INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION

OUT 18 JANUARY / CERT 18 / 109 MINS

This won the Best Foreign Language Oscar, then slipped so far off the radar the paranoid would deduce there must have been a conspiracy to suppress Elio Petri’s masterwork. It opens like the first act of a Columbo episode reimagined by Dario Argento, as a buttoned-bourgeois Gian-maria Volonte kills his exotic mistress (Florinda Bolkan) then arranges all sorts of incriminating evidence around the crime scene. Only then does he go to work, and is revealed as the departing head of the Rome Homicide Police, moving to the polωtical section. His crime turns out to be an elaborate thumb-snooking act of self-destruction aimed at society in general. The mystery becomes more surreal and political as the ranting killer cop — Volonte is splendidly theatrical — does everything he can to establish his guilt but literally can’t get arrested. Very demanding, very rewarding.