Investigation Of a Citizen Above Suspicion. (18.) *
Directed by Elio Petri. 1970.
Starring Gian Maria Volonte, Florinda Bolkan, Arturo Dominici, Gianni Santuccio, Orazio Orlando, Salvo Randone. Out on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion Collection from 18th January. 110 mins.
It starts with Volonte giving a sly look back into the camera to check that everybody is following him. He's about to commit a heinous crime but is still so full of himself that he'd hate for it to go unnoticed. He then enters the Moorish apartment of an attractive young woman (Bolkan) who asks him how attends to kill her today. He replies by slashing her throat and after a bout of lovemaking does just that. And if that hasn't grabbed your attention than the revelation that the citizen above suspicion is a senior policeman, surely will.
In 1970, Italy was in a state of hysteria, more so than usual. Maoist, Troyskists, Communists, anarchists, trade unionists and miscellaneous student activists were fermenting discontent and the state and the police were preparing to crack down hard. Volonte commits the crime just as he is promoted from the head of the homicide division to the political squad, the section charged with dealing with dissent. Investigating this bullying, arrogant citizen is the way Petri dishes the dirt on the ugly authoritarianism of the state.
This was Petri's most successful film (it won at Cannes and the Oscars) but perhaps today it is more fascinating period piece than masterpiece. It is full of the stark modernist architecture and radical politics that was modish in the Italian cinema of the period. The mixture of flashbacks and fantasy sequence is already intense and a very shouty Volonte maybe pushes things over the edge. His central performance is too obviously the barnstorming star turn.
Up to a point that's appropriate: this is a man who always has to be the main draw in any situation, who will never take the back seat. He lives to bully, cajole, josh and patronise everybody he encounters. But he isn't simply a crooked cop. He swerves wildly between trying to cover up his crime and daring them to catch him. Is he being struck by moments of guilt? Or does he need to be as brazen as possible to find out if his authority is such that he is now untouchable? I'm not sure Volante's bluster fully explores his character's contradictions.
The film does though have a classic Ennio Morricone score; which is to say that it has a Morricone score. In this one, the maestro uses jew's harp, mandolin and synthesised blown raspberry effect to create a piece of film music as magnificently perverse and counter-intuitive as his Spaghetti Western scores. Like all his best work, it sounds like he is having a laugh while making music that lifts the images to another level.
* Officially, but according to the BBFC site but it hasn't been classified since 1986 so I'd say a 15 was more accurate.
Supplements
New 4K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Directed by Elio Petri. 1970.
Starring Gian Maria Volonte, Florinda Bolkan, Arturo Dominici, Gianni Santuccio, Orazio Orlando, Salvo Randone. Out on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion Collection from 18th January. 110 mins.
It starts with Volonte giving a sly look back into the camera to check that everybody is following him. He's about to commit a heinous crime but is still so full of himself that he'd hate for it to go unnoticed. He then enters the Moorish apartment of an attractive young woman (Bolkan) who asks him how attends to kill her today. He replies by slashing her throat and after a bout of lovemaking does just that. And if that hasn't grabbed your attention than the revelation that the citizen above suspicion is a senior policeman, surely will.
In 1970, Italy was in a state of hysteria, more so than usual. Maoist, Troyskists, Communists, anarchists, trade unionists and miscellaneous student activists were fermenting discontent and the state and the police were preparing to crack down hard. Volonte commits the crime just as he is promoted from the head of the homicide division to the political squad, the section charged with dealing with dissent. Investigating this bullying, arrogant citizen is the way Petri dishes the dirt on the ugly authoritarianism of the state.
This was Petri's most successful film (it won at Cannes and the Oscars) but perhaps today it is more fascinating period piece than masterpiece. It is full of the stark modernist architecture and radical politics that was modish in the Italian cinema of the period. The mixture of flashbacks and fantasy sequence is already intense and a very shouty Volonte maybe pushes things over the edge. His central performance is too obviously the barnstorming star turn.
Up to a point that's appropriate: this is a man who always has to be the main draw in any situation, who will never take the back seat. He lives to bully, cajole, josh and patronise everybody he encounters. But he isn't simply a crooked cop. He swerves wildly between trying to cover up his crime and daring them to catch him. Is he being struck by moments of guilt? Or does he need to be as brazen as possible to find out if his authority is such that he is now untouchable? I'm not sure Volante's bluster fully explores his character's contradictions.
The film does though have a classic Ennio Morricone score; which is to say that it has a Morricone score. In this one, the maestro uses jew's harp, mandolin and synthesised blown raspberry effect to create a piece of film music as magnificently perverse and counter-intuitive as his Spaghetti Western scores. Like all his best work, it sounds like he is having a laugh while making music that lifts the images to another level.
* Officially, but according to the BBFC site but it hasn't been classified since 1986 so I'd say a 15 was more accurate.
Supplements
New 4K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Archival interview with director Elio Petri, conducted by critic and filmmaker Alexandre Astruc
- Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker (2005), a ninety-minute documentary on the director's career, featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and filmmakers.
- New interview with film scholar Camilla Zamboni.
- Investigation of a Citizen Named Volontè (2008), a fifty-minute documentary about actor Gian Maria Volontè.
- Music in His Blood, an interview with composer Ennio Morricone from 2010, conducted by film critic Fabio Ferzetti
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Evan Calder Williams and excerpts from a 2001 book by screenwriter Ugo Pirro.
