"Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion"*** (out of ****)
After reviewing far too many modern films, I believe 4 in a row, it is time to review an older title. As I have mentioned before this blog is going in a new direction with more of a focus on great directors and their films.
"Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion" may be director Elio Petri's most celebrated film. This Italian film won the 1971 Oscar for "best foreign language" film and was nominated again the following year for its screenplay. Due to the Academy's stupid rules a film can not be nominated for any major awards until it has played in both L.A. and New York. A similar situation happened with Truffaut's "Day for Night". The film was also nominated for the palme d'or and a Golden Globe.
The film starts with a man and a woman meeting at her place for an affair. When they meets she seductively asks "how will you kill me this time"? The couple are involved in playing kinky death games. The man likes to photograph the woman in gruesome death position, re-enacting famous crime scenes. But this time something goes wrong. The man actually kills the woman. Though he doesn't act the way we might suspect a killer to act. He takes a shower, leaving DNA on the towels, he leaves his fingerprints all over glass bottles, he purposely steps in her blood with his shoes and leaves a trace of footprints and is seen leaving the woman's apartment.
The woman's name is Augusta Terzi (Florinda Bolkan) and the man is head of the homicide police division (Gian Maria Volonte). His plan is to prove he is above the law. After the woman's murder he predicts he will be above suspicion because he is in charge of the investigation.We learn that since he has been in charge of homicide over 200 murders have taken place, only 10 remain unsolved. The murder takes place on his last day in charge as he is being transferred to a political division. Where he is to watch out for left-wing activist.
Through flashbacks we find out Augusta was attracted to men with power. She would provoke the police chief (who is never given a name) into committing small crimes, like going through a red light just to see if he would be able to get away free. And he does. But she begins to cheat on him with another man, Antonio Pace (Sergio Tramonti) a left-wing activist. This hurts the police chief's pride more than anything else. He does not love this woman but demands that she realize how powerful he is.
The chief suffers from the same problem most people with responsibility suffer from, especially those associated with the law (police, lawyers and judges) they feel they are above the law. Here in Chicago we hear countless stories of police officers abusing their power. From a black man , who was unarmed, who was shot 30 times to a Polish woman who was beaten by an off-duty cop. Police feel they can get away with anything because everything will be kept secret by their own. "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion" examines what happens when the temptations become too strong to prove one's worth.
Given the storyline some might be tempted to compare it to Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and the moral dilemma of murder. If you remember in that novel a man rationalizes murder. But there is also a hint of Franz Kafka. Think of his novels "The Trial" and "The Castle". "Investigation" is also a comment on bureaucracy. The film even ends with a quote from Kafka on man and the law.
The film also has strong political ties. The police are made out to be right-wing fascist. They speak of order and how all left-wing protesters are sexual predators and out to cause social disorder. There may be some truth to that but Petri doesn't allow his political undertones to play out correctly. They don't seem to belong in this film. It is not the most interesting aspect of the film unless Petri was going to move this idea front and center in his story. Petri was a member of the Italian Communist Party until 1957, so he tends to lean towards the leftist in this film suggesting the right-wing nature of the police is corrupt.
The performance given by Volonte is quite good. He is believable as the character. His name doesn't mean much to American audiences sadly. He was in Jean-Pierre Melville's "The Red Circle" and two films part of Sergio Leone's "Name With No Name" trilogy. It is too bad he wasn't given an Oscar nomination.
The film is not available on VHS any longer and there is no North American DVD release. But there are some region 2 DVDs out there and who knows, you may get lucky. Perhaps it may show at a retrospective as part of a look back at Italian cinema in the 70s. Regardless of how you see it just try and make an effort to find it.
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