Not always loved by critics due to the anti-aristocratic "flashiness" of his directorial style, and often considered "inopportune" by the main political parties, he can be seen today, along with Pier Paolo Pasolini, as the most modern of 1960s Italian directors. This season of imported 35mm prints includes many of the key touchstones of Petri's career, ranging from his important, incendiary first feature (The Assassin) to the controversial Todo Modo. It also highlights his various collaborations with such figures as actors Marcello Mastroianni, Salvo Randone and Gian Maria Volontee', composer Ennio Morricone, and writers Tonino Guerra and Ugo Pirro.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque, with the support of Cinecitta' Luce and the Italian Cultural Institute, Melbourne, is providing a rare opportunity to view a collection of Petri's films entitled Elio Petri: A Filmmaker Above Suspicion. Titles include: The Assassin (L'assassino), The 10th Victim (La decima vittima), Property is No Longer a Theft (La Proprieta' non e' piu' un furto), I giorni contati, Toto modo, and We Still Kill the Old Way (A ciascuno il suo).

Wednesday 15 May 2013, 7.00pm

Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square

The Assassin (L'assassino) 

 

Unclassified 18+
Elio Petri, 105 mins, Italy, 1961, 35mm, B&W, Italian with English subtitles. Courtesy: Cinecitta Luce.

 

 

The Assassin (L'assassino)

A cunning Roman antiques dealer is investigated by the police in relation to the killing of a former lover, without being specifically accused. The resulting game of cat-and-mouse suggests the moral decay, claustrophobia and corruption of modern Italian society.

A post-Antonioni investigation of social identity, guilt and law enforcement, Elio Petri's still potent debut feature was co-written by Tonino Guerra and features outstanding performances by Salvo Randone and Marcello Mastroianni. It is also distinguished by Carlo Di Palma's stunning black-and-white cinematography.

  

  

Wednesday 15 May 2013, 8.55pm

Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square 

  

The 10th Victim (La decima vittima)

 

PG
Elio Petri, 92 mins, Italy, 1965, 35mm, B&W, Italian with English subtitles. Courtesy: Cinecitta Luce.

 

 

The 10th Victim (La decima vittima)

 

A heady mix of ennui, boredom and a seething hatred for his ex-wife sees a playboy (Marcello Mastroianni) sign up for "The Big Hunt" - a social blood sport in which human hunts are used for population control and TV entertainment.

Petri's gorgeously dystopian vision sizzles with colour and punch as the playboy rises quickly up the ranks until he meets reigning champ, Caroline (Ursula Andress), armed with a wardrobe as deadly as she is. Gianni Di Venanzo's images and Piero Piccioni's striking score provide even more jazz-pop sparkle to this modern gem.

  

  

Wednesday 22 May 2013, 7.00pm

Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square

  

Property is No Longer a Theft (La proprietà non è più un furto)

 

Unclassified 18+

Elio Petri, 120 mins, Italy, 1973, 35mm, Italian with English subtitles.

 

  

Property is No Longer a Theft (La proprietà non è più un furto)

 

This darkly comic tale - Elio Petri's last entry in his "Trilogy of Neuroses" - of a bank teller (Flavio Bucci) with a literal allergy to money is a figurative allergy to how money corrupts human souls.

 

Petri merges Marxism with psychology, humanism with social commentary and class-consciousness with sophistication. Just as money gives the teller a rash, so does it - and property, by extension - give society a warped sense of what matters. Petri offers no solutions but merely draws attention to the insidious problem. Ennio Morricone composed the score.

 

 

Wednesday 22 May 2013, 9.10pm

Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square 

I giorni contati

Unclassified 18+
Elio Petri, 93 mins, Italy, 1962, 35mm, B&W, Italian with English subtitles. Courtesy: Cinecitta Luce.

 

  

I giorni contati

 

When ageing widower Cesare (Salvo Randone) witnesses the death of a stranger on the street, he is compelled to take his life in a new direction. His return to his youthful dreams is translated to the ruminative wandering of the camera.

Although one of his least-seen films, Petri's second feature is still considered to be a worthy precursor to his subsequent career successes. This masterful take on the hopelessness and dispiriting reality of capitalist society was co-written by Petri and Tonino Guerra.

  

  

Wednesday 29 May 2013, 7.00pm

Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square 

 

Todo modo

  

Unclassified 18+
Elio Petri, 125 mins, Italy, 1976, 35mm, Italian with English subtitles. Courtesy: Cinecitta Luce.

 

  

 Todo modo

  

A group of leading Christian democrats attend a religious retreat, turning confessional practices into tools of power.

Balanced between political thriller, slightly futuristic fantasy and metaphysical meditation, Elio Petri's important film, claustrophobically staged by Dante Ferretti (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom) is based on the 1974 novel by Leonardo Sciascia. Shelved immediately after its premiere (and never re-released) for the connections it makes to Italy's then recently murdered prime minister, the film has only now begun to attain proper critical attention.

The cast includes Marcello Mastroianni, Gian Maria Volontè and Michel Piccoli, while the score was written by Ennio Morricone.

  

  

Wednesday 29 May 2013, 9.15pm

Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square

  

We Still Kill the Old Way (A ciascuno il suo)

 

Unclassified 18+
Elio Petri, 99 mins, Italy, 1967, 35mm, B&W, Italian with English subtitles. Courtesy: Cinecitta Luce.

  

 

We Still Kill the Old Way (A ciascuno il suo)

  

A lonely professor investigates the murder of two men, becoming obsessed and paranoid in the process.

Based on Leonardo Sciascia's novel, this is a closely observed tale of small-town Sicilian life and one of the earliest films to fully tackle the subject of the Italian Mafia. The film stars Gian Maria Volonté and Irene Pappas and won Best Screenplay at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.
 

"In this film I also tried to suggest a correspondence between human or political immaturity and sexual immaturity, a topic of contrast in my films." - Elio Petri