Gian Maria Volontè stars as a man seemingly above the law in Elio Petri’s 1970 Italian absurdist farce

INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION (INDAGINE SU UN CITTADINO AL DI SOPRA DI OGNI SOSPETTO) (Elio Petri, 1970)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Sunday, September 15, 9:00, and Friday, September 27, 9:00
Series runs September 12-30
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

As Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion begins, a man (Gian Maria Volontè) kills a woman (Florinda Bolkan) in the midst of some rather kinky sex. The man then goes out of his way to leave behind evidence tying him to the brutal crime, including making sure he is spotted as he exits the woman’s building complex. It is soon revealed that he is the former head of homicide in Rome who has just been promoted to chief of political intelligence, his victim a married lover of his who enjoyed acting out real murder cases with him. “How will you kill me this time?” she asks in a flashback, not knowing where their games will ultimately lead. For the rest of Elio Petri’s (A Quiet Place in the Country) absurdist farce, the man practically dares his colleagues to catch him as he continues to build a case against himself and rails against criminal and political terrorists and subversives in neo-fascist romps, filmed in daring close-up, that emphasize the importance of keeping the masses repressed. Shot in broad colors and featuring a playful score by Ennio Morricone, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is an enticing police procedural — in which the culprit is the man in charge of the case — as well as a satiric look at the state of Italian politics in 1970, as social unrest and sexual freedom grew throughout Europe and America. “Repressing all those evils is to cure them,” the man declares in a fiery speech to his department. Volontè (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More) clearly has a ball as a man who either wants to be caught or is out to prove that he is indeed above the law, Petri carefully keeping his motive ambiguous in this wonderful black comedy.

John Zorn chose INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION for series because of its playful Ennio Morricone score

Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Grand Prize at Cannes, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is screening September 15 and 27 as part of the Anthology Film Archives series “John Zorn Selects,” comprising a dozen works chosen by the master experimental musician and Anthology composer-in-residence on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, focusing on the soundtracks. “Morricone has written so many dynamic and brilliant scores in his huge career (often for Leone) but few have had as original and striking an orchestration as this one,” Zorn explains about Investigation. “The jew’s harp takes a major role here, adding, as so often is the case with Ennio’s scores, a feeling of irony and commentary on the sardonic vibe and black humor of the story. After recording The Big Gundown, my Morricone tribute album, Walter Hill called me in to score one of his Hollywood films. What he wanted was IRONY – which he asked for a bit too often in the form of Cyro Baptista’s cuica ‘laughing’ at the onscreen action. I couldn’t do it then and I can’t do it now. I have no idea why people think they hear ‘irony’ or ‘sarcasm’ in my work. There is NONE and never has been. My score was junked and saved me from being offered further work in the Hollywood dream factory.” The festival runs through September 30 and includes such other films as Roy William Neill’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, Sidney J. Furie’s The Ipcress File, and Irving Lerner’s Murder by Contact. From September 20 to 28, Anthology will present “A Pocketful of Firecrackers: The Film Scores of John Zorn,” consisting of such films as Marc Levin’s Protocols of Zion, Michael Glawogger’s Workingman’s Death, and Joseph Dorman’s Sholom Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, but the real highlight are two nights of Zorn performing live to short films.