Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 5, 2020 6:58:00 GMT -8
The Criterion Channel is full of foreign films such as the Italian Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. Many of these foreign films are bad in ways I could never have imagined. Some you wonder why they even went to the expense of buying the film. Many are narrow treatises expounding on some whacked-out writer or director’s video talking point. Lots of “messages” but very little story.
I was thinking this particular movie is the kind of parody that Timothy would be interested in because of the parody aspect. It’s good in a way foreign films can be and also bad in the same way. I think this one just barely crosses the threshold.
Gian Maria Volontè (Ramón Rojo, A Fistful of Dollars and Indio in For A Few Dollars More) plays the head of Rome’s homicide division. Later he is promoted as head of the political division. He murders his mistress and then proceeds to leave many clues that incriminate him. He is following an undefined need to show he is above suspicion. No matter how incriminating an element is, his subordinates constantly cast if off as “Of course, this means nothing.”
And that works for a while. But this aspect is unfortunately taken to absurd extremes. This movie is supposed to be a parody of the Italian bureaucracy of the time. But it’s so over-the-top, the movie becomes much more a Peter Sellers-like screwball comedy than a biting parody even if its attempt to do so is not overt.
Still, for quite a while the movie is interesting before it slips too far. And it’s a story unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. As one reviewer pointed out, “Don't get me wrong, the idea for the film is clever. I think though what it is about the movie that leaves me somewhat dissatisfied is, as another reviewer here mentioned, that it comes across as very one dimensional and one-note in it's presentation.”
I think had it been less absurd, the points it tries to make would have been better. Or, as absurd as it is, an outright comedy with Peter Sellers in the lead would have made more sense. It seems stuck in the middle. But Gian Maria Volontè does play the lead part for all it’s worth and it probably the one and only reason to watch this.
I was thinking this particular movie is the kind of parody that Timothy would be interested in because of the parody aspect. It’s good in a way foreign films can be and also bad in the same way. I think this one just barely crosses the threshold.
Gian Maria Volontè (Ramón Rojo, A Fistful of Dollars and Indio in For A Few Dollars More) plays the head of Rome’s homicide division. Later he is promoted as head of the political division. He murders his mistress and then proceeds to leave many clues that incriminate him. He is following an undefined need to show he is above suspicion. No matter how incriminating an element is, his subordinates constantly cast if off as “Of course, this means nothing.”
And that works for a while. But this aspect is unfortunately taken to absurd extremes. This movie is supposed to be a parody of the Italian bureaucracy of the time. But it’s so over-the-top, the movie becomes much more a Peter Sellers-like screwball comedy than a biting parody even if its attempt to do so is not overt.
Still, for quite a while the movie is interesting before it slips too far. And it’s a story unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. As one reviewer pointed out, “Don't get me wrong, the idea for the film is clever. I think though what it is about the movie that leaves me somewhat dissatisfied is, as another reviewer here mentioned, that it comes across as very one dimensional and one-note in it's presentation.”
I think had it been less absurd, the points it tries to make would have been better. Or, as absurd as it is, an outright comedy with Peter Sellers in the lead would have made more sense. It seems stuck in the middle. But Gian Maria Volontè does play the lead part for all it’s worth and it probably the one and only reason to watch this.
