too late: it is all here, shot by Vittorio Storaro before he was Vittorio Storaro. Morricone provides the lullaby that will not leave you.

Not his best, but the one everything else grew out of.