Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Director Elio Petri refashions the image of fascism from the cliché of Mussolini-era jackbooted soldiers into something far more modern (and subversive): a handsome and prosperous man in a white linen suit. Gian Maria Volontè is a successful police investigator about to become even more politically powerful; out of whimsy or spite, he commits a murder and then does everything he can not to hide the crime, but rather to make it as obvious as possible. And why? To prove that he, like all powerful men, is truly above suspicion and all laws. Petri films the proceedings like a politicized Mario Bava, with bizarre camera angles and deep-focus cinematography kept abuzz by the modernist twinges of composer Ennio Morricone, who contributes a score as memorable as his work for Sergio Leone. Thanks to Volontè’s performance, the fashionable fascist proves simultaneously disgusting and appealing. The film won the Special Jury Prize and the International Critics’ Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.