Rent Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
3.8 of 5 from 111 ratings
1h 55min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The provocative Italian filmmaker Elio Petri's most internationally acclaimed work is this remarkable visceral, Oscar-winning thriller. Petri maintains a tricky balance between absurdity and realism in telling the Kafkaesque tale of a Roman police inspector (a commanding Gian Maria Volonte) investigating a heinous crime - which he himself committed. Both a compelling character study and a disturbing commentary on the draconian government crackdowns in Italy in the late 1960's and early '70s, Petri's kinetic portrait of surreal bureaucracy is a perversely pleasurable rendering of controlled chaos.
- Actors:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Florinda Bolkan, Gianni Santuccio, Orazio Orlando, Sergio Tramonti, Arturo Dominici, Aldo Rendine, Massimo Foschi, Aleka Paizi, Vittorio Duse, Pino Patti, Salvo Randone, Giuseppe Licastro, Filippo De Gara, Fulvio Grimaldi, Ugo Adinolfi, Franco Marletta, Giacomo Bellini, Giuseppe Terranova, Vincenzo Falanga
- Directors:
- Elio Petri
- Producers:
- Marina Cicogna, Daniele Senatore
- Writers:
- Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro
- Aka:
- Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Award Winners, Oscars: Winners & Losers
- Countries:
- Italy
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 18/01/2021
- Run Time:
- 115 minutes
- Languages:
- Italian LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- 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
- Interview with film scholar Camilla Zamboni from 2013
- Investigation of a Citizen Named Volonte (2008), a sixty-minute documentary about actor Gian Maria Volonte
- Music in His Blood, an interview with composer Ennio Morricone from 2010, conducted by film critic Fabio Ferzetti
- Trailers
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Reviews (2) of Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Great Movie - Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion review by JD
I first saw this 50 years ago, and it is even better than I remember.
A classic.
Superb story - power corrupts , so very relevant with what Trump has been up to recently.
Acting is very strong, and a word of praise for the haunting music.
A must see movie.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Kafka With Better Tunes - Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion review by griggs
Imagine murdering your mistress, leaving clues all over the crime scene, then standing around waiting for the police to develop a basic interest in your whereabouts. That’s the gloriously warped setup of Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, and I was hooked.
Gian Maria Volonté plays a chief inspector who treats the murder investigation like a spot of admin. He kills Augusta Terzi, plants evidence pointing in his direction, then gets promoted to the Political Section, where persecuting dissidents becomes part of the job description. His new colleagues can spot a subversive at fifty paces, yet a guilty man practically tap-dancing in front of them barely raises an eyebrow. Rank has handed everyone a pair of blinkers.
Volonté is tremendous: twitchy, vain and permanently auditioning for the role of Important Man. Watching that swagger slowly curdle is half the fun. He keeps turning the volume up on his guilt while the institution responds with a polite, bureaucratic shrug. Kafka gets a police badge, Morricone gives him a jaunty soundtrack, and the whole film becomes a black comedy about power refusing to read the room.
The camera clings to him like an unwanted accomplice, pulling me into his spiral of control, guilt and increasingly desperate theatre. My only gripe is that the “please arrest me” routine loses a little bite in the final act. Still, the image that lingers is a guilty man begging to be believed while the state’s ears remain tuned exclusively to rank. A cracking little satire with fingerprints all over it.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.