Cadaveri eccellenti (1976) - film review

When a state prosecutor is assassinated in a provincial town, Inspector Rogas is assigned to track down the killer.  After two further murders, both victims being prominent magistrates, the likely suspect emerges: a pharmacist who was wrongly convicted of trying to kill his wife.  Rogas investigation then takes a bizarre turn and he finds himself being directed toward extreme political groups.  It soon becomes clear that there is more to the case than is at first apparent and that the murders are merely the pretext for far-reaching political change across the country...

This potent mix of political thriller and crime mystery from Francesco Rosi makes a powerful and disturbing allegory of political corruption, of the kind which would shake various countries (includinig the director’s native Italy) in the follow decade.  The films sustains its heavy, funeral atmosphere and gnawing suspense right up until the last frame, making it a compelling and profoundly unsettling piece of cinema in which nothing should be taken at face value.

The film stars Lino Ventura, a French actor (and one-time wrestler) best known for playing heavy roles in gritty crime thrillers such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Deuxième souffle.  His performance in this film is one of his best, his rough taciturn persona making him perfect for this kind of classic film noir role, that of the tough solitary hero caught in the net of an unseen, unconquerable opponent.

It is, above all, the film’s atmospheric yet chillingly beautiful cinematography which makes it so memorable.   The film opens with a somewhat sickening sequence in Palermo’s Convento dei Cappuccini, with the camera panning along row after row of decaying mummified corpses – an obvious yet powerful metaphor for the themes of state corruption which predominate in the later half of the film.  The film’s very strong visual sense, on the one hand dark, doom-laden and menacing, on the other exquisitely artistic, gives the film its unfathomable depth and makes us increasingly aware of a threat which is far too small to be encompassed by the camera lens.   The film’s cold existentialist ending hits its audience like a hail of bullets and makes a deeply pessimistic comment on the future any society where all power is invested in the hands of a select minority.

© James Travers 2002

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?