Investigação Sobre um Cidadão Acima de Qualquer Suspeita

This 1970s Italian political drama opens with a compelling murder live show, a dapper man, Volonté (the head of homicide squad) artfully kills his erotic mistress (Bolken) with a sharp blade, and what's befuddling the viewers is after that, Volonté intentionally leaves many traces which could be implicated to him at the scene of the crime, all the more a face-to-face encounter with a witness when he leaves the building. Naturally, one has to divine his motivation of his deviant contrivances, but the film doesn't opt to give a straightforward answer to the illogicality, instead it unwinds itself into a sociological tirade aiming at the blazon compliance of the ruling power echelon, Volonté has been promoted to a more authoritarian post, politics-oriented, and the cover-up process degrades the whole investigation into a farce, lushly recorded by the agile camera.

Arguably, this is Elio Petri's most famous film, an Oscar's BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM crowner, and won him 2 awards in CANNES that year, Petri may not occupy an international cachet so high as his Italian peers, but the film can potently justify his talent, it is an authentic gas, wonderfully designed camera-work with a great architectonic predilection, astute sense of unpicking the tacit phone-interception dirty business, a twitchy sensibility towards the rotten authorities, and upbraids an undeniable self-awareness of being politically-biased.

Volonté is tailor-made for the leading role, a typical male chauvinist, over-cocksure by appearance while underneath he is a man haunted by his impotence and jealousy (Bolken has mentioned a few times he is only a child which effectively irritates him), although ambiguous about the raison d'être of his act, Volonté is confident, menacing and impressive out of his common Spaghetti image. Bolken is billed as the co-lead, but mostly appears in flashback and the film has curtailed her character to a sexy trophy, a power-worshipper and a dispensable pawn whose stupidity overshadows her own demise, nevertheless she is a stunner in all her shots. The standout of the all-male supporting cast is Salvo Randone as an innocent plumber, who caves in poignantly in front of power, a bona-fide scene stealer.

Last but not the least is Ennio Morricone's score, the repeated motif has a synthesized rhythm, catchy and indelible, throughout the film, it renders the film a touch of ridicule and never leave any chance for the audiences to be bored by the doctrinal tone the film unintentionally betrays.

"Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sopetto" ("Investigation of a citizen above suspicion") is a surrealistic police-story directed by the Italian film-maker Elio Petri in 1970 .

A very original screenplay tells us the story of a respected police inspector who commits a crime and deliberately leaves clues just to find out how big is his reputation of "a citizen above suspicion" . The theme is developed from this single event and becomes an intelligent and provocative reflection about the concepts of authority and institution . While some could wrongly see this movie as a left-wing political one because of the way it depicts police authorities' excessive power , It is really only a fair illustration denouncing the impotence of institutions of making an impartial investigation about their own mistakes . The main theme of the movie rises up a brilliant and paradoxical question : how can the organs which administrate the "Law" condemn themselves without risking their own collapse and negation ? To this question the movie answers with the pessimistic vision that a real justice is an utopia because of human-beings' weaknesses and self-preservative nature . This brilliant reflection is developed in an highly entertaining and smoothly constructed satirical police-story : in fact the movie has an overwhelming "funny" tone especially thanks to Gian Maria Volonte' superb acting in the main role of the "fascistoid" police inspector . The ending will surprise you with the way it reveals the surrealistic nature of the whole topic .

Even if this movie was highly awarded and acclaimed at its time , (1 Oscar for Best foreign film , 1 Nomination for Best original screenplay , won Grand Prize of the Jury and Golden Palm nomination at Cannes Films Festival , 1 Golden globe nomination ) at the present days it has been criminally forgotten . I can only add that I personally consider it one of the best Italian films ever made and one of the most provocative police-stories in the last 40 years . Unfortunately it suffers of a very poor international distribution so , unless you live in Italy , it won't be easy for you to find this movie . But it doesn't matter how hard it will be , it will be worth it .

If the crime, corruption , comes from who is expected to judge or to combat the crime ( judges , policemen)the chances that you will not pay for it is infinitely lesser than if are not part of the system.

Saw this film in New York at a revival. The tale of power and of right-wing/fascist politics corrupting is shockingly timely even today, in this time of global conflict, with enemies branded "unpatriotic."

The movie portrays the moral corruption of Italian police and politics in the 1970's, with totalitarian tactics wrapped in patriotism. The movie's lead policeman is swept up in the power of position. Sadly, it's only too easy for me to believe his ability to use his position and power to manipulate people and place himself above "the law".

The movie "looks" Italian and 1970's, with stark concrete and flat colors, which appealed to me. The story builds well, jumping backwards to fill in details, to climax in an alternate possible ending, very believable. I highly recommend it.

Apart from the film's own intriguing theme and interesting credentials, I had always been keen on catching this one because it had defeated Luis Bunuel's magnificent TRISTANA (1970) for the title of the Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars! However, the path that ultimately led me to it was quite thorny: I first caught the start of it during a rare Italian TV prime-time screening in the mid-1980s; then, after dropping off the radar for decades, it turned up again on late-night Italian TV but the reception was terrible so I could not tape it; later still, having finally acquired it on my PC, the hard disk went bust before I had a chance to make myself a copy…so that, I had to get hold of it (via the same channels) all over again when the PC was back on its feet!! Even so, a whole year passed before I actually sat down to watch it (on the heels of two other Elio Petri-Gian Maria Volonte' films). INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION won a clutch of other international awards, so it is not all that surprising to see it emerge triumphant at the Oscars as well and, after seeing it for myself, I cannot say I was displeased by that fact. In short, the film is a veritable masterpiece: brilliantly-made and utterly fascinating, albeit making for typically demanding viewing (particularly during its latter stages). As can be gleaned from the title, the plot revolves around a crime (actually, the murder of his mistress) committed by a highly-respected public official: ironically, the culprit is none other than the exiting Chief of the Homicide Squad (Gian Maria Volonte' who is on fire throughout as the megalomaniac protagonist) – on his way out to becoming the Head of Political Intelligence – and which, of course, he has the duty to investigate himself! This he does with complete confidence and not a little trickery (destroying and/or planting evidence, deviating the path of the investigation but at the same time admitting to his new superior of having known the victim, etc). His unusual relationship with the latter (sensuously played by Florinda Bolkan), then, is seen via intermittent flashbacks: she is a libertine (much is made of the fact that she possesses no underwear!), initially getting in touch with Volonte' almost in jest and, eventually, playing the willing murdered party(!) in re-enactments of crimes of passion solved by him throughout his illustrious career (of which he, unashamedly, also keeps photographic records). Other important figures to feature in the narrative are: Arturo Dominici (from Mario Bava's BLACK Sunday [1960]) as Volonte''s long-suffering successor; a young student radical who lives in the same apartment block as Bolkan and of whom Volonte' was jealous; and Salvo Randone (like the star, a Petri regular) as a confused old man to whom the pompous anti-hero actually confesses his guilt in the matter and bullies into turning him over to the Police…but the latter, naturally, is shocked to see him lording it at the Homicide bureau! For all the social and political relevance of Petri and frequent collaborator Ugo Pirro's Oscar-nominated script – culminating in a delicious double ending (Volonte''s quasi-surreal exoneration by his colleagues, after he professes to have committed the ultimate sacrifice for the good of Established Law & Order, is revealed to have been mere wish-fulfillment on his part…with the true development of the facts cleverly left to the audience members' own judgment) – the element which has perhaps been mainly responsible for securing the film its longevity is Ennio Morricone's celebrated bizarre (i.e. half-urgent, half-playful) score which definitely ranks among his finest works, and that's saying a lot!