on elio petri

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ArticlesThe Director Who Must (Not?) Be Forgotten

The great political dilemmaof our time is that we that is, those of us who aspire to some fun-damental democratic transformation of socialrelationships in contemporary societies live inthe backwash of earlier political upheavals. Thisis true throughout the western industrial-capi-talist countries. More specifically, social move-ments and political protests germinated afterh d ld d h l i d i

The Director Who Must

(Not?) Be Forgotten:Elio Petri and the Legacy ofItalian Political Cinema, Part 1

By Larry Portis

Keywords:Elio Petri, Italiancinema, political cinema, neo-

realism, post-fascism, class,pop art, the 1960s

There could be no consensual papering-over of the recentpast, as there was in France.

BelowTo Each What HeDeserves (A ciascuno il suo)


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examples of pseudo-revolutionary activism inthe late 1960s and early 1970s that continue tobe markers structuring political perceptions. Theevolution of political film-making is part of thishistory and the little-remembered Elio Petri isits most important director. Petri fused politicalanalysis and film art more successfully and com-

prehensively than any director before or after.Somebody had to do it. What I mean is that

Petris accomplishments emerged naturally outof social conditions and political preoccupa-tions. There is no need to assert that the manwas mysteriously imbued with special gifts inaccordance with some romantic conception ofartistic genius.

Here is an overall assessment of Petris work,made after an intense recent viewing andreviewing of it at the Mediterranean Film Fes-

tival in Montpellier, France.1Elio Petri, I say onthis publications website, is arguably the bestof Italian political filmmakers (Portis 2009).Petri, spawned by the post-war wave of Ital-ian neo-realism (he was Guiseppe De Santissdirecting assistant), made and released his firstfeature film in 1961: The Murderer/Il Assasinostar-ring Marcello Mastroianni. Over the next twentyyears, he made a dozen films that startled crit-ics and the public alike. In films like The TenthVictim/La decima vittima(1965), We Still Kill TheSame Way2/A ciascuno il suo(1967), Investigation ofa Citizen Beyond Suspicion/Indagine su un cittadinol di di i ( ) h ki l

Heaven/La classe operaia va in paradiso(1971) andTodo modo(1976) he combined social criticismand political commitment with an exploration ofexistential subjectivities in individuals. In otherwords, he tended to go beyond political denunci-ation and psychological studies by showing thatwe cannot understand one dimension of reality

without showing how different dimensions areinterrelated. In doing this, he was consideredthe equal, at the very least, of Federico Fellini,Marco Bellocchio, Bernardo Bertolucci, Michelan-gelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini and the otherprominent directors of his day. But during therather sectarian years of political contestationnot everyone understood his accomplishment.Or perhaps some understood all-too-well. By theend of the 1970s times were changing, and thenPetri suddenly died in 1982 at the age of 52.

Well, so much hyperbole must be justified.More importantly, it must be explained. It mustbe done both in terms of what Petri did and ofhow specific historical conditions contributedto the genesis of his work.

During the early post-war period, the case ofItaly is exceptional. Italy was unique in experi-encing two periods of dramatic political changewithin the first thirty years following the defeatof fascism. No other European country was liber-ated, or liberated itself to the same extent frommore than twenty years of fascist political domi-nation. Only the situation in France was compara-bl lib i f f f i

BelowThe Assassin

Petri fused political analysis and film art more successfully[] than any director before or after.


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occupation, proved to be more quickly manage-able than Italys. Of course the CIA intervened inthe political affairs of both countries in order tomarginalize their Communist Parties and containradical tendencies. In Italy, however, the result of

twenty years of political frustration born of sup-pressed social aspirations and conflicts producedan exceptional wellspring of commitment andidealism. Neo-realism in the Italian cinema wasthe powerful fruit of these frustrations.

The second period of political effervescencein Italy occurred during the 1960s and 1970s,although it might be more accurate to say thatthis period was the logical continuation of thefirst. During both periods, the Italian politi-cal scene was more volatile than elsewhere

because progressive and reactionary forcesalike realized the struggle remained critical. Ageneration passed under fascist governmentsimultaneously produced deeply rooted fas-cist sentiments on the Right, and long-lastingfear and hatred on the Left. There could be noconsensual papering-over of the recent past, asthere was in France.

Neo-realism is more accurately understoodas a will to infuse political struggle into Italianfilm. Roberto Rosselinis Rome, Open City/Roma citt

aperta(1945) and Pais(1946) announced not somuch social realism as cinematographic interven-tion in political debate. Other films, those thatseem to fit more conveniently into the category ofsocial realism (such as Vittorio De Sicas unavoid-able Bicycle Thieves/Ladri di biciclette(1948)) mightbe better understood as a highly normative, politi-cally coded depiction of the structural dysfunc-tion of capitalist society. The depictions of chronicunemployment and the injustice and despair itengenders are calculated efforts to incite ani-

mosity towards the system of social relationsand its institutional framework. Alternatively, wecan understand these political films of Roselliniand De Sica as being inspired by the immediatecontext of fascisms demise and the exhilarationof liberated social and political discourse. Butwhether born of momentary enthusiasm, politicalopportunism or ideological commitment, suchfilms are political interventions.

Who was Elio Petri?He is of the first generation of post-fascistfil k i i h d

accommodate his ideas to the realities of thefascist regime as did, for example, Rosselliniand De Sica, born respectively in 1906 and 1901.More importantly, this major film-maker hada singular destiny, one linked in a remarkable

way to the political and cultural contradictionsof Italian society during the post-war period.Petris father was an artisan metal worker whomet Elios mother when she worked as a wait-ress in her fathers milk bar.

Given these social origins, Petri was perhapslucky to have been an only child. As such, hewas sent to a good, Catholic school where hisclassmates were from the privileged classes.There he received the beginnings of a classi-cal education. But his formal education ended

early, his adolescence coinciding with the warand the fall of the fascist regime. In 1944, at theage of 15, he began to read Marx and became afilm buff. In the maelstrom of the liberation ofItaly he joined the Communist Party and wroteabout the cinema for its newspaper, LUnit. In1950, he began to work for Giuseppe De Santis,becoming his first assistant. Thus began a longapprenticeship with this major director of theneo-realist school. It was both a practical andintellectual education. It made Petri a cultivated

intellectual, but one who never received univer-sity instruction.

Petris social origins are of primary impor-tance in any attempt to understand his films.Politically, his parents had a great and complexinfluence over their son. Petri described hisfather as a fervent support of Soviet Commu-nism and his mother as a fervent Catholic. Amajor influence over the child was his paternalgrandmother, a strong-minded woman whohated fascism with a passion. What are the

implications of this proletarian childhood? Firstit means Petris social origins differed signifi-cantly from those of other prominent Italiandirectors known for their neo-realist or politi-cal films.

Petri was bound to be a social misfit and thusbeset by a kind of cognitive dissonance in rela-tion to his peers in the profession. Thanks to thissituation, he was relatively immune to the kindof appropriated leftism that distinguished thequasi-majority of his colleagues. His familiar-ity with the world of the working class alloweda critical distance, a capacity not to accept

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distance tended to make him enigmatic to otherintellectuals and artists. His exposure to, orrather the necessity of interacting with differ-ent social milieus on a practical, existential basislent him subtlety in dealing with questions of

interests and values, of idealism and politics.

Petri in relation to hisfellow directors

Social class perspectives weigh heavily inattempts to represent society in any medium ofexpression. It is important, therefore, to brieflylook at those who might be compared to Petri.

Only Vittorio De Sica (190174) can be consid-

ered as having had a social background similarto Petris. But De Sicas social origins are merelya relativeexception to the rule. Born into alower middle-class family, De Sica was obligedto seek (white-collar) employment, but never-theless had the leisure to take acting classes asan adolescent. He embarked quickly on a theat-rical career and became a major film star duringthe fascist era. The fall of Mussolini enabled hischange of artistic direction.

If the career of De Sica was that of a petty

bourgeois who overcame significant obstaclesin the struggle to express his social convictionscinematographically, this was not the case ofthe other great figure at the origins of neo-real-ist cinema: Roberto Rossellini (190677). Rossel-lini benefited from his father, who built the firstcinema in Rome. Wealth and privileged contactswiththe film industry, and with the fascistregime, facilitated his career as a director. From1937 until the fall of Mussolini he had successafter success. There are those who claim that

Robertos friendship with Vittorio Mussolini, sonof the Duce, helped in this regard.

Another director whose career began dur-ing the fascist years is Mario Monicelli (born1915). Son of the journalist Tomaso Monicelli, heentered the profession thanks to a friend whosefather was given the responsibility, by BenitoMussolini, for the construction of the film stu-dios at Tirrenia. Monicellis social milieu and thepolitical context reigning during his formativeyears may bear a relation to his propensity forthe comic.

Two other directors of great importance dur-i h i f li i

are Michelangelo Antonioni (19122007) andPier Paolo Pasolini (192275). Antonioni, sonof wealthy landowners, made films centredon existential dilemmas in which individualswere faced with making decisions in situations

over which they had very limited control. Inthis sense, Antonionis films can be consideredsocial, but there is a careful, or perhaps con-ditioned, avoidance of any assertion of politicalconviction or will. It is perhaps to Antonioniscredit that he never attempted to depict thelives of the poor and downtrodden. His bestfilms, at least from a sociological or politicalpoint of view, feature the well-to-do profes-sional classes, those of an intellectual or artisticsensibility, in the throes of personal confusion

and inter-personal tension. As for Pasolini, sonof a career military officer who won fame bysaving Mussolinis life, the tensions created byhis immediate social and family environment inrelation to his artistic and literary predilectionsled first to acceptance of fascist ideas and thento an about face towards the end of Mussolinisdictatorship. Like so many other young peopleof the time, he was drawn towards the ItalianCommunist Party as much of the populationjoined the resistance movement.

Significantly, Petris mentor Giuseppe DeSantis (191777) was not compromised. Hiscommunist sympathies and his active resis-tance during the Second World War could notbe tainted by any suspicion of opportunism. ButDe Santis, too, was relatively privileged socially;he was a student of philosophy and literatureat the University of Rome who was drawn intofilm studies. He was influenced by Cesar Zavat-tini, and then worked as a journalist for Cinemamagazine. What distinguishes De Santis is the

depth of his anti-capitalist political commit-ment.

Federico Fellini (192093), whose parents weresmall property owners and worked in com-mercial pursuits, is of the same generation asDe Santis and also was a major contributor toneo-realism. La Strada(1954) and The Nights ofCabiria/Le notti di Cabiria(1957) are importantevents in the movement. However, Fellini wasnot preoccupied by political or philosophicalquestions in spite of the fact that his work isdecidedly progressive.

Another outstanding director of this genera-i i i i (b i ) h h


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closest to Petri given the importance of politi-cal themes in his work (see Red Shirts/Camicierosse(1952), The Challenge/La sfida(1958) and TheMattei Affair/Il Caso Mattei(1972), although theprominence of political themes lessened as his

career progressed. Rosi was a law student atuniversity before beginning his work in cin-ema as an assistant to the aristocrat LuchinoVisconti. In Petris age cohort, there is EttoreScola (born in 1931) who has made films with apolitical backdrop, but without making politicalissues the central theme.

The turn towards contemporary politicalfilm-making peaks, in fact, with Petri although,throughout the 1960s a new generation ofpeople, generally younger than him, came to

prominence including most prominently MarcoBellocchio and Bernardo Bertolucci.

Born in 1939 into a bourgeois family. Bel-locchio was a university philosophy studentbefore working in cinema. Bernardo Bertolucci,born in 1940, was the son of a prominent intel-lectual (Attila Bertolucci), poet, art historian,anthologist and film critic. Being the eldest sonof such a man probably had something to dowith the fact that Bernardo Bertolucci becamea published author at a quite young age. He

received the prestigious Premio Viareggio forhis first book, among other such prizes dur-ing the same period. It is relevant to knowthat Attila Bertolucci was instrumental in thepublication of Pier Paolo Pasolinis first novel,and that Pasolini then hired the younger Berto-lucci as his first assistant in the filming of theformersAccattone(1961). Bertolucci also wassupported by his brother Giuseppe Bertolucci(born in 1947), theatre director and playwright,and by his cousin, Giovanni Bertolucci (1940

2005), a film producer with whom Bernardofrequently worked.

All of this is not to say that Bertolucci andthe others lacked merit, on the contrary. Butthose born into a social and professional milieucorresponding to their aptitudes enjoy advan-tages that those, like Petri, do not have andwhich almost excludes them from opportuni-ties to develop their potential. There is nothingsurprising in the fact that political film-makingis generally not done by people of proletarianorigins; what is singular is that someone of thistype actually did it and had commercial successi d i i

Related to his social origins, Petris practicalorientation is also notable. He recognized that, inspite of his facility as a writer (as attests his earlyexperience as a journalist and critic), he did notapproach scriptwriting from a literary standpoint

but rather from a sociological perspective:

I never considered myself to be a literary person.At the best, I could have become a sociologist, orperhaps a psychiatrist, or even a zoologist, butnever a literary person even if I have no problemwith narrative writing. Basically, Im more inter-ested in general ideas than in aesthetics. Today,in my opinion, to choose the cinema as a modeof expression means to choose general ideasover aesthetic considerations. (Gili 1974: 29)

Although it would be unreasonable to say thatPetri was devoid of social ambitions, it can beargued that no desire to rise above his condi-tion compromised Petris political convictionsby moderating the critical force of his represen-tations of social and political realities. Clearly,the political atmosphere was an advantage inthis regard. But whereas this atmosphere, theresult of the specific conjuncture of circum-stances, obliged his peers to politicize their

aesthetic inclinations, Petri can be said to havetaken advantage of these conditions to go beyondsimple representation in posing the most funda-mental questions implicit in neo-realist or leftistpolitical perspectives. This is what distinguishedhis films from those of his contemporaries, andthose on or touching upon political questionssince his death almost three decades ago.

Career: The first phase

Elio Petri was 24 years old when he made hisfirst film. Nasce un campione/Birth of a Champion(1954) is a short film about a cyclist; it considersthe activity of cycling as representative of popu-lar culture and the film certainly falls into thecategory of neo-realism. His second film, also ashort, is I sette contadini/The Seven Farmers(1957),a film made under the influence of the eventsin Hungary in 1956. He later affirmed that hisobjective in making the film was to show thathis political convictions remained intact inspite of his break with the Italian CommunistParty because of the Soviet Unions interventioni i ff i d i h


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Petris first feature film, The Lady Killer of Rome/Lassassino(1961), stars Marcello Mastroianni.The story of a young antique dealer accusedof the murder of his mistress and financialbenefactress, The Lady Killerof Romerisks being

viewed today as a rather obscure depiction ofexistential alienation,3along the lines of AlbertCamuss The Stranger/Ltranger(1942, made intoa film by Visconti in 1967). The film is a strongpolitical statement, but one lost to succeedinggenerations because perceptions of institutionsand political agency have changed.

Here is the problem. The character played byMastroianni is subtly revealed to be of work-ing-class origins, in spite of the elegance of hisappearance and manners. The very fact of being

an antique dealer, an unusual professional occu-pation for such a person, renders him suspi-cious, and not only to the authorities. It reveals apsychic, emotional insecurity that exudes a kindof existential guilt intrinsic to his character.

This is one of those films where, it appears,nothing much happens, somewhat as in Anto-nionis Lavventura(1960). With such a film, thespectator can be lost in a flow of subjectivity.What is real? How to escape the viscosity ofalienated existence (as Jean-Paul Sartre asks in

Nausea/La Nause(1938))? In reality, however,the film was a commentary on social and politi-cal conditions in Italy. In fact, Petri explains thatthis was a post-Antonionian film in that it wasabout the inability of the character to commu-nicate. But Petri intended to go beyond a merestatement of this condition in order to revealhow social class relations are central to theexercise of institutionalized authority.

The film is not simply about the characterof the presumed murderer played by Mastroi-

anni; it is ultimately, but only in part, about thespecific character formation of someone whocommits suicide, which in a Catholic coun-try is a profoundly incomprehensible act, ataboo. It is also about the mental formation ofa working-class person on the make, someonewho attempts to present himself as someoneelse, someone belonging to another social class.The psychic consequences of such confusion ofsocial identities are a political subject in all late-capitalist societies. Equally, the film is about lawenforcement, revealed in the film to be politi-cal in the most profound sense. The mainte-

f i l d k d

objective assessment of responsibility. Mas-troianni is not the murderer, but because of hissocial aspirations and the stratagems he usesto achieve them, he is guilty, and he knows it,or at least feels it. In Petris words, Mastroianni

is guilty of being inhuman, of being completelydehumanized, of accepting this process ofdehumanization and of seeing human rela-tions as relations between his subjective needsand other people. The others are objects that hesimply uses for his own purposes (Gili 1974: 30).In addition, once Mastroianni is suspected bythe police of having committed a murder he is,of course, guilty until proven innocent, a (pre-)judgment that is institutionalized in countriesthat have not incorporated habeas corpusand

other peculiarities of English legal traditions.In the end, Mastroianni is cleared of any sus-

picion in the crime, mainly because the mur-derer commits suicide. But the police are shownto be cynical about finding the real culprit. Theymention that Mastroiannis family had includedanarchists and anti-fascists, this is a fact toconsider. What they want is a guilty person andso their job is to construct guilt, not to detect it.In doing so, the police are shown to be activelywilling to overlook fraud and deceit. Mas-

troiannis antique dealings are revealed to belarcenous, but at the end of the film the policecommissioner says that Mastroianni is a goodboy (in the sense of being honest and sensible).This paternalistic judgment is a self-satisfiedreflection on the necessity of maintaining thesocial and political status quo at the expenseof social ideals and political convictions. Peoplelike Mastroiannis character are not dangerousto the social order.

In 1973, Petri revealed that he was obliged to

make 90 cuts in the dialogue of The Lady Killerof Rome. Moreover, he employed an actor to playthe police commissioner (Salvo Randone) whospoke with a strong Sicilian accent. Becausethe association of Sicilians (that is, the Mafia)with the representation of the police in Romewas considered (by the producers and others)as being an unacceptable charge of institutionalcorruption, Petri was compelled to dub this keyactor; otherwise the film would not be released.

Yet another remarkable dimension of thisfilm is the depiction of its feminine charac-ters. There are three feminine roles in the film:h d d i ( l d b i h li


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Presle), Mastroiannis fiance, and Mastroiannismother. For Petri, all these women are victims, acondition in which they are voluntarily com-plicit because, having remained bound by apsychological vicious circle, they defend mas-

culine privileges. For him, women were the firstslaves of human kind and even in bourgeoissociety, he affirms, women are at the bot-tom of social pyramid that crushes them. Thereproductive function of women has, he says,become historical, and thus lends itself to thereproduction of social and psychic models. Theliberation of women cannot, therefore, be disso-ciated with liberation, period (Gili 1974: 30).

Capitalist social relations are also the sub-ject of Petris second feature film, Numbered

Days/I giorni contati(1962). Here the focus is onwork and labour. The story is about an age-ing plumber (played by Salvo Randone) whowitnesses the death of a man of his age ridingon the same bus. Suddenly, he realizes howtenuous life is; working day after day meansnot being able to explore existence. He beganworking at his trade when he was 12 years old,and now he is 52. Shocked into perceiving hisenvironment differently, scenes familiar tohim now seem frightening political demon-

strations, burning garbage at housing projects,horses being taken to the slaughterhouse. Hefirmly decides to stop working.

But beginning a new type of existence, onewithout work, is not so easy for a man who hasdone nothing but work for almost his whole life.Alienated to the point where existence seemswithout meaning, the ex-plumber does not knowwhat to do or even whether he has the will todo anything. He returns to the country home inwhich he was raised, but learns that surviving in

the country would mean a new kind of drudgeryand social isolation. He explores a relationshipwith a young female neighbour, but learns thatthe difference in age involves forced representa-tion and a new realm of (sexual) desperation. Hegoes to see a prostitute, and discovers that hisplumbing is somehow dysfunctional. Needingmoney, he lends himself to an insurance scamthat requires letting his arm being broken, butat the last minute backs out, deciding that easymoney is perhaps not so easy after all. Finally, hegoes back to work, to a work that has sapped hisvitality, one that has kept him from living. The

bl i h li d k i f

of cultural isolation, the non-communicabilitynecessary for economic exploitation and politi-cal control. Working in capitalist society leads toa spiritual death preceding physical death, theultimate reward for having sacrificed ones selffor the capitalist system.

For Petri, Numbered Days is not a neo-realistor social realist film because it is not so muchabout a particular situation but rather aboutwork itself. For him, it is a political film thatcalls into question the nature of work by invok-ing existential realities of time and death. Allother aspects of existence sex, love, friend-ship, self-identity are fatally conditioned byinevitable realities. Work is a temporary meansof either avoiding confrontation with existentialrealities that determine individual (and collec-

tive) being or of coming to grips with it.It significant that Petri was inspired to make

this film because, as he explained, his ownfather decided to stop working at the age of 50.He simply could not continue to do the samething that had filled, perhaps devoured, hisexistence for almost his entire life. Petri wasnot, therefore, applying mechanically someMarxist dictum concerning the alienationof work. In fact, his father and the plumberin Numbered Dayswere artisans, not factoryworkers. Artisans are workers who control theproductive process, who master the machinery

d h i l kill h i d

BelowSalvo Randone, at right, inNumbered Days (I giorni contati)

Working in capitalist society

leads to a spiritual deathpreceding physical death


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specialists, too, are subject to the deadening ofperception and the loss of vitality characteristicof a system that is cultural and social as muchas it is economic and commercial. The ultimateoppression is spiritual, and that means emo-tional and philosophical deprivation. Even theprivileged workers are victims of capitalist socialrelations. This is the most profound meaning of

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Work, art, and human fulfilment may seemto be difficult subjects for popular films. But, forPetri, films should not be made exclusively foreither elites or the people. For him, a politi-cal film is not one that proclaims slogans forspectators who need confirmation of what theyalready think; if people who do not share theslogans are exposed to them, the effect on theirid l ill b il l li i l i i f h

BelowPosters from To Each WhatHe Deserves (A ciascuno il suo)

[Petris] father decided to stop working at the age of 50. Hesimply could not continue


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greatest number of people and should engagethem on every level to think more deeply aboutsomething that is important to their lives.Political cinema is not a matter of partisanpolitics, but rather of helping people to develop

a more completely critical understanding ofthe society in which they live. Numbered Daysisa story about ordinary life situations and it issimply designed to provoke reflection in peoplewho work.

By the mid-1960s, Petris talent was gener-ally recognized and he was able to extend hisefforts to inspire critical, political conscious-ness in a large public. In the early 1960s, afterhaving read a science-fiction short story byRobert Sheckley (The Seventh Victim (1953))

and visited the United States, he decided tomake a film focused on US society and culture.However, the script he wrote for The Tenth Victim(1965) was ambitious both in terms of its criticalcontent and its potential production costs. Aftermuch rewriting and uncertainty, the projectwas finally picked up by producers Carlo Pontiand Joseph Levine, and then Pontis hesitationsfurther delayed the project.

Years after the realization of the film, Petrimused that he never understood why Pontiassociated himself with it. Probably, he said, itwas because Ponti knew Petri could get Marcello

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film in English starring Mastroianni and UrsulaAndress had box-office potential in the mid-1960s. But had Petri suddenly gone commercial,abandoning his convictions? Hardly. With thisfilm, Petri threw himself into a kind of cunning

subversion using the forms of popular art andcinema to call into question state and society.

Ostensibly, The Tenth Victimis a spoof of thehighly popular James Bond films in which theaction is projected into the early twenty-firstcentury. Extensive use of contemporary popu-lar music (including jazz), the new pop art andthe latest technology allows us to anticipate ahighly recognizable future. But all this, like theuse of special effects, masks the real changesthat have occurred in society and culture,

changes that are the simple development ofcurrent tendencies.

Here is the story. In this future society, televi-sion has assumed such enormous importancethat it is used to modify the behaviour of citizensand give them a necessary sense of security. Oneof the prime vectors of this collective behav-ioural therapy is the popular TV show called TheBig Hunt. As it is announced at the beginningof the film, violence in society will be overcomebecause The twenty-first century will be the one

of legalized violence. The Big Hunt is a safetyvalve, a spectator sport that siphons off violentimpulses into vicarious viewing as individualplayers accept to track and kill their opponentson film for the benefit of the viewing public.

The rules are that killing should be restrictedto the players, who have been fully informedabout each other. The goal for an individualhunter is to eliminate ten others; killing thetenth victim wins the grand prize and, ofcourse, corresponding fame. We can imagine

the TV ratings obtained by pitting beautifulpeople like Andress and Mastroianni againsteach other. Significantly, the Big Hunt is regu-lated by the governments Big Hunt Ministry,because only the Big Hunt can give the world asense of security. The propaganda services ofthe ministry exhort the population: Do awaywith the terrible war of the masses, and join theBig Hunt. Another public announcement pro-claims: Why have birth control, when you canhave death control?

Due to budget restrictions, Petri was obligedto shoot the film in Rome, and not in the United

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BelowTo Each What HeDeserves (A ciascuno il suo)

The twenty-first centurywill be the one of legalizedviolence.


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angst and its expression in a troubled amorousrelation, uses the convention to reveal how suchegoistic or solipsistic concerns can be manipu-lated in the pursuit of more cynical objectives.

Gian Maria Volonte is the main protagonistas a lonely, leftist professor who takes it uponhimself to investigate the murder of a friend.In doing so he falls in love with the murderedfriends widow. His investigation uncovers anetwork of highly placed conspirators; but

what could be more natural in Sicily, where theMafia reaches into every corner of social exis-tence politics, the Church, business and evenlove affairs. From this point of view, the Mafia isjust a highly specific, and particularly colourful,regional organization of political and social con-trol. Volontes obstinate investigation is used bythe spinners of this web of crime and corruptionas an opportune element of the crime itself. Onlyminutes before he falls victim to the authors ofthe original murder (he is professionally kid-

napped and then blown to bits), he learns thatthe object of his amorous infatuation is a centralfigure in the criminal conspiracy.

So what is the point? Is this a pessimistic takeon the difficulty of combating the evil of theMafia, a sort of precursor of Francis Ford Coppo-las fatalistic The Godfather(1972)? Hardly. First,Petri was most interested in showing how theSicilian Mafia is, indeed, an essentially regionalform of social and political oppression, equiva-lent to what fascism is on a national level. Sec-ond, his intent was to reveal the lack of realismof Volontes character, a leftist professor. Not

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lawyer implicated in the murder, he was carefulnot to speak to the police, who were, in fact, ledto suspect the professor. How to explain thisbehaviour? According to Petri, the professor wasan idealist incapable of grasping the systemicmechanisms of social and political control. Hewas incapable because of his attachment toideas and values necessary to his professionalidentity and typical of his social class, a charac-ter trait that may explain the failings of part of

the political Left in Italy, or elsewhere.In the end, this is a film about the Mafia, not

primarily as an organization preying upon thepopulation, but rather as a cultural syndromereaching into the mentality and, thusly, influ-encing the behaviour of almost every memberof the society. Petri later explained that the pro-fessors ability to understand the situation waslimited by the contradiction between his philo-sophical and moral idealism, on the one hand,and on the other hand by his assimilation of a

cultural disposition to follow the moral impera-tives of a gangster society, an unconsciouslyheld code of behaviour secreted by a particularsystem of domination and exploitation. In laterfilms, Petri will show, or at least suggest, howon a national level this system has merged withthat of the capitalist state.

The following year (1968) Petri madeA QuietPlace in the Country/Un tranquillo posto di campagnain which he focused on the artist. Ostensibly, thefilm is about a successful artist in the abstractexpressionist vein feeling the need to rechargehis batteries, so to speak, in the isolation of ab if l ld h i l i h

BelowThe Tenth Victim

Neo-realism is more accurately understood as a will toinfuse political struggle into Italian film.


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1960s, abstract expressionism had taken on thetrappings of the vogue for pop art. What hadbeen largely incomprehensible to the generalpublic during the early post-war period was nowincorporated into up-to-date commercial fashionand accepted as a component of enlightenedmodernity. And this is what interested Petri the political implications of an aesthetic trendexpressing social and cultural change.

Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave play thelead roles inA Quiet Place in the Country. Leon-

ardo (!) is the artist; Flavia is his companionand agent. During Neros sojourn in the coun-try house, we learn that the artists inspirationis based on a mastery of certain techniquesand on fantasies about reality. In order to gainfamiliarity with those involved in the produc-tion of pop art, Petri observed and filmed theUS artist Jim Dine in the act of painting. Whatinterested Petri were the expressive rhythmicgestures manifest by the artist at work. Accord-ing to Petri, these automatic, nervous gestureswere emotionally conditioned reflexes revealingthe relation between the artist and the objects

f hi i i f i i

was concerned, says Petri, it was as if he alwayswanted to appropriate objects and insert theminto his work; it was like a continual theft ofreality in a constant attempt to express some-thing. There was a terrible despair in this littlefilm. It was a kind of nervous narcissism, andthis is what Petri wanted to elucidate.

What we see in the film is the disintegrationof the artists personality as his lack of creativeinspiration, or should we say his inability tocreatively channel his fantasies, leads to psy-

chosis. The reasons for this mental breakdownare multiple, but let us say that the interplayof personal neuroses and social and culturalpathologies accentuate the rather vague ill-ness labelled schizophrenia. It is impossiblenot to think that Stanley Kubricks The Shining(1980) is a remake of this film. At any rate, Van-essa Redgrave was there to take things in handwhen her psychically unstable, but commer-cially viable artist was no longer able to func-tion without becoming a danger to himself andto others. Significantly, in the course of the filmLeonardo expressed hatred for advertising and,

l i hi i h hibi d

BelowOn the set ofA Quiet Place in the Country

It is impossible not to think that Stanley Kubricks TheShining (1980) is a remake of this film.


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desire to murder his beloved Flavia in the mostviolent and gory manner. But once internedin an expensive loony bin, the deranged popartist is encouraged by Vanessa/Flavia to paintsmall, easily marketable paintings on virtually

an assembly-line basis. As Flavia contentedlyobserved after filling her limousine with Leon-ardos paintings: He has never painted so well!

Petris melding of the individual psychologi-cal, the social and the cultural is as remarkableas that of Luis Buuel in The Discreet Charm of theBourgeoisie(1972) or The Obscure Object of Desire(1977). But beware, film viewer: this somewhatflippant review of the film fails to render its ana-lytical profundity and technical virtuosity. Analy-sis of this film, as for the others Petri made, must

go beyond such superficial comparisons.Petri said ofA Quiet Place in the Countrythat,

ultimately, he was motivated to say some-thing about art and the creative process in ourprocessed world where, as Marx said a cen-tury and a half ago, every thing melts into air.If, explained Petri, the abstract expressionistsand other pop artists may be seen as avant-garde and modern, they are only expressingalienation differently from previous genera-tions of artists. For him, the problem is that the

relationship between the painter and nature isstill romantic, it is still the return to nature,to simplicity, to pure food, to what still makeshumankind happy (Gili 1974: 6263). Whatthe pop artists seemingly do not understandis that this romantic vision of nature is only amyth, that reality is quite different. Problems ofalienation have always existed, but the soci-ety has changed and, consequently, the artisticexpression of alienation has changed. Pop art,no matter its appeal to popular sensibilities, is

the surface sign of profound anxieties that themastery over (and the destruction of) nature hasengendered in society and in the human psyche.

Released in 1968,A Quiet Place in the Coun-trycoincided with the beginning of a new eraof political activism in Italy and the rest of theworld. In the new context, Petris films garneredprizes and critical raves everywhere, even asthey became more critical of social and culturaldomination and more subversive of establishedauthority. Petri is, in fact, best known for his latefilms: Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion/Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni(1970), The

ki l / l i i

paradiso(1971), Property is No Longer Theft/La propri-et non pi un furta(1973) and Todo modo(1976).But when does such analysis become unaccept-able? This is the subject of the next instalment.4

Contributor details

Larry Portis is the author of a number ofbooks on history, culture and politics andoften writes about the cinema.

References

Gili, Jean A. (1974), Rencontre avec ElioPetri, in Jean A. Gili (ed.), Elio Petri, Nice:Facult des Lettres et Science Humaines,Section dHistoire.

Portis, Larry (2009), The Politics ofMediterranean Identity, Film International,http://www.filmint.nu/?q=node/181.

Endnotes

1 Over the years there have been a fewother retrospective viewings of Petris work:Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (May2001); Cinematheque Ontario (2002); CircoloItaliano di Boston and the Harvard Film

Archive at the Harvard Film Archive (June2003); Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland (June2005). The Montpellier retrospectivebenefited from the presence of Paola Petri,Elio Petris companion, of Jean Gili, filmcritic and friend of Petri, and of HenriTalvat, specialist on all aspects ofMediterranean cinema and who arrangedfor most of Petris films to be shown at thefestival in OctoberNovember 2009.

2 This English title is wholly inaccurate.A more literal translation would be: ToEach What He or She Deserves. The novelby Leonardo Sciascia, on which this filmwas based,A ciascuno il suo(1966), wastranslated as To Each His Own.

3 As the English title suggests, the film alsohas been understood as a sort of murdermystery.

4 Which we plan to publish in our fourth

issue of the year, Film International 46.(Editors note)


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