Fists in the Pocket

Tormented by twisted desires, a young man takes drastic measures to rid his grotesquely dysfunctional family of its various afflictions, in this astonishing 1965 debut from Marco Bellocchio. With its coolly assured style, shocking perversity, and savage gallows humor, Fists in the Pocket (I pugni in tasca) was a gleaming ice pick in the eye of bourgeois family values and Catholic morality, a truly unique work that continues to rank as one of the great achievements of Italian cinema.

Italy
1965
108 minutes
Black & White
1.85:1
Italian
Spine #333

Special Features

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

On the DVD: Restored high-definition digital transfer
On the Blu-ray: New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Marco Bellocchio, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Interviews from 2005 with Bellocchio, actors Lou Castel and Paola Pitagora, editor Silvano Agosti, critic Tullio Kezich, and filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci
New interview with scholar Stefano Albertini (Blu-ray only)
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film critic Deborah Young and (with the DVD) an interview with Bellocchio

Cover by Neil Kellerhouse and Peter Grant

Blu-Ray 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

DVD 1 Disc $23.96 SRP: $29.95

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Special Features

On the DVD: Restored high-definition digital transfer
On the Blu-ray: New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Marco Bellocchio, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Interviews from 2005 with Bellocchio, actors Lou Castel and Paola Pitagora, editor Silvano Agosti, critic Tullio Kezich, and filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci
New interview with scholar Stefano Albertini (Blu-ray only)
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film critic Deborah Young and (with the DVD) an interview with Bellocchio

Cover by Neil Kellerhouse and Peter Grant

Cast & Credits

Cast

Lou Castel: Alessandro
Paola Pitagora: Giulia
Marino Masé: Augusto
Liliana Gerace: Mother
Pierluigi Troglio: Leone
Jenny MacNeil: Lucia

Credits

Director: Marco Bellocchio
Written by: Marco Bellocchio
Produced by: Enzo Doria
Production manager: Ugo Novello
Cinematography: Alberto Marrama
Music by: Ennio Morricone
Art direction: Gisella Longo
Edited by: Silvano Agosti
Dubbing director: Elda Tattoli
Assistant editor: Anita Cacciolati
Sound: Vittorio De Sisti
Camera operator: Giuseppe Lanci
Assistant camera operator: Alberto Rosa

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From The Current

A Howl of Defiance from the Italian Sixties

Marco Bellocchio’s subversive debut feature, Fists in the Pocket, emerged out of a period of social unrest, taking aim at both bourgeois values and Catholic hypocrisy.

Sneak Peeks — Sep 3, 2019

Fists in the Pocket: Ripped to Shreds

Made in 1965 and still considered by many to be Marco Bellocchio’s masterpiece, Fists in the Pocket foreshadows the years of student protest in a family tragedy bordering on horror.

By Deborah Young

Essays — Apr 25, 2006

Marco Bellocchio’s Closet Picks

The celebrated Italian auteur stopped by our closet last year while in town to present his new mafia epic, The Traitor.

Closet Picks — Feb 10, 2020

Repertory Picks

A Pair of Perverse Shockers, Newly Restored

If you’re in the mood for some auteurist horror, be sure to catch Marco Bellocchio’s Fists in the Pocket and Brian De Palma’s Sisters in New York this week.

In Theaters — Oct 11, 2018

Atom Egoyan’s Top 10

Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan has directed fourteen features.

— Jan 28, 2015

Performances

Mad Man: Lou Castel in Fists in the Pocket

Fists in the Pocket, a gasp-inducing, mouth-frothing, black-comic attack on bourgeois values, is remembered first and foremost as a shocking debut from director Marco Bellocchio. But it gave its star, Lou Castel, a memorable entrance of his own: h…

By Michael Koresky

Features — Apr 13, 2012

Singing Morricone’s Praises

The eighty-one-year-old Ennio Morricone has been composing hypnotic music for film since the early 1960s, for projects ranging from spaghetti westerns (his whistling, woodwindy five-note theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of the most rec…

Short Takes — Oct 23, 2009

Explore

Ennio Morricone

Composer

After making a name for himself scoring spaghetti westerns, Ennio Morricone went on to work with some of the most renowned European and Hollywood moviemakers of all time in a career that has spanned five decades. The maestro was born in Rome and educated in trumpet and choral music at Italy’s National Academy of Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, during World War II. Early in his career, he wrote background music for radio dramas, composed classical pieces, and performed in jazz bands, but it was his sixties movie scores for Sergio Leone—specifically his now ubiquitous woodwindy wah-wah for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly—that put him on the international map. Thanks to the iconic themes from these films, Morricone would be commissioned to write music for more than forty other westerns, but he would also work with such filmmakers as Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket), Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salò), and, when he began scoring American films, Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven), Samuel Fuller (White Dog), Brian De Palma (The Untouchables), and John Carpenter (The Thing). Moving easily between B movies and prestige films, adventure and romance, Morricone has remained one of cinema’s most adventurous, active, and versatile composers.