Dillinger ha muerto

with the "Grande abbuffata" title this is the best ferreri movie. Incredible tour de force real time movie is a study in alienation like no other one in cinema. Piccoli display a portfolio of frustrate-tipe tics with excellent performance. the same for annie girardot, the waitress in love with the Italian singer dino. Ferreri use no dialogues, the figure of dillinger as a mythical phantom over the alienated life of the protagonist. The final is incredibly surreal but all the film is terribly realistic and punctual, in line with the analysis of the contemporary man in the west society. I think that in today cinema this movie is something of irripetible

Although idiosyncratic and decidedly off beat, Marco Ferreri realised the importance of star names and following the international success of this, his first film to feature Michel Piccoli, the actors who entrusted themselves to his direction were not only extremely talented but like Piccoli were not afraid to push the boundaries and take chances. Of course Piccoli's inherent quirkiness makes him ideal casting whilst the emphasis in this on mundane domestic activity might be tedious were it not for his mesmerising performance.

As an avowed communist Ferreri's films became even more anarchic as time went on but here the anarchy is more controlled and is essentially a study in alienation, the entrapment of Marriage and the way in which so-called technological advances merely serve to repress the human spirit.

Anton Chekhov's maxim that once a gun is introduced it must at some stage inevitably go off is realised to devastating effect here and the low-key, almost clinical way in which the weapon is eventually used still shocks fifty years on.

Piccoli is supported by the equally quirky and courageous Annie Girardot as his obliging maid and as his wife the delectable Anita Pallenburg who has been used on the poster as the film's 'come on'.

This director's most famous (and infamous) opus is 'La Grande Bouffe' but there are many who consider this earlier work to be his greatest achievement.

Looking at Ferreri's depictions of urban angst calls to mind Thoreau's 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.'

First i have to say, I didn't like this movie. Too "sixties" for me. During this years of fear, confusion ans sex liberation there were tons of experimental movies. This is one of them. So, if you like solid scripts and action, get way from this film.

This film is an experience like a David Lynch movie, very hypnotic and seducing if you are caught in it.

It's also a sequel - or a reply - to Jean-Luc Godard's "Le Mepris". First, there's Piccoli (sometimes he's dressed the same as in "Le Mepris") and there are many scenes who work as an echo of Godard's movie (the arguing scene, the jump in the sea...) Like a french critic said "Dillinger" is like "Le Mepris" with Brigitte Bardot on the first floor sleeping.

So, not a film as experimental and "destroy" as it seemed at first look. Unusual for sure but worth a look.

I love arthouse movies and i am sick and tired of modern dumb movies which the viewer forgets in a week max. DIDead has an artistic value, i get it, its messages are clear for any adult who's familiar with this kind of movies. However, i didn't like it. It was not just a slowburn, it was boring as hell. I managed to watch the whole movie because Michel Piccoli is a great and charismatic actor. Furthermore, there were some interesting scenes. But overall, this was painful to watch. No substance, just a guy doing mostly meaningless things. This should have been a short film. If it lasted 40 minutes, this could have been probably a very good movie. But these 95 minutes felt like 3 hours.

Ending was good though, so was the beginning.

A well-off industrial designer, Glauco, comes back home and sees his wife who allegedly has a headache and rests in bed. She leaves him a cold dinner, lest Glauco should feel hungry. Nevertheless, Glauco chooses to prepare the meal on his own. While cooking, he discloses a gun wrapped in a newspaper which recounts events regarding a famous mobster Dillinger's demise…

Whilst reading this paragraph, one is likely to scratch his head and reassure this is what the movie is genuinely about. This is no mistake – Dillinger is Dead is precisely a product of its time. A bold, weird and mesmerizingly original film which has more in common with existentialism and fantasy than Dillinger himself. The concept of merging reality with surrealism and transmuting it into an artistic manifestation is indubitably exquisite. Straightforwardly speaking, the story by Ferreri is an infant of sheer uniqueness and it stimulates one's senses. Despite the fact that the whole motion picture is virtually filmed solely in Glauco's apartment, Ferreri aptly lunges the plot and it consequently never drags or feels rushed. The characters existent in the flick sporadically encounter one another and the action generally revolves around Glauco. Neither does one get to know his past, nor his views on the outer world. Yet, his mental state is absolutely precise and visible inasmuch his soul is diaphanous owing to Ferreri's fantastic mise-en-scène which visualises Glauco's existential ennui by exposing his disparate acts in his home which serve totally nothing. The protagonist seems nearly a phantom creeping through ensuing chambers of his apartment. He desperately endeavours to do something, satisfy himself anyhow, still he is at a loss for options. His behaviour perpetuated on the celluloid consists of most probably his everyday activities. This enchantingly articulates the meaninglessness and pointlessness of his life. What is new in his life is the weapon wrapped in the mysterious newspaper which inscrutably appears in his apartment. Once he finds the gun, he gradually embarks on altering his life and this is the onset of his transformation which leads to the abrupt and outré denouement.

Mario Vulpiani's cinematography captures the infertility of Glauco's actions in an eye-pleasing manner and it's occasionally ravishing and co-operates with the soundtrack by Teo Usuelli duly. The performance by Michel Piccoli is very good, resembling his appearances in Bunuel movies in which he plays analogous roles. His minimalistic attitude is very appropriate and renders the character plausible.

While portraying existential ennui wasn't something ground-breaking and refreshing in 1969, what strikes in case of Dillinger is Dead is Ferreri's atypical execution of the material. Apart from being structurally quite precisely delineated and recounted, it's far from being a film reminiscent of Edward Munch's painting The Scream or Antonioni flicks. What one might behold here is a huge irony, enormous portions of dark humour and hilarious wickedness. Given that Ferreri was a leftist, it may be analysed as criticism of bourgeois class – filled with money, yet incapable of spending it on laudable aims or developing their interests since there are not such for them. Hence, the movie works well as a wicked depiction of pointlessness of human in modern society as well as a political and satirical manifesto. No matter how sophisticatedly one approaches Dillinger is Dead, it is a highly riveting piece of cinematographic extravaganza which ought to appeal to those seeking for something else and lovers of the sixties or art-house cinema, whereas all others should make allowances for the possibility that this slow-paced, somewhat plot less quirk might be emotionally insufficient and boring as well as possibly exasperating for some.