1970 Italian crime drama
Rating: 16/20
Plot: A policeman commits a crime and tries to get away with it. Sort of.
1) The silent opening credits befuddled me, especially after I saw that Ennio Morricone did the music for this. Once that playful score hits, however, it makes the wait worth it. There's a repeated "boing" motif in the score that I thought was delightful.
2) More playfulness--the first line in this is "How are you going to kill me this time?" It really sets the mood for this one, a playful darkness.
3) Back to Morricone--I really want him to score my sex scenes if I'm ever in a situation where I will have sexual intercourse again.
4) There are a lot of visual references (and one reference in the dialogue) to the protagonist's socks being too short. I can identify!
5) So much of this leans on dramatic irony. It's a police procedural, in a way, but we know exactly who the criminal. References to a murderer who "wouldn't do that" or being "an idiot" work nearly every time because we watched the first 15 minutes of the movie. And the perfect irony near the end when a character says, "I confess to my innocence!" is just perfect. It's fresh on my mind, but it reminds me of the visual irony constructed at the end of The Executioner.
6) I made a note while watching this. "Montage of phone calls--man alive!" I have no idea what I'm referring to.
7) I tried my best to figure out how the theme of power works universally here. The main character is working to figure out if he's reached a point in his career where he can get away with this murder. I kept trying to connect that to the self, a person trying to excuse himself for his past metaphorical murders, but it didn't work. Besides, with the references to Stalin, Mussolini, Che Guevara, Trostsky, the "bureaucracy," and other political things, it seems this has more to do with politics than humanity in general. And maybe more to do with Italian politics than I would even have enough context to understand.
8) There are some jabs at America that I do understand, however. A few times, a character talks about crime or police investigations being "like in America" and there's an interrogation where a character is trying to do it more like they do it in America. There's also a machine/computer connected with America that makes it seem like Elio Petri is poking fun. Trump isn't going to care for that.
9) There are some cool visuals in this, mostly in the first third. One shot I liked had a picture on a wall in the background of some guys in turbans putting cats down a shirtless woman's pants. Somebody figure out what that is for me.
10) Man alive! I don't even say "Man alive!" ever. What the heck?
No comments:
Post a Comment