Elio Petri

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

The provocative Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s most internationally acclaimed work is this remarkable, visceral, Oscar-winning thriller. Petri maintains a tricky balance between absurdity and realism in telling the Kafkaesque tale of a Roman police inspector (a commanding Gian Maria Volontè) investigating a heinous crime—which he himself committed. Both a compelling character study and a disturbing commentary on the draconian government crackdowns in Italy in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Petri’s kinetic portrait of surreal bureaucracy is a perversely pleasurable rendering of controlled chaos.

Film Info

  • Italy
  • 1970
  • 115 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Italian
  • Spine #682

Special Features

  • New 4K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Archival interview with director Elio Petri, conducted by critic and filmmaker Alexandre Astruc
  • Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker (2005), a ninety-minute documentary on the director’s career, featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and filmmakers
  • New interview with film scholar Camilla Zamboni
  • Investigation of a Citizen Named Volontè (2008), a fifty-minute documentary about actor Gian Maria Volontè
  • Music in His Blood, an interview with composer Ennio Morricone from 2010, conducted by film critic Fabio Ferzetti
  • Trailers
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Evan Calder Williams and excerpts from a 2001 book by screenwriter Ugo Pirro

    New cover by Fred Davis

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 4K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Archival interview with director Elio Petri, conducted by critic and filmmaker Alexandre Astruc
  • Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker (2005), a ninety-minute documentary on the director’s career, featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and filmmakers
  • New interview with film scholar Camilla Zamboni
  • Investigation of a Citizen Named Volontè (2008), a fifty-minute documentary about actor Gian Maria Volontè
  • Music in His Blood, an interview with composer Ennio Morricone from 2010, conducted by film critic Fabio Ferzetti
  • Trailers
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Evan Calder Williams and excerpts from a 2001 book by screenwriter Ugo Pirro

    New cover by Fred Davis
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Cast
Gian Maria Volontè
Chief Inspector
Florinda Bolkan
Augusta Terzi
Gianni Santuccio
Police commissioner
Orazio Orlando
Sergeant Biglia
Sergio Tramonti
Antonio Pace
Arturo Dominici
Mangani
Aldo Rendine
Nicola Panunzio
Massimo Foschi
Augusta’s husband
Aleka Paizi
Chief inspector’s maid
Vittorio Duse
Canes
Salvo Randone
Plumber
Fulvio Grimaldi
Patanè, the journalist
Pino Patti
Head of wiretapping
Credits
Director
Elio Petri
Writers
Ugo Pirro
Writers
Elio Petri
Producers
Marina Cicogna
Producers
Daniele Senatore
Director of photography
Luigi Kuveiller
Editor
Ruggero Mastroianni
Production design
Romano Cardarelli
Art director
Carlo Egidi
Music
Ennio Morricone
Costumes
Angela Sammaciccia

Current

A Classic Ennio Morricone Score
A Classic Ennio Morricone Score
Ennio Morricone is known the world over for his instantly identifiable scores in such films as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Once upon a Time in the West; and The Mission. He has composed hundreds of others, however, and among his most famous them…
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: The Long Harm of the Law
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: The Long Harm of the Law

This scathing drama about a toxic society established Elio Petri as an important director of popular political entertainment in Italy.

By Evan Calder Williams