A big welcome to the new disc company Radiance! This first CineSavant Radiance review is a knockout political drama from Italy’s Elio Petri, with one of the best performances ever by Gian-Maria Volontè. Model factory machinist Lulù Massa offends his peers on the assembly line with his individualistic egotism. An injury on the job makes him a focus for Unionists and student radicals. Petri’s warmly humanist picture is also blunt in its outlook — our imperfect hero is adrift in an unsatisfactory system, and the politicals’ agenda isn’t helpful either. It’s compelling filmmaking, co-starring Mariangela Melato and driven by an excellent Ennio Morricone music score.
The Working Class Goes to Heaven
Region B Blu-ray
Radiance (U.K.)
1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date February 1, 2023 / La classe operaia va in paradiso, Lulù the Tool / Available from / £16.99
Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Mariangela Melato, Salvo Randone, Mietta Albertini, Gino Pernice,...
The Working Class Goes to Heaven
Region B Blu-ray
Radiance (U.K.)
1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date February 1, 2023 / La classe operaia va in paradiso, Lulù the Tool / Available from / £16.99
Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Mariangela Melato, Salvo Randone, Mietta Albertini, Gino Pernice,...
- 1/7/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Rarovideo is back, with an excellent Italo war drama that finds humanist values in an appalling situation: a young Italian lieutenant is tasked with distributing 12 Athenian prostitutes to garrisons on the road back to Italy, to ‘service’ the troops. It’s a mixed group — a couple of the women have signed up to avoid starvation. The trek takes them directly into partisan conflict. Sympathetic director Valerio Zurlini assembles a terrific international cast: Mario Adorf, Anna Karina, Tomas Milian, Marie Laforêt, Lea Massari, Valeria Moriconi and Milena Dravic.
Le Soldatesse
Blu-ray
Rarovideo / Kino Lorber
1965 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Street Date October 25, 2022 / The Camp Followers / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Mario Adorf, Anna Karina, Marie Laforêt, Lea Massari, Tomas Milian, Valeria Moriconi, Milena Dravic, Aleksandar Gavric, Dusan Vujisic, Jovan Rancic, Dragomir Felba, Jelena Zigon, Alenka Rancic, Milica Preradovic, Rossana Di Rocco, Mila Cortini, Guido Alberti.
Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli
Production Designer:...
Le Soldatesse
Blu-ray
Rarovideo / Kino Lorber
1965 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Street Date October 25, 2022 / The Camp Followers / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Mario Adorf, Anna Karina, Marie Laforêt, Lea Massari, Tomas Milian, Valeria Moriconi, Milena Dravic, Aleksandar Gavric, Dusan Vujisic, Jovan Rancic, Dragomir Felba, Jelena Zigon, Alenka Rancic, Milica Preradovic, Rossana Di Rocco, Mila Cortini, Guido Alberti.
Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli
Production Designer:...
- 11/5/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Can radical theater make a good movie? Elio Petri continues his string of biting social comment movies with a black comedy about rich people, thieves, and the notion of ownership — it’s a caustic position paper but also a funny satire, with quirky yet believable characters. Ugo Tognazzi is terrific as scheming capitalist, as much a prisoner of his wealth as a poor clerk is of his poverty.
Property is No Longer a Theft
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date March 28, 2017 / La proprietà non è più un furto / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Ugo Tognazzi, Flavio Bucci, Daria Nicolodi, Mario Scaccia, Orazio Orlando, Julien Guiomar, Cecilia Polizzi, Jacques Herlin, Ada Pometti, Salvo Randone.
Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller
Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Production design / Costume design: Gianni Polidori
Written by Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro
Produced by Claudio Mancini
Directed by Elio Petri
Essere o Avere?...
Property is No Longer a Theft
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date March 28, 2017 / La proprietà non è più un furto / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: Ugo Tognazzi, Flavio Bucci, Daria Nicolodi, Mario Scaccia, Orazio Orlando, Julien Guiomar, Cecilia Polizzi, Jacques Herlin, Ada Pometti, Salvo Randone.
Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller
Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Production design / Costume design: Gianni Polidori
Written by Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro
Produced by Claudio Mancini
Directed by Elio Petri
Essere o Avere?...
- 4/8/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The robbery spree of ‘the machine gun soloist,’ as the real life smash-and-grab jewelry thief Luciano Lutring was dubbed by the exploitative inflammatory Italian press of the day, sprawled across Europe like a globetrotting Bonnie and Clyde, complete with wife, mistress, child, disguises and enough flippant flamboyancy to waste his stolen riches on whatever pleasure awaited around the corner. Just three months after Lutring’s final capture and subsequent 20 year prison sentence, director Carlo Lizzani went into production on a fly-by-night chronicle of Lutring’s criminal career. The result was Wake Up And Kill, a la nouvelle vague inspired, loose canon crime thriller that thrives on style, but lacks the connective tissues to keep the wily tale together.
With a cinematic background in documentary and neo-realist melodrama, having spent much of the ’50s directing non-fiction and co-wrote the Oscar nominated Giuseppe De Santis picture Bitter Rice, Lizzani was obscenely quick...
With a cinematic background in documentary and neo-realist melodrama, having spent much of the ’50s directing non-fiction and co-wrote the Oscar nominated Giuseppe De Santis picture Bitter Rice, Lizzani was obscenely quick...
- 12/22/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Gian Maria Volonté has a big part in this prime quality Italo crime thriller blessed with a great score by Ennio Morricone. But the movie belongs to Robert Hoffman as the real-life public enemy who earned the alias 'The Machine Gun Soloist.' Director Carlo Lizzani's realistic treatment glamorizes nothing and implicates the police in shady policies as well. Award-winning co-star Lisa Gastoni is the woman who loves Hoffman, and is tempted to betray him. Wake Up and Kill Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 124 98 min / Svegliati e uccidi; Lutring; Wake Up and Die / Street Date November 24, 2015 / 29.95 Starring Robert Hoffmann, Lisa Gastoni, Gian Maria Volonté, Claudio Camaso, Renato Niccolai, Ottavio Fanfani, Pupo De Luca, Corrado Olmi. Cinematography Armando Nannuzzi Film Editing Franco Fraticelli Original Music Ennio Morricone Written by Ugo Pirro, Carlo Lizzani Produced by Jacques Bar, Joseph Fryd, Carlo Lizzani Directed by Carlo Lizzani
Reviewed by...
Reviewed by...
- 12/12/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Murder and Narcissism
By Raymond Benson
Available this month from the Criterion Collection is Elio Petri’s 1970 international hit, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, which won the Oscar that year for Best Foreign Language Film. It stars Gian Maria Volonté, whom most Americans will recognize as the heavy in two spaghetti westerns, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, but this time clean-shaven and wearing a tailored suit. He is sharp, handsome, and volatile—the perfect personality to portray a high-ranking detective in Italy’s (then) corrupt police force.
Highly politicized, Investigation uses sly dark humor to make its point—that corruption has become so bad that an official can commit murder but can still be above the law. Here, Volonté, who enjoys rather kinky sex with his mistress, decides to kill her to prove he can get away with it under the very noses of his fellow officers.
By Raymond Benson
Available this month from the Criterion Collection is Elio Petri’s 1970 international hit, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, which won the Oscar that year for Best Foreign Language Film. It stars Gian Maria Volonté, whom most Americans will recognize as the heavy in two spaghetti westerns, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, but this time clean-shaven and wearing a tailored suit. He is sharp, handsome, and volatile—the perfect personality to portray a high-ranking detective in Italy’s (then) corrupt police force.
Highly politicized, Investigation uses sly dark humor to make its point—that corruption has become so bad that an official can commit murder but can still be above the law. Here, Volonté, who enjoys rather kinky sex with his mistress, decides to kill her to prove he can get away with it under the very noses of his fellow officers.
- 12/11/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Dec. 3, 2013
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Gian Maria Volonté goes on the record in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.
The Oscar-winning 1970 thriller Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is the provocative Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s most internationally acclaimed work.
A striking and visceral film, Petri maintains a tricky balance between absurdity and realism in telling the Kafkaesque tale of a Roman police inspector (A Fistful of Dollars’s Gian Maria Volonté, in a commanding performance) investigating a heinous crime—which he committed himself.
Both a penetrating character study and a disturbing commentary on the draconian crackdowns by the Italian government in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Petri’s portrait of surreal bureaucracy is a perversely pleasurable rendering of controlled chaos.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo release of the film is presented in Italian with English subtitles and contains the following features:
• New...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Gian Maria Volonté goes on the record in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.
The Oscar-winning 1970 thriller Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is the provocative Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s most internationally acclaimed work.
A striking and visceral film, Petri maintains a tricky balance between absurdity and realism in telling the Kafkaesque tale of a Roman police inspector (A Fistful of Dollars’s Gian Maria Volonté, in a commanding performance) investigating a heinous crime—which he committed himself.
Both a penetrating character study and a disturbing commentary on the draconian crackdowns by the Italian government in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Petri’s portrait of surreal bureaucracy is a perversely pleasurable rendering of controlled chaos.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo release of the film is presented in Italian with English subtitles and contains the following features:
• New...
- 9/25/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
December is Tarantino Month here at Sos, and in the week leading up our January month-long theme of westerns, I thought it would be best to whip up an article spotlighting some films that influenced Tarantino’s long awaited take on the western, Django Unchained. For my money, all of the films listed below are essential viewing for fans of Django Unchained. I’ll be diving deeper into these films come January, but in the meantime, this should hopefully whet your appetite. Enjoy!
Note: This is the second of a three part article.
****
The Mercenary (Il Mercenario) (A Professional Gun)
Directed by Sergio Corbucci
Written by Giorgio Arlorio and Adriano Bolzoni
1968, Italy / Spain
Second only to Leone, Sergio Corbucci is the best when it comes to making spaghetti westerns. The man would never take a break, directing Django, The Great Silence, Navajo Joe and The Mercenary within a span of two years.
Note: This is the second of a three part article.
****
The Mercenary (Il Mercenario) (A Professional Gun)
Directed by Sergio Corbucci
Written by Giorgio Arlorio and Adriano Bolzoni
1968, Italy / Spain
Second only to Leone, Sergio Corbucci is the best when it comes to making spaghetti westerns. The man would never take a break, directing Django, The Great Silence, Navajo Joe and The Mercenary within a span of two years.
- 12/27/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
ROME -- The Italian parliament on Monday observed a moment of silence in honor of screenwriter Ugo Pirro, who died early Saturday after a prolonged illness. He was 87.
Pirro was one of a small handful of non-U.S. industry figures to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year for two different films: in 1970 he was nominated for his work on Vittorio De Sica's drama "Giardino dei Finzi Contini" (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis) and again for "Indangine sul un Cittadino al di Sopra di Ogni Sospetto" (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion), a crime story directed by Elio Petri. Though Pirro did not win either prize, the double nomination earned him notoriety in Italy, where he kept working well into his 70s.
His final two films, both from 1996, were both noteworthy: "Celluloide" (Celluloid), a tribute to the making of Roberto Rossellini's "Roma, Citta Aperta" (Rome, Open City) won Pirro his lone David di Donatello prize after several nominations.
Pirro was one of a small handful of non-U.S. industry figures to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year for two different films: in 1970 he was nominated for his work on Vittorio De Sica's drama "Giardino dei Finzi Contini" (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis) and again for "Indangine sul un Cittadino al di Sopra di Ogni Sospetto" (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion), a crime story directed by Elio Petri. Though Pirro did not win either prize, the double nomination earned him notoriety in Italy, where he kept working well into his 70s.
His final two films, both from 1996, were both noteworthy: "Celluloide" (Celluloid), a tribute to the making of Roberto Rossellini's "Roma, Citta Aperta" (Rome, Open City) won Pirro his lone David di Donatello prize after several nominations.
- 1/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
WHISPERING PAGES
(Russia/Germany)
This is cold, dark, depressing cinema as only a few Russian directors can create. It's ''Whispering Pages'' by Alexander Sokurov, recognized as the only legitimate heir to the late Andrei Tarkovsky. This tedious film will appeal only to a few brave festgoers and committed cineastes.
''Whispering Pages'' chronicles a midnight visit to the brooding streets, caverns and apartments of St. Petersburg of the past century, principally as sketched in Dostoyevsky's ''Notes from the Underground'' and ''Crime and Punishment.''
As is common in Sokurov's cinema, camera movements are almost painfully slow, protagonists appear to be rooted to the ground and only dim rays of light illuminate the characters much of the time. Raskolnikov's well-known confession scene from ''Crime and Punishment, '' which occurs toward the end of the film, brings to ''Whispering Pages'' a bit of needed meaning and depth. It's one of the few literary segments worth waiting for.
''TICHIE STRANICY'' (WHISPERING PAGES) (Russia/Germany). Eskomfilm, Syktyvkar, North Foundation (St. Petersburg), Zero-Film (Berlin)
Producers: Vladimir Fotiev, Martin Hagemann, Thomas Kufus. Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Sokurov. Photography: Alexander Burov. Cast: Alexander Cherednik (Hero), Elisaveta Koroleva (Girl), Sergei Barkovsky (Civil Servant).
77 mins, black-and-white, color
LAW OF COURAGE
(Italy)
Alessandro di Robilant's ''Law of Courage'' is another in an ongoing series of Italian anti-Mafia films based on fact. As a detailed tele-feature, its purpose is to inform. And although the message is wrapped in the guise of a fast-paced political thriller, the market is still television with a possible spinoff at international festivals.
This is the story of Sicilian district attorney Rosario Livatino, the ''boy judge'' (''Il Giudice Richter''), who was assassinated in 1991 for investigating killings ordered by warring Mafia families in the provinces.
The screenplay in turn is based on a book by Nando Della Chiesa, the son of the general murdered by the Mafia in 1982. And it opens with an actual speech given by Livatino in 1984 titled ''The Role of the Judge in a Changing Society, '' the apparent reason why he was murdered.
Giulio Scarpati portrays without sentimentality the determined district attorney who lived by a moral code, one who also knew he was marked for death by the Mafia. Unfortunately, the musical score doesn't let us forget this either.
''IL GIUDICE RAGAZZINO'' (LAW OF COURAGE) (Italy). RCS Films & TV, RAI 2
(Rome)
Director: Alessandro Di Robilant. Screenwriters: Andrea Purgatori, Ugo Pirro, based on a book by Nando Dalla Ciesa. Photography: David Scott. Cast: Giulio Scarpati (Rosario Livatino), Sabrina Ferilli (Angela Guarnera).
92 mins, color
SOMETHING FISHY
(France)
The bright side of this quirky hard-boiled detective story by Tonie Marshall is anti-heroine Anemone, who carries the story effortlessly despite dips and turns in the narrative.
''Something Fishy'' is a Gallic cross between Peter Falk's seedy Columbo and Raymond Chandler's stubborn travel-by-night private eyes.
The weak side of the ledger is three stories in one. First, we're introduced to Maxime's (Anemone) AC/DC male/female relations, then her renewed acquaintance with a long-neglected 17-year-old son and finally to a portrait of a tired and vulnerable detective caught in the middle of a murder case that leads right to the door of Maxime's ex-husband, a crooked real estate dealer. The meat of the film is found in the third segment.
This second feature of Marshall -- the daughter of American director William Marshall and French actress Micheline Presle -- confirms she's a promising directorial talent. Presle herself makes a commanding cameo appearance as the distraught widow of the murdered man.
''PAS TRES CATHOLIQUE'' (SOMETHING FISHY) (France). Les Productions du 3eme Etage (Paris), AB Films, M6 Films, Planetes et Compagnie.
Producer: Michel Propper, Frederic Bourboulon. Director/Screenwriter: Tonie Marshall. Photography: Dominique Chapius. Cast: Anenome (Maxime), Gregoire Colin (Baptiste).
100 mins, color
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
(Russia/Germany)
This is cold, dark, depressing cinema as only a few Russian directors can create. It's ''Whispering Pages'' by Alexander Sokurov, recognized as the only legitimate heir to the late Andrei Tarkovsky. This tedious film will appeal only to a few brave festgoers and committed cineastes.
''Whispering Pages'' chronicles a midnight visit to the brooding streets, caverns and apartments of St. Petersburg of the past century, principally as sketched in Dostoyevsky's ''Notes from the Underground'' and ''Crime and Punishment.''
As is common in Sokurov's cinema, camera movements are almost painfully slow, protagonists appear to be rooted to the ground and only dim rays of light illuminate the characters much of the time. Raskolnikov's well-known confession scene from ''Crime and Punishment, '' which occurs toward the end of the film, brings to ''Whispering Pages'' a bit of needed meaning and depth. It's one of the few literary segments worth waiting for.
''TICHIE STRANICY'' (WHISPERING PAGES) (Russia/Germany). Eskomfilm, Syktyvkar, North Foundation (St. Petersburg), Zero-Film (Berlin)
Producers: Vladimir Fotiev, Martin Hagemann, Thomas Kufus. Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Sokurov. Photography: Alexander Burov. Cast: Alexander Cherednik (Hero), Elisaveta Koroleva (Girl), Sergei Barkovsky (Civil Servant).
77 mins, black-and-white, color
LAW OF COURAGE
(Italy)
Alessandro di Robilant's ''Law of Courage'' is another in an ongoing series of Italian anti-Mafia films based on fact. As a detailed tele-feature, its purpose is to inform. And although the message is wrapped in the guise of a fast-paced political thriller, the market is still television with a possible spinoff at international festivals.
This is the story of Sicilian district attorney Rosario Livatino, the ''boy judge'' (''Il Giudice Richter''), who was assassinated in 1991 for investigating killings ordered by warring Mafia families in the provinces.
The screenplay in turn is based on a book by Nando Della Chiesa, the son of the general murdered by the Mafia in 1982. And it opens with an actual speech given by Livatino in 1984 titled ''The Role of the Judge in a Changing Society, '' the apparent reason why he was murdered.
Giulio Scarpati portrays without sentimentality the determined district attorney who lived by a moral code, one who also knew he was marked for death by the Mafia. Unfortunately, the musical score doesn't let us forget this either.
''IL GIUDICE RAGAZZINO'' (LAW OF COURAGE) (Italy). RCS Films & TV, RAI 2
(Rome)
Director: Alessandro Di Robilant. Screenwriters: Andrea Purgatori, Ugo Pirro, based on a book by Nando Dalla Ciesa. Photography: David Scott. Cast: Giulio Scarpati (Rosario Livatino), Sabrina Ferilli (Angela Guarnera).
92 mins, color
SOMETHING FISHY
(France)
The bright side of this quirky hard-boiled detective story by Tonie Marshall is anti-heroine Anemone, who carries the story effortlessly despite dips and turns in the narrative.
''Something Fishy'' is a Gallic cross between Peter Falk's seedy Columbo and Raymond Chandler's stubborn travel-by-night private eyes.
The weak side of the ledger is three stories in one. First, we're introduced to Maxime's (Anemone) AC/DC male/female relations, then her renewed acquaintance with a long-neglected 17-year-old son and finally to a portrait of a tired and vulnerable detective caught in the middle of a murder case that leads right to the door of Maxime's ex-husband, a crooked real estate dealer. The meat of the film is found in the third segment.
This second feature of Marshall -- the daughter of American director William Marshall and French actress Micheline Presle -- confirms she's a promising directorial talent. Presle herself makes a commanding cameo appearance as the distraught widow of the murdered man.
''PAS TRES CATHOLIQUE'' (SOMETHING FISHY) (France). Les Productions du 3eme Etage (Paris), AB Films, M6 Films, Planetes et Compagnie.
Producer: Michel Propper, Frederic Bourboulon. Director/Screenwriter: Tonie Marshall. Photography: Dominique Chapius. Cast: Anenome (Maxime), Gregoire Colin (Baptiste).
100 mins, color
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 2/14/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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