Mad Man: Lou Castel in Fists in the Pocket
By April 13, 2012
Film Info
- Italy
- 1965
- 108 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.85:1
- Italian
- Spine #333
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. Charged by a coolly assured style, shocking perversity, and savage gallows humor, Fists in the Pocket 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.
Cast
| Alessandro | Lou Castel |
| Giulia | Paola Pitagora |
| Augusto | Marino Masé |
| Mother | Liliana Gerace |
| Leone | Pierluigi Troglio |
| Lucia | Jenny MacNeil |
Credits
| Director | Marco Bellocchio |
| Screenplay | Marco Bellocchio |
| Producer | Enzo Doria |
| Cinematography | Alberto Marrama |
| Editing | Silvano Agosti |
| Music | Ennio Morricone |
| Production manager | Ugo Novello |
| Art direction | Gisella Longo |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- New video interviews with director Marco Bellocchio, actors Lou Castel and Paola Pitagora, editor Silvano Agosti, and critic Tullio Kezich
- Video afterword by director Bernardo Bertolucci
- Original theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Deborah Young and an interview with Bellocchio
New cover by Neil Kellerhouse and Peter Grant
Current Posts
Performances
Film Essays
Fists in the Pocket: Ripped to Shreds
By April 24, 2006
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. This seminal . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Fists in the Pocket: Ripped to Shreds
By April 24, 2006
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. This seminal . . . Read more »
Performances
News
Bellocchio Headed to Turin
July 22, 2010
It’s been announced that Italian director Marco Bellocchio, whose blistering 1965 family drama–cum–horror film Fists in the Pocket remains one of our favorite treasures in the Criterion . . . Read more »
Clippings
Singing Morricone’s Praises
October 23, 2009
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 . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Fists in the Pocket: Ripped to Shreds
By April 24, 2006
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. This seminal . . . Read more »
My Criterion
“A film that is a cross between french new wave and neorealism and is salient in Italian Cinema. ”
