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Below To Each What He Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten Deserves (A ciascuno il suo) The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten: Elio Petri and the Legacy of Italian , Part 1

‘“Servant? I’m nobody’s servant!” Dirk Bogarde advances the proletarian position…’

The great political dilemma of our time is that we By Larry Portis – that is, those of us who aspire to some fun- damental democratic transformation of social Keywords: Elio Petri, Italian relationships in contemporary societies – live in cinema, political cinema, neo- the backwash of earlier political upheavals. This is true throughout the western industrial-capi- realism, post-fascism, class, talist countries. More speci!cally, social move- pop art, the 1960s ments and political protests germinated after the Second World War and then culminated in

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‘Petri fused political analysis and !lm art more successfully […] than any director before or after.’ examples of pseudo-revolutionary activism in classe operaia va in paradiso (1971) and the late 1960s and early 1970s that continue to (1976) he combined social criticism and political be markers structuring political perceptions. The commitment with an exploration of existential evolution of political !lm-making is part of this subjectivities in individuals. In other words, he history and the little-remembered Elio Petri is tended to go beyond political denunciation and its most important director. Petri fused political ‘psychological’ studies by showing that we can- analysis and !lm art more successfully and com- not understand one dimension of reality without prehensively than any director before or after. showing how different dimensions are interre- Somebody had to do it. What I mean is that lated. In doing this, he was considered the equal, Petri’s accomplishments emerged naturally out at the very least, of , Marco Belloc- of social conditions and political preoccupa- chio, , Michelangelo Anton- tions. There is no need to assert that the man ioni, and the other prominent was mysteriously imbued with special gifts in directors of his day. But during the rather sectar- accordance with some romantic conception of ian years of political contestation not everyone artistic genius. understood his accomplishment. Or perhaps Here is an overall assessment of Petri’s work, some understood all-too-well. By the end of the made after an intense recent viewing and 1970s times were changing, and then Petri sud- reviewing of it at the Mediterranean Film Festival denly died in 1982 at the age of 52. in Montpellier, France.1 Elio Petri, I say on this Well, so much hyperbole must be justi!ed. publication’s website, is ‘arguably the best of More importantly, it must be explained. It must Italian “political” !lmmakers’ (Portis 2009). Petri, be done both in terms of what Petri did and of spawned by the post-war wave of Italian neo- how speci!c historical conditions contributed realism (he was Guiseppe De Santis’s directing to the genesis of his work. assistant), made and released his !rst feature During the early post-war period, the case of !lm in 1961 (The Murderer/Il Assasino) starring is exceptional. Italy was unique in experi- . Over the next twenty encing two periods of dramatic political change years, he made a dozen !lms that startled critics within the !rst thirty years following the defeat and public alike. In !lms like The Tenth Victim/La of fascism. No other European country was liber- decima vittima (1965), We Still Kill The Same Way2/A ated, or liberated itself to the same extent from ciascuno il suo (1967), Investigation of a Citizen more than twenty years of fascist political domi- Beyond Suspicion/Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra nation. Only the situation in France was compara- di ogni (1970), The Working Class Goes to Heaven/La ble. But France’s liberation, after four years of Nazi

18 | !lm international issue "" Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten occupation, proved to be more quickly ‘manage- accommodate his ideas to the realities of the able’ than Italy’s. Of course the CIA intervened in fascist regime as did, for example, Rossellini the political affairs of both countries in order to and De Sica, born respectively in 1906 and 1901. marginalize their Communist Parties and contain More importantly, this major !lm-maker had radical tendencies. In Italy, however, the result of a singular destiny, one linked in a remarkable twenty years of political frustration born of sup- way to the political and cultural contradictions pressed social aspirations and con#icts produced of Italian society during the post-war period. an exceptional wellspring of commitment and Petri’s father was an artisan metal worker who idealism. Neo-realism in the Italian cinema was met Elio’s mother when she worked as a wait- the powerful fruit of these frustrations. ress in her father’s milk bar. The second period of political effervescence Given these social origins, Petri was perhaps in Italy occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, lucky to have been an only child. As such, he although it might be more accurate to say that was sent to a good, Catholic school where his this period was the logical continuation of the classmates were from the privileged classes. !rst. During both periods, the Italian politi- There he received the beginnings of a classi- cal scene was more volatile than elsewhere cal education. But his formal education ended because progressive and reactionary forces early, his adolescence coinciding with the war alike realized the struggle remained critical. A and the fall of the fascist regime. In 1944, at the generation passed under fascist government age of 15, he began to read Marx and became a simultaneously produced deeply rooted fas- !lm buff. In the maelstrom of the liberation of cist sentiments on the Right, and long-lasting Italy he joined the Communist Party and wrote fear and hatred on the Left. There could be no about the cinema for its newspaper, L’Unità. In consensual papering-over of the recent past, as 1950, he began to work for , there was in France. becoming his !rst assistant. Thus began a long ‘Neo-realism’ is more accurately understood apprenticeship with this major director of the as a will to infuse political struggle into Italian neo-realist school. It was both a practical and !lm. Roberto Rosselini’s Rome, Open City/Roma città intellectual education. It made Petri a cultivated aperta (1945) and Paisà (1946) announced not so intellectual, but one who never received univer- much social realism as cinematographic interven- sity instruction. tion in political debate. Other !lms, those that Petri’s social origins are of primary impor- seem to !t more conveniently into the category of tance in any attempt to understand his !lms. social realism (such as ’s unavoid- Politically, his parents had a great and complex able /Ladri di biciclette (1948) might be in#uence over their son. Petri described his better understood as a highly normative, politi- father as a fervent support of Soviet Commu- cally coded depiction of the structural dysfunc- nism and his mother as a fervent Catholic. A tion of capitalist society. The depiction of chronic major in#uence over the child was his paternal unemployment and the injustice and despair it grandmother, a strong-minded woman who engenders are calculated efforts to incite ani- hated fascism with a passion. What are the mosity towards the system of social relations implications of this proletarian childhood? First, and its institutional framework. Alternatively, we it means Petri’s social origins differed signi!- can understand these political !lms of Rosellini cantly from those of other prominent Italian and De Sica as being inspired by the immediate directors known for their ‘neo-realist’ or politi- context of fascism’s demise and the exhilaration cal !lms. of liberated social and political discourse. But Petri was bound to be a social ‘mis!t’ and thus whether born of momentary enthusiasm, political beset by a kind of cognitive dissonance in rela- opportunism or ideological commitment, such tion to his peers in the profession. Thanks to this !lms are political interventions. situation, he was relatively immune to the kind of appropriated ‘leftism’ that distinguished the Who was Elio Petri? quasi-majority of his colleagues. His familiar- ity with the world of the working class allowed He is of the !rst generation of post-fascist a critical distance, a capacity not to accept !lm-makers. Born in 1929, Petri never had to politically correct dicta. During his lifetime, this

www.!lmint.nu | 19 Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten distance tended to make him enigmatic to other are (1912–2007) and intellectuals and artists. His exposure to, or Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–75). Antonioni, son rather the necessity of interacting with differ- of wealthy landowners, made !lms centred ent social milieus on a practical, existential basis on existential dilemmas in which individuals lent him subtlety in dealing with questions of were faced with making decisions in situations interests and values, of idealism and politics. over which they had very limited control. In this sense, Antonioni’s !lms can be considered Petri in relation to his ‘social’, but there is a careful, or perhaps con- ditioned, avoidance of any assertion of political fellow directors conviction or will. It is perhaps to Antonioni’s credit that he never attempted to depict the Social class perspectives weigh heavily in lives of the poor and downtrodden. His best attempts to represent society in any medium of !lms, at least from a sociological or political expression. It is important, therefore, to brie#y point of view, feature the well-to-do profes- look at those who might be compared to Petri. sional classes, those of an intellectual or artistic Only Vittorio De Sica (1901–74) can be consid- sensibility, in the throes of personal confusion ered as having had a social background similar and inter-personal tension. As for Pasolini, son to Petri’s. But De Sica’s social origins are merely of a career military of!cer who won fame by a relative exception to the rule. Born into a saving Mussolini’s life, the tensions created by ‘lower middle-class’ family, De Sica was obliged his immediate social and family environment in to seek (white-collar) employment, but never- relation to his artistic and literary predilections theless had the leisure to take acting classes as led !rst to acceptance of fascist ideas and then an adolescent. He embarked quickly on a theat- to an about face towards the end of Mussolini’s rical career and became a major !lm star during dictatorship. Like so many other young people the fascist era. The fall of Mussolini enabled his of the time, he was drawn towards the Italian change of artistic direction. Communist Party as much of the population If the career of De Sica was that of a ‘petty joined the resistance movement. bourgeois’ who overcame signi!cant obstacles Signi!cantly, Petri’s mentor Giuseppe De in the struggle to express his social convictions Santis (1917–77) was not compromised. His cinematographically, this was not the case of communist sympathies and his active resis- the other great !gure at the origins of neo- tance during the Second World War could not realist cinema: (1906–77). be tainted by any suspicion of opportunism. But Rossellini bene!ted from his father, who built De Santis, too, was relatively privileged socially; the !rst cinema in Rome. Wealth and privileged he was a student of philosophy and literature contacts with the !lm industry, and with the at the University of Rome who was drawn into fascist regime, facilitated his career as a direc- !lm studies. He was in#uenced by Cesar Zavat- tor. From 1937 until the fall of Mussolini he tini, and then worked as a journalist for Cinema had success after success. There are those who magazine. What distinguishes De Santis is the claim that Roberto’s friendship with Vittorio depth of his anti-capitalist political commit- Mussolini, son of the Duce, helped in this regard. ment. Another director whose career began dur- Federico Fellini (1920–93), whose parents were ing the fascist years is (born small property owners and worked in com- 1915). Son of the journalist Tomaso Monicelli, he mercial pursuits, is of the same generation as entered the profession thanks to a friend whose De Santis and also was a major contributor to father was given the responsibility, by Benito neo-realism. (1954) and The Nights of Mussolini, for the construction of the !lm stu- Cabiria/Le notti di Cabiria (1957) are important dios at Tirrenia. Monicelli’s social milieu and the events in the movement. However, Fellini was political context reigning during his formative not preoccupied by political or philosophical years may bear a relation to his propensity for questions in spite of the fact that his work is the comic. decidedly progressive. Two other directors of great importance dur- Another outstanding director of this genera- ing the post-war renaissance of Italian cinema tion is Francisco Rosi (born in 1922), perhaps the

20 | !lm international issue "" Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten closest to Petri given the importance of politi- Related to his social origins, Petri’s ‘practical cal themes in his work (see Red Shirts/Camicie orientation’ is also notable. He recognized that, in rosse (1952), The Challenge/La s!da (1958) and The spite of his facility as a writer (as attests his early Mattei Affair/Il Caso Mattei (1972), although the experience as a journalist and critic), he did not prominence of political themes lessened as his approach scriptwriting from a ‘literary’ standpoint career progressed. Rosi was a law student at but rather from a sociological perspective: university before beginning his work in cin- ema as an assistant to the aristocrat Luchino I never considered myself to be a literary person. Visconti. In Petri’s age cohort, there is Ettore At the best, I could have become a sociologist, or Scola (born in 1931) who has made !lms with a perhaps a psychiatrist, or even a zoologist, but political backdrop, but without making political never a literary person even if I have no problem issues the central theme. with narrative writing. Basically, I’m more inter- The turn towards contemporary political ested in general ideas than in aesthetics. Today, !lm-making peaks, in fact, with Petri although, in my opinion, to choose the cinema as a mode throughout the 1960s a new generation of of expression means to choose general ideas people, generally younger than him, came to over aesthetic considerations. (Gili 1974: 29) prominence including most prominently and Bernardo Bertolucci. Although it would be unreasonable to say that Born in 1939 into a bourgeois family. Bel- Petri was devoid of social ambitions, it can be locchio was a university philosophy student argued that no desire to ‘rise above his condi- before working in cinema. Bernardo Bertolucci, tion’ compromised Petri’s political convictions born in 1940, was the son of a prominent intel- by moderating the critical force of his represen- lectual (Attila Bertolucci), poet, art historian, tations of social and political realities. Clearly, anthologist and !lm critic. Being the eldest son the political atmosphere was an advantage in of such a man probably had something to do this regard. But whereas this atmosphere, the with the fact that Bernardo Bertolucci became result of the speci!c conjuncture of circum- a published author at a quite young age. He stances, obliged his peers to ‘politicize’ their received the prestigious Premio Viareggio for aesthetic inclinations, Petri can be said to have his !rst book, among other such prizes dur- taken advantage of these conditions to go beyond ing the same period. It is relevant to know simple representation in posing the most funda- that Attila Bertolucci was instrumental in the mental questions implicit in ‘neo-realist’ or leftist publication of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s !rst novel, political perspectives. This is what distinguished and that Pasolini then hired the younger Berto- his !lms from those of his contemporaries, and lucci as his !rst assistant in the !lming of the those on or touching upon political questions former’s Accattone (1961). Bertolucci also was since his death almost three decades ago. supported by his brother Giuseppe Bertolucci (born in 1947), theatre director and playwright, Career: The !rst phase and by his cousin, Giovanni Bertolucci (1940– 2005), a !lm producer with whom Bernardo Elio Petri was 24 years old when he made his frequently worked. !rst !lm. Nasce un campione/Birth of a Champion All of this is not to say that Bertolucci and (1954) is a short !lm about a cyclist; it considers the others lacked merit, on the contrary. But the activity of cycling as representative of popu- those born into a social and professional milieu lar culture and the !lm certainly falls into the corresponding to their aptitudes enjoy advan- category of neo-realism. His second !lm, also a tages that those, like Petri, do not have and short, is I sette contadini/The Seven Farmers (1957), which almost excludes them from opportuni- a !lm made under the in#uence of the events ties to develop their potential. There is nothing in Hungary in 1956. He later af!rmed that his surprising in the fact that political !lm-making objective in making the !lm was to show that is generally not done by people of proletarian his political convictions remained intact in origins; what is singular is that someone of this spite of his break with the Italian Communist type actually did it and had commercial success Party because of the Soviet Union’s intervention in doing it. in Hungarian affairs during that year.

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Petri’s !rst feature !lm, The Lady Killer of Rome/ ‘objective’ assessment of responsibility. Mas- L’assassino (1961), stars Marcello Mastroianni. troianni is not the murderer, but because of his The story of a young antique dealer accused social aspirations and the stratagems he uses of the murder of his mistress and !nancial to achieve them, he is guilty, and he knows it, benefactress, The Lady Killer of Rome risks being or at least feels it. In Petri’s words, Mastroianni viewed today as a rather obscure depiction of is guilty of ‘being inhuman, of being completely existential alienation,3 along the lines of Albert dehumanized, of accepting this process of Camus’s The Stranger/L’Étranger (1942, made into dehumanization and of seeing human rela- a !lm by Visconti in 1967). The !lm is a strong tions as relations between his subjective needs political statement, but one lost to succeeding and other people. The others are objects that he generations because perceptions of institutions simply uses for his own purposes’ (Gili 1974: 30). and political agency have changed. In addition, once Mastroianni is ‘suspected’ by Here is the problem. The character played by the police of having committed a murder he is, Mastroianni is subtly revealed to be of work- of course, guilty until proven innocent, a (pre-) ing-class origins, in spite of the elegance of his judgment that is institutionalized in countries appearance and manners. The very fact of being that have not incorporated habeas corpus and an antique dealer, an unusual professional occu- other peculiarities of English legal traditions. pation for such a person, renders him suspi- In the end, Mastroianni is cleared of any sus- cious, and not only to the authorities. It reveals a picion in the crime, mainly because the mur- psychic, emotional insecurity that exudes a kind derer commits suicide. But the police are shown of existential guilt intrinsic to his character. to be cynical about !nding the real culprit. They This is one of those !lms where, it appears, mention that Mastroianni’s family had included nothing much happens, somewhat as in Anto- anarchists and anti-fascists, this is a fact to nioni’s L’avventura (1960). With such a !lm, the consider. What they want is a guilty person and spectator can be lost in a #ow of subjectivity. so their job is to construct guilt, not to detect it. What is real? How to escape the viscosity of In doing so, the police are shown to be actively alienated existence (as Jean-Paul Sartre asks in willing to overlook fraud and deceit. Mas- Nausea/La Nausée (1938))? In ‘reality’, however, troianni’s antique dealings are revealed to be the !lm was a commentary on social and politi- larcenous, but at the end of the !lm the police cal conditions in Italy. In fact, Petri explains that commissioner says that Mastroianni is ‘a good this was a ‘post-Antonionian’ !lm in that it was boy’ (in the sense of being honest and sensible). about the inability of the character to commu- This paternalistic judgment is a self-satis!ed nicate. But Petri intended to go beyond a mere re#ection on the necessity of maintaining the statement of this condition in order to reveal social and political status quo at the expense how social class relations are central to the of social ideals and political convictions. People exercise of institutionalized authority. like Mastroianni’s character are not dangerous The !lm is not simply about the character to the social order. of the presumed murderer played by Mastroi- In 1973, Petri revealed that he was obliged to anni; it is ultimately, but only in part, about the make 90 cuts in the dialogue of The Lady Killer speci!c character formation of someone who of Rome. Moreover, he employed an actor to play commits suicide, which in a Catholic coun- the police commissioner (Salvo Randone) who try is a profoundly incomprehensible act, a spoke with a strong Sicilian accent. Because taboo. It is also about the mental formation of the association of Sicilians (that is, the Ma!a) a working-class person on the make, someone with the representation of the police in Rome who attempts to present himself as someone was considered (by the producers and others) else, someone belonging to another social class. as being an unacceptable charge of institutional The psychic consequences of such confusion of corruption, Petri was compelled to dub this key social identities are a political subject in all late- actor; otherwise the !lm would not be released. capitalist societies. Equally, the !lm is about law Yet another remarkable dimension of this enforcement, revealed in the !lm to be politi- !lm is the depiction of its feminine charac- cal in the most profound sense. The mainte- ters. There are three feminine roles in the !lm: nance of social order takes precedence over any the murdered mistress (played by Micheline

22 | !lm international issue "" Below Salvo Randone, at right, in Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten Numbered Days (I giorni contati)

Presle), Mastroianni’s !ancée, and Mastroianni’s mother. For Petri, all these women are victims, a condition in which they are voluntarily com- plicit because, having ‘remained bound by a psychological vicious circle’, they defend mas- culine privileges. For him, ‘women were the !rst slaves of human kind’ and ‘even in bourgeois society’, he af!rms, ‘women are at the bot- tom of social pyramid that crushes them’. The reproductive function of women has, he says, become historical, and thus lends itself to the reproduction of social and psychic models. The liberation of women cannot, therefore, be disso- ciated with liberation, period (Gili 1974: 30). Capitalist social relations are also the sub- ject of Petri’s second feature !lm, Numbered ‘Working in capitalist society Days/I giorni contati (1962). Here the focus is on leads to a spiritual death work and labour. The story is about an age- ing plumber (played by Salvo Randone) who preceding physical death…’ witnesses the death of a man of his age riding on the same bus. Suddenly, he realizes how tenuous life is; working day after day means of cultural isolation, the non-communicability not being able to explore existence. He began necessary for economic exploitation and politi- working at his trade when he was 12 years old, cal control. Working in capitalist society leads to and now he is 52. Shocked into perceiving his a spiritual death preceding physical death, the environment differently, scenes familiar to ‘ultimate reward’ for having sacri!ced one’s self him now seem frightening – political demon- for the capitalist system. strations, burning garbage at housing projects, For Petri, Numbered Days is not a neo-realist horses being taken to the slaughterhouse. He or social realist !lm because it is not so much !rmly decides to stop working. about a particular situation but rather about But beginning a new type of existence, one work itself. For him, it is a political !lm that without work, is not so easy for a man who has calls into question the nature of work by invok- done nothing but work for almost his whole life. ing existential realities of time and death. All Alienated to the point where existence seems other aspects of existence – sex, love, friend- without meaning, the ex-plumber does not know ship, self-identity… – are fatally conditioned by what ‘to do’ or even whether he has the will to inevitable realities. Work is a temporary means do anything. He returns to the country home in of either avoiding confrontation with existential which he was raised, but learns that surviving in realities that determine individual (and collec- the country would mean a new kind of drudgery tive) being or of coming to grips with it. and social isolation. He explores a relationship It signi!cant that Petri was inspired to make with a young female neighbour, but learns that this !lm because, as he explained, his own the difference in age involves forced representa- father decided to stop working at the age of 50. tion and a new realm of (sexual) desperation. He He simply could not continue to do the same goes to see a prostitute, and discovers that his thing that had !lled, perhaps devoured, his plumbing is somehow dysfunctional. Needing existence for almost his entire life. Petri was money, he lends himself to an insurance scam not, therefore, applying mechanically some that requires letting his arm being broken, but Marxist dictum concerning the alienation at the last minute backs out, deciding that easy of work. In fact, his father and the plumber money is perhaps not so easy after all. Finally, he in Numbered Days were artisans, not factory goes back to work, to a work that has sapped his workers. Artisans are workers who control the vitality, one that has kept him from living. The productive process, who master the machinery problem is that alienated work is part of a system and have special skills. But these recognized

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‘[Petri’s] father decided to stop working at the age of 50. He simply could not continue…’

‘specialists’, too, are subject to the deadening of Work, art, and human ful!lment may seem perception and the loss of vitality characteristic to be dif!cult subjects for popular !lms. But, for of a system that is cultural and social as much Petri, !lms should not be made exclusively for as it is economic and commercial. The ultimate either elites or the ‘people’. For him, a ‘politi- oppression is spiritual, and that means emo- cal !lm’ is not one that proclaims slogans for tional and philosophical deprivation. Even the spectators who need con!rmation of what they privileged workers are victims of capitalist social already think; if people who do not share the relations. This is the most profound meaning of slogans are exposed to them, the effect on their social ‘oppression’ and ‘exploitation’. ideals will be nil. Real political cinema is for the

24 | !lm international issue "" Below To Each What He Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten Deserves (A ciascuno il suo)

!lm in English starring Mastroianni and Ursula Andress had box-of!ce potential in the mid- 1960s. But had Petri suddenly gone ‘commercial’, abandoning his convictions? Hardly. With this !lm, Petri threw himself into a kind of cunning subversion using the forms of popular art and cinema to call into question state and society. Ostensibly, The Tenth Victim is a spoof of the highly popular James Bond !lms in which the action is projected into the early twenty-!rst century. Extensive use of contemporary popu- lar music (including jazz), the new ‘pop art’ and the latest technology allows us to anticipate a highly recognizable future. But all this, like the use of special effects, masks the real changes ‘“The twenty-!rst century that have occurred in society and culture, changes that are the simple development of will be the one of legalized current tendencies. violence”.’ Here is the story. In this future society, televi- sion has assumed such enormous importance that it is used to modify the behaviour of citizens and give them a necessary sense of security. One greatest number of people and should engage of the prime vectors of this collective behav- them on every level to think more deeply about ioural therapy is the popular TV show called ‘The something that is important to their lives. Big Hunt’. As it is announced at the beginning Political cinema is not a matter of partisan of the !lm, violence in society will be overcome politics, but rather of helping people to develop because ‘The twenty-!rst century will be the one a more completely critical understanding of of legalized violence’. ‘The Big Hunt’ is a safety the society in which they live. Numbered Days is valve, a spectator sport that siphons off violent a story about ordinary life situations and it is impulses into vicarious viewing as individual simply designed to provoke re#ection in people players accept to track and kill their opponents who work. on !lm for the bene!t of the viewing public. By the mid-1960s, Petri’s talent was gener- The rules are that killing should be restricted ally recognized and he was able to extend his to the players, who have been fully informed efforts to inspire critical, political conscious- about each other. The goal for an individual ness in a large public. In the early 1960s, after hunter is to eliminate ten others; killing the having read a science-!ction short story by ‘tenth victim’ wins the grand prize and, of Robert Sheckley (‘The Seventh Victim’ (1953)) course, corresponding fame. We can imagine and visited the United States, he decided to the TV ratings obtained by pitting beautiful make a !lm focused on US society and culture. people like Andress and Mastroianni against However, the script he wrote for The Tenth Victim each other. Signi!cantly, the Big Hunt is regu- (1965) was ambitious both in terms of its critical lated by the government’s ‘Big Hunt Ministry’, content and its potential production costs. After because ‘only the Big Hunt can give the world a much rewriting and uncertainty, the project sense of security’. The propaganda services of was !nally picked up by producers Carlo Ponti the ministry exhort the population: ‘Do away and Joseph Levine, and then Ponti’s hesitations with the terrible war of the masses, and join the further delayed the project. Big Hunt.’ Another public announcement pro- Years after the realization of the !lm, Petri claims: ‘Why have birth control, when you can mused that he never understood why Ponti have death control?’ associated himself with it. Probably, he said, it Due to budget restrictions, Petri was obliged was because Ponti knew Petri could get Marcello to shoot the !lm in Rome, and not in the United Mastroianni for the lead role. Logical enough, a States as he wished. But the action takes place

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‘only the Big Hunt can give the world a sense of security’

disguise them as teenagers.’ He then asks how she handled the problem of her own parents, and Andress responds: ‘Oh, I was born in the arti!cial insemination centre in Hoboken.’ This is a society entirely given over to com- mercialization and sel!sh sensory indulgence. In depicting a society devoid of political con- sciousness and social solidarity, as always Petri develops the sexual dimension as revealing of in the early twenty-!rst century, so it made psychic tensions born of the social pathologies sense to depict the Italian capital as having of capitalist culture and social relations. Notable been extensively ‘Americanized’. For example, in this regard is Andress’s impressive metal even the Pope in Rome is now a United-State- bikini, the top part of which, we learn towards sian. More generally, a certain ‘globalization’ the end of the !lm, is a double-barrelled !rearm. is in evidence, and Petri included a sequence In this !lm, Petri goes beyond the social themes showing a massive Chinese demonstration in developed in François Truffaut’s version of Fahr- honour of a Chinese champion of the Big Hunt. enheit 451 (1966) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville The consequence of these changes – a kind of (1965) and anticipates the extravagances of John vague cultural debasement, very ‘pop’, in fact, Waters, Pedro Almodóvar and Álex de la Iglesia. is vulgarity in all its forms. It is a new ‘liberal- One of the surprising aspects of Petri’s work is ity’ in which dignity and principles have given its variety. If he consistently offers a subtle cri- way to a generalized kitsch that has become the tique of capitalist society, each succeeding !lm dominant cultural aesthetic. For example, ‘rest differs strikingly from that which came before. areas’ on the highways offer prostitution as a After The Tenth Victim and its mercilessly gar- relaxation before getting back on the road, with ish depiction of the vulgarity and decadence of a pick of nationalities and payment in cash or contemporary commercial culture, he then made charge. Drugs also are commercially available We Still Kill the Old Way/A ciascuno il suo (1967) a for the same purpose. In such a society, ‘trash’ sober, black-and-white !lm about social rela- culture cannot exist, for it is orthodoxy itself. tions in Sicily. Here we are thrown back into the In spite of this globalization, some national most traditional, ‘closed society’, one of family differences remain. For example, Andress is sur- tensions, treasons and loyalties, local politics, prised that Mastroianni’s parents live hidden in religion and feudal relations. There is an air of his home and asks why he hasn’t turned them mystery that permeates this !lm, similar to that over to the state. He explains: ‘We are in Italy, and dominating Antonioni’s L’avventura. The differ- we can’t do that. So we hide them. Sometimes we ence is that Petri, while also evoking existential

26 | !lm international issue "" Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten Below The Tenth Victim

‘“We are in Italy, and we can’t do that. So we hide them. Sometimes we disguise them as teenagers”.’ angst and its expression in a troubled amorous lawyer implicated in the murder, he was careful relation, uses the convention to reveal how such not to speak to the police, who were, in fact, led egoistic or solipsistic concerns can be manipu- to suspect the professor. How to explain this lated in the pursuit of more cynical objectives. behaviour? According to Petri, the professor was Gian Maria Volonte is the main protagonist an idealist incapable of grasping the systemic as a lonely, leftist professor who takes it upon mechanisms of social and political control. He himself to investigate the murder of a friend. was incapable because of his attachment to In doing so he falls in love with the murdered ideas and values necessary to his professional friend’s widow. His investigation uncovers a identity and typical of his social class, a charac- network of highly placed conspirators; but ter trait that may explain the failings of part of what could be more natural in Sicily, where the the political Left in Italy, or elsewhere. Ma!a reaches into every corner of social exis- In the end, this is a !lm about the Ma!a, not tence – politics, the Church, business and even primarily as an organization preying upon the love affairs. From this point of view, the Ma!a is population, but rather as a cultural syndrome just a highly speci!c, and particularly colourful, reaching into the mentality and, thusly, in#u- regional organization of political and social con- encing the behaviour of almost every member trol. Volonte’s obstinate investigation is used by of the society. Petri later explained that the pro- the spinners of this web of crime and corruption fessor’s ability to understand the situation was as an opportune element of the crime itself. Only limited by the contradiction between his philo- minutes before he falls victim to the authors of sophical and moral idealism, on the one hand, the original murder (he is professionally kid- and on the other hand by his assimilation of a napped and then blown to bits), he learns that cultural disposition to follow the moral impera- the object of his amorous infatuation is a central tives of a gangster society, an unconsciously !gure in the criminal conspiracy. held code of behaviour secreted by a particular So what is the point? Is this a pessimistic take system of domination and exploitation. In later on the dif!culty of combating the evil of the !lms, Petri will show, or at least suggest, how Ma!a, a sort of precursor of Francis Ford Coppo- on a national level this system has merged with la’s fatalistic The Godfather (1972)? Hardly. First, that of the capitalist state. Petri was most interested in showing how the The following year (1968) Petri made A Quiet Sicilian Ma!a is, indeed, an essentially regional Place in the Country/Un tranquillo posto di campagna form of social and political oppression, equiva- in which he focused on the artist. Ostensibly, the lent to what fascism is on a national level. Sec- !lm is about a successful artist in the abstract ond, his intent was to reveal the lack of realism expressionist vein feeling the need to recharge of Volonte’s character, a leftist professor. Not his batteries, so to speak, in the isolation of a only did the professor report his !ndings to the beautiful old house in a pastoral setting. In the

www.!lmint.nu | 27 Below (left) On the set of Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten A Quiet Place in the Country

‘It is impossible not to think that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) is a remake of this !lm.’

1960s, abstract expressionism had taken on the was concerned, says Petri, it was as if ‘he always trappings of the vogue for ‘pop art’. What had wanted to appropriate objects and insert them been largely incomprehensible to the general into his work; it was like a continual theft of public during the early post-war period was now reality in a constant attempt to express some- incorporated into up-to-date commercial fashion thing. There was a terrible despair in this little and accepted as a component of enlightened !lm.’ It was a kind of nervous narcissism, and modernity. And this is what interested Petri – this is what Petri wanted to elucidate. the political implications of an aesthetic trend What we see in the !lm is the disintegration expressing social and cultural change. of the artist’s personality as his lack of creative Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave play the inspiration, or should we say his inability to lead roles in A Quiet Place in the Country. Leon- creatively channel his fantasies, leads to psy- ardo (!) is the artist; Flavia is his companion chosis. The reasons for this mental breakdown and agent. During Nero’s sojourn in the coun- are multiple, but let us say that the interplay try house, we learn that the artist’s inspiration of personal neuroses and social and cultural is based on a mastery of certain techniques pathologies accentuate the rather vague ‘ill- and on fantasies about reality. In order to gain ness’ labelled ‘schizophrenia’. It is impossible familiarity with those involved in the produc- not to think that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining tion of ‘pop art’, Petri observed and !lmed the (1980) is a remake of this !lm. At any rate, Van- US artist Jim Dine in the act of painting. What essa Redgrave was there to take things in hand interested Petri were the ‘expressive rhythmic when her psychically unstable, but commer- gestures’ manifest by the artist at work. Accord- cially viable artist was no longer able to func- ing to Petri, these automatic, nervous gestures tion without becoming a danger to himself and were emotionally conditioned re#exes revealing to others. Signi!cantly, in the course of the !lm the relation between the artist and the objects Leonardo expressed hatred for advertising and, of his creative expression. As far as Jim Dine at least in his recurrent nightmares, exhibited a

28 | !lm international issue "" Articles The Director who Must (not?) be Forgotten desire to murder his beloved Flavia in the most paradiso (1971), Property is No Longer Theft/La propri- violent and gory manner. But once interned età non è più un furta (1973) and Todo modo (1976). in an expensive loony bin, the deranged ‘pop’ But when does such analysis become unaccept- artist is encouraged by Vanessa/Flavia to paint able? This is the subject of the next instalment.4r small, easily marketable paintings on virtually an assembly-line basis. As Flavia contentedly observed after !lling her limousine with Leon- Contributor details ardo’s paintings: ‘He has never painted so well!’ Larry Portis is the author of a number of Petri’s melding of the individual psychologi- books on history, culture and politics and cal, the social and the cultural is as remarkable often writes about the cinema. as that of Luis Buñuel in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) or The Obscure Object of Desire References (1977). But beware, !lm viewer: this somewhat Gili, Jean A. (1974), ‘Rencontre avec Elio #ippant review of the !lm fails to render its ana- Petri’, in Jean A. Gili (ed.), Elio Petri, Nice: lytical profundity and technical virtuosity. Analy- Faculté des Lettres et Science Humaines, sis of this !lm, as for the others Petri made, must Section d’Histoire. go beyond such super!cial comparisons. Petri said of A Quiet Place in the Country that, Portis, Larry (2009), ‘The Politics of ultimately, he was motivated to say some- Mediterranean Identity’, Film International, thing about art and the creative process in our http://www.!lmint.nu/?q=node/181. processed world where, as Marx said a cen- Endnotes tury and a half ago, every thing ‘melts into air’. If, explained Petri, the abstract expressionists 1 Over the years there have been a few and other ‘pop’ artists may be seen as ‘avant- other retrospective viewings of Petri’s work: garde’ and ‘modern’, they are only expressing Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (May alienation differently from previous genera- 2001); Cinematheque Ontario (2002); Circolo tions of artists. For him, the problem is that ‘the Italiano di Boston and the Harvard Film relationship between the painter and nature is Archive at the Harvard Film Archive (June still “romantic”, it is still the “return to nature”, 2003); Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland (June to simplicity, to pure food, to what still makes 2005). The Montpellier retrospective humankind happy’ (Gili 1974: 62–63). What bene!ted from the presence of Paola Petri, the pop artists seemingly do not understand Elio Petri’s companion, of Jean Gili, !lm is that this romantic vision of nature is only a critic and friend of Petri, and of Henri myth, that reality is quite different. Problems of Talvat, specialist on all aspects of alienation have always existed, but the soci- Mediterranean cinema and who arranged ety has changed and, consequently, the artistic for most of Petri’s !lms to be shown at the expression of alienation has changed. Pop art, festival in October–November 2009. no matter its appeal to popular sensibilities, is 2 This English title is wholly inaccurate. the surface sign of profound anxieties that the A more literal translation would be: ‘To mastery over (and the destruction of) nature has Each What He or She Deserves’. The novel engendered in society and in the human psyche. by , on which this !lm Released in 1968, A Quiet Place in the Coun- was based, A ciascuno il suo (1966), was try coincided with the beginning of a new era translated as To Each His Own. of political activism in Italy and the rest of the world. In the new context, Petri’s !lms garnered 3 As the English title suggests, the !lm also prizes and critical raves everywhere, even as has been understood as a sort of murder they became more critical of social and cultural mystery. domination and more subversive of established 4 Which we plan to publish in our fourth authority. Petri is, in fact, best known for his late issue of the year, Film International 46. !lms: Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion/ (Editor’s note) Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni (1970), The Working Class Goes to Heaven/La classe operaia va in

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