It was an interesting experience - watching a film that goes so much in flash-back and other images that you are lost about its linearity.
The film starts with a girl asking her guy: so how will you kill me again tonight? And the guy...actually kills her!
The guy, the protagonist is a top-cop who is in charge of the administration. For most of the film he ensures that the suspicion for the murder is cast on someone else and yet...he feeds the police clues to get to him.
Interspersed are flash-back of this strange act. Story of his affair with the girl, who is shown as extremely playful and seductive and their interactions border on fantasy at times. She is the vulnerable girl who wants a man, and he is the power that loves to control. She encourages him to test her statement - he could get away with any thing.
As the film doesn't reveal much, and has cuts that seem to place you in situations of which you don't have much idea, it's only when you patiently go ahead you get the idea on what's happening.
But..it's clear that that's what Petri is trying to do - keep you going at a fast pace, not giving you much scope to devour stuff and yet....slowly unfolding the story. All the while making a comment on the government, society and perhaps a message - all power corrupts.
The film seems jittery. The dialogue, the dubbing seems too loud. And maybe it all works for a story that has a plot which doesn't flow straight. But the telling also induces a good deal of humor.
The lead, Gian Maria Volontè is very much on the mark. Though he may feel weird, but then everyone may appear that way and yet...everyone is on the mark too! Petri plays with extreme close-ups for most of the part. Volontè is the one who is almost in every frame and the technique of being right in the face is something you rarely watch.
There is good amount of heavy camerawork - from hand-held to crane shots that change angles in drastic manner. Considering the suspense angle, it plays a lot in the night.
The 3rd Act turns things around since the man in power gets caught up in his own web, as if the ghosts have come to haunt him and he is forced to acknowledge his sin and crime. Yet the irony plays out - the system doesn't believe him, it's too important for them to be in their own league - where they can't make a mistake, as such their subordinate is clean too.
The music is powerful, which ensures that this film of murder carries suspense not in terms of finding the killer, which is revealed in the first scene but in terms of where the story is headed.
I heard someone commenting that you can't make such a film in India. True. People will not get it. And it is perhaps too intellectual, though it doesn't dig too much into the unknown. As a story it would be pretty interesting, but the non-linear, too much of flashback, would unnerve the majority.
However the question should be - would anyone be able to make such a film - have the skills to tell such a story?
Director: Elio Petri
Writer: Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro
[Won Best Foreign Film Oscar, 1970]
Rating ***
[Max Rating ****]
[Watched it on 29th May, 2010; 4.00 pm at Bangalore, Langford Gardens; Naresh's 3rd floor in the training room on top of his office; the Film Club that meets every Saturday]
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