Todo Modo

Masterpiece of political cinema, considered as a cruel and ruthless 'je accuse' against the political class to the government in the 70s. The same Leonardo Sciascia, author of the novel that inspired Petri's movie, declared that this director realized as a movie that complaint with the DC carried out by the same Pasolini in the last years of his life. An interpretation, suggested by the same Petri in his interviews, is to see 'Todo-modo' as the representation of the nightmare of a Democrat politician (a representative of the highest governing party) in the 70s. The nightmare seen as a harbinger of imminent end of the Christian Democrats, not so much prefigured in the murder of Moro occurred two years after the release of this film, but rather in the collapse of the party took place with the occurrence of the scandal Tangentopoli of the early 90s. Petri, then, a visionary man? No, Petri was only an intellectual, a great film author who lived dramas of his time and Italy of his time, and by the lucid analysis of his works he tried to predict the fate; he tried to tell us in which direction Italy would go. Not to be missed.

"However, two years later, Moro was kidnapped and murdered by communist terrorists and the joke went stale." This is taken from the trivia about Todo modo. I don't think such a film can be described as a joke. However, the movie ain't stale, mister. Not at all. I saw it a few days ago (it was something of an event because obviously Italian TV does NOT show such films), and it was sort of a shock. Who cares about Moro and the DC? Moro died in 1978 and the Democrazia Cristiana does not exist anymore (though many politicians who belonged to that party are still in power today). But Italy is still like that. Todo modo is definitely not a realistic film. It's a claustrophobic nightmare, a deranged vision of the worst aspects of my country. But it's still true. It still applies. It ain't stale, not at all. Besides, it features three breath-taking performances by very different actors such as Ciccio Ingrassia (one of our greatest actors, unjustly underrated because of his success as a B-movie comedian), Gian Maria Volontè (one of the greatest actors ever, had he lived and worked in the USA he would be mentioned just everywhere) and Marcello Mastroianni (a famous actor I don't always like, but this is his best performance with his cynical role in La dolce vita). It's a real shame there's no DVD available. But then our prime minister is Silvio Berlusconi, we can't complain... this is what we deserve.