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Film Archive

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Tribute to Elio Petri 2014 / Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto / Italy 1969

This stylized, Oscar-winning thriller investigates a police inspector (Gian Maria Volonté) who murders his lover in cold blood, then deliberately leaves clues at the scene of the crime in order to demonstrate his own untouchability. This absurd and provocative lampoon of corruption and the abuse of power by the guardians of the law is still today one of the most courageous films ever made.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Synopsis

On the threshold of the most complicated decades in modern Italian history, Petri’s career took a new turn. His hitherto rather existential take on the fundamentals of life in a country returning to normalcy after its wartime sufferings – in part self-inflicted – begins to shift, taking on a fiercely political dimension. Like his peer Francesco Rosi, Petri seeks to lay bare the structures of power and expose the sophisticated tactics of corruption. His style, however, is more extreme, more spontaneous, more neurotic. The mode in which Petri feels most at home builds on the foundations of the grotesque grimace, of the cynicism of black comedy, and of bold stylization. The protagonist of his best-known film is the head of the homicide division, a man who dispatches his decadent lover in cold blood. At the scene of the crime he plants a variety of incriminating evidence against himself in order to show that he is untouchable. He couldn’t care less whether he comes under suspicion or not. His twisted purpose is to consolidate his absolute authority by destroying the boundary dividing the executors of the law from the law itself. Even after 45 years, this Oscar-winning picture retains its full impact on the viewer, not only through longtime Petri collaborators at the top of their game (actor Gian Maria Volonté, composer Ennio Morricone, and DOP Luigi Kuveiller) – there is also its shockingly durable topic: corrupt guardians of the law and their abuse of power.

About the film

112 min / Color, DCP

Director Elio Petri / Screenplay Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro / Dir. of Photography Luigi Kuveiller / Music Ennio Morricone / Editor Ruggero Mastroianni / Producer Marina Cicogna, Daniele Senatore / Production Vera Film / Cast Gian Maria Volonté, Florinda Bolkan, Gianni Santuccio, Orazio Orlando, Sergio Tramonti, Arturo Dominici / Contact Park Circus Group

Contacts

Park Circus Group
15 Woodside Crescent, G37UL, Glasgow
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 141 332 2175
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Paola Pegoraro
Other

Milena Gregor
Film Institution Rep.

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